Job Discussion Forums

Don Lorenzo · Joined: 16 Jun 2007 Posts: 38 Location: Toronto, Canada

I was applying for a position in China through one of the many ads in here and the person from the school is asking me right away for my CV, copy of my degree, copy of passport and all. When I asked him about salary and if accomodation and airfare were included his reply was quite startling to say the least:
"I don't know why you keep not sending your documents to us?
I think we are not interested in a teacher who trys to hide
himself/herself to his/her new employer." Shocked

I mean, with today's high risk of id theft specially online, call me crazy but I'm not very comfortable sending that kind of info (specially copy of passport) to a stranger. Am I not right to be able to ask and have at least some basic questions answered first in order for me to determine whether that position is something I'd be interested before going any further?
So is this practice of asking up front this type of private and confidential info before even disclosing basic info to the potential applicant, legit and common?

If anyone can shed some lights into this I'd be truly grateful.

Cheers.

Sonnet · Joined: 10 Mar 2004 Posts: 235 Location: South of the river

All of those documents are required to process the working papers here in China; and it does benefit a school to get the copies as early as possible; if nothing else, it shows that the candidate is being honest about their qualifications, and a discerning school (they do exist!) would check that the documents are legit before offering an interview.

Personally, I don't interview candidates until I've been able to check all of their documentation. However, this usually comes at the end of a series of email exchanges between school & candidate, during which the contract, remuneration & working conditions are discussed as freely as the candidate's documentation.

It sounds, then, as if you're dealing with a somewhat rude & pushy hiring manager, and they're not giving a terrible caring or trustworthy impression. They're not doing anything wrong in asking for the documents required, but they're doing so in a pretty one-sided, unfair way.

That's my 2 jiao, anyway.

Guy Courchesne · Joined: 10 Mar 2003 Posts: 9650 Location: Mexico City

This boils down to a cultural difference as far as I see it.

mdk · Joined: 09 Jun 2007 Posts: 425

Hmmmm,

You might want to think about this school some more. If this is their idea of polite conversation, they could get a mite tedious over several months. I'm sure there are lots of places to chose from. Maybe one of them doesn't make it obvious they think you are some type of migrant laborer from the start.