What is your average Chinese recruiter-who is she-how does she get her work-and is she responsible if things go wrong?

Let's discount one type of recruiter which you certainly want nothing to do with; the one that will charge the FT a fee.

The average recruiter will contact schools and do a deal, whereby the school will pay X amount to the recruiter for finding an FT and gathering together scans of all his paperwork,-degrees and whatnot.

The school will provide the recruiter with its requirements- only want blacks-only want whites- a copy of the employment contract and bumf and pictures of the school. The recruiter will not be in a position to verify if what the school is appearing to offer is true or not. I mean you can't expect little studentess/recruiter to start vetting the school can you? No they have to accept that what the school says is true.

All FT's should see the recruiter as only a vehicle/a means to arrive at a position when they can start quizzing the employer- and this is where so many FT's are simply not doing what they should be doing-so if the resulting job ends badly, they should blame nobody else but themselves.

Now then- if you reach the stage where you think you like what the employer is appearing to offer but have some reservations, some things in the contract which seem ambiguous, don't bother to quiz the organ grinders monkey too much, because she will only have to ask the employer- No, at this stage, you can accept the job ,or tell the recruiter you accept it. She will then approach the school who will decide whether or not to accept you. If they do accept you in principle, they will want to communicate with you personally- now is the time when you should go to town on said employer- ask to see pictures of your room-firmly establish that under no circumstances will you be sharing with another FT(unless you want that)-find out what they mean by a free flat- will they dump you with a private landlord who will rob you blind- find out about utilities who pays for them.

What about contact detail of current and past FT's- you will need to chat with them in order to get a reference off of them for the school?

There are all sorts of investigations that you must take up with the school yourself- and I invite other FT's to stop wasting time and opportunity moaning about recruiters and to start advising FT's as to all the checks they must do with the school itself.

In the unlikely situation that you manage to land a job without the services of a recruiter...well, FT's on this forum know full-well it still can end in tears if you don't quiz the school-other FT's and do all your checks.