ReadingTown Shanghai

To all the folks who didn't meet me in "Introductions", Hi there! Recent addition to the saloon, yadda yadda.

Through a recruiter (I know, I know! But I'm an ESL and China newbie) a position has been suggested for me at ReadingTown Shanghai. Salary is definitely in range I've been seeking, but from the little I can find via Google, the school seems to have a bad or mediocre rep.

So.....what input, advice, shouts of "Don't open the door!" can you come up with for me?   

The more information you can provide, the more feedback you will get. Tell everything they told you, minus whatever details you want to be discreet about.

You can find little info, what you can is negative and the job is from a recruiter??? You mention things like salary and expectations...ok...listen carefully, recruiters lie. They always lie. They are very, very bad people. They are the kind of people who would invite their own grandmother for dinner and the next morning the lady would wake up from a Mickey Finn-induced slumber in a bathtub full of ice and one kidney missing.
There are better jobs, better places. Unless you can talk directly to the school, do not open that door. Do not trust recruiters.

Make sure you pay attention to the date of any information about a specific school good or bad. More than a couple of years ago can mean the information is useless. Things change quickly here.

Unless you can talk directly to the school, do not open that door. Do not trust recruiters.

This.  This.  And again, this.

Don't make any allowances for the recruiter.  Don't demur discussing any details with the employer, get straight to the point and re-confirm everything directly with them.

I've never agreed with the hard line that this forum has always taken with recruiters.

Is it better to have a relationship directly with the school? Of course, but that's all fine if you know how the hell to navigate all that.

My first job in China was through a recruiter. Perhaps I was lucky but while the job wasn't great. It wasn't terrible. It was good enough that I decided to stay and got a better job the next year directly. I wouldn't have come on some promise from a school I I couldn't get much information on. At least with the recruiter I was able to contact several present and past clients. I don't need a recruiter now as I know what to look for and I'm in country.

Contacting multiple, foreign teachers who are current or worked with the school and/or recruiter in the past year seems like a great way to know what's up. Just need to be able to interview those people carefully with prepared questions that you turn into a casual conversation and all will be revealed.

I second the casual conversation part, employers are wise to the ask the other teachers thing and often carefully pick who they allow you to talk to and instruct them to outright lie. Which they usually do.