Getting My American Self to China

Find a Job | Do Paperwork | Sell Your Stuff | Travel to China

Step 1: Find a Job

Finding a good job in a desirable location in China from the other side of Earth was hard. I'm not going to lie.

I began where everybody does: Google searching "Teaching in China," "How to get hired in China," "TEFL in China," "Jobs for Americans in China," and my personal favorite, "Foreign Teachers Murdered in China." (Don't let that one be discouraging, although do be careful about which jobs you're willing to accept.)

The first school I considered was called Aston English, and all of my correspondence with Aston was with a guy named Michael in New Jersey (strike 1). I was tempted by their sample contracts - they did pay higher than anyone else I had found so far (strike 2)! During one phone interview, though, I got a little suspicious - I think I was told, "That's not exactly legal in China, but we haven't been caught doing it yet." I wish I was joking. (Strike 3? You think?)

The last thing I want to do is break a law in a country that utilizes the Death Car "Mobile Execution Unit." Its existence alone should be crime deterrent enough!

Online research and persistence finally paid off: through an obscure connection from a cached forum message at a University website, I met Mark Bolding, a Texan who lived in China for 4 years and had connections with the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education. That sounded official, so I did some more research and discovered that it was, in fact, THE establishment for education in the Jiangsu Province. The address is the "Education Mansion" in Nanjing, for crying out loud!

Mark runs a nice recruiting website for the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education.

Mark accepted and pre-screened my application materials before sending them to Echo Ying, my soon-to-be Chinese friend with the impressive connections. (That's called guanxi.) Echo Ying contacted me directly and asked for my preference on ages, locations, living arrangements, etc. She also needed to know my height in cm (182cm) and my weight in kg (75kg). She wanted a scan of my passport, my diploma, and a current photo of me.

Either I was getting hired in China or my identity was being stolen. (*On the next Current Affairs, the dumb Colorado boy who was duped into scanning his passport* "I just thought she was a little Chinese lady!")

Echo had an opening at Jiangsu University in Zhenjiang. The city is a little "off the map" (i.e., not teeming with foreigners) which was a major attracting factor for me. I could teach college-aged students at a University in a sizable city that is "off the map." Perfect!

I reviewed my contract, made sure I was guaranteed a computer in my apartment, and got myself a job in China.

(Coincidentally, Echo needed teachers for a small summer program in Huai'an for July. She liked my application materials, I liked the thought of leaving a few months earlier, and it was again settled: I got myself two jobs in China.)

July 5th, San Francisco to Shanghai. The airline ticket is bought. (By me. Ticket reimbursement comes at the END of a contract as motivation for staying through the entire length.)

Onto Step Two: Do Paperwork.