Thursday, March 24, 2011

no thanks Wendy

The past few days I have felt I'm starting to make another breakthrough concerning my move to China. I have been applying to numerous university positions, pretty much any locations where I have been able to find direct contact with the school. I'm very excited.

The "direct contact with the school" thing has become more important to me as people have repeatedly warned to be wary of dealing with recruiters, companies schools hire to find teachers. Recruiters are known to use bait-and-switch tactics to lure potential teachers in with a nice-sounding job but when the teacher arrives that job is no longer available...but the recruiter has a different job available. The replacement jobs are where many teachers' horror stories come from...small towns away from civilization, bug-infested apartments and salaries nowhere near the original quotes.
I have had some interactions with recruiters so far but obviously I haven't been able to judge whether or not those recruiters keep their promises yet since I am still in the US.  However, I have had a taste of some of shining examples of their idea of integrity.  Here is an excerpt from an e-mail from a recruiter named Wendi Ji.  She asked if I could forward her a copy of my TEFL or TESOL certificate.  Just to see what she would say I told her I didn't have a certificate but that I could fake one for her.  Here is the response:
Hello Brian,glad to hear from you,I need the TEFL certificate, that's all be right you can fake one, can you come to China in tourist visa and our school will change it to a working visa, here I enclosed with several position information and you can pick the one you really preferred, after you make a final decision, I will sent your information to the school, all those positions need to be take asap.
My dearest Wendy who in our first correspondence spelled my name B-r-a-i-n, in the second e-mail spelled it B-r-i-a-n and then in the third e-mail reverted to the first (incorrect) spelling of my name, had suggested it "all be right" if I faked a teaching certificate.   Classic example of what I have read of recruiters' various displays of morality.  According to their harshest critics, recruiters will say anything to get a foreigner to China and then once the foreigner is there they are in the pocket of the school the recruiter works for.


I've read a handful posts on forums from people who have been victims of shady recruiters.  It is true that anybody really could have written the posts, elaborately detailing the trouble caused from a recruiter, but I don't know what someone would get out of that.  In any case I think I will try and play it safe, not slip on any Chinese banana peels.

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