"One to Two Years Experience" Is Killing Me

Where ever you go and you'll find something, there's enough greybeards  experienced people here to give you the highs and lows

I must add, the only way that Chengdu is similar to Changchun is the first two letters. Other than that, night and day. Search and do your homework   

Seconded. Not really comparable...

Do you know the name of the guy who runs Perfect English now? I met the American owner and was favorably impressed, but this was many years ago...
If the original owner is still there I'd say give it a shot!

His name is Jack Murry. Had a beer with him tonight. He runs a tight ship and he's good to deal with. He's also very choosy. His wife turned me down because I had no experience at the time

Yeah, that's the guy. I liked him.

Hello all from a new member.

In reply to this thread I'd ask if you are doing more than just responding to notices of an opening?  You might be a little more proactive by searching out university names in Provinces you believe would be of most interest to you.  Then send out letters of interest along with your resume.  I agree with others that you can list your teaching activities as experience.  Just address all envelopes to The Foreign Affairs Office, name of university, city and province if that is all you know.  Try to get a zip code, but if you don't have that just leave it blank.  Usually the post office sees the English and hands the letter to their one or two people who can read English.  This person then in turn addresses the letter in Chinese and gets if over to the right place.  Good luck.

john

You leave the saloon for a week and come back to a thread three pages long. Typical!

I have heard so many bad things about EF. Mainly about bad DoS's and the way in which they handle their staff - but also the number of hours v pay (normally, a state run college or Uni pays FAR less however, the hours are much better, far less). I'll never forget the awful visit by an EF rep to our TEFL course - she put me off for life!

As for the job market 'requiring experience' I think there are just a lot more qualified teachers in circulation these days and hence, the bar is being raised by most employers.

You leave the saloon for a week and come back to a thread three pages long. Typical!

That's 'cause everyone here is so awesome. *gurbles all hapshod-like*

Skipjack, thank you for the suggestion. I am putting together email addresses of universities and will be launching a mass offensive in a week when my degree is finally official. I think snail mail might take much too long right now.

Make sure to keep us posted Invictus, I want to know how the job search is going compared to mine, if that's alright with you. Maybe I'll start a thread for people just heading out there to note there hits and misses. At least in a way that won't give up their chances of getting hired.

Make sure to keep us posted Invictus, I want to know how the job search is going compared to mine, if that's alright with you. Maybe I'll start a thread for people just heading out there to note there hits and misses. At least in a way that won't give up their chances of getting hired.

That might not be a bad idea. Right now I'm waiting for my professors to submit my final grades so that I can have officially earned a degree. I'm refraining from contacting anyone until then 'cause the first question I get is "do you have your degree" and when I give them some wordy explanation I don't hear from them again. Even when I get the degree, I will have to explain that I don't receive the actual official-looking diploma until about a month later, but that I can have the official transcripts mailed to them directly from the school. Let's see if that isn't too much information for them to intake.

Meanwhile I have sent out a few inquiries to universities and the odd language mill. Most of them have ignored me. The ones that have replied seem to be crap jobs. For example, a private school in Chengdu which doesn't even host its own classes but instead sends its teachers out to whatever university or private business with whom it contracts. This, of course, means one has to be prepared to rum out at any moment, to whatever location on short notice. The school does say that you don't have to accept if they don't let you know of schedule changes at least 24 hours in advance but from what I've heard about contracts in China, who knows if half of that is even true or if they wouldn't fire the first person to refuse. They only pay 4500 (which is around what a uni would pay in Chengdu) but I think they provide housing. Oh, and you work six days a week.

The other place that has contacted me more than once is some university in Zhengzhou, a town which for all intents and purposes sounds as exciting as licking a doorknob.

EF was in touch with me, albeit with weeks-long lapses between communication, trying to send me to the far edges of China so I can turn to an icicle. I ignored them and they finally gave up.

My CELTA course begins in a week and I'm wondering if I'm not flushing $2,500 USD down the toilet to get certified for some imaginary job market that seems to barely exist. I'm kind of frustrated at the moment but I'm hoping that once I have a scan of an actual fancy-looking degree with my name on it then, if I'm lucky, I'll be able to snag a uni position at some place that's left with vacancies last minute.

Hey Invictus, Zhengzhou might not be the center of the universe, but it may be a soft enough landing when it comes to teaching in China. This can be really bloody important when it comes to your first time in the loony bin. (when you first arrive in China a second tier business city can still seem hopelessly exotic! )

Also, a job in a uni will usually give you enough time to do the other things like explore, travel and learn Chinese.

Depending on the institution and the amount of other offers you're getting, might be worth thinking about. 

Even when I get the degree, I will have to explain that I don't receive the actual official-looking diploma until about a month later

Ask around in your Registrar's office to find out who is in charge of the printing. When I graduated I was in a situation similar to your own. I went in and sweet-talked the lady in charge of printing diplomas and was able to get mine a bit faster. Anyway, if explain your situation to the Registrar's office, they may be able to help you get the diploma (or a letter of completion) faster.

I'd just start telling the schools you have a degree, then tell them it's currently being printed.

Hi Invictus. Zhengzhou is hardly a "town." It's a large city (by western standards) in one of the most populated provinces in China. The city is a bit sprawling, but it offers many familiar, western creature comforts, a small yet nice airport with convenient airport buss that take you very close to the train station, and it has incredibly crowded but very convenient train station. It's a little dark and dingy, but I actually enjoyed the train station there. People did not bug me and the attendants on the inside were incredibly helpful the dozen times I had to travel. Its night life was not so bad, but it's scattered around the city. Stare factor is high there, but the "hallooo" factor was low. I don't care if people stare, but the bigoted cat calls drive me up the wall. The urban area of Zhengzhou was low on the "halloo" scale, including the train station. If you will be living in the urban area then Zhengzhou isn't bad. Cost of living there is comparable to neighboring Hebei and Shaanxi provincial capitals Shijiazhuang and Xi'an, respectively (though Shijiazhuang is a good six hours away by train, and Xi'an is now two hours away thanks to the high speed train). There are far worse second tier cities that have jobs on offer. It isn't a boring place. Be careful where you get your information.

The private school that farms you out: DO NOT take that position. That's my advice. Assuming that they don't send you to one particular place: you will spend more time running around and waiting and I would guess that you won't get paid for that. It's work time, yet it's unpaid.

Okay, I'm over my silly fit now.

Rollerboogie, you bring up a good point. One I forgot to bitch about above, and that's the debilitating effect of my own damn prejudice, such as with Zhengzhou. China is huge and I have never been there. All the feedback I have to go on is random travel sites, the occasional forum thread, and my girlfriend--who isn't in the slightest bit helpful 'cause she's from Shanghai... Good thing is she's been practically everywhere in China. Bad thing is she thinks every other place in China is unworthy of her home city.

The result of this lack of info and barrage of conflicting information (I say "conflicting" because, of course, some people will love a city and others will hate it; it's all relative, but when their words is all you have to go by it's a lot of cognitive dissonance) is that my mind will read a few good points about one place, blow it up into some kind of oasis and unconsciously turn the rest of the PRC landscape into a barren desert, metaphorically speaking. Rationally, I know this to be untrue but with all the frustration and eagerness to "find a job, NOW," it becomes a real mental trap. Right now, for instance, I'm stuck on Chengdu. I hear the lifestyle is very laid back, the weather is good, the food is spicy, the women are gorgeous and petite (which I love), and so I'm obsessing over this city even though it might not be what I'm making it out to be. The thought in my head is, "If you go to China for only one year, do you really want to be wasting away in some boring place while everyone else is living it up?" Again, I realize this thought of "missing out" is ludicrous--a place will be what you make it--but it's difficult to get past it. I want the "right place" for me and I don't want to regret an entire year of my life as I did back when I was in Germany. I thoughtlessly went to a "city" of 200,000 and I nearly lost my mind until I could finally escape to Berlin six months later.

Hm... I wonder if other job hopefuls go through this mind game.

Anyway. I'm just inspecting my attitude in an effort to adjust it. That's the good thing about forums, where you can look back on your own words. One day, I know I'll look back on this post and laugh.

***

*PHEW*

Thanks FB and Fozzy for the valuable info on Zhengzhou. And Macho: THANKS, dude. That thought had not crossed my mind. I didn't even know it was possible.

Rollerboogie... what is this "halloo" thing? I have heard people stare at you in places where they're not used to foreigners but are the stares hostile? I always thought it was kinda like, "Ooh, cool... Foreign dude." I don't mind that kind of attention. But the "hallooo"... Are those catcalls? I have heard of this before but I took it in a positive light as well. Like, people greeting you in the only English word they know.

The farm school in Chengdu is out. Thanks.

And Roller, I'd really be interested in finding out more about the nightlife. I know they have a club called Babybody (lol...) but not much else. And the general friendliness of the people there, i.e. would it be relatively easy for someone with basic Mandarin (it'll be intermediate a few months into my stay) to befriend locals there?

For the record, the school in question is HuangHe Science & Technology College (黄河科技学院).

Goddamn, what a novel I wrote. Just venting here, so thanks for listening. You guys rock.

It isn't a boring place. Be careful where you get your information.

By the way, I got most of my info on Zhengzhou from right here in this forum. Raoul calls it a "a backwater cow-town" (here), Jimi02 admits his experience was strictly his own but also says some things the pollution that are hard to ignore (here), and mygirlfrienddoesn'tlikeit. lmao What else is new.

Worthy of note: Jimi02 moved to Zhengzhou late August of '08. You can see his initial post here. A year and a half later, in February of 2010, he didn't sound too happy with the place, as linked in the paragraph above.

And for a bit of the ol' cognitive dissonance, in 2008 someone says Zhengzhou is "clean and a nice city, not overly crowded" (here).

Damn, man... This is why it's damn difficult to make up my mind. First job or not, I don't want to live in some place that's so polluted where my clothes literally pick up the smell, or did Jimi02 just have an overdeveloped sense of scent? You know, like Pacino in Scent of a Woman. lol

"Huuuaaaahh!"

Whoever told you that the weather in Chengdu is nice must not like seeing the sun.