newbie here, do they have the power to blacklist FT's to SAFEA and bring your case to the law? by the way, i signed a contract with them and wasn't able to finish.

Good for you for trying to avoid the recruiters Josh.

What kind of position are you trying to find? I guess you're looking for a public school or university position as the training schools are usually easy to contact directly.

Once you've identified a position then you can always trying searching for the school or university's official website. You might find a couple of contacts there and if you send out enough emails you may get lucky. As the OP stated the recruitment agencies aren't doing anything that a teacher (or for that matter a school) can't do for themselves.

If you do find a position that you really like the look of but have to use a recruiter then just remember the other piece of advice by the OP - Recruiters are in it for themselves! It may sound a bit cut throat but you probably need to take on the same attitude. I've only had one experience of contact with a recruiter when like yourself i was trying to find a very specific position (this time it was due to geographical constraints). I found an ad for a school posted on the site of a large recruiter and contacted that recruiter stating quite clearly that i was interested in that school and that school only. After a couple of weeks of asking for the contact details of that school i had nothing. What i did get from that recruiter was dozens of other offers of positions i was not interested in! Had that recruiter have been willing/able to give me the contact details for that school then i'd have been happy to have spoken to them and i would have based my decision on whether to join that school on what the school themselves had said and not anything the recruiter promised (to many vested interests).

My guess is that the recruitment agencies have different deals with different schools. The position i was looking at didn't start for another 4months however, the ones they kept sending me were immediate starts! They were just looking to fill positions.

I guess the morale of the story is if you can ge what you want from them then there is no reason to completely avoid recruiters but you just have to be very careful in the meantime and base any decision you make on actual contact with the school rather than vague promises from the recruiter.

I don't think it's English language ability...I seriously doubt if most Chinese schools can really judge whether our English is good or not, which in itself is kinda sad and scary.

Indeed! Some Chinese schools will send students with poor English to meet up with new FT's at train stations when they arrive to start their contracts. Then said students will report back to the FAO re whether they could follow what the foreigner had said. Sneaky, but this often happens. If the report is not good, there could be a problem for the FT. Remember that the school has within 30 days of the foreigner's entry date to apply for an RP for him. But if the school doesn't offer a contract in the first place within that time, the foreigner is up a gum tree. The Z will revert to an L, and can possibly be extended for another 30 days within China. It's high time that the system is changed, but it won't be. It's weighted too hevily in favour of the employer.
Linyi University of Shandong operates in this way, as does Hua Qiao Foreign Languages Institute of Changchun.

There is a connection between obviously ill-trained people and muddy people in Chinese ESL - they have no place to go elsewhere!

Absolutely! And those foreigners with second-rate English can only get jobs through recruiters or at training centers. Recruiters don't care if they're selling petend teachers. It all boils down to money!

This is a wonderful proffesional recruiter that MATCHES foreigners to schools and colleges. That is very important for both the teacher and the school (or college). Raoul has been out of China to long to know the currant situation here. Click the link to enter a jobseeker's paradise.

And you must have been out of writing good English for too long, therefore I advise other readers on here to take your words with extreme caution!
There is a connection between obviously ill-trained people and muddy people in Chinese ESL - they have no place to go elsewhere!

Well, isn't that special. ;-{D

I'm sorry, but an endorsement from the Chinese government officials doesn't exactly reassure...not in a country where approvals, certifications, and all kinds of other frippery can be outright bought if the price is right.

And hey, the Italian Mafia has been in America for at least about 100 years. For many years they were the only Mafia in America. There are now other Mafias in America, but they don't play as nice as the Italian Mafia. The Italian Mafia is the only Mafia certified by a board of Italian Mafiosi.
Following that logic, does that mean we can trust the Italian Mafia? I don't think so...

It's kinda hard to tell who the hell you're talking to, but I'm Raoul. I need no spin doctor.
But I must be touching a nerve somewhere; the mafios...whoops! I mean recruiters and their mouthpieces are coming out in droves.

You take the liberty of misquoting. Not only that, but you dare to denigrate a poster who has praised THE ONLY OFFICIALLY APPROVED CHINESE RECRUITER. Apart from being Raoul's official 'spin doctor', what are you, a croc feeder?

I reckon you've shot your misplaced bolt, don't you?

For starters, you need to appreciate that the school is the recruiter's client: You are just a commodity in this transaction. Second, there is no such thing as an “official” recruitment agency in China. There is both a business and recruitment license required for agencies to legally recruit foreign experts but there is absolutely no agency in China that can honestly tout itself—or any of the items being sold on its website—as “official," although in fact many do. The oldest recruitment agency in China, founded in 1954, is ChinaJob.com and it is the only one specifically recommended and linked to by the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA). For 30 years they were the only recruitment agency in China. Now there are hundreds upon hundreds of such agencies, many claiming to be “official” or “government approved.” Any China recruitment agency or EFL website that refers to itself as "official," e.g., Official EFL Website or "government-approved" is engaging in fraud, owned and run by unethical people, and should most definitely be avoided. Reputable people in the China EFL industry do not refer to themselves as official or government-approved.

Raoul ain't God, but he's good, I'll grant you that, though how good, that's debatable! BTW, that also applies to YOU, degrees of goodness.. LOL!

THE LINK: http://middlekingdomlife.com/guide/english-teaching-jobs-china.htm

This is a wonderful proffesional recruiter that MATCHES foreigners to schools and colleges. That is very important for both the teacher and the school (or college). Raoul has been out of China to long to know the currant situation here. Click the link to enter a jobseeker's paradise.

http://www.chinajob.com/index.php

Name the sodding recruiter who sold your hide to NDI please!!!!Raoul's not God! Unlike you, I've had good results after using a couple of recruiters! I don't want to use your former one!

No, I'm not God. I'm GOOD. ;-{D

I never used a recruiter, myself. I never NEEDED one (and neither does anyone else).
But I lived many years in China, met scads of foreigners, and run a forum for foreigners in China for over 8 years...and I've seen the results of people who DID use recruiters, and they ain't pretty. If you read my OP again, you might see that having one good result absolutely DOES NOT make using recruiters a good idea.

Oh...I'm not sure who NDI is, but I can assure you that my hide has never been sold to anyone. And lots of people have tried.

Raoul's not God!

Raoul certainly is not God, and he never claimed to be. But maybe unlike you, he is an honest person always ready to provide accurate information on the many pitfalls that exist in China's crappy world of ESL, and he is a competent person and knows all know all about it!

And you, who are you????

You are 100% correct ! AVOID employment agents ! ! ! ! !

Good advice!

There are unscrupulous foreign teachers who have weaseled their way into the recruiting scam.

Indeed. There are unscrupulous foreign teachers who have weaseled their way into ALL KINDS of scams. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that just because someone comes from a Western country, they'll be less likely to screw you over...if anything, the REVERSE of this may be true.

Personally, I got burned by an American-owned chain English mill much worse than anything that ever happened from a Chinese-owned school...and that's saying a LOT.
The bottom line here is that recruiters are just recruiters, no matter where the person you talk to comes from. Give them ALL a miss.

Excellent advice! I would; however, like to add one more warning. There are unscrupulous foreign teachers who have weaseled their way into the recruiting scam. This is a case of not being able to lick them so joining them. Here's how it works:

A teacher (and I use the term loosely) has managed to find a job in China. Let's call him Teacher A. Teacher A sees the profits to be made by being a recruiter on the side. He also sees that his employer doesn't give a rat's a## about who is hired; that is, qualifications aren't said employer's concern - anyone will do as long as they're a native speaker. "Ah ha," says Teacher A, "I can find some bodies back home who'll gladly come to China for a year." Usually they will target recent graduates, and the degree said graduate now holds is irrelevant. Teacher A will then strike a deal with the recruiter who got him the job or, even better, will cut a deal with his boss. Five thousand kwai just to bring a warm body to China? No problem. Of course he will then, like any other recruiter, paint a beautiful picture of how it is to work in "exotic China." Ultimately, he's laughing all the way to the bank while ignoring his own teaching duties.

This situation, to my knowledge, has not yet become a common occurrence; nevertheless recent graduates, be warned. Follow Raoul Duke's advice; avoid all recruiters, be they Chinese or a citizen of your own country. There are other options.

People travel to China and find their teaching niche in a variety of many different ways. (I suspect what I say here will apply to many other countries as well, especially in East Asia.) I'm hoping I can help convince you to avoid one of them: Using a recruiter is just not a good idea. Here's why...

1. Recruiters have a terrible reputation.
If you dig into the archives of the TEFL internet, you'll find a wealth of horror stories about wrongs committed by recruiters. One of the biggest complaints is outright lying- people are promised Hainan and then get shipped to Inner Mongolia, they don't get the promised salaries or benefits, they ask for adults and get kids, and so on. Some recruiters have been reported to confiscate teachers' passports and documents in an effort to force the teachers to accept their situation. Then, when teachers feel they have been ripped off by their employer, the recruiters are nowhere to be found...or worse, they come down on the side of the school and try to cow the teacher into just taking it. One of the best known cases is that of "Frank Zhang", who has worked China for many years under dozens of different names. He's one of the worst of the bullies and liars, and those lies extend to phony "testimonials" from non-existent "expats". I hate to even think how many people have been his victims. As far as we know, "Frank Zhang" is still out there setting his traps, under who knows what names...and so are many more dishonest recruiters. So, are you feeling lucky?

2. Recruiters don't work for you...they work for the schools.
Recruiters are paid by the schools in which they place hapless expat teachers, and they're keenly aware of which side of their bread bears the butter. This can only lead to one major and obvious conclusion: Recruiters do not have your best interest at heart. Oh, they may make a big show of trying to get you what they want, but when push comes to shove, the recruiters are going to work to please their customers...and that ain't you. Again, as mentioned above, when you have a conflict with your school, the recruiters are not going to anger their cash flow by backing your side. Once you've been placed and the check clears, the recruiter is going to forget all about you. Why get used by someone looking to profit from you, while offering little or no support after the fact?

3. Recruiters get paid the same whether you're happy or not.
Some people will leap up and say, "Oh, but I worked with Recruiter X, and everything was great!"...and these people are probably telling you the truth. However, they're only speaking for one of many cases, and there's no real reason to believe that what happened for them will necessarily happen for you. The reality is that recruiters work for a list of client schools. Some of these will be OK, and some of them will not...and the recruiter may well be quite aware of which ones are which. This isn't going to stop those recruiters from sending people to dodgy schools, though...there's too much money in it for them. The sad fact is that recruiters will send you to good schools or bad schools with equal enthusiasm...for them, the money is fine either way. Is this an approach you want in YOUR job search?

4. Recruiters tend to be major-league bottom-feeders.
The best schools, in desirable locations, offering competitive salaries and benefits, don't tend to use recruiters. They don't NEED them. They can attract plenty of applicants all by themselves. This makes recruiters the champions of a lot of bottom-of-the-barrel jobs...places in crappy locations, and/or offering lousy deals, and/or trying to hide from a bad reputation. By using a recruiter, you're automatically cutting yourself off from some of the best jobs to be had...and increasing your exposure to some of the worst ones. Does this sound like a smart strategy to you?

5. Recruiters are completely unnecessary.
The TEFL job market in places like China is often difficult for newcomers to understand. They're used to labor being a buyer's market...every job gets tons of applications, and employers can pick their choices at their leisure. In China and many other countries, though, teaching English is a SELLER'S market...a lot of schools struggle to get enough teachers to fill their positions. In other words, most schools need you worse than you need them. For every job ad placed by recruiters, there are more placed directly by the schools. There are many sites listing EFL jobs, and many, many ads placed with those sites. By working directly with the employers, you have more freedom to negotiate your own contract. It's easier for you to back out of a bad deal. You will see your own contract, and have a much better idea of what you're getting into. And who knows...if your school doesn't have to pay a recruiter, they may be more willing to pay YOU more. It's shamefully easy to find EFL job listings...they're all over the place. You can, and should, be in control of your own destiny. Recruiters offer NOTHING that you can't do yourself...and add another layer of risk you just don't need. Isn't a little bit more work worth a better chance at avoiding a bad situation in a faraway foreign country?

I'm not saying there aren't any reputable recruiters out there. In the case of China, there may be two or three good recruiters in the whole country; the rest ain't nuthin' but a bunch of mangy dogs. Even with a couple of good recruiters out there somewhere, I postulate that the odds of you actually finding one of them is so small, it's simply not worth the risk...again, especially when they're not doing anything you really need them to do anyway.

Do yourself a favor...ALWAYS work ONLY directly with actual employers. The TEFL industry in many countries (especially China) is hazardous enough anyway, so don't submit yourself to additional risk for no real additional benefit. If you accidentally send a resume to a recruiter, or one otherwise attaches themself to you, simply stop communicating with them. They'll eventually flake off and seek other victims.

How To Spot (and Avoid) Ads From Recruiters:

1. Recruiter ads generally don't specify the name (and often the location) of the ultimate employer. They're afraid to, for fear that you'll contact the employer yourself and cut them out of the deal. They also want to be free to send you to whichever client happens to be hurting the most for teachers. Good employers tend to be proud of their name, and will specify it in the ad...so if you don't see the name and location of the school, with direct contact info, don't send them a resume. It's just that simple.

2. Recruiter ads often mention or hint at multiple openings in multiple locations. Again, real employers don't generally do this...they want the best teachers for themselves, and have no interest in chiming in with the schools they compete with to get those teachers. So again, if you see a multiple-location job ad, give it a miss and keep looking for something good.

(Of course, recruiters will get busy countering these arguments, in an attempt to have you sign with them. This is fine; just bear one thing in mind: I have no profit motive in giving you this warning. Can you say the same about the recruiters?)

Kiss kiss,
Raoul F. Duke
Raoul's China Saloon
http://www.raoulschinasaloon.com