China's Unfireable English Teachers

[travelsouth]

This is the problem. People just want everything handed to them without getting the proper training and putting in the work

No that is not the problem. People are getting absurd amounts of training. The problem is that most of the time when they get the training there are no freaking jobs. Are you black or something? Maybe what you are saying is indeed the problem with blacks. Not so much other people.

I've explained it. Mike Rowe has explained it. You hear the narrative on both liberal and conservative channels. People get all kinds of education but they never bother to pay attention to what positions are open and being hired for. I'm whiter than Mike Rowe and there are plenty of WHITE middle management types sitting with their thumb up their butt after what the recession did to their careers because they don't want to learn a skill that will get them hired.

There are all kinds of "educated" architects sitting on the sidelines. Sure they are educated but we just don't need any more architects. This sort of conversation literally enrages technical recruiters trying to place jobs. People so out of touch they keep whining and complaining about no opportunities when they literally can't find folks willing to do the work they need done.

3 million well paid jobs are open. If Americans really wanted to work the unemployment % would be nil.

[Ghost]

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[travelsouth]

[Ghost]

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[travelsouth]

Like I said, if what you say is true, you should start a business where you help all the unemployed get these supposedly available jobs.

I've done technical recruiting. Made 65k a year doing it with the bonuses. IT jobs are always hard to fill. Some just take two years of technical training. Truck driving jobs are hard to fill and the training is free and very short.

It is no different than when I talk to guys that think the whole foreign women thing is a scam. They just don't know any better. As for people that keep ignoring all the recruiters, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, etc... you are just as clueless when it comes to good paying jobs.

[momopi]

Like I said, if what you say is true, you should start a business where you help all the unemployed get these supposedly available jobs. You'd make a lot of money. There are and will always be opportunities. There are not nearly enough, however. And with these 3 million jobs you keep talking about, they must not be important enough to hire someone without experience and then train them.

What the Forbes article does not mention is that, many employers prefer to hire those who are currently employed. There is an active discrimination against hiring unemployed people, with assumption that long term unemployment = skill atrophy. So if you're unemployed and looking, it's harder and you have to jump through more hoops and bigger barriers.

The jobs ARE out there, but one should not expect there would be enough jobs for "everyone", or that it'd be "easy" to get one.

[Mr Natural]

Ghost, you are arguing here with a young single kid who actually thinks that truck drivers make big money. He has obviously never had to pay for such things as a family or medical care, which is probably why he thinks 50k is a "big paycheck".

[travelsouth]

. So if you're unemployed and looking.

This is a legit point. Lot's of people make the mistake of leaving a job before they've secured another job on their own accord. But there are some that get trapped with that gap in employment after getting let go.

As for truck driving jobs. It's just one example of a job that requires very little training. If you want the big bucks you've got to do more training. But there are local food service delivery jobs that are always open that pay 40 or 50k

If that's not enough to pay your bills get more specialized training. I'm just putting together a response in comparison to teaching English in China. That's it. Hell I've got an MBA. I put in the work. I wouldn't want to work for 50k. That's exactly why I would never work for 1.5k a month.

[Ghost]

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[travelsouth]

f**k, I'd move back there tomorrow if I could get a 50k job that has paid training and will actually give me a chance. What's next? You're going to tell people to get a Master's in Bullshit Artistry like you?

No. I've suggested people at least be open to a couple weeks of training so they could drive a truck. I've already posted an opportunity for free training plus a salary that meets the level for you to move back tomorrow... and yet we are still going around in circles while you ignore the obvious. You can get a cdl and drive a truck making the money you want.

The job is right in front of your face but rather than accept that we now insult other people that went to school. smh.

[Mr Natural]

50k isn't what it used to be, at least not in major cities and especially if that's your household income (ie your wife doesn't work). Now if you live in a small town or cheap area, or if you make that plus the wife makes 30 or 40k, then maybe, but then you have latchkey kids. 50k isn't much anymore to raise a family on, it was not long ago but the cost of living is so much higher now than just 5 or 10 years ago. In any event, I don't see too many truck drivers living high out there. Not saying it's a bad job, but I don't think you would find many who would say it's a "big paycheck".

[yick]

It has changed a lot since that article was written.

There would be no chance of some 20 year old little blurt from Austria without qualifications working in Beijing these days turning up drunk/hungover and teaching children - tosser! A lot has changed these days and to get a decent job in Beijing - you'll need to be a native speaker and have a degree and to work in the better places, a hell of a lot more.

The days of people turning up without degrees have long gone, the changes in the law have made it more or less impossible for unqualified people to turn up and teach long term legally - of course, there are still ways round the system but nothing that you can base a long term future on.

Recently, I have seen people at the universities being let go at the end of their contract or if they have been really bad - fired on the spot! These days, the criminal background check is keeping the worst of the nutters away but some still manage to slide through the cracks - it 's a lot better than it was.

There are a lot of joint venture places opening up here in China where if you have decent qualifications, you will earn decent coin - the future of ESL is bright in China for sure, wages have got better and standards are getting higher - which I am very happy about to be honest.

[CannedHam]

It has changed a lot since that article was written.

There would be no chance of some 20 year old little blurt from Austria without qualifications working in Beijing these days turning up drunk/hungover and teaching children - tosser! A lot has changed these days and to get a decent job in Beijing - you'll need to be a native speaker and have a degree and to work in the better places, a hell of a lot more.

The days of people turning up without degrees have long gone, the changes in the law have made it more or less impossible for unqualified people to turn up and teach long term legally - of course, there are still ways round the system but nothing that you can base a long term future on.

Recently, I have seen people at the universities being let go at the end of their contract or if they have been really bad - fired on the spot! These days, the criminal background check is keeping the worst of the nutters away but some still manage to slide through the cracks - it 's a lot better than it was.

There are a lot of joint venture places opening up here in China where if you have decent qualifications, you will earn decent coin - the future of ESL is bright in China for sure, wages have got better and standards are getting higher - which I am very happy about to be honest.

Yeah I agree. I've never been an English teacher, but have met numerous of them in my years of going to China. Many teachers I met years ago were, to be frank, the absolute bottom of the barrel - alcoholics, junkies, ex-cons, and just generally lazy unsuccessful losers who had no chance of getting a job in their home countries. I'd wager that many of them could barely speak or write their own language properly, yet were responsible for teaching it to children.

I think Chinese people have wised up big-time and have realized that a being white native English speaker doesn't mean shit. It doesn't get you instant respect and status like it did even just 5-6 years ago. And that's a good thing.

[yick]

It has changed a lot since that article was written.

There would be no chance of some 20 year old little blurt from Austria without qualifications working in Beijing these days turning up drunk/hungover and teaching children - tosser! A lot has changed these days and to get a decent job in Beijing - you'll need to be a native speaker and have a degree and to work in the better places, a hell of a lot more.

The days of people turning up without degrees have long gone, the changes in the law have made it more or less impossible for unqualified people to turn up and teach long term legally - of course, there are still ways round the system but nothing that you can base a long term future on.

Recently, I have seen people at the universities being let go at the end of their contract or if they have been really bad - fired on the spot! These days, the criminal background check is keeping the worst of the nutters away but some still manage to slide through the cracks - it 's a lot better than it was.

There are a lot of joint venture places opening up here in China where if you have decent qualifications, you will earn decent coin - the future of ESL is bright in China for sure, wages have got better and standards are getting higher - which I am very happy about to be honest.

Yeah I agree. I've never been an English teacher, but have met numerous of them in my years of going to China. Many teachers I met years ago were, to be frank, the absolute bottom of the barrel - alcoholics, junkies, ex-cons, and just generally lazy unsuccessful losers who had no chance of getting a job in their home countries. I'd wager that many of them could barely speak or write their own language properly, yet were responsible for teaching it to children.

I think Chinese people have wised up big-time and have realized that a being white native English speaker doesn't mean shit. It doesn't get you instant respect and status like it did even just 5-6 years ago. And that's a good thing.

Alcoholism seems to be a problem - booze is cheap and time off is plenty but I have worked alongside proper nutters, paranoid schizophrenics and people not fit to be in charge of classes of young adults - I would like to say they didn't last long but they were fired after all other alternatives had been exhausted - I am at a university these days and all the teachers seem normal and well behaved. I would say the majority of teachers are but it is the scumbags that you remember.

[Cornfed]

Yeah I agree. I've never been an English teacher, but have met numerous of them in my years of going to China. Many teachers I met years ago were, to be frank, the absolute bottom of the barrel - alcoholics, junkies, ex-cons

Eh really? Junkies? I imagine it would be hard to keep you habit up. Ex-cons? You would think visa restrictions would exclude them. Alcoholics? Well yes, and some would argue that might include me. But seriously I think you are being a bit cynical here.