There's a lot of mixed reviews on this site about Worlda, a lot of lies and a lot of weird comments, so I decided to weigh in. I've been working for Worlda for 3 years now, and I've gotten to teach at about 6 different schools, for all students aged 3-17. If I didn't like a school, I asked, and was granted a change. The hours are steady, pay is always reliable, the visa process is perfect and the company continues to grow at an amazing rate. Recently I have been promoted to the International Human Resource Director, meaning that I will be in charge of finding, training, and keeping the foreign teachers happy. I'll be the first foreigner working only in the office, and I plan to bring a lot of good additions and useful changes to the company.

Facts about Worlda.

They have many schools they cooperate with. You will be placed at one or more of them. You might teach as young as kindergarten, or as old as university, depending on whats your preference and whats available.

You get a legal Z working Visa, and Worlda will help you do all the paperwork for it.

They pay you on time, every month, the pay you expect - tax. If you don't work, you won't get paid for it. Paid sick days in China is basically unheard of. I hate it too.

You will teach for under 20 hours a week. Maybe you'll get lucky and work 14, maybe 16, but never more then 20. If somehow you work over 20, you get a nice overtime pay. The hours are normal school hours, usually after 8AM and before 530PM.

What I've read about Worlda reviews online that needs to be clarified... I tried to ignore comments from 3+ years ago, as I wasn't in the company then. But I can tell you, the growth and change in the last 3 years is tremendous (have you seen the new office?!)

Worlda is not a tutoring center. It is an agency that connects foreigners to public and private schools in China. The reason simply being that many schools here do not have the ability to get foreigners themselves, due to government regulations/paperwork. Think of it like this. If you're selling a product in Canada or America, and you wanted to find a factory in China, would you book a ticket to China, try to find a factory, and use your iphone translator to negotiate a contract? No, you'd probably hire someone to help you. That's Worlda, connecting China to foreigners.
The hours taught are during the day, not nights, not weekends. Pay is always steady, and you get paid for holidays except for winter holiday and summer holiday.

Worlda WILL take your passport... to the immigration office, so that you don't have to do it yourself. The process takes about a week. They return it to you quickly afterwards. If they take your passport, you get paperwork proving that it is in the immigration office. It's harmless, and you get a legal residence permit when its returned.

The boss Mary isn't the devil. She's just a Chinese female boss who has worked her ass off to grow Worlda to a giant company. She's not going to be your best friend, but she's not mean as long as you're not a failure of a teacher/person. For new people to China I recommend this site to learn about cultural differences... http://www.terminaljunkie.com/wp/2010/10/19/western-vs-asian-culture-a-pictorial-perspective/ "Westerners: The boss is part of the team. Asians: The boss is a fierce god."

"Get spied on both in your class as well as having visitors come to your home unannounced." As part of ongoing training, sometimes Worlda employees (including myself,) will come to your school to watch you teach and give suggestions. We don't sit on the roof of the next building with binoculars. As for coming to your home, I'm assuming you're renting the company apartments, which means it's not your home. The only negativeI have about Worlda is the apartments. The apartments are fine, it's just the locations of them are not always near your school. Sometimes new schools sign contracts with Worlda that are not close to the Worlda apartments. I lived in the company apartment for 3 months, and had a lot of problems. All the problems were about the apartment though. After I moved out, everything was good. My suggestion, pick option B unless you are tight on cash.

People talk about how Worlda posted their own positive reviews, but those are just a typed copy of what REAL Worlda teachers hand wrote, as you can see on their website. I'd trust a handwritten letter about Worlda a lot more then random people online (Which by the way, is sometimes other companies/agencies that are just trying to get you to go to their agency. Just like if I work for Nike, I'll post negative reviews about Adidas.) If this websites slammed with negatives, of course any company would try to improve their image using facts, just like myself.

Remember, "On this forum you hear only a fraction of opinions." - from "dodo" on this site... People don't go often online, find a companies message board, and rant about how great it is. People vent their frustrations online, rarely brag about happiness. I've known a lot of happy Worlda teachers, and some not happy. The funny thing is most unhappy ones re-apply or want to come back after they quit/get fired. Maybe Worlda isn't so bad after all?

If you are interested in getting $20-$25 an hour working for Worlda, please check my email here and send me a resume ;)