In response to Re: Meten/Metro Chongqing China (DK)

Let me reply to a couple of most recent posts and provide some follow-up on my Meten application from a few weeks ago.

Chengdu CT
You should be really happy that you are working part time for them as opposed to full time. Once you work full time they sign you to a contract and you become a slave to the system.
At least now you have the freedom to take another job. And considering the pay rate (100 RMB per hour) you should have plenty of better offers.
Actually the work isn't that bad. But most of the locations have bad management and they will never get better.

I agree with your points on for ever bad management in Chinese schools as well as on full timers that ofter have "to slave it out" through those one-year one-sided employment agreements in China. However, I am not so sure about the REALLY HAPPY PART-TIME WORK there. Had I taken that part-time offer, I might or might not have been happy by today as I did not accepted the offer of one who with her misadvertising misled the job seekers around Chongqing. My observation was that she attempted to draw foreigners in the area of the city to part-time work, so that she could further advertise her school with more "white faces". When she saw I had my residency permit till end of May 2010 in the city, she knew she could take advantage of the situation. Working part-time under a work permit arranged by another employer is illegal in China and it could earn you a quick departure without a possiblity of a returned ticket. Therefore such a happiness may as well be a gamble one would take. In the case of the Meten representative, I could see she'd take a gamble too and that due to the circumstances that I not only had the foreign expert status and residency in the city, I also had my family and one year old son with me. I wasn't as desperate as she probably thought I was and then it looked like she wasn't either...ticked me off 'cause I got a really quick reply on my application firstly. Most importantly, taking a part-time offer with a dishonest employer could increase that GAMBLE FACTOR.

A quote:
However, the reasons why we are asked for our credentials such as MA, BA or the teaching certs for these kinda jobs are quite puzzling aren't they?
A reply from DK:
My understanding is that foreign teachers in China require a "foreign experts' certificate" in order to obtain a work visa. The certificate is issued by the local provincial education department, and is normally issued only to foreigners holding at least a three-year Bachelor's degree. Unlike you, I'm not puzzled. Maybe you aren't now.

Your understanding is quite correct, although the reality in China is far from your understanding and that with all due respect to you. Normally, it depends on local employers' reputation, connections, and/or how much they have to offer to the local officer in charge. At times, Residency Permits for work are issued even without these "booklets" of experts' certificates at local police stations around. I personally witnessed a PSB officer not looking at either the employment contract or any certificates when issuing the visa. All he was looking at was the attractively big smile of an HR representative from a school. In China, there's no need to be puzzled about the local authorities, but why credentials for such "entertainment" jobs are required is more than offensive, isn't it? Just imagine you've got all your qualifications in tact and then some unqualified supervisors or managers with, at times, only intermediate level of English evaluate your preformance. Would you not be puzzled about your "poor" in class performance?

Cheers and beers to Kiki from Meten in Chongqing :)