SMIC Private School in Shanghai

jessd82 · Post by **jessd82** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 8:21 pm

Does anyone have first or second hand information on this school? There is only one review and it lays a pretty bleak picture of working hours, housing, etc. and just wanted to see if this lines up with more than one persons experience.

eion_padraig · Post by **eion_padraig** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 9:44 pm

I haven't read the review, but I worked there many years back. Not a place I'd recommend. Mostly, the problem was how it was managed; it was essentially run like Chinese schools. Low pay, last minute changes to the schedule (on Monday being told you'd have to come on Saturday with no compensation or comp time), lack of supplies for the classroom.

I largely saw it as a company school so they could recruit highly skilled talent for the semiconductor company. I did like the kids I worked with and the families. I would have described my colleagues as hard working and earnest, but few had much experience at schools back in their home countries or at other international schools. Administrators were hired more for their beliefs and less for actual experience.

By the way, both the company and therefore the school are very Christian, but it's very much under the table. The company head, Richard Chang, apparently saw bringing the company to China as a way to make money, develop China, and bring in Christian influence. This was not made clear up front, though they were asking me a lot of questions during the interview that later a friend of mine told me was coded evangelical language. Who knew?

If you need to break into international schools, there could be worse places to start, but after 2 years of working there, I'd recommend looking for something better.

jessd82 · Post by **jessd82** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 4:50 pm

Thanks eion - that's basically what the review said about the changes made at the last minute and no compensation for working weekends. I am looking for my first post, but I think hold out for something in a location I'm more interested in or with a company that is more upfront about the calendar and timetable.

eion_padraig · Post by **eion_padraig** » Thu Dec 08, 2011 11:37 pm

If you're looking at the Shanghai campus, I think Shanghai is a very interesting city to be in. And there are many other strong international schools where you could move to after a couple of years working at SMIC and making some contacts at those schools.

Having said that, I will be looking for a better run school when I return overseas.

Good luck.