ESL jobs in China? Where to look and what benefits do you want?

Looking for an ESL job in China?

Ok, you found out that you pass some of the basic requirements from the previous post. You really thought about it and like yeah, let’s do this. You have a timeline in your head for when you want to move.

Now is the time to look for jobs and recruiters even. So where to find these?

Seriously, google is your best friend. Legit search: ESL jobs in China and you’ll get results.

Other places to look are Facebook groups for ESL jobs in China (search and you’ll find some), LinkedIn, and ESL Cafe (they have jobs for Korea too). If you have friends in China already, ask them for some pointers too.

While looking at the jobs think about what kind of benefits you are looking for. This list is going to be a bit long.

• Contract length. 1 year is normal but you’ll find anything from 1 to 2 years. Maybe more.
• What kind of salary are you ok with? Before-tax or after-tax.
  • This is important in China since a chunk of your money will go towards taxes. Get the total for after-tax on anything dealing with money in negotiations until you sign. It’ll save you from a headache and shock later.
  • Will it be your full salary every month or is it a base salary + bonus based on your performance?
• What age group do you want to work with? Some people work better with young children while others don’t.
  • Depending on the age group you might have more or less teaching hours. This can change your pay. At a lot of universities, the pay is lower compared to teaching kids at a training center because of the workload.
• How many hours do you want to work? Do you want to work on the weekends? Normally if you work weekends, you should get two other days off during the week.
  • Do you want to work in a public school, private school, an international school, a university, a kindergarten, or a training center? Depending on your degree, experience, location, etc, you’ll get a different pay.
• Can you handle a large class, a medium, or a small one?
  • Some classes can have over 45 students or less than 20 depending on where you are working.
• Vacation?
  • Not every job has 3 months of paid vacation. Don’t think that is the norm for everyone. It’s not. A lot offer only 10 days a year outside of the national holidays. Some offer “21 days” and then it’s the 10+11 national holidays.
• Is your vacation fully paid or partially? I know some places that have longer breaks will give you half the salary during that time.
• Do you have sick days? How many? What about separate personal leave days and are they paid?
  • What happens if you have to take more than the allotted days given?
• Insurance? What kind of insurance are they providing? I have seen some places some questionable things about insurance while looking at job posts today alone.

• Flights? Are they going to pay upfront for your flight or reimburse you?
• Housing
  • Is it provided or only a housing allowance
    • If it’s a housing allowance, will it be enough to afford a place in the city you’ll be living in? Also, getting a place in China is not just paying rent, you’ll need money for other fees like the deposit and such when getting a place. I’ll make another post about this.
  • If it’s provided is it on campus or not far? Ask these questions. Get pictures if you can.