"One to Two Years Experience" Is Killing Me

Chengdu is still a pretty popular destination for foreigners. FWIW, Chinese teachers from Sichuan generally don't get to work in a place like Chengdu straight out of school. They usually have to slug it out for less than 1000 rmb/month in the boonies. I'm just saying that without going with a big chain, you might be looking at a place even smaller, somewhere you never heard of before. I know it happened to me when I first got here.

Still, I'm surprised that EF turned you down outright. I thought EF was pretty much the place to go to get some experience. As a semi-professional forum lurker, I'm starting to get the feeling that schools in China are not seeing it as a seller's market anymore. I'm getting the feeling that they're wanting a) higher qualified teachers who will B) stay for a long-term but C) do it without raising wages. I think it's possible that with the academic job market the way it is in the western world (completely horrific), they might be getting applications from people with post-grad degrees figuring they might as well give China a try. If you ask me though, unless they start raising wages, they're just going to get a revolving set of teachers who stick around for 1 year at a time.

Anyways, I bet you'll definitely get multiple offers by July. Eventually you'll  just have to bite the bullet, roll the dice, etc. etc. get your visa quick and jump into the deep end.

Monkeymind, I think he turned down the EF job due to other conflicts...am I right Invictus?

And good thing, too. I've seen scads- zillions- of horror stories about EF.
It is a chain, and indeed subject to what others have told you- it's OK IF you get a good school. Sadly, there don't seem to be all that many good ones.

And, it's not a great deal, even at a good school...salary to work hours is generally pretty low.
Again, as with nearly all chains, an experience there can at worst be completely horrible...and at best be more-or-less endurable sorta.

I don't know...I suppose one could do worse than EF for a place to get one's feet wet. But it's unlikely to be a year you'll remember fondly.

You know what I did Invictus, I didn't look for ads, I looked for a school I wanted to teach at and approached them.

I knew I wanted to teach in the hangzhou area (but not hangzhou) so I went to the wikipedia page for hangzhou and it listed all the universities in the area. Then, with a few clicks I was on the schools websites. Many school will just have a general 'help wanted' page and will break down the specifics in term of pay and work. Then I approached them.

I didn't have any experience either and they hired me so it didn't seem a problem. I actually think my uni doesn't advertise at all so it was a good thing I went to them. Of course it is a uni job, so not as high paying as a private co, but the place is kosher, my pad is sweet and the students are pretty amazingly adorable.

So i would suggest being proactive. Go to them! 

Monkeymind, I think he turned down the EF job due to other conflicts...am I right Invictus?

EF gave me a list of seven locations with vacancies along with descriptions:

• Harbin – The capital of Heilongjiang Province of China, which borders Russia in the north. Harbin EF is a brand new school with the latest EF school design and facilities.
• Shijiazhuang - A successful school that sees many teachers deciding to stay year after year.
• Urumqi– Capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi is a colorful town with considerable diversity and strong echoes of the Central Asian influences.
• Changchun - Experience amazing ice gala and real China! People in Changchun are extremely friendly.
• Qingdao- Qingdao is a modern city of Shangdong Province with its beautiful coastal scenecies.
• Jiaxing-Jiaxing is known as the "home of silk" and a beautiful city in East China area!
• Hohhot - Capital of Inner Mongolia, known mostly as a stopping point for travelers who wish to sample the grasslands that can be found from 1-2 hour from the city.

With the exception of Qingdao, Jiaxing, and maybe Changchun, the rest are uninhabitable to me. Besides wasting my time taking two months to even let me know my three choices were actually fully staffed at the moment, they never had a chance to turn me down 'cause I never got as far as interviewing with any branch. The only one that turned me down was EF Shanghai, citing the one-year experience as a requirement for first-tier cities. I guess it was a blessing in disguise. I have since learned there are better places than the language mills, especially since I started looking at the eye-opening posts in this here lovely forum.

Incidentally, I was just offered a position (well, at least an interview—but it was a real, honest offer at an interview, not some "please send us your documents and we will consider your application" crapola) at a university in Zhengzhou. A week ago I would have jumped on it like I'd sat on a thumbtack but I am heeding Raoul's sage advice: "Never be in a rush to come to China." Man, I feel like William Wallace's army at the end of Braveheart, where the cavalry is rushing at them and they're just standing still. I shall strike at the right moment! Anyway, Zhengzhou does not seem like an ideal city, at least not for me.

I'm not sure how difficult it really is to get work at a university in Chengdu as your first job but I will try. I was actually offered an interview by a university there...until the woman asked, "When do you get your degree? We need to be done with all paperwork by July." I told her it would take till the end of May (my transcripts will be updated by then; I'm currently in finals) and, to my exasperated inner cries, she said it was too long. I screamed at the cruel gods up in Olympus and hounded her (politely) for a week, going so far as to send the "intent to graduate" letter from my registrar. She then wrote back to tell me—two weeks after we first spoke—that for this job, you need "two years experience." I nearly flipped my goddamn lid. I was so close, then this. Why?

Anyway, that was the experience that made me put up this post. But I'm alright now. *unsane smile* I've taken Borkya and other people's advice and am compiling lists of universities in desirable cities via Wikipedia and culling the email addresses using translator software. I will find a good deal before I go to China and I will not spend a year kicking myself in the ass 'cause I took whatever first came along.

Thank you everyone for all the advice and encouragement! Hopefully one day soon I can be where you are, helping some other crazy n00b.

Oh well, I don't know what post I was reading.

Hey Invictus, I know it's tough to wait and search. But the idea is to not let eagerness push you into a bad decision you'll seriously regret later...

Actually, Harbin is a nice city, and not really that much colder than Changchun.

Zhengzhou is not exactly a favorite town, but it can be tolerated. It's certainly better than its nearest analogue on your list, Shijiazhuang.

Shijiazhuang is at least close to Beijing! Zhengzhou is kinda ... meh. I wouldn't want to live there. I don't think schools there pay particularly well either.

I'll second Raoul on Harbin though, nothing wrong with it unless you're considering weather, and if so, then you should probably strike Changchun from the list too.

Personally I'd love to work in Urumqi or some other place in Xinjiang one day, but I'm weird like that. My husband would agree with you -- uninhabitable.

I'm currently liking echinacities as a place to check out job listings.

Wow! Nice site!
This one is about to join our Links pages...

Hey Invictus, I know it's tough to wait and search. But the idea is to not let eagerness push you into a bad decision you'll seriously regret later...

Sir! Yes, sir!

Actually, Harbin is a nice city, and not really that much colder than Changchun.

I'm sure that's true but I have somehow formed a negative association with Harbin, Daqing (where EF also proposed they send me) and Heilongjiang in general. Corrupt province, aggressive Russians at the clubs, foreigners having been assaulted. Whatever. I know I shouldn't heed every piece of negativity I see on the internets. Weather really was the deciding factor. What attracted me to Changchun was that they seem to have a lot of places offering excellent Mandarin language programs and a relatively small but vibrant nightlife. And also everyone speaks of a very friendly populace. Still, Changchun is not a first choice by any means.

Zhengzhou is not exactly a favorite town, but it can be tolerated. It's certainly better than its nearest analogue on your list, Shijiazhuang.

Shijiazhuang looked beautiful but I read the nightlife consists of two bars and a teahouse or some such thing. I also read the winds descend from Mongolia bringing dust that gets into your clothes, hair, and eyes. Zhengzhou does sound like a good "starter" town for someone like moi but at this point I'm going to wait till I have my degree in hand and then strike out again. Only thing that worries me is that universities are hiring now for September, or so I'm given to understand.

Anyway, I really want Chengdu because it's warm, the food is spicy, and the girls are even hotter, ORIT ("Or So I'm Told" should be implicitly understood in all my generalizations about China! LOL).

Personally I'd love to work in Urumqi or some other place in Xinjiang one day, but I'm weird like that. My husband would agree with you -- uninhabitable.

Isn't Xinjiang politically unstable? Or is that a peripheral matter as far as everyday life is concerned. Ürümqi seems like an interesting place but it also comes off rundown and "forgotten." I saw a video of a foreign woman living there and I got a real bleak, depressing vibe from it all. I imagine the only thing I'd like about Ürümqi is the traditional, Turkic-inflected music they have there. It's so beautiful. Oh, and I'd also realy enjoy saying the city's name in Mandarin: Wūlǔmùqí! I don't know if anyone can access it but here was the YouTube vid on which I based my admittedly flimsily-supported opinion: Postcard from Ürümqi.

I'm talking all about places I don't like and coming off picky but I'm actually not hung up on anything specific, least of all Shanghai or Beijing. I just want a place that has people, nightlife, and decent weather. I also want to be among Mandarin speakers, so this unfortunately disqualifies Guangdong. At this point, I don't know enough about the country to start making any kind of reliable list of desirable places, though Chengdu has gotten my attention. That's probably a topic for another thread.

Corrupt province, aggressive Russians at the clubs, foreigners having been assaulted.  

If those things really turn you off, you might want to avoid dongbei in general...though my experience in Changchun was that it is a great place to learn Mandarin.

I think Xinjiang looks like a great place...the mix of cultures, the political tension, and the ability to blend in to some extent are hard to resist.

Hey Invictus, if you have more than a passing interest in Changchun, I'm the guy. I know many of the other schools here. I can give you an honest rundown on any place here.

If you want to know about our school, check out http://web.me.com/zannetou/zannetou/Welcome.html

It's not finished yet but its chulkfull of great information

<I edited a bit. Please don't send people here to an EF school (shudder) -RFD>

Day Dreamer,

If I may take you up on your offer, do you have any information on Perfect English? (Should I start a new thread for this in the other forum? Not sure.) They just got back to me. They sound like good, genuine people who are willing to take a chance on a new teacher.

I have heard of BDW. Reading through the website now. I'd definitely be interested in contacting your school but, like I said elsewhere, I really think I should stick it out two weeks until I have that Bachelor's degree to actually show.

There are so many options and so many cities in China that right now my mind is still busy painting a broad picture of it all; trying to find the right kind of place from so far away. Unis, private schools, provinces, cold cities, happenin' towns, boring villages, contracts, visas—and my CELTA coming up June 7th! I'm really looking forward to the course. Anyway, I'm still trying to decide where I'd like to end up but Changchun looks like a beautiful place to work and live in. I might ask you more about it and your school very soon.

Thanks!

Invictus, one more piece of advice about locations would be maybe to strongly consider cities like Changchun or Xian or Qingdao, you know, places which are by all accounts perfectly nice second tier cities but which aren't highly sought after destinations like Chengdu. I'd say that Chengdu is really high on the list of places that most foreigners would like to be, sort of like Kunming, where I used to live. While these cities aren't big 1st tier cities like Beijing they're highly livable and because of this they have large stable communities of permanent foreigners as well as tourist industries which bring a steady stream of backpackers coming through each year, some of which invariably decide to get a teaching job and stick around a bit. Basically, many schools in these cities don't even bother advertising on the internet because there are enough teachers on the ground to keep them covered. 

So Changchun might not be bad. If you intend to stay in China long term you can take vacations and check out places once you're here and apply for jobs in person. You'll find a whole lot more options opening up to you once you're on the ground in China and become the bird in the hand versus the bird still in the bush, so to speak.

Thanks, Dialect. Qingdao is on my list of places to research further. I know two awesome things have come out of it already: beer and my Epiphone! I hear good things about Xi'an, Suzhou, and Wuhan as well, mostly from you guys here. I'll expand my options accordingly if Chengdu doesn't work out. I knew it was a highly livable city with a decent amount of foreigners but had no idea about the on-ground competition.