As I understand the set up, EF schools are all separate franchises so what might be good in one area might not be so good in another. You really need to go to Dave's cafe web site and see if the school you applied to has any bad comments. Where there is smoke there is fire. There are many other web sites with info like that too.
We have vacancies at our school and I would be happy to provide you with more info outside this forum if you are interested. We have about 14 foreign teachers here and they have all been here for quite a while. That's a good sign. Good luck - you will enjoy it if you get the right school.

By the way, the EF school here in my city is very good and has a solid reputation. The one in X'ian is also okay, I have a friend working there.

If it is a franchise run away!! If it's EF "Smart" I worked for them for 2 years. In Guangzhou and it was a great 2 years!!!

I've had some experience, and know a couple of other people who also have had.

First advice is you really need to love teaching, and you can't be picky about the age group you teach, because they will put you with kids of all ages (unless you teach adults) and will often lie to you about how young those kids happen to be.

I was for instance told the youngest kids I'd be teaching would be 7 years old, and I got stuck with lots of 3, 4 year olds.

The other thing to keep in mind is that EF is nothing like a Chinese public schools. It's a private monkey-making machine. You will have crazy hours, lots and lots of lesson planning to do and crap holidays (whatever you do, try to get hired right after the summer or spring festival periods, as they will slave-work you during those periods).

You'll get slightly higher wages than in public schools, but you'll have to pay your own accommodation, so in the end, in terms of money it's not that much better.

If you're new to teaching, my advice would be to try something else first...EF drains you.

well they are good, i used to teach in qingdao city in EF i didn't have any complain with anyone except with students but as an organization EF has A SOLID repuatation.

If you’re the kind of person that doesn’t care about your students’ progress, then it’s ok… but if you do, you should know that the time I was there, I had students of different levels in the same large group, which made pair practice particularly challenging… but maybe it has changed. this being said, they do a great job at arranging your work visa, and activities…

I was offered, but the pay was abysmal, the hours were so-so, and they said all new foreign teachers had to live in a shared apartment for their first year, weren't allowed to rent apartments of their own, even though I've been living in China for years.

Bleh.

It's a training center so should be avoided really. EF, WEB, Wall Street are all crap and are losing employees faster than they can recruit. If you want to know about a place check here www.eslteachersboard.com you will find info on schools and centers to give you a clearer picture. I have been in China for 6 years, my advice would be to try a Public school or University, the pay won't be as high but at least you will get more free time to yourself and usually an apartment included. I said crap as that is my opinion and also that of hundreds of others, for me Training center hours, lack of decent holidays, failure to provide Visa's etc is why they are not suitable, not to mention about a hundred other niggling issues you get with them.

Worked for EF several times in Nanchang they co-operate with Juren schools, not a good idea if you want to move on and get somewhere,kinda a dead end if you get my drift....You want a good school there aso many in Beijing China is short of teachers go to Beijinger.com check the Ad's
Hundreds of teaching jobs and the pay is better in Beijing also.....second rate city ...second rate pay have been teaching in China for 5 years 3 years wasted till I came to BJ Good luck

I have been offered the job with EF in Shanghai - and, obviously reading through those posts I am inclined to not taking it. I must say, though, that I have read very little substantial - in terms of more detailed explanations, as to _WHY_ EF is soooo bad?

Someone wrote about having to work at all times of the day - but from what I understand this teaching job is in a university "(Normal uni"), which means no evening and no weekend work?
I would have also liked to know a little more about the background and experience of you posters ( I have worked in India and Vietnam, and maybe those problems that other teachers have experienced as big problems would not faze me quite as much?)
And lastly - as I've never been in China at all - I would love to hear a couple of sentences about living in Shangai.

Thanks again,
Jurgen

EF has go to have one of the very, very, very, very worst reputations in China of any of the language training centers.  There are probably at least 250 posts on www.eslcafe.com about them and on www.eslteachersboard.com about them and on www.raoulschinasaloon.com about them.  They suck.  They make up rules and stories and regulations as they go alone.  It's like walking on quicksand, if not worse.  They bleed employeers -- midnight runners, no shows, etc., etc.  The hours are long and often very grueling -- split shifts, back-to-back hours on weekends, etc., etc.  They are a horror of an operation.  And I speak from direct personal experience.  Very direct personal experience.

The Guangzhou operation is run directly under the control of the head office in Shanghai and in Sweden.  Other places are franchises.  The management in Guangzhou is the pits and the DOS's that run the show in Guangzhou should be eschewed at all costs.  They are duplicituous beyond anything that you will have experienced in prior jobs.

They hired a foreign teacher for a job in one of the children's centes (Guanghou EF is child-oriented).  They poached him out of a reasonably good job.  He quit his job, vacated his company-furnished apartment and on the Sunday before the Monday morning on which he was to start, they told him that they could not use him, that something had come up, etc., etc. and then they offered him a part-time job at 1/3 the salary.  Sleazy beyond sleazy.

Avoid them. Believe what you read on the 'Net.  That many different people writing horror stories about the place can't be wrong.

They are all the same they just use different names to confuse you, all those training centers are the same, EF is only the oldest one.

I worked with EF for nearly 3 years as a Corporate trainer.Long hours,lots of office stuff,OPT,S etc.The biggest issue is usually the manager or franchise owner,typically rich,inherited money with no real ideas of customer retention or long term plans,simply take the money quickly and hope the parents don't complain too much.If you have a good DOS its better but ultimately,where the money is there lies any real decisions.I left EF after 3 years,had to pay money to the owner of the school(Chinese lady) not to cancel my visa so I could simply start a new job,not even another school,there is the root of it all,If you don't work for me I will make it difficult to work for anyone,unless you pay! Gotta love China.

 I'm not here to slag off EF, i've worked with them and found that for the area of China I was in they paid well and treated me fine. My only problem with them was that the DOS was quiet possibly a paedophile and the school caters almost exclusively to children. His behaviour (letting 11 year old girls wrap their legs around his waist and sit on his lap, etc) was pointed out to me by colleagues and I spoke to him about it but then when he continued to behave in this way I made a formal complaint and he was fired. The gripe I have with schools in general is they allow just anybody to wander into these positions of responsibility over children, yet they don't lay down the rules of what is acceptable and what is not.

  Anyway, my advice to you is find a private school where your students are more adult. Teaching children is very demanding and requires a higher level of experience than teaching adults. I wouldn't recommend it as a first teaching position, especially if you can't speak any Chinese.