The China Teaching Web

My most recent experience with recruiting agencies was not positive. I had traveled some distance to meet with a recruiting agent because I thought she could offer me a job that she had advertised on the internet. Instead, she told me that the job that I wanted was “not for me” and that she had chosen another opportunity for which I could apply. This other ‘opportunity’ offered a much lower salary and less benefits. The recruiting agency also said that they would take 50% of my first month’s salary and that I would have to give them another 50% of my salary should I decide to renew my contract with the school one year later. I wanted to laugh in their faces but I politely declined and left the agency feeling angry and frustrated.

I am not alone in my frustration; there are thousands of teachers in China who have had negative experiences with recruiting agencies. The fact is, many of these agencies are only in the ‘English Business’ to make money and are more than willing to stretch the truth if it means a name being placed on a contract. I have heard from many teachers who felt betrayed after finding that the salary and benefits that they had been promised by the agency were simply not offered by the school. So should recruiting agencies be avoided like the plague? Can they be of any use at all? This is a question that I often receive when speaking with potential teachers to China.

The answer is yes to both of these questions. Using a recruiting agency is often unnecessary; it is always better to communicate directly with a school if at all possible. Many larger schools have their own full time recruiters who are probably much more knowledgeable on the ‘ins and outs’ of the school than a outside recruiting agency would be. However, during my time in China, I have encountered a few outside recruiters who were extremely helpful and did seem to care about me as a foreign teacher in China. So how can you tell which agencies and recruiters are worth working with?

The first question to ask a recruiting agency is whether or not you will be charged for their services. If the answer to this question is yes, then I suggest that you say goodbye and hang up the phone. You should never have to pay to find a job in China. A recruiting agency that is ‘above board’ should be charging the schools for its services, not the job seekers. Many recruiting agencies that charge teachers money are going to say whatever they think the foreign teacher wants to hear to get a contract signed. Most often you will be ‘bound’ to this agency until you decide to leave the school. Recruiting agencies that charge schools money are more likely to be honest with a prospective teacher because the school may not pay them until the teacher has spent a few weeks ‘getting a feel’ for the school.

The second question that you need to ask a recruiting agency is whether or not they will provide you with the name of the school and allow you to make direct contact with a member of the staff. Some recruiters have set up phone interviews between myself and the principal of the school and asked me to let them know ‘how it goes.’ In this way, I have been able to confirm with the school the information that the recruiter provided for me. You should be suspicious of any recruiting agency that will not allow you to contact a school directly. These are the types of agencies that will place you in a bad situation that can be hard to escape from.

One possible exception to what I have written in the last paragraph can me made for recruiters from the China’s Foreign Expert Bureau. Schools in China can pay the Chinese government an exorbitant amount of money to help them find English teachers from abroad. All of the details for my first job in China were taken care of by a recruiter in the Foreign Expert Bureau who acted as the ‘middle man’ between myself and the school for which I wished to work. When I arrived at my school, I realized that I had never actually come into direct contact with the principal. However, the Foreign Experts Bureau did provide for me the name of the school beforehand along with the website so I could have made contact with the school had I wished to.

In closing, I would again urge you to avoid using recruiting agencies if at all possible. Try to make contact with the school directly. If you feel compelled to deal with a recruiting agency, it is important to ask them exactly who will be paying for their services. Don’t wait to ask these questions until you meet the recruiter. Ask them beforehand so that you will not make a wasted trip. Another reliable way to find out information about a particular recruiting agency or individual recruiter is to use a search engine. Simply input the name into the search field and press submit. You can read what others are saying about recruiting agencies and make your own decision based on the agency’s reputation.

Don’t forget to check out our China Recruiting Agency Alert Page for information about agencies that you may want to avoid. Of course, you can always share your experiences with us by leaving us a comment below.