Below average pay, management work ethics - terrible, HR communication- horrendous, working hours- bloodsucking!
Pros
Your schedule is fixed the entire time. Once you have your own class, you don't have to worry about moving around as you get your own classrooms.
Cons
I would never recommend any person to this company and here's why - 1) If you are a person from a country that is not US/ Canada/ UK/ Australia (Basically with a passport from a Native English country), be prepared to be discriminated against. Especially, if you are from a south asian country, your pay will begin from the range of 16-17 K where as your counterpart, with passports from the above countries will begin from 21- 22k pm. It is literally true for this company that your credentials do not really matter, what matters is your passport. An even worse scenario that I personally faced was that, with over 2 years in this company, I was still getting less pay from my White Dutch colleague (This friend doesn't come from a Native English country, but she is a white person! ), who had recently joined at 22K. My Head teacher's argument was that it is the owner's personal decision to hire her at that rate and he has nothing to do or say! Now, I had given my full commitment to this company, had fuller and bigger classes than others, and my performance was better than most of the teachers in my centre, but it never reflected in the salary. 2) The management and HR is the most terrible team you'd ever come across. HR is highly incompetent in speaking English, they decide for things on their own and drops an email to inform you at the last minute. If you have an issue, they are very good at making you go to different people but never actually giving you the right and proper information on time. 3) You'll hear a lot of complaints when you decide to take holidays. It's your own holiday and you have every right for it, but you sadly can't decide on when you could take them. Some of my colleagues have started booking Christmas holidays 2 years in advance. So if you are new, forget about booking holidays near festivities. 4) What made me lose all my respect for this organisation - If you belong to an asian country, your starting pay is definitely around 16-17k but here is the catch. The company will make you to sign two contracts. One with your original pay and the other is a false one, where they'll state that you get 22k pm and will ask you to submit the false document to the immigration. This company has no shame in making their teachers lie to the immigration and take the risk of even getting deported from HK. Their argument against such behaviour is - a) we have always done it this way because, this way your visa will arrive soon and, b) that is what all the other companies do in HK and the immigration has never had any problems with it. I'll write it in bold letters again, THEY'LL ASK YOU TO SUBMIT FALSE DOCUMENTS TO THE IMMIGRATION AT YOUR OWN RISK, AND YOU SOLELY BEAR THE RISK OF GETTING DEPORTED IF CAUGHT!!!! 5) If you are a teacher who really cares for their students and want to see the child grow in all aspects and learn in a happy environment, then HK is not where you'll get to see this. Kids are put under tremendous pressure, from schools, from their parents and they come to the centre to improve their English speaking/reading skills. So now, you'll have to put even more pressure on the kids and make them improve their grades or you'll hear a lot of complaints from the parents. 6) HK has a competitive environment and parents have an image that if the teacher is white looking, they'll have a better fluency than others. Many of my colleagues have had their students moved to a Caucasian teacher because that is what the parents wanted and the centre will comply to such requests. In all, this place is nothing but a money grabbing organisation where, everyone has a sales target to meet and no one actually cares for the happiness of the students.
