Hi! I’ve invited to do an interview for a school in Taipei that I know nothing about it can find zero reviews on. They seem pretty eager to talk to me, and I’m excited to talk to them too. I just can’t figure out if they’re cool or sketch or whatever.
Anyone heard anything about them? Can’t seem to find anything at all.
What kind of school is it? I’m assuming a cram school? If they’re eager, that probably means they’re desperate. Don’t show your eagerness so fast grasshopper. Play hard to catch. Let them sweat. The cram school industry is full of bottom feeding scum that will lie, cheat, steal and whatever to get what they want. Don’t trust a word out of their mouths.
Let them know that you have several other interviews scheduled because they’ll probably try and low ball you with a terrible hourly wage or salary.
Good luck and let us know you think.
This just gave me flashbacks to when I said I was getting 800 an hour for a 2.5hour class (2000nt)at my job. The person who was trying to hire me for a different place said in that case, they will offer me 2100 per class. After I said I’d think about it, she casually mentioned that the classes would be three hours long though. (So 700 an hour). She wouldn’t accept that she was asking me to take a pay cut.
I always think about how I wish I had the nerve to say some of the shit cram schools say with a straight face.
Damn, thanks for this. Such helpful feedback. I’m gonna do exactly what you recommended, and yeah it’s a cram school. Thanks for the tips!
Beatific School
That’s a rather odd name for a cram school, no?
I was today years old when I learned that’s actually a word, but it made me imagine that all the kids are sitting around in black turtleneck sweaters and smoking Gitanes.
When I get cold calls with job offers, I always start with “in my current job, I work consistent hours and have no evening or weekend obligations. Can you match that?”. That usually ends the conversation, especially because many of the people making these calls seem to think I’m lying. I’ve offered to show them my current contract to prove it, but no one bites. Obviously if it’s a cram school, that would be a different situation, since that’s evenings and weekends by default. I have had really desperate schools tell me that I will be paid time and a half for Sunday work, have had schools tell me that I can leave at 6:30pm (I guess I just excuse myself while everyone else keeps working?) and even got an offer for them to pay for my housing (never found out what kind) and moving expenses.
It never hurts to interview. Well, it kind of does, as plenty of schools don’t understand “I cannot accept this offer. Thank you for your time” and will bombard you with pathetically useless negotiations that make it even less worth your time. But at least you can have a look at what they’re up to. Just make sure you’re clear about your qualifications and expectations and don’t be afraid to remind them about what’s supposed to be in the contract. Ask ALL the questions, and if they can’t answer them, walk away. The worst thing that happens is you get ten phone calls the day after you said no and just stop picking up your phone, only to get an email from them almost a year later asking if you’re “still interested” in the job…
Thanks for the heads up. I hear $600 is average pay. And yeah the cram schools seem really intense
Wowow good to know. Seriously helpful. I’ll remember to leverage my current job if needed if it gets that far, so thanks. Fingers crossed no one harasses me on the phone like you have had happen!
It’s been $600 an hour for the past 20 years or so. Interestingly they’ve been raising tuition every year so where does the extra money go? I started off at $650 12 years ago. They will lie, cheat, and do whatever just to get you to sign a contract (most probably with all kinds of illegal clauses). I would suggest not accepting a salaried position and just go for hourly. Otherwise you’ll be stuck there doing bullshit work while you could be out and about doing other stuff. I was being pain hourly for 16 hours a week. Any additional work that they wanted me to do other than teaching, they had to pay me. Christmas party, class trips, end of semester presentations for parents I got paid. But, originally my contract had a clause that I would have to come to work “several times a year” and not get paid. When I asked what they meant by “several” they couldn’t give me an answer. Then I said to them that my time is money. When I’m not here you don’t pay me so when I’m here you pay me. They were desperate and quickly crossed out that clause. It turned out to be 20 to 30 hours a year that they wanted me to work and not get paid.
Don’t trust a word out of their mouths. Be an asshole and remember that they are not your friends.
This really is the motto of job searching anywhere, but especially in TW. I don’t know if I’m just better at spotting the bullshit, but I’ve been to a few interviews where I really felt like the person interviewing me was exceedingly transparently fake.
I will say, if all you’ve got is an undergraduate degree and “some teaching experience”, 600 NT is around 20USD, so it is about what you’d get in the US as an “assistant” in a private school these days (I’m seeing posts for ~US$17-23 at all the schools I’ve looked at, barely more for NYC😂). But I guess that comes down to “what are you worth to them?”. US private schools and after school care can literally grab anyone that’s legally an adult without a criminal record to fill their spots. Being a foreigner even with qualifications doesn’t mean much to most TW cram schools these days. If it did, the salaries would have gone up. So if they’re paying you $600/hr, you better make sure you don’t work a second beyond that hour.
I really appreciate this. Hourly sounds like the way to go. I wonder why the teaching culture in Taiwan is this way.
Taiwanese bosses
Greed, ignorance, stupidity, arrogance, shortsightedness…
There can be some exceptions as far as pay is concerned. It all depends on what you get out if it. I currently work part time at a private high school. I’m teaching full time though (20 hours) but I’m not stuck there an extra 20 hours a week and have no other obligations outside of my classes. That leaves me with a lot more time to pursue other things. They want me to come on full time, but that would suck all my time up and not pay me that much more.