Job Discussion Forums

[afarr]

I've been in email communication with a secondary school in HK through the EDB NET scheme recruitment process and following a phone interview they told me that I would hear good news from the EDB shortly...(they didn't actually say the words - we are offering you a job / would you like to work for us - rather I expressed my strong interest in working at their school). However that was almost one and a half weeks ago...

I haven't heard from either the school or the EDB since then - should I be worried and start to re-engage other schools who had had contacted me? I just don't want to be in limbo without a job.

I thought that it was the school who gets on and sends me a provisional contract, not the EDB?

Does anybody know how things are meant to happen at this point?

[And Your Bird Can Sing]

As you say, it has only been a week and a half. If you do eventually come here to live and work then one thing you will come to learn about Hong Kong is that everything (no matter whether walking on the street, answering a phone, or dealing with general administrative work in the office) typically only happens at one of two possible different speeds: 'full steam ahead' (regardless of the consequences) and 'all the time in the world' (which resembles protesting workers in the West enforcing a 'go slow' policy in the workplace). One thing it always pays to bear in mind here is that � despite the western veneer � it is still ultimately Asia, and thus is essentially chaotic (HK must be the only state outside of the Third World in which a drop of rain typically brings about a total standstill).

If I had to guess I would say that, in your case, nothing will happen for a few more weeks, perhaps even another month, and then, out of the blue (most likely at 4am your time) you will get a call asking you (read 'instructing you') to up and leave your home state at the drop of a hat and present yourself at the school in HK on the following day at 7:30am (with visa and lessons plans in hand). Remember that most people here (even the slim minority who are married to a member of the opposite sex) tend to still live with their mummies and daddies and so have no idea whatsoever about what it involves finding accommodation and the like, and have even less knowledge about what moving from one country to another entails.

I do not wish to dampen your spirits but you should also realise that the school in question may well be leaving their options open by interviewing and considering more than one applicant (in fact, if I were you, I would assume this to be the case). They will usually tend to give all hopefuls the impression that they will have a contract the very next day lest they cause 'loss of face' (apparently keeping potential teachers on tenterhooks for weeks on end does not engender such 'loss of face').

Good luck no matter what transpires!

[afarr]

Thanks for your words of warning which spured me into action and I contacted my school again (really to get assurances). I got another early morning phone call from the Head of English Panel to assure me that I was their choice and that on my behalf they'd been phoning the EDB to find out why they were taking so long in sending a provisional contract to me.
So, although I now have assurances I feel that I am in the "government" zone. It's over 2 weeks since my school faxed them saying they'd made their choice. Does it really take this long to wait for a provisional contract??? (Apparently they were told that someone administering to the NET scheme had been off sick...but even then...?)
If you add up all the time needed to get the provisional contract, then the actual contract and then the employment visa how on earth are you expected to be able to turn up on time?
I email the EDB but no reply...

[hkteach]

[afarr]

Good news!
I have was sent a provisional contract with a details of my monthly salary a couple of days ago. I guess that the two-week wait was due to the assessment of salary.
They took only one day to acknowledge my acceptance and now my file is being sent to the school so they can send me a contract by post.
I hope this gives hope to all NETs out there who are going through the process these past long months...
Don't give up!