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| Yanjing Overseas Chinese University -- RUN AWAY! | ||
| A friend in Beijing set me up with an interview with Yanjing University in southwest Beijing on March 4th… My first impression when viewing the brand-new, very impressive building was that I was seeing a professional organization. Well…was I to learn differently! Here's the message I later sent to Jeremy, the assistant in the international department, who set up my meetings… --------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent: Thursday, March 04, 2004 11:21 PM Subject: Re: Yanjing Overseas Chinese University welcome you to join! Jeremy: I wanted to pass along some comments based on my experience at your campus today… I trust that you will pass this to Mark and every other person in a position of responsibility there. First, in your message to me of February 26th, you wrote, ". . . We are looking for at least 20 english-as-first-language teachers,especially eager for teachers like you who have wonderful working experience in teaching and management, to teach business,finance,acounting,economics,computer science or english in our school . . ." The impression clearly given is that English teaching is the least of your needs. Also, in my telephone interview with Mark yesterday, he asked me, and I made it VERY clear, that I was interested in teaching only business subjects. However, when I arrived at Yanjing today, one of the first things I heard was that there will be few, if any, business courses available. Immediately after hearing that, I met Mark, who I learned is in charge of English teaching. The person responsible for business courses was not available, and obviously had not been made aware that I was to visit. In other words, although I made it very clear from the outset that I was interested in teaching only business courses, I was obviously not taken seriously. From that perspective, the time and money I spent visiting Yanjing were totally wasted. I found Mark's question about my salary requirements to be very revealing. The approach he took with me was unprofessional, at best, especially since I was there to investigate teaching business courses, and I had just learned he had no responsibility for that. By the way, professionally-managed schools of business normally have standardized, transparent compensation schedules for their faculties. One last comment…and I think I'm accurate about this. I believe I saw some familiar faces there today. If I'm not mistaken, the 'crew' from Oxbridge University Business School has migrated across the city. If I am correct, then your school is doomed, as what happened at and to Oxbridge is relatively common knowledge. I hope I am mistaken. However, even if I am mistaken about that, my experience today convinced me that I have no interest in teaching for Yanjing University. Best of luck to you, Steve Herrington ------------------------------------------------------------------ In other words, if you see anything about Yanjing University or Oxbridge University, then I suggest you follow the advice of Monty Python and 'RUN AWAY…RUN AWAY!' Steve Herrington March 14, 2004 Beijing, China stephencherrington@yahoo.com |