Job Discussion Forums

[imani360]

just a quick note to anybody out there bothered by overt corporate racism...

i am a thirty-year-old white guy who has previously worked in taipei. i contacted hess about the possibility of securing employment as an english teacher in taiwan. i sent my photo and got an interview within a week. i was offered a position within eleven days.

i then had my wife - an indian-american born in jersey - send her information to hess, along with her photo. i received an e-mail the next day rescinding the job offer. i wrote and called, attempting to find out what happened, but could get no adequate response.

if this sort of thing bothers you, do not apply to hess. nothing changes if people continue to support this kind of overt racism. other schools in taipei expressed interest in hiring us, and we were able to find employment elsewhere. hess doesn't deserve the kind of respect that it receives from job applicants.

[markholmes]

Hess isn't 'respected', it is just 'known'. What I mean by that is, it is the biggest school with the advertising budget and therefore more widely known than other schools. Intensive advertising legitimizes a business, so people tend to flock there, regardless of the reputation of the place.

It is something akin to rolling into a small American town after a long day on the road and wanting dinner. You have a choice of the local diner or MacDonalds. The food is probably better at the local diner than at Macdonalds, but you are familiar with MacDonalds, so you eat there. Familiarity breeds confidence.

As for racism, really this is survival of the individual. There is no union of teachers. Teachers come to bitch and moan on Dave's and perhaps find an ear and some common ground with fellow teachers, but in the job market it's pretty much a free for all. People will support you here, but don't expect much support outside this anonymous forum.

Good luck

[Darotker]

Everyone knows that HESS is a low quality Company. The only people who work for them are new people who are too inexperienced to know any better. Alternatively, people with no other choices may go to them. They are a notoriously bad Company in Taiwan with a very poor reputation overall. A large number of their teachers leave during the year and don't fulfill their contracts.

The fact that they rescinded your job offer without explanation isn't surprising at all. Their head office is renowned for a lack of adequate or professional responses to their teachers.

This comes from experience, by the way. I worked there.

[SEndrigo]

It's funny to hear all this stuff about Hess.

They seem to be the Taiwanese equivalent of Nova (anyone who has been to Japan, and even many who haven't, know about Nova)!

The really funny thing was, you'd see all these people complain about Nova, but they wouldn't really do anything about it. With all the different English schools in Japan, you would think they would just quit Nova and go work somewhere else.

I don't know how it is in Taiwan, but in Japan, once you have a work visa, it's yours.

So you could technically get a 3-year visa with Nova or another school, and quit on the first day, and you would still get to keep your work visa and work elsewhere.

The bottom line is, people who choose to work at Nova and Hess...are making a personal choice.

[CWanders]

The visa situation is a bit different here. In Taiwan, as in the U.S., work based visas are contingent upon continued employment with the company who filed for your visa.

I recently left Hess. For me, it was more of a financial choice. (I'd lucked out and been placed at a sane language school branch, which I'm well aware is not particularly common.) Going through the visa transfer process is nerve racking. Everyone you talk to from your new employer, to your old employer, to the Department of Labor, all tell you conflicting things about what forms you need and when your resident visa/ARC will be canceled. In the end it worked out alright. But, I know many Hess employees who stick it out for the sake of simplicity.

[BJ]

Erm, I rarely post but I am finding it increasingly difficult to resist the "experts" on Taiwans education system

Hess is a business, like all businesses its after a profit. Sorry to say these schools are at the whim of the parents. They dont like a teacher they can literally get them fired. That goes all the way up to Universities here.

Racism is the base of most Asian attitudes to anyone not of their race, similar to europe and africa etc etc.

A black teacher will not sit well with many Taiwanese parents, FACT, they DO want the blond haired, blue eyed teacher, or they will accept someone who entertains their child and passes them with an A grade.


Hess is no worse than any other busihban in Taiwan, I have know teachers there for 15 years, some like it, some ahate it, BUT it is a job for which you do get paid.

Thius is NOT the US or Europe, this IS a third world country regardless of the glitz, as such deal with it, find a school you like, stay or go you decide.

[SanChong]

[markholmes]

[BJ]

San Choing, Taiwan is classified as a 2nd world country.

using third is because most people understand the difference.

There are always conectations about words, clarification and remarks about what is and is not would take forever. Whatever one says someone will always jump in with examp-les of differences AND generalizations are the norm, would you care to write an essay on the state of Taiwan in the world league of nations to include living standards/economy/political institutions?
which socio catergory will you use? what class structure? what economic data? etc etc, all are up for discussion.

It also seems this forum is great at picking on people for either spelling/grammer or the nitty gritty explanation of thought.

If you want to say careful? tell me why, point out some facts or you are making a judgemental call on what you perceive others to perceive.

[blateson]

Hess would have been just as racial to you and your white skin as they would have to your non-white wife.

[JZer]

[jotham]

[jotham]