Complaint Review: Reach to Teach Recruiting

I applied to teach in Taiwan with Reach to Teach recruiting. After I arrived in Taipei for my new job, things went downhill fast. I was told during the interview with Carrie Kellenberger at Reach to Teach that this was a great school and they had nothing but happy teachers, but I didn't have a single happy coworker. Within my first week I found out I had been hired to replace a teacher who quit and returned home. How can you tell a teacher that everyone is happy when the purpose of the interview is to replace a teacher who has left in anger? Plus, given that every teacher at this school was unhappy, I can see I was scammed into taking this job.

The school itself was not even really a school, but more like a day care center for spoiled children. The staff was incredibly rude. When I called Carrie Kellenberger about my situation, I was basically told to stick it out. When I asked why no one at the school was happy, she acted surprised- but my coworker had called her and had the same conversation just a month before I arrived. In short, the school did not pay on time, the managers and senior teachers were extremely rude, my schedule was changed almost daily, I was asked to stay and clean the bathrooms, I was given a different contract than the one sent to me by Reach to Teach, and I was given no training or direction. I was told I would be paid hourly for my teaching hours and that was the job; I was actually expected to be there about 40 hours per week doing chores and "desk sitting," which means sitting there.

I quit this job just a few weeks in. I could not find another job, so I left Taiwan and went to teach in another country. I lost my deposit on my apartment and I wasted tons of money on flights. If you want to find a job teaching abroad, do not apply with Reach to Teach Recruiting. They will lie to you so they can make their commission.