Be more flexible while looking for Englsih teaching positions in China

In the process of recruiting foreign english teachers, schools will inevitably encounter some teachers that put forward various requirments because of the funding issues. Many foreign teachers hope that the school can first provide ticket to China. It is not that school is unwilling to do so, but because there are do some risk of doing this. Some schools have suffered losses for doing it.

There was a foreign teacher. His bank account has less money in it since he bought the ticket to China. He was worried about the first month in China, thinking it would be difficult to work it out. He repeatedly worried that and booked and refunded the ticket again and again. He hoped that the school can provide the ticket first and deduct it later from his salary. It took him a lot of time to discuss this with the school and do mental struggle. The school can’t wait for him all the time, so he lost a good opportunity. Actually his case is very simple. He should just fly there. After you arrived at the school, they would be willing to help you if you are short of money for the first month. It’s not a big problem for most schools. But buying the ticket is hard. Some teachers just disappeared before boarding.

There was also a native foreign teacher. She has been teaching English in China for two years. Then she returned to her home country and continue to work as an English teacher. Her teaching experience is still relatively rich. From the communication with her, I can feel that she is a very qualified foreign teachers, being humble and courteous. She has been planning to go back to teach ESL in China. So she prepared a year and fly to Shenzhen directly to start looking for ESL jobs. She thought it would be easier to find a job if she was already in China. Maybe because of the belief to find an ideal job and stay in Shenzhen, she didn’t find a suitable job. We recommended a variety of schools to her during the process. Some didn’t work out because of the points that she insisted and some can’t provide the salary that she wanted. Actually, according to her teaching experience, her salary expectation is not high, just the normal salary requirment of foreign teachers. But at that time, most schools are going to have holidays, so the local jobs are relatively few. Although some schools want well qualified teachers, they are not in a hurry. So they will wait for a while and spend less money finding a teacher with a slightly lower qualifications. This situation is more common in large cities. She reached me after her first interview with a school. She was wondering why schools can’t offer a higher salary considering her teaching experience and position attitude towards work. Many excellent foreigner teachers want to do ESL jobs in big cities. Big cities have many advantages, but at the same time the competition is intense there. It’s not easy to find an ideal job there. She did several other interviews later and finally found a job teaching ESL to adult students. But after the first day of training, she suddenly said she couldn’t continue to work thre and was ready to return home. The school asked about the reasons. They finally know why she made the decision. That is because that she has been looking for jobs for a long time and had no full time job. She had to pay for the rent of apartment and other living cost. So she was short of money. The first payment of this school is after a month. She can’t afford the expenses, so decided to return home. The school also tried to talk with them and help her out, but her mood was uncontrollable and unwilling to give up her preferences and try a new city. I feel a little pity for her. We can’t say that the insistence of foreign teachers is in vain, after all they also have their own consideration. But I really feel that sometimes you will lose more if you insist on a thing that can completely change,  Hope that the foreign teacher can walk out a new stepas soon as possible.

It’s always good to be more flexible while looking for ESL jobs in China. You can have your own preferences, but when the preferences don’t work out, it’s best to think what is suitable rather what is best.