List of Agencies and what you should know about them

Some silly questions…

What does an agent really do? How does he help the schools and how does he help the job applicant.

I was brought here by a big chain. I got my other jobs by directly applying, until I got my open work permit.

What justifies the 20% or so percent?
As for the poster who was triple taxed taxed. There was definitely some fraud here and I do recommend you try to recover your loss.

  1. You were working for two to three months with out an ARC. Though you should not be working with out an ARC, no one seems to mind. It turns out to be a little tax free income.

  2. Technically you should not be working illegally, and even if you are working illegally, the tax office seems more concered if you pay taxes or not. If you were actually paying those taxes, please check your W2 Equivalent. Make sure that the tax money is actually going to the government.

My boss kept under-reporting my income and trying to keep the money. But, I made him give a hand written pay stub each payday and the numbers did not add up. You trump card is this… return to me the money you took or, I will pop down to the tax office with my pay stubs and settle up my tax obligation. Ten to one … agents will pop down and fine your boss for hiring illegally and not paying his share of the taxes.

That would be a good business if only I spoke and read Chinese. Shaking down agents who cheated clients… but what could one charge. 20% or recovery… ?

[quote=“Taiwan_Student”]Some silly questions…

What does an agent really do? How does he help the schools and how does he help the job applicant.

I was brought here by a big chain. I got my other jobs by directly applying, until I got my open work permit.

What justifies the 20% or so percent?
As for the poster who was triple taxed taxed. There was definitely some fraud here and I do recommend you try to recover your loss.

  1. You were working for two to three months with out an ARC. Though you should not be working with out an ARC, no one seems to mind. It turns out to be a little tax free income.

  2. Technically you should not be working illegally, and even if you are working illegally, the tax office seems more concered if you pay taxes or not. If you were actually paying those taxes, please check your W2 Equivalent. Make sure that the tax money is actually going to the government.

My boss kept under-reporting my income and trying to keep the money. But, I made him give a hand written pay stub each payday and the numbers did not add up. You trump card is this… return to me the money you took or, I will pop down to the tax office with my pay stubs and settle up my tax obligation. Ten to one … agents will pop down and fine your boss for hiring illegally and not paying his share of the taxes.

That would be a good business if only I spoke and read Chinese. Shaking down agents who cheated clients… but what could one charge. 20% or recovery… ?[/quote]

I think agents are mainly used by schools that don’t employ anyone with good English or are just too lazy to post ads for the position for themselves. I think that posting a job on Tealit would give you more candidates than hiring a agent if one is running a cram school.

Does anyone know anything about Teach Taiwan? I am currently chatting with them about a potential job. I looked for reviews on them but I haven’t found anything other than their facebook.

BEWARE OF Julie from ACI!

I came to Taiwan 5 years ago and went through ACI. I went to the offices of another recruiting agency they were dealing with. Anyways I signed a contract and for the first few months Julie’s fee would be deducted from my pay. I was made to spend my Saturdays standing outside the school trying to get new students to enroll. UNPAID. Julie promised to help find me accommodation. That never happened. Once I signed the contract she pretty much disappeared. A year later a girl recognizes me on the street and tells me she remembers me from the office when I was signing the contract with ACI. She had since quit and told me what a horrible company it was. She said when I had walked in the office that first day, Julie had told them (in Chinese) that they could get a lot of money from me because my clothes and bag were really expensive brands, so I must have a lot of money.

She’s two faced! No one needs a recruiter in Taiwan. Do it yourself.

The conclusion seems to be one must avoid agencies like the plague.

Now, a wee question for those who work in schools (state or private) rather than buxiban: Had you guys all done your teaching qualification, such as the PGDE/PGCE in the UK when you arrived in TWN in order to secure a contract with the school or perhaps with the local education authorities? I’m guessing the certification they require for teaching in a school is not a Tesol or even a Master’s degree, right?

Here is a reply to ageism.

DO NOT WORK FOR OR APPLY THROUGH AN AGENT.[/quote]
Ouch! I’m in the “Can be harder for them” category. Gee, I feel old. There’s no chance of me getting anything by the looks of things. I’m not a Canadian/US passport holder (I’ve got a British one); I’ve got a mild Scottish accent; I’m not white (born to Taiwanese parents). Send me to the knacker’s yard, NOO!

[quote=“minnow”]BEWARE OF Julie from ACI!

I came to Taiwan 5 years ago and went through ACI. I went to the offices of another recruiting agency they were dealing with. Anyways I signed a contract and for the first few months Julie’s fee would be deducted from my pay. I was made to spend my Saturdays standing outside the school trying to get new students to enroll. UNPAID. Julie promised to help find me accommodation. That never happened. Once I signed the contract she pretty much disappeared. A year later a girl recognizes me on the street and tells me she remembers me from the office when I was signing the contract with ACI. She had since quit and told me what a horrible company it was. She said when I had walked in the office that first day, Julie had told them (in Chinese) that they could get a lot of money from me because my clothes and bag were really expensive brands, so I must have a lot of money.

She’s two faced! No one needs a recruiter in Taiwan. Do it yourself.[/quote]

It seems she left ACI, but the key point is we need someone who work for me to get me the job as this can save a lot of time for me. I can do more things and it seems the total cost from me is 3% of my total income!!! That is really cheap! Can you image if you buy a food from convenient store, how much percentage the convenient store they will earn? Yes, I can cook, so sometimes I will cook at home and " only" cost me the material cost but most of the time, I will go to restaurant to eat and restaurant charge me more than 200%+ material cost!

Just like we only get 600NTD per hour for our teach, but language center got more than that! They might " earn" 2000 NTD per hour from tuition fee!! But, I wont build up a language center trying to "earn " more!

By the way, as I already spend a lot of upfront cost to fly to Taiwan, renting and a lot expense, that is really good for me as I can virtually " hire" someone who work for me and work for my best interest! And they told me that if I got fired from school, they will find a new one for me without additional cost! So, for me, this is like an insurance fee to secure my one year income! And that insurance fee is only 3%! Not mention save me a lot of transportation time and money!

[quote=“IvyWill”][quote=“minnow”]BEWARE OF Julie from ACI!

I came to Taiwan 5 years ago and went through ACI. I went to the offices of another recruiting agency they were dealing with. Anyways I signed a contract and for the first few months Julie’s fee would be deducted from my pay. I was made to spend my Saturdays standing outside the school trying to get new students to enroll. UNPAID. Julie promised to help find me accommodation. That never happened. Once I signed the contract she pretty much disappeared. A year later a girl recognizes me on the street and tells me she remembers me from the office when I was signing the contract with ACI. She had since quit and told me what a horrible company it was. She said when I had walked in the office that first day, Julie had told them (in Chinese) that they could get a lot of money from me because my clothes and bag were really expensive brands, so I must have a lot of money.

She’s two faced! No one needs a recruiter in Taiwan. Do it yourself.[/quote]

It seems she left ACI, but the key point is we need someone who work for me to get me the job as this can save a lot of time for me. I can do more things and it seems the total cost from me is 3% of my total income!!! That is really cheap! Can you image if you buy a food from convenient store, how much percentage the convenient store they will earn? Yes, I can cook, so sometimes I will cook at home and " only" cost me the material cost but most of the time, I will go to restaurant to eat and restaurant charge me more than 200%+ material cost!

Just like we only get 600NTD per hour for our teach, but language center got more than that! They might " earn" 2000 NTD per hour from tuition fee!! But, I wont build up a language center trying to "earn " more!

By the way, as I already spend a lot of upfront cost to fly to Taiwan, renting and a lot expense, that is really good for me as I can virtually " hire" someone who work for me and work for my best interest! And they told me that if I got fired from school, they will find a new one for me without additional cost! So, for me, this is like an insurance fee to secure my one year income! And that insurance fee is only 3%! Not mention save me a lot of transportation time and money![/quote]
A recruiter pretending to be an English teacher. :roflmao: That was classic! Peddle your crap somewhere else. :thumbsdown:

I know a few people that have been placed with them. By all accounts, they are very professional, not taking anything from the teacher and actually accompanying them on the interview. Mostly private schools from what I understand, so you’ll need a teaching certification or an APRC/OWP.

ACI on the other hand does not vet its clients very well. I ended up taking a gig thru them a few years back and ended up having to sue the bastard they hooked me up with.

Stay away from Jenny Lai, cuz Jenny lies.

Footprints is good for n00bs if you want to work at The Big Yellow School Bux (KoJen). Again, no fees.

TET has apparently closed up shop. But before they did, they dropped their teacher fees, so input from flobsters, however aggressive, worked. I hope they make a comeback. They seemed like decent chaps.

Best recruiter for one’s money is still Reach To Teach/Go Overseas.

Good luck to y’all.

The thread is really helpful

BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE ----- HE IS STILL ACTIVE

I couldn’t agree more. Candy from ACI set me up with a job in Taoyuan and it’s been a nightmare from day one. Nearly everything that ACI told me about the employer has turned out to be untrue.

Even though I was lied to from the start, since I’m quitting and ‘breaking the contract’, they’re still trying to make me pay the school’s 10,000 NT cancellation fee. ACI claims it ‘fully performed its duty,’ so I’m out their fee as well.

tl;dr Thanks to ACI, I’m leaving Taiwan with LESS MONEY than when I started. Candy is a terrible recruiter, ACI is a bad company.

IMHO opinion, any agency advertising illegal jobs should be banned from this site. The main perp seems to be Asian Consultants.

Unless of course, they are willing to state in their ads that the kindy they are advertising is an illegal job. :ohreally:

Hello All!
I want to know can anyone recommend reputable recruiters to find an ESL position in Taiwan as
a Native English Teacher. I’m looking to begin work either in late August or early September. Thank you
in advance, for your help. Have a pleasant week.

Sincerely,

Nia

Has anyone worked with a recruiter Bryan Wu?

Bryan Wu’s jobs are mostly ones no one wants, because it is always the same ad over and over again for the same school, if those schools are good, they wouldn’t need a replacement every 3 months or so.

Also, ACI used to have Julie running the show, she got a lot of negative feedbacks so her name don’t get pop up that often anymore, this might be her tactic of stay low key and use different names just to draw the google search negative reviews away, but yeah, ACI’s Candy also got pretty bad reviews. Foreigners would be better off and making more money themselves just finding jobs own their own.

Did you ever get a job from Bryan Wu?

I got a decent gig from him over a year ago, and it is at a decent school.

I went to interviews set up by him, which was a school that don’t even have AC on during the summer, oh yeah, it’s not Bryan’s problem, it’s the schools, but again, it was set up by Bryan…so where is the decent school you’re talking about? Would you be able to elaborate on that one? He posts on many facebook groups for the same jobs over and over again within 2-3 months, don’t tell me those school have a teacher finish up their contract every 2-3 months now.

I really do not know about the current positions he is posting?

My dealings with him were over a year ago, and the school is decent. All the A/C you want. :discodance:

Agencies are not out to scam people. They are basically the middleman. You’re new to Taiwan and they can help you find a job quickly. They show you lots of schools, some are junk, some are golden. You choose the schools eventually, so don’t be blaming the agencies. I’m just saying.

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