How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in China?

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The Professor
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How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in China?

Post by The Professor »

I really need help with this ASAP. Long story short, I'm back in America at the moment because the job I had lined up fell through because a Chinese woman decided she didn't like me, go figure.

So I have been talking to another company and they said before they give me any interview anywhere I need a letter of recommendation from my previous employer, no exceptions.

I've asked me previous employer about it and they're not giving me one, end of story. I've asked them a ton of time and now they all ignore my e-mails and calls.

I explained the situation to the company I'm talking to and a couple other places and they're all saying they need it, end of story. When I tell them they can call my previous company they say that's not acceptable.

So I need a chinese letter of recommendation, and since getting a legit one is impossible, I need to find out how to fake one. How exactly do I do this? I know there's official stamps and stuff involved and there's a very specific format but I don't exactly what.

If someone could help me out with this, that would be great.
kai1275
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by kai1275 »

The Professor wrote:I really need help with this ASAP. Long story short, I'm back in America at the moment because the job I had lined up fell through because a Chinese woman decided she didn't like me, go figure.

So I have been talking to another company and they said before they give me any interview anywhere I need a letter of recommendation from my previous employer, no exceptions.

I've asked me previous employer about it and they're not giving me one, end of story. I've asked them a ton of time and now they all ignore my e-mails and calls.

I explained the situation to the company I'm talking to and a couple other places and they're all saying they need it, end of story. When I tell them they can call my previous company they say that's not acceptable.

So I need a chinese letter of recommendation, and since getting a legit one is impossible, I need to find out how to fake one. How exactly do I do this? I know there's official stamps and stuff involved and there's a very specific format but I don't exactly what.

If someone could help me out with this, that would be great.
First of all, what did you do wrong? What kind of work do you do? Being a laowai your options are going to depend upon the answers to those things.
The Professor
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by The Professor »

kai1275 wrote:First of all, what did you do wrong? What kind of work do you do? Being a laowai your options are going to depend upon the answers to those things.
I was an English teacher.

I worked for one year, which was the length of time my contract was for. I left on good terms, or at least not bad terms. I did absolutely nothing wrong that would deserve this, and by this I am talking about me not getting my letter of recommendation. I asked a few other people who completed their contract and they didn't get one either. My company does not give them out it seems.

If you're talking about the job I had lined up after I completed my contract, long story short a chinese woman decided she didn't like me. No need for me to get into that. It's not pertinent to my current situation. Just to be clear, this was a completely different company, not the company I worked for. So again, completely irrelevant to my current situation.

My current situation is that I absolutely need a letter of recommendation that seems official and my previous company won't give me, or anyone else one. Companies I talk to are not understanding to my predicament, and still insist I give them a letter of recommendation.

The solution here is to forge one.
kai1275
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by kai1275 »

The Professor wrote:
kai1275 wrote:First of all, what did you do wrong? What kind of work do you do? Being a laowai your options are going to depend upon the answers to those things.
I was an English teacher.

I worked for one year, which was the length of time my contract was for. I left on good terms, or at least not bad terms. I did absolutely nothing wrong that would deserve this, and by this I am talking about me not getting my letter of recommendation. I asked a few other people who completed their contract and they didn't get one either. My company does not give them out it seems.

If you're talking about the job I had lined up after I completed my contract, long story short a chinese woman decided she didn't like me. No need for me to get into that. It's not pertinent to my current situation. Just to be clear, this was a completely different company, not the company I worked for. So again, completely irrelevant to my current situation.

My current situation is that I absolutely need a letter of recommendation that seems official and my previous company won't give me, or anyone else one. Companies I talk to are not understanding to my predicament, and still insist I give them a letter of recommendation.

The solution here is to forge one.
They probably cannot understand it because your details are too vague. You are hiding something obviously and they want to know too because you are a laowai. Can you even speak read and write mandarin well? The only thing I can offer you at this time is that you better have some hong bao and make some guanxi with the potential boss over a dinner.

Chinese companies hate changes, most want that recommendation because they want to know why you left and if you will leave them for the same reason, and unlike America, you cannot just pick up and quit for no reason anytime you want, and in some industries that hurts your reputation anyway. You are at their mercy. This is why you have to ask for permission to even quit a job in China or wait until the contract expires!

Welcome to Communist China....
kai1275
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Post by kai1275 »

I just thought about something. Sometimes English teachers get f***ed like this in China. I think some of them end up having to go back home to the US or whatever, and they basically start over again that way to find a new teaching job and renew their visa or something like that.

Regardless you might be asking the wrong crowd about this shit anyway. You probably need to go here and seek out advice on how to fix it legally. Before you do something illegal and stupid, and get deported or worse. The forums has people that have been teaching in China for a long time and know all the tricks and rules.

http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/
The Professor
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by The Professor »

kai1275 wrote:They probably cannot understand it because your details are too vague.


How are my details "vauge"? I worked for a company for one year. They won't give me or anyone else a letter of recommendation. What is there that you don't understand? This isn't exactly a complicated situation.
kai1275 wrote:You are hiding something obviously and they want to know too because you are a laowai.
What am I hiding? I'm not hiding anything. I fulfilled my contract and they won't give me, or anyone else, a letter of recommendation. I did nothing wrong as I said before. Are you accusing me of just lying here?
kai1275 wrote:This is why you have to ask for permission to even quit a job in China or wait until the contract expires!
I already said that I fulfilled my contract. Not to be rude but are you actually reading my posts?
RedMenace
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Post by RedMenace »

Did you do some messed up thing to this "women" you referred to? Is this what you're trying to hide? Maybe you think it's irrelevant but that could be the reason why you're in such complex a situation. : | Also why don't you exclude working for the company that "doesn't give" reference from your cv and find a job like you did with your first job.
Repatriate
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Post by Repatriate »

It's not unusual for Chinese employers just to f**k people over on a whim but what did you do to this woman to warrant such a hostile reaction? I think we need the whole story before we can determine how we can help you in this matter.
The Professor
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Post by The Professor »

RedMenace wrote:Did you do some messed up thing to this "women" you referred to? Is this what you're trying to hide? Maybe you think it's irrelevant but that could be the reason why you're in such complex a situation. : | Also why don't you exclude working for the company that "doesn't give" reference from your cv and find a job like you did with your first job.
No, I didn't do anything "messed up" to the Chinese woman who decided she didn't like me and took away the job I had lined up. Also that whole thing is irrrelevant because it was from a DIFFERENT company than my previous employer. Also my previous company has not given reference letters to anyone else, it is not just me. So there are many things wrong with your theory, which I have already very clearly explained in this thread.

I don't want to exclude the company I worked for because it was the only teaching job I had anywhere. That would mean I would be starting all over and would be disqualified from any remotely decent paying jobs. I might be able to get 4500-8000rmb a month, but anything more than 8000rmb has fierce competition and requires experience, and candidates with experience in China are going to get preference. So not putting it on my resume would put me at an astronomical disadvantage, not to mention an extremely unfair one considering the fact that I legitimately have one year of relevant work experience.
Rock
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by Rock »

The Professor wrote:I really need help with this ASAP. Long story short, I'm back in America at the moment because the job I had lined up fell through because a Chinese woman decided she didn't like me, go figure.

So I have been talking to another company and they said before they give me any interview anywhere I need a letter of recommendation from my previous employer, no exceptions.

I've asked me previous employer about it and they're not giving me one, end of story. I've asked them a ton of time and now they all ignore my e-mails and calls.

I explained the situation to the company I'm talking to and a couple other places and they're all saying they need it, end of story. When I tell them they can call my previous company they say that's not acceptable.

So I need a chinese letter of recommendation, and since getting a legit one is impossible, I need to find out how to fake one. How exactly do I do this? I know there's official stamps and stuff involved and there's a very specific format but I don't exactly what.

If someone could help me out with this, that would be great.
How big and well known is your previous employer? Is it in same city or region as your new potential employer?

If the school is small, not well known, and far from your new area of job search, you might be able to swing something with the help of local friends or contacts. It sounds like recommendation letter process is not standardized for private English schools in China. So if your school is not well known, and you have friends who might be somewhat familiar with how to formulate a recommendation letter, you could perhaps craft one with their help. Then you would need a contact who would agree to pretend to work in the school in relevant position. That person could provide a number just in the small case the school called to verify things.

But what I'm suggesting here involves risk and I don't know how low or high that is. It might be extremely dangerous! So before you do anything, you need to find out what would happen if you got discovered. Would they brush it off or would you risk prison time and/or deported and banned? So you need some good local advice to calculate the risk and decide whether or not to take it. When you are in China, you really should work very hard to cultivaate contacts and information sources. When you don't know anyone, you get treated like shit so often by so many.

The safest thing you could do would be to suck it up. Fill-in your CV gap with something outside of China which cannot be verified and start from square one with lower pay. But this time, develop those contacts if you wanna brighter long term future in PRC.
The Professor
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by The Professor »

Rock wrote:It sounds like recommendation letter process is not standardized for private English schools in China.
Are you speculating or do you know this for 100% fact based on inside knowledge? This is important.
Seeker
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Post by Seeker »

Hi there. Sorry to hear about your predicament. If you can't get a letter of recommendation I suggest you just make up a year of experience teaching in some other country, hell, make up two years. Also make up a current job and a provide a made up current reference (have someone write it for you).
Rock
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by Rock »

The Professor wrote:
Rock wrote:It sounds like recommendation letter process is not standardized for private English schools in China.
Are you speculating or do you know this for 100% fact based on inside knowledge? This is important.
It sounds like = I'm speculating.

100% fact based on inside knowledge? I don't have this as I've never worked as teacher in China. And anyway, nothing there is 100% certain.

The first thing you will hear from about everyone - local and laowai - when you go to live and work in China is that you should work hard on developing guanxi. Didn't you do that at all before? Have you no local contacts who can help you suss out the situation?
The Professor
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Re: How do you make (fake) a letter of recommendation in Chi

Post by The Professor »

Rock wrote:
The Professor wrote:
Rock wrote:It sounds like recommendation letter process is not standardized for private English schools in China.
Are you speculating or do you know this for 100% fact based on inside knowledge? This is important.
It sounds like = I'm speculating.

100% fact based on inside knowledge? I don't have this as I've never worked as teacher in China. And anyway, nothing there is 100% certain.

The first thing you will hear from about everyone - local and laowai - when you go to live and work in China is that you should work hard on developing guanxi. Didn't you do that at all before? Have you no local contacts who can help you suss out the situation?
I've talked to my chinese friends about this and they don't know anything about how letters of recommendation at all, let alone how they work in the education field and how to forge one. Then again most of my chinese friends were college students. I guess this is what I get for basing friendships on common interests as opposed to who could potentially benefit me.
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Post by xiongmao »

Your social network is everything in China, and indeed the rest of Asia.

Be careful of faking stuff. I don't know about China but there was a farang in Thailand who got his teaching documents from Khao San road and he ended up getting busted and doing jail time for it.
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