Allen Choi, recruiter

Currently advertising on Dave's for jobs in Suzhou & Nanjing. I'm inclined not to trust any recruiter, but wonder if anyone knows this guy in particular.

Headline says "Attractive Salary ..RMB14000++/month" and fine print has "RMB 8,000 – RMB 14,000", whih is a bad sign.

<Contact link edited out  -R>

I got phone calls from a recruiter named "Allen" in Suzhou a few times, but never really worked with him and don't know if this is the same guy or not.

These salaries are pretty tepid for international schools, and their not insisting on a bona fide teaching credential, their use of a recruiter (real internationals rarely need recruiters) plus a few other clues would indicate that these are CHINESE "international schools", which are often a far cry from the real thing.

My guess is that English teachers with a bachelor's probably get the 8K, while math or accounting teachers with credentials or graduate degrees are getting the 14K. Bear in mind that teachers with credentials can pretty easily earn around 20K in this region...

I dunno...the money is not bad. Might be worth a look, but I'd treat this one like an angry snake...
I'd also find out where, precisely, the campuses are...you could easily get stuck out in the middle of nowhere.
And, well, this is a recruiter. Caveat magister.

Just to play Devil's advocate for a second, I don't really think there's anything inherently sketchy about posting a salary range. Of course he's going to put the high salary in the title line, its an ad, its meant to grab your attention.

If this is a recruiter, he might be representing several schools, that all pay different salaries. Again, we come back to the fact that he's a recruiter. The range in and of itself isn't a bad sign. The bad sign is that he's a recruiter, not the salary he's posted.

Also, within a school, there may be a range of salaries. With my current school I made it clear up front when I interviewed that I expected to be paid at the higher end of the salary scale. However, I know for a fact that a fellow FT at my school makes considerably less than I do. We are also a Chinese international school (but one of the better ones, I think, from the descriptions I've read here and elsewhere), a private school. These schools will generally pay more and have a lot more negotiating room when it comes to salary. The teacher who makes much less than I do was teaching PE last semester, so his salary is quite understandable (I actually think he quite lucked out to be making what he did and teaching kids to run around a track and do jumping jacks in unison!). So even in a school, not all FTs are created equal, and there might be some range. Again, not inherently sketchy.

I don't know Allen Choi or his setup at all, and I don't usually like recruiters, but I am not one to talk because I accidentally ended up using a recruiter to find my own current job (I responded to a cleverly disguised ad in the Beijinger, but the job was good and the recruiter basically introduced us and then let me be). Even if he is a recruiter, I'd maybe drop a line about the job. Its likely to be a Chinese private/international school, but the pay is good, and if everything else checks out, it might not be a bad deal. You might luck out like I did, and you're not signing anything or promising anything just by responding to an ad.

With a few divergences, we said pretty much exactly the same thing.

Salary ranges aren't inherently dodgy- especially in this case, where they're seeking teachers of several different subjects. Teachers of "hard academic" subjects like math or accounting are generally paid more than communication-English teachers.

My problem with Chinese schools is that I've never seen one that doesn't end up selling grades and diplomas, making a complete hollow mockery of your classroom efforts. If you've found one that doesn't engage in such shoddy academic shenanigans, then my hat is off to you.

My problem with Chinese schools is that I've never seen one that doesn't end up selling grades and diplomas, making a complete hollow mockery of your classroom efforts. If you've found one that doesn't engage in such shoddy academic shenanigans, then my hat is off to you.

I think my school escapes this somewhat because we're accreditted by the US College Board and provide an AP curriculum. Just last week we had someone from the States out at the school checking up on our academic standards. If our students continually fail the AP exams, which are graded by the College board, not us, they won't allow our school to continue offering them, so the school has a vested interest in actually making sure the students learn something.

That said, we have parents at our school who certainly expect the type of thing you describe, who have gone to the principal irate that we won't change a grade or move so and so up to a different class. Our parents pay loads of money for our school and expect to be able to call the shots as a result. I'm sure they get away with it on occasion, but I wouldn't say it happens as a rule.

I do know what you mean though and probably a good 95% of Chinese private high schools or colleges are exactly as you describe.