Reach To Teach Recruiting

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
1

Hi. I was wondering if anyone here was familiar with Reach To Teach Recruiting. One of my friends sent me a link to their website. Their site can be found here: reachtoteachrecruiting.com/

I went ahead and applied with them seeing as I didn’t divulge anything particularly valuble on the online application form. I have read a lot of bad stories about recruitment firms, but I was pleasantly surprised by the professional conduct of my phone interviewer. He contacted me twice within the week and scheduled a phone interview before the week was out. He was an affable, well-spoken individual who was exceedingly forthright with me. I was about to question him about my concerns surrounding recruitment firms when he brought the issue up on his own. He stated that the agency did indeed get a fee for teacher placement but did not take cuts out of teacher compensation.

Granted, he’s a recruitment firm representative and in no small way, he’s a salesman. However, he struck me as completely on the ball. I asked several pretty tough questions and he answered them thoroughly and to my satisfaction. It remains to be seen as to whether he follows through, but judging by his past performance, I currently have high hopes.

No, I don’t work for RTT. I am not a fanboi. I just wanted to talk about how VASTLY different this was from HESS. I almost feel like this agency at least treats me with the level of respect and professionalism they expect of me.

So in any case, bottom line… Has anyone heard of these people? Should I maintain my good spirits or immediately change my phone number and undergo a full-frontal lobotomy to remove the sleeper programming which was the real intent of the telephone interview?

P.S. I repeat. I am NOT employed or in any shape, form or manner related to RTT beyond that of a currently optimistic applicant. I know how you cynical forumites can be. :stuck_out_tongue:

2

No idea what this group is like.
Best advice: don’t sign anything until you’re here and can see for yourself. Might cost you the free ticket, but it’ll help keep you from getting burned if you happen to fall for one of the less honest agencies.
If you get here and these guys still seem good, then great. Go for it. But see for yourself first.

3

Reach to Teach is the most professional agency I have had contact with in Taiwan, they are fantastic.

4

I reply to this question with a bit of a bias as Reach To Teach is the company that we have chosen to represent the users of our website who need such assistance.

The reason that we chose to allign with that company is simple - honesty. I know the guy behind the company and through my contact with him I know how thorough he is. I trust that he would be honest with a teacher if he couldn’t place them, and that he wouldn’t place a teacher in a position that wasn’t in that teachers best interests. I believe that they are hoping for a long term business operation and I wish them the best.

I would suggest one reason to go through that particular company over any other recruitment company would be for the fact that you could be sure that any positions they offer you are 100% legal. No provision of ARC’s through other companies, and no jobs in kindies. Just legitimate jobs through a service that seems to really want to do the right thing, even down to the little details such as pre-checking employment contracts.

I am aware that some people are somewhat anti-recruiter, but I hope that we can keep this company out of that pile unless of course they truely deserve to be labelled in such a way, which as far as I can tell they don’t.

5

Hi,
I am planning to move to Taiwan in August to teach English. I have been doing a lot of research on this forum and places like buxiban.com. I decided to use Reach to Teach and they contacted me to schedule a phone interview. The interview was scheduled 2 weeks ago, but I never received a call. Since that time I have not had any luck contacting anyone at reach to teach by phone or email.

I have tried calling their local phone number in Taiwan, but am having problems with the international call. The number on their website is: 09-5289-4473. If I am calling from the United States, would I dial 011+886+09-5289-4473? I have tried calling that way and have not gotten through.

Has anyone else had issues such as this trying to contact Reach to Teach? They seem to be a very good organization from what I have read and from my brief correspondence with Mitch while scheduling the phone interview.

Thanks for any help,
Kevin

6

[quote=“Barrettk”]Hi,
I am planning to move to Taiwan in August to teach English. I have been doing a lot of research on this forum and places like buxiban.com. I decided to use Reach to Teach and they contacted me to schedule a phone interview. The interview was scheduled 2 weeks ago, but I never received a call. Since that time I have not had any luck contacting anyone at reach to teach by phone or email.

I have tried calling their local phone number in Taiwan, but am having problems with the international call. The number on their website is: 09-5289-4473. If I am calling from the United States, would I dial 011+886+09-5289-4473? I have tried calling that way and have not gotten through.

Has anyone else had issues such as this trying to contact Reach to Teach? They seem to be a very good organization from what I have read and from my brief correspondence with Mitch while scheduling the phone interview.

Thanks for any help,
Kevin[/quote]

You should dial 886 9 5289 4473. That’s it!

I don’t know about the 011, but you have to many + in there mate! :wink:

7

Hello Kevin and all,

This is Reach To Teach (Specifically, this is Mitch Gordon writing). Kevin, we sincerely apologize for the problems you have had reaching us over the last week +. Actually, I’d like to extend that apology to anyone who has experienced a similar problem over the past two weeks. We have had VERY serious virus problems with our email system. As such, I’m aware that we have not been receiving some emails. Likewise, some emails we have been sending have not beeng arriving where they should. We’ve been scrambling to retrieve lost emails and files as quickly as possible.
This problem has just been entirely fixed (I hope!), so there should be no further problems.

This issue hasn’t affected teachers who have already been accepted by us, because we have all their information on hard file and have maintained contact with them directly. Accepted teachers are relying on us and have to be our first priority and responsibility. It has affected candidates just beginning the interview process, like Kevin.

If anyone who is reading this thread had a similar problem to Kevin, please email us at info@ReachToTeachRecruiting.com
You are also welcome to email me directly at Mitch@ReachToTeachRecruiting.com
I’ll also give out my personal cell phone number in Taiwan (which Kevin already had from my email signature).
From outside of Taiwan, you would dial 011-886-9-5289-4473 (it’s simply 09-5289-4473 inside of Taiwan)
Our US number is 1-518-632-4506. There is not often someone in the office as we are generally out interviewing candidates, but if you leave a message, someone will respond to your call.

Thanks Kevin for giving me the opportunity to write about this here! I’m looking at your file at the moment, as well as at your friend David’s file. Both of your applications are certainly good. I will contact you directly soon for the phone interview. I’ll be working through the weekend catching up from this mess, so I’ll speak to you on Saturday or Sunday!

Regards from Taiwan,
Mitch

8

This is Reach To Teach again.

I thought this would be a good place to discuss a couple of other issues surrounding our application process.

It’s very important that candidates take extreme care in writing their resumes and cover letters. We are very careful in reviewing these documents for both spelling and grammatical errors. Take your time in writing these and be detailed and descriptive in telling us why you would like to teach English in Taiwan. Many candidates who seem quite good are rejected based upon sloppy errors in their cover letters. Remember, you are applying to be a teacher!

We simply cannot respond positively to every single application we receive. More and more, people want to go through Reach To Teach as they know they will be placed in a legal, honest school and paid a good salary. Also, our support system is quite good (and we hope to add to this soon, I apologize to any of our teachers reading this. I know we haven’t had an official RTT event for a couple months! We will be having one soon, I promise!). Because we are structured like a Western Human Resource Company, our services are entirely free for teachers (but not for schools), which is understandably attractive. In sum, we have been getting a lot of applications. Too many applications for the positions available.

More and more, teachers will tell us they only want to use Reach To Teach to come to Taiwan. If you feel that way, let us know! This way, if we don’t have immediate positions, and you are a good candidate, we will put you on our waiting list. Communicating your wishes to us in a professional and direct way is ALWAYS a good thing!

Finally, many teachers who haven’t used Reach To Teach and people in general will email us or call us with legal questions, or general questions about Taiwan, China, etc.
We look at this as our “volunteer” wing in helping people as much as we can with general questions about Taiwan. Specifically, people often call with legal questions. I’m not exactly proud to say that I’ve personally become something of an expert in the Taiwanese legal system as it relates to English teachers. It’s very complex, as you all know. We many times get phone calls or emails with the subject line, “HELP!: I’m in trouble and my friend told me you could help me!”. We try to help all these people, we really do. I many times feel like a pro-bono lawyer!
At least once a week, I’ll get a call from someone going through a horrible experience at their school who needs help. We help as much as we can. However, our priority has to be our Reach To Teach teachers. We are available for them all year, no matter what. If you aren’t a Reach To Teach teacher and just need help, we will try to help you, but don’t be offended if we can’t get back to you right away! As I said, our priority has to be OUR teachers. You can also always use Forumosa, people are generally very helpful here :slight_smile:

I hope some of the above will serve as helpful information about what we do.

Regards,
Reach To Teach
ReachToTeachRecruiting.com

9

Thank you for clearing things up Mitch. And I apologize for my somewhat obsessive attempts to contact you over the last week :slight_smile: I had a feeling that something must not have been working properly. Not showing up for an interview (phone or otherwise) did not seem to fit with the reputation of Reach to Teach which I had heard about. I look forward to hearing from you this weekend.

Thanks,
Kevin

Also, the phone number I posted here was also on the “contact us” portion of your website. I would not have listed it on the forum otherwise :slight_smile:

10

Barretk, I had the exat same thing happen to me with Reach to Teach and Mr. Mitch there. I applied they emailed me, set up a time for the phone interview and then…no call as I sat waiting by the phone for an hour and I never heard from Mitch again even after a couple of emails. I wonder if the virus was still destroying their email system back in early April. Kinda makes you wonder if they can’t even get the interview right. I would suggest broadening your job search and allow yourself to consider other options. Buxiban.com is kind of a advertising platform for several schools and recruiters like REach to Teach and Joy. Don’t be afraid to come to Taiwan and search a little when you get here or job search from abroad online. YOu can find better schools with better pay packages on your own. If you would like some help I would be happy to offer adivse.

11

Hi,
I wanted to give an update. Mitch and i did finally work out an interview and I feel pretty good about Mitch and the organization. I understand that things go wrong and appointments get cancelled. I’m more than willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. I’ll let everyone know how my experience goes, but for now I feel that it will make my transition to Taiwan much smoother.
Kevin

12

Kevin,

I still think you should stay away from Reach to Teach and other recruiters for your own finacial saftey and mental well-being. Everyone on this forum understands how nerveracking it is to move to a new country and embark on something oyu’ve only read about. It can be scary getting to Taiwan without a job, but understand this: it is a sellers market for foreign English teachers in Taiwan. If you are going to a smaller community you can usually name your own wage. Nonetheless, I wish you luck with your decision. I’m sure others on this board as well as myself will be interested to hear how things turn out.

13

jwbruken (W for Wayne? as in middle name for a serial killer) [quote]it is a sellers market for foreign English teachers in Taiwan. If you are going to a smaller community you can usually name your own wage. [/quote]
I wish it were so. Unfortunately, there are more teachers than jobs; one of the reasons salaries have stagnated in the last ten years (gone down in real terms). And Taiwan’s one-horse towns are hardly El Dorados awaiting Cortez Laoshi. From my own experience of Yunlin and Chiayi Counties, I can say that even small places have western teachers (almost always South African teachers recruited directly from the Rainbow nation, or Canadian kindy teachers who has been fired from all the city schools).

14

I wish it were so. Unfortunately, there are more teachers than jobs; one of the reasons salaries have stagnated in the last ten years (gone down in real terms). And Taiwan’s one-horse towns are hardly El Dorados awaiting Cortez Laoshi. From my own experience of Yunlin and Chiayi (Jiayi) Counties, I can say that even small places have western teachers (almost always South African teachers recruited directly from the Rainbow nation, or Canadian kindy teachers who has been fired from all the city schools).[/quote]

Actually, W for Wylee. Good point. I can’t begin to know the status in all cities, towns and villages across the island, but I know I and all the teachers I’ve spoken to have never really struggled at all locating work. As for small towns, my experience was in Kaohsiung County, Meinong, where I commuted in from the city because there weren’t any other foreign teachers around. I was trying to keep my post short, didn’t mean to drift into unfair generalizations.

15

I have had some friends go with Reach to Teach and there service has been over the top excellent, I wouldn’t worry about it too much as sometimes people miss appointments, recruiters can be very very busy (I tried it for a while)

They have people coming into Taipei all the time doing airport runs, interviews and responding to new applicants, and schools calling them everyday looking for a teacher, helping teachers find an apartment, doctor, scooter and the list can go on.

When I got here my recruiter picked me up at the airport, took me to look at several schools, plus several apartments, he took me scooter shopping, and we went out for dinner every once in a while when I was in Kaohsiung, overall I think they are best as you can be set up instantly as opposed to going into the unknown w/o a paddle.

16

Does anyone know anything about recruitment agencies? I’ve heard good things about Reach to Teach (including some on this site). How supportive are the people there for people who are completely new to living and working here? I’ve also heard Hess is well-established, although it can be a little draconian. I talked to someone at Footprints, and he said they were only looking for certified teachers. What good, bad, ugly things have people heard about or experienced with these recruiters? I’d appreciate any information, and thank you in advance for your input.

17

I’ve used de-wey and reach to teach in my searches for employment and have had no negative experiences with either. Having said that, however, the same cannot be said for the schools that use these organizations.

On the same token, you could do it yourself and still end up in a bad situation. Either way, you’ll soon know how to spot the schools to avoid. There’s no teacher like experience.

18

I came to Taiwan through Reach to Teach and had no problems with them. They found contracts for my friend and I at a well-established school and they were helpful when we were preparing to come over here. They always answered all my questions, and from what I understand, anytime I have a problem I am still free to call them. I recommend them. I don’t know much about any of the other agencies, although I know someone who came here through Footprints, and he said that they misled him about how much our school was going to help us find apartments. But R2T I recommend. Good luck.

19

Reach to Teach the other day showed me some jobs I was interested in…
I have to assume I’m not the only one looking at these jobs. What is the process from here on out? They’re running through my references now. Anyone with any experience on this?
Do I have another interview with the school I’ve chosen? Or what?
I’m asking them the same question but I wanted to hear it from someone from outside the agency too.

20

OK, future teachers, here’s your recruitment exam: What common grammatical mistake is found in the above sentence?