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Sign up with Google Sign up with FacebookQ: Is it safe to sign a teaching job contract with an agent ( and not with a school)?
Any one who has done this before? what's/what was the experience like? One agent is 'inviting' me to sign a contract with him but some instincts are strongly advising me against this. Although I have never heard of nasty stories about signing contracts with agents I am just suspicious this wouldn't be safe. I will appreciate your views/advice.
11 years 22 weeks ago in Business & Jobs - China
I would be extremely suspicious. Who is paying you? If it is the agent where is he / she getting the money from? The school perhaps, and if so how much is he / she creaming off?
Bona:
yeah, it's the agent paying...that's what makes me even more suspicious, that he would simply be making easy money out of me.
Never, ever sign a contract with an agent UNLESS you are from one of the non-scheduled countries, you do not meet the minimum requirements for a job in the province where you wish to work, etc.
They will scam some of your pay at every occasion; they will set you out to pasture in case of the slightest misunderstanding between yourself and the school to where you will be assigned, and generally speaking, they are often shut down by the authorities when the wind no longer blows in their direction, so to speak.
Bona:
Thanks for this. Helps in my decision making regarding the 'offer' on my table.
ambivalentmace:
ask them for 3 teachers that have signed with them in the past for a reference because you have friends who were misled by agents before. you want their phone numbers to call them personally, they can still deceive you but this usually makes them give up on you if its a scam and move onto to the next easier victim.
This is how I got into China. Signed with an agent and when I flew out here they started sending me to schools for interviews. They paid for the apartment and visa stuff.
The positive is that it was a great way to get into China and get my foot in the door so to speak. The negative is that they are making a lot of money off of you. I was getting paid 5,000rmb plus an apartment but I later found out the school I worked at typically paid 10-13,000rmb and it was actually the school paying for the apartment.
These can be good places to get your foot in the door....but in my experience once you've been here awhile and learn how much schools pay and how to get a job on your own it's best to leave the agents and move on to greener pastures. Seems like this is what most people at the company I worked for did.....came into China then got a job on their own once they figured out how things in China work.
the agent is simply the go between. they will send you the contract from the school. the contract should have the school's name and info. anything else , tell them to go fish.
Everyone I have talked to who has signed a contract with the agency rather than directly with the school has later been very sorry that he signed.
You should get a contract with the official school seal anyway. They would need this to get the invitation letter and FEC for the 'Z' Visa and RP.The agent is an intermediatary and cannot issue this. If they do, there is something suspicious about the process they are following.
icnif77:
Companies in China can circumvent 'School's seal' notion: "Stuffing agent title is 'School', or it is Co. with many Schools, where they send FT" as H. G. from Hangzhou is.
H. G. is not School, butt....they are able to sponsor Z visa with all necessary documents, and on the top of that, Z pick-up location can be in Hong Kong.
Signing a contract with an agent should be the last worst option to consider. Do your best to avoid it.