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Beijing, Job Search on the Ground

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trevelyan66

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Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« on: March 18, 2011, 08:25:00 PM »
I've been sending out a lot of emails to ESL job advertisements placed in the classifieds section of The Beijinger.com in my search to find a decent teaching job in Beijing. However, many of these employers assume that I'm in Beijing, and want me to come in for an interview there. Oftentimes, upon revealing the fact that I am not yet there (still in America), they seem to lose interest.

This got me thinking : should I just book a flight for Beijing, get a cheap place to stay over there, and solicit interviews like a madman the second that I hit the ground? Does anyone have experience doing such a thing? Is it safe to assume I'll find a decent one within a couple weeks time, before I run out of money? Is this a good idea in the most general sense, anyway?

Feel free to answer any aspect of the query that you'd like.

These personal stats may serve to educate the discussion:

I am an American (born and raised)
I have a Bachelor's Degree (in Math/Economics)
I have no formal teaching experience (I'm currently trying to sell a 6-month language exchange program I arranged with a Korean citizen at my university)

(Pardon me if this topic is beating a dead horse, and I will gladly accept a reference to a relevant link.)

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The Local Dialect

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2011, 08:37:16 PM »
I'm in Beijing and I think you can find a job here more easily than you would from at home. I do think that most employers expect that applicants who respond to ads expect you to be here, if for no other reason than that there are SO many foreigners in Beijing to choose from and schools would rather hire someone they've seen in person. You'll find a lot of cities with high foreigner populations prefer to do their hiring in person.

The only snag might be the visa. A lot of schools in Beijing that I've talked to say you can only process your visa from your home country. My current school says you can go to Hong Kong though, and a FT at my former school, the one I just left, is preparing to go to Hong Kong, or possibly Korea, to process his work visa as well. I think there's enough on offer in Beijing that if you show up here and really hit the pavement job hunting you should be able to find one that will allow you to do a Hong Kong visa run rather than making the trip back home.


You're looking for a job for a fall start though, right? You might not find a whole lot of jobs looking for an immediate hire since the semester started about a month ago.
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jpd01

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2011, 09:55:06 PM »
Just in reference to savings, if you do decide to do this make sure that you have at least 6 weeks worth of expenses saved up before hopping over. It might take you a week or two to land a job and then you won't get your first pay for a month. Plus unless you can find a place that will give you housing you need to think about having around 3 months rent spare in addition to the 6 weeks living money. Probably at least 12-14000rmb depending on your actual rent. Deposits are usually 2 or 3 months rent and then a month's rent in advance, this varies but usually ends up the same cost.
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The Local Dialect

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2011, 05:14:14 AM »
jpd is exactly right. In Beijing, if you want a decent apartment and don't want a roomate, then plan on paying between 2500-5000rmb a month, depending on the area and the size of the apartment. If you don't mind living with someone then you can get your rent down to under 2000. The Beijinger has a lot of classifieds with fellow expats looking for roomates and ganji (the Chinese site) has a lot of Chinese folks looking.

This time of the year your chances of finding a job that supplies housing -- usually uni and high school jobs -- are kind of slim so you'll probably be on your own housing-wise. Some jobs might give you a housing stipend, but it is usually paid with your salary, although you could negotiate to see if they could give it to you in a lump sum at first to help get you started. Definitely come over with enough money to get yourself set up though. Beijing is not always a cheap city to live in and the start up costs can add up. On the upside, it is not difficult at all (in BJ) to get part time work to tide you over until you can find a permanent job, so that's something to consider too, if you come over on a visa with 90 day stays per entry. I wouldn't recommend being an under the table worker as a long term solution but it could be a way to help keep yourself financially solvent while you wait for a fall position to start.
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trevelyan66

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2011, 12:30:54 PM »
Great. Tbh, I've more or less given up on the fall job proposition, I just can't afford to spend another ~6 months in limbo. So it's probably a language mill for me, if I'm using the correct jargon. My aim is to find a good one. Are there plentiful cheap hotels/hostels that I could stay in for a couple weeks while job hunting (where I could safely keep practically all my belongings)?
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Pashley

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #5 on: March 19, 2011, 02:29:15 PM »
Quote from: trevelyan66 on March 18, 2011, 08:25:00 PM
I've been sending out a lot of emails to ESL job advertisements placed in the classifieds section of The Beijinger.com ... many of these employers assume that I'm in Beijing, and want me to come in for an interview there. Oftentimes, upon revealing the fact that I am not yet there (still in America), they seem to lose interest.

Yes, the ones who want to recruit from overseas generally do not advertise in the Beijinger. They advertise on overseas recruiting sites. There's a list in this article: http://wikitravel.org/en/Teaching_English Web search will turn up many more.

For China-specific sources, check the job listings section here and subscribe to mailing lists at TEFLChina.org

Generally, I'd say a first-time teacher will be better off being recruited from abroad. You might get met at the airport, taken for dinner, and delivered to a lovely apartment, or you might get poor directions on how to reach your place by cab, and find it crappy when you get there. However, either is better than several weeks in a hotel you have to pay for. More generally, coping with China is a lot easier with some help from a Chinese-speaker.

Also, jobs that recruit abroad are more likely to provide a proper visa (absolutely essential!) and perks like housing and annual airfare home (nice!). These is not entirely certain in jobs recruiting abroad or entirely absent in those recruiting locally, but the trend runs that way.

Can you broaden your search? With a Math & Economics degree, are there jobs you might get in foreign trade or business analysis or some such? Are there cities other than Beijing you might consider? There's a whole thread here somewhere on people's preferences.
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trevelyan66

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Re: Beijing, Job Search on the Ground
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2011, 08:23:29 PM »
I see, I'm just having a hard time arranging a decent job from over here, while it seems like there are quite a few more on 'The Beijinger'.

Does anyone have any advice on where I might stay cheaply and safely (for me and my belongings) for a couple weeks should I choose to go this route?
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