Suzhou Garden Primary School

Any info on this school?  In the contract, they pay 8000 but without accommodations.  They will pay key money / deposit.  There's a maximum of 16 teaching hours, but a standard 8 to 4 workday, five days a week.  They don't pay for Visa or related work permits.  They only pay 5000 for travel reimbursement at the end of the contract.  It's a nine month contract with three weeks of holiday / vacation time.

I know, it's kids!  I teach all ages and levels now and my favorite classes are kids (you know, the energetic, fun-loving, eager to learn and talk type), but my most hated classes are also kids (you know, the disruptive, disrespectful, don't want to be here type). 

I agreed to a phone interview.  Any input about the school, things I should consider, or other advice is deeply appreciated.

Ouch!  No apartment?  No visa?  An 8 hour work day? Less than half the cost of plane tickets? And not a lot of vacation time? 

Personally, I wouldn't touch it.  I get more than 5K and full travel costs and a visa and an apartment and more holidays that I could hope for and a short work week of only four days (consecutive) and tons of respect.  It isn't all in the 8K versus 5K debate, it's about all the other things.

it's about all the other things.

Yeah! Especially the 9 month contract! No holiday pay!!!

I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole or an 8 foot Ukrainian.  Just say NO.

Oh, my God, for once I'm kind of on the 'Pro' (or at least the 'Maybe') side! 

The no-visa thing is a deal-breaker. If they can't be talked into a residence permit, walk away and don't look back. The fact that they don't provide this, and have few holidays, tells me it must be a private primary school.

8K no apartment equals something like 6K with apartment. This isn't really so bad, especially if they're paying the move-in costs. I would make sure that you have the right to find/choose your own apartment, though. This salary is not bad for a regular primary school. If it's an international school, though, the salary is ludicrous. Insulting.

9-10 month contracts are STANDARD for primary and middle schools. They aren't going to pay you to teach for 2-3 months when they don't have classes. However, they may have a Summer program you can negotiate your way into. If they don't many others do.

Visa aside, it's not that terrible unless it's an international school. (Again, if no visa, then RUN!).

Bam, I don't know this school. Can you tell me more...location, etc.? I suspect this may be an "international school" for Chinese consumers. If so, might be worth taking a pass on this one. Try the Suzhou public schools, which are better than most.

Also...you aren't using a recruiter, are you? 

Enough said.  I cancelled the phone interview.  There are way too many options out there to consider it without the accommodations or visa.  Thanks guys for straightening me out.  Being my first trip to China, I should get all I can included in the deal.

RD, I believe it is from a recruiter or a middleman of some sort.  The original email from him portrayed himself as being from the school itself, but the contact info is for Shanghai.  Since I posted my resume on a couple of ESL sites, I'm getting about a dozen or more inquiries a day, and very few of them are not from recruiters.  There must be hundreds of recruiting agencies in China.  I had no idea the morass I would have to swim through to find and get in contact with schools.

A wise choice, sir. There really is no reason to settle for less-than-adequate here. And 'adequate' definitely includes a residence permit if the job is full-time.

Being my first trip to China, I should get all I can included in the deal.

Definitely. This is just as true even when you've been here a while, too.

Be especially careful of recruiters out of Shanghai, lest you fall into the clutches of Frank Zhang/Alin Buuer/etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. This guy is the worst of a business that's already pretty slimy. A deceptive opening e-mail could well be him. Or just about any other recruiter in China.

There must be hundreds of recruiting agencies in China.  I had no idea the morass I would have to swim through to find and get in contact with schools.

Try thousands. They do their best to make it hard to find a job any other way...but ultimately fail. It's really simple to get a job here without them.
We do our best here to help people understand what they're getting into when they come to China to teach, but you have to live here a while to fully understand how deep the Hiring Slime Pit really goes...

BamBam, I know that this sounds kind of simplistic (or maybe even stupid), but have you also been sending out your resume TO schools and making contact with those schools which advertise on the various ESL sites?

I'm looking at the job listings, eliminating obvious recruiter placements, and making plans for future contacts/interviews.  I'm deliberately NOT putting out my resume, so as to avoid the trash-replies I'd generate.

I'm deliberately NOT putting out my resume, so as to avoid the trash-replies I'd generate.

You are probably making a wise choice since you are not planning on going to China very soon.  If you do at some point decide to post your resume, don't use your primary email address.  It would be much more of a hassle if my real email contact was out there for every scammer, spammer, and Nigerian con-man to see. 

Overall, I think it has been helpful.  After weeding and deleting through the junk, I have found and made contact with a few desirable schools that I may not otherwise have known about or been able to find contact information for.  After all, sorting through the numerous ESL job sites is no picnic either.