"One to Two Years Experience" Is Killing Me

I have a small problem, dewds. From poking around the forum I am seeing some comments talking about how visa requirements were modified following the Olympic games but didn't find any direct answer to my question.

Three years ago in '07 I interviewed with EF Shanghai. I had no experience whatsoever teaching English, no four-year degree (though I did possess a two-year degree), and no teaching certification of any kind. The interview went smoothly, I was hired, and a few months later my visa came through. Much to my chagrin, the long waiting period for the visa (three or four months, I believe) created a timing problem for me regarding the continuance of my studies, so I had to regrettably let it go. Still, the process was straightforward and, aside from the long visa processing time, relatively quick.

Fast forward to the present day. I am graduating in two weeks with a four-year Bachelor's degree and in June I am doing my CELTA. Still no experience, mind you, but that didn't seem catastrophic the first time. I contact EF Shanghai again. Visa requirements now apparently "require" degree, cert, AND "one year experience."

Apparently, so does virtually every other job wanted ad I have looked at in the past two months! "One to two years experience required." I'm having fargin' nightmares about "experience required." If this is still a seller's market, it sure doesn't feel like it.

Much needed venting aside, I was wondering if any of you here might offer me some advice or tips on what I might do to increase my marketability to these schools. It seems they don't even want to write back to me. The only ones that have written back are recruiters (I know better now and will never bother with them again) and schools that offer less than ideal packages, i.e. 4,000 yuan per month with no housing and a lousy 700 housing allowance in Chengdu—no thanks. I've reads mah Saloon and I knows what's no good.

I don't mind going to "less than desirable" places with the exception of Heilongjiang and the far west. You gotta have some limits. I'm not stuck on Shanghai or some other fancy city. Actually, I really want Chengdu... Anyway. It seems even the "second-tier" cities aren't bothering to speak to me. I'm getting a bit frustrated here.

Thanks for listening to my ranting and puh-leez, I'd be grateful for any advice you had!

no experience whatsoever teaching English,

Simple solution......get some!
How do you know yer cut out for teaching, if you've never tried it?
Other solution.....get yerselff some ffake refferences!

My advice? Just keep looking...and be patient. NEVER get into a rush to go to China- get things right first!

The main hiring push for the Fall will be firing up here in a month or two, and there will be a lot of job ads popping up. Many of them won't require experience.

In the meantime, experience certainly won't hurt. Consider signing up as a substitute teacher. Or volunteer for a local English-language program...a lot of churches, city institutions, and others offer them. Or, find someone who's willing to go for a little free tutoring. It all works.

The fact that you were talking to an outfit like EF belies your lack of experience.
Welcome to the Saloon, where you can run names and contracts past a group that has the experience and will be happy to share with you!

I noticed a lot of jobs "requiring experience" when I was fishing around, but when asked about it, the companies werent that strick on that element of the criteria. In the absence of experienced applicants they went of those without.

In Shanghai though you may be up against quite a few "experienced" applicants, whereas I was out in the boondocks where positions were plentiful and teachers few and far between. Not for everyone, but I loved it.  

Muchas gracias for the advice!

I used to tutor immigrants of mostly Chinese descent for the oral examination of the U.S. citizenship test. I only did it for a month or so via this volunteer organization. I basically asked them a set of questions they were likely to encounter during the oral exam. "Who was the first president of the United States?" (I wanted to tell them "Simon Cowell" but that wouldn't have been 'ery funny, now would it have...) I have about three weeks between the end of classes and start of my CELTA, so I will go out and volunteer again. It's hardly the paid teaching most of these companies want and, if the impending gold rush is to hit in a month or two, and if I land something, I'll have hardly had more than a month under my belt by the time I leave. But it's better than nothing, I s'pose.

What's wrong with EF? I printed out the "Job Evaluation Checklist" post (thanks!) and EF seems to check out, no? They provide housing, good money (in Shanghai it was 12,000 per month, though they did rip you off for the first three-month "probationary period" by paying 10,000) and I have generally not heard any horror stories about EF. Of course it's a private school, so your evenings and weekends are screwed... which is why I was hoping to land a university position!

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to watch and learn. *bows*

Oh, dear me, Invictus, don´t ask questions like "what is wrong with EF?"...EF is a profiteering racket. It is a good place to work, as long as one doesn´t mind not really  teaching, not being allowed to fail students as that means the parents and their wallets will not come back, spend hours doing placement test to put the children in the right class only to find those children in classes that are too difficult for them because the parents caused a major don´t-want-my-little-emperor-to-lose-face hubub as their precious little youngster was relegated to a lower class than that of his classmate and that is not good....

Hold out for a nice uni position

I dunno. I worked for EF and we held students back all the time. There was no real "failing" because it is extracurricular English, you know? It isn't about grades. But if kids weren't able to move up to the next level we didn't let them and the parents usually didn't cry too much unless (as was the case with some) the kids were being held back repeatedly. At which point you did sort of have to wonder what was going on ...

Anyhow Invictus, you'll hear varied stories about EF because they're a chain school and the management tends to vary a lot. The one thing I always thought EF had going for it was the very standardized curriculum and good training. They weren't the types to throw you into a classroom and say "team em something" with 10 minutes warning. The downside was that it was, as etr said, for profit, which often meant you had to make sure the customer felt they were getting their money's worth, and in that kind of scenario when the customer is upset the teacher is always the first one to take the blame. Also, some EFs have been known to do bad things like steal your money make random deductions from your salary or hold out on bonuses etc. Unless you can talk to current employees at the particular EF you're working for and know that they're not going to rip you off then it is probably a risk. I'm not one to say across the board no EF because I had a good experience working there for a time, but even at my school things got out of hand right after I left (mostly because my boss at the time, the best. DOS. ever. also left), so I got out at a good time.

As for the experience, just keep sending out resumes and eventually you'll hit upon a school that is interested despite everything. Even volunteering helps, and you can always neglect to mention that it wasn't a paid position, you know? Most Chinese schools are not going to spend money on a long distance call to America to check up on whether or not you were getting paid to tutor people for the citizenship exam. You can always clarify later on in the interview, but at least you've gotten your foot in the door. At some point, especially in the next few months you're going to stumble upon a school that will hire a newbie so don't stress too much right now, just work on getting some more experience and keep hunting.

Good luck!

Thanks so much, dudes. Yes, I did read that a big chain is only as good as its current location but, believe it or not, I didn't know about the stuff Eric said. I'm still green and idealistic.

I'm definitely holding out for a university position.

Make sure that tutoring immigrants is on your current resume.  Have you ever coached a kids sports team, taught Sunday school, had a leadership position in Boy Scouts, trained a fellow employee how to flip hamburgers?  Any kinds of experiences like these can be creatively worded to boost the 'teaching experience' requirement.

You've got your Bachelor's and you will soon have your CELTA.  Those are the biggies, along with a foreign face and the ability to speak English.

Yea what Ruth said. Being able to speaking the English real goodly goes a long way along with your big nose.

Often any certificate (tesol, tesl, etc) is regarded highly too. Take the right job, not the next one

I put this in my cover letter:

"Among other things, I have taught mathematics to adults in preparation for the General Equivalency Diploma (a kind of substitute here in the States for people who never completed high school); I have orally coached immigrants (of mostly Chinese descent) in preparation for the spoken part of the U.S. citizenship test; I have taught seminars in the basics of personal finance to high school students; and I have also taught the basics of music theory and guitar technique to adults and children."

I have it in my resume as well but it's all the way on the bottom under "Activities." Guess it wouldn't hurt to be bold and stick it way on top.

When you guys first started looking for work in China, how did you deal with the uncertainty of not knowing where the hell you were going? I mean, I can ask the school all the pertinent questions--do you provide housing? provide Z visa, residency and work permit? pay for medical exam (they're supposed to, aren't they?)--but they can still lie, can they not?

There are so many damn schools out there their names have all started to sound the same to me. I don't know which to trust. I heard even universities may sometimes hire you without the proper visa and then later, if you get caught, it's your own damn problem.

Of course they can lie, that's the risk. You can sign a contract, but there's no guarantee they'll honor it. That's why it is usually recommended that you get contact info from current teachers and get their take on it. Of course those teachers could always be stooges of the admin, you just don't know.

Some things though, like the Z visa, for instance, you can get before you go over. Rule of thumb is don't work for a school if they tell you to go over on an L visa and say they'll change it later. Maybe they're lying, maybe not, but if they don't get you the proper work permits you're screwed, and really getting those things before you go to China is actually easier for the school, especially since you're applying well ahead of time. Just don't go if you don't have a proper visa.

I was a student in China first, went back to America, graduated, and then decided I wanted to return to the city I'd been in as an undergrad. Knowing people in the city and having an idea of where I wanted to go helped. My first job was at a university and it was actually pretty crummy but it wasn't so horrible that I'm not still in China now, more than seven years later. If you plan on being here long term then get your feet on the ground first and don't necessarily look for the perfect job -- make sure it is legit and that you're not going to be ripped off or taken advantage of, those should be your priorities. After you have a year or two of experience a lot more possibilities will open up for you.

All that experience of yours is great.  I suggest moving it up near the top of your resume and labeling the section "Teaching Experience."  Nothing like drawing attention to it!

As for this:

When you guys first started looking for work in China, how did you deal with the uncertainty of not knowing where the hell you were going?

As I have for most of my adult life - prayer and faith in God.   Hasn't let me down yet. The last summer State-side, as we prepared to come to China, is a pretty awesome story full of blessings and 'coincidences'.

vis-a-vis EF: what local dialect said, that's pretty much exactly the situation. It really depends on the franchise, and yes it is all about the money, but yes you might get lucky and have a good year (albeit tiring!) like I did.

welcome to the Salooniverse Invictus! 

(that's an awful movie by the way  )

Invictus, I like your teaching experience. If it were me hiring, I'd give you a shot. That was pretty much what I had before I came to the Muddled Kingdom; two years of volunteer ESL work with immigrants. (Only I coached chess teams instead of music)Don't need to bold it, but definitely call it Teaching Experience and move it up to the top.

For me (and a lot of others) universities are the only way to go. However the sausage factories language mills such as EF do offer a foot in the door. Even one year at one of those on your resume will show that you're a reliable EFL teacher. (Assuming of course that you don't get royally screwed at one of the torture camps less salubrious establishments out there)

Quite a few of us are counselling patience. Things often do happen in a hurry here, but for most part this a lot like fishing.