Larry Romanoff
- 2006-05-22
In the past, I've been a (probabably) outspoken proponent of avoiding recruiters and dealing directly with the schools, for many of the reason mentioned plus the fact that most recruiters in China are crookeder (sic) than a dog's hind leg.
However, now that a Chinese FAO partner and I are doing recruiting for a few universities, I find myself in the curious position of still recommending my earlier advice.
We try to do it a bit better than the con artists. We try hard to avoid schools that don't have solid reputations and we try to select teachers carefully so nobody is disappointed with the result. But recruiting sight unseen is difficult for both parties.
I doubt it's possible for a recruiter to 'take care of teachers' in any real sense. We (my partner and I) do understand between us both sides of the main issues, and we can translate, interpret, mediate for some kinds of things. But if you're 2,000 Kms. away, it isn't easy to do much more.
The help that is given is more from a sense of responsibility and good will than anything else, because there isn't enough money in it to justify a large investment in time.
You may be interested to know that in one recent contract to find 45 English teachers for a university, we went through names of more than 800 teachers and may still not have filled our quota. Nothing wrong with the uni, but by the time we weed out the unqualified or unsuitable, cross off those who want to be in another city, those who want maybe higher pay or different circumstances, we're left with maybe 50 or 60 and the uni rejects 20 of those.
That effort - just to find a relatively small number of teachers who might fit well and be happy in a given situtation - represents a huge up-front investment in our time. Then we're involved to some necessary extent in helping to reduce the anxiety of coming to China and landing in the right place. And by the time we receive our 2,000 RMB when the teacher finally arrives at the school, there's not much energy left for dispute mediation or anything else.
I think there are many recruiters in China who have become very rich, but from my experience it can be done only by bringing in a huge volume of inexperienced or unqualified teachers to work at the unlicensed schools and private training centres.
If I were a teacher looking for a position, I would probably try to deal directly with a school, mostly because I wouldn't know whom to trust. There are so many con artists out there looking for gold that it can really be a disheartening process.
Someone told me recently that the government is planning on a big crackdown on the unlicensed schools and, if that is true, the situation should improve measurably. If the illegal schools are out of business, the scam recruiters will be out as well and maybe the picture would be more clear for everyone. Maybe.
Raoul Duke
- 2006-05-21
And if you're looking to just teach here in China, not open your own school, the upshot here is to avoid recruiters lke the plague.
Make a long story short, you don't need them. There are too many jobs here you can get directly from the school. Good schools in decent locations with decent reputations offering truly competitive compensation don't have to turn to recruiters, for the most part. It's the miserable hellhole schools in scummy cities with bad reps paying insulting wages that have to turn to recruiters...and you don't want to go there anyway.
ALWAYS deal DIRECTLY with the school. If you can't get a contact at the school itself, walk away. Walk away quickly.
And remember, the recruiters will not be coming to you saying "Yeah, we're scum and we're out to rip you off." They'll be saying "Oh, we're great guys, and we're only in the business to help you, and we take great care of all our teachers." Odds are overwhelming that these guys are lying like rugs.
It's easy to get a teaching job in China. Don't take the chance. DON'T use a recruiter!
Did you ever wonder why recruiting agencies in China take such extreme measures to recruit you? My girlfriend worked for a recruiting agency, and I was shocked to hear the following:
What they charged one middle school for three teachers:
360,000RMB for one year
What they paid the teachers:
5000RMB for one month
You do the math. Even given that the agency will pay your rent and etc., that's still a hefty profit.
Why will the schools pay so much? Sadly, they've got there own little profit game as well. I worked at a middle school where three native speakers taught 9 different classes each week (2 hours each class). Each class had an average of 65 students. That's 27 classes. Okay let's call that about 1,800 students. The school charges each student an additional 200RMB a month beyond their regular tuition for the privilege of having a foreign teacher. If you calculate this at 10 months times 36,000, the picture becomes clearer. It's basically a break-even proposition for the school and they don't have to mess with visa and housing problems to boot.
Even though the above figures will vary from agency to agency and school to school, it's easy to see why so many Chinese "Tom, Dick and Harries" are jumping on the EFL bandwagon. On one level you've got to admire their capitalistic, go for it attitudes. On the other level BEWARE! It takes a few years of hanging out in China to get enough perspective to navigate the ESL/EFL maze. So, if you want to make the plunge, jump on in, but don't hesitate to ask for advice or heed the advice from people like Larry who are rightfully trying to help you avoid the pitfalls.
Good luck!