Job Discussion Forums

Shan-Shan · Joined: 28 Aug 2003 Posts: 1074 Location: electric pastures

I received an unsolicited, and very messy, e-mail from an outfit called "Yu Ming Education Center". The representative, a "Helen" (one of the many "Helen" clones found in training centers across China) assured "me" that by working at Yu Ming, I'd receive high wages, "a supportive family environment", and "high social popularity" (sic) by being able to exclaim to all concerned that "I work at Yu Ming Education Center".

I'm not looking for work at the moment. Were I, this e-mail would do little at easing the burden of finding employment. With one too many "trustworthy"s --

tw · Joined: 04 Jun 2005 Posts: 3898

shenyanggerry · Joined: 02 Nov 2003 Posts: 619 Location: Canada

TW, one of my friends claims that the average Chinese university computer is infected with 25 viruses. When I mentioned bringing material to class in my flash memory rather than use my lap-top, he said be sure to burn a disc instead. That way your computer is safe.

james s · Joined: 07 Feb 2007 Posts: 676 Location: Raincity

tianjinrobbie · Joined: 31 Jul 2010 Posts: 12

I worked there a long time ago now. These were my findings.

PROS

They paid on time, everytime.

They provided the correct visa.

The schools I was put into were pretty good schools and I enjoyed teaching at them.

CONS

They were not upfront about the holiday periods stated in their advertisement. While they told me the holidays were about 4 weeks in the Winter and 6 weeks in the Summer, they actually turned out to be 2 months in the Winter and 3 months in the Summer.
During this time I was not paid, I knew that would be the case in the holidays so I am not knocking them for that, but was banking on the fact they advertise additional teaching in the holidays if you want it and when asked they told me it would not be a problem, when the holidays arrived there was none so I had a lengthy time where I was technically unemployed and you are not supposed to take any private teaching on when working for them, there is a clause in your contract stating this.

They could be a little unprofessional at times as far as informing you a class had been cancelled, this in their defence however only happened a few times. Most of the time they were generally quite good about keeping me informed what was going on, I think the problem was one or two newbie staff members that made a few mistakes.

When I decided not to renew my contract for another year they turned a little sour. They would not provide my new employer with the paperwork needed to enable a transfer of employment.
Luckily I was headed home for a holiday at that time, so we just started the whole visa process off from scratch and I came back again.

There was really no need for them to act in this way, it struck me as being very immature to be honest. i think its fair to say that if I had not been planning a trip home at the time, it would have been a little costly.

Now, despite the negativity I have posted I have also read some good reviews about the place. They were not written in Chinglish so I can only assume they were from a legitimate teacher that enjoyed their time working there so who knows.

Perhaps there has been some management change since my time there and things have improved, I really cannot say. One thing I will say though is if I was able to time travel and given the chance of doing it all again, I would have to say I would choose not to. The fact I was unable to keep regular money coming in over the entire 12 months was just not suitable for me as I have a family to think about taking care of.