EF ONBOARDING

It starts on the day you arrive. On that day you are picked up from the airport by an EF driver; they have a nice little sign that says EF and has your name on it, so you know exactly who you go with. The driver will take you to your hotel where you can relax, rest and get ready for your training. All of our new teachers stay at the same hotel, so you might be able to meet your new colleagues too!

The next day, or Day 1, you are taken to the onboarding center. At the center you get to meet all of your trainers, and sometimes your Recruiter, but you also will meet the other teachers who will go through the onboarding process with you. That morning will open with some icebreakers, giving you a chance to get to know each other and also teaching you a little bit about EF as a company – both what we do in education and also our other activities outside of that. Then it's time for contracting signing! We will be here to support you through that, helping you read through them and making sure that everything is ok before you sign it because we know it can be quite a scary thing to not know if your contract is okay.

After contract signing, there is a visa presentation and the visa officer will walk you through all of the stages that you will need to go through in order to become a temporary resident in China. They will make sure that you understand every stage of the process so that it's not overwhelming to you. After that we will help you with some tips for finding housing -- we know that's another thing that can be quite scary as you're in a new place and you don't know if you're going to be able to find a house. Don't worry! We have a list of agents that can help you as well as tips for what you can look for and what to expect when you're hunting for a house in in your different cities. After that we go to lunch so that you have an opportunity to taste some of the local food and socialize a bit more with some of the people from the company. The last thing that you do on Day 1 is get a SIM card, which means that you'll have a working phone number in China. EF provides this for you so you don't have to worry about setting it up. You also will start the process for opening your bank accounts so that you'll get paid on time. So that's Day 1.

Day 2 starts a bit early because that's when you go for your medical checks. Like the previous day, you will be picked up from the hotel by a visa officer to go for your medical check. That way you don't have to figure this out on your own. After the medical check in the morning, you'll be brought back to your onboarding centers and will get an opportunity to meet up with people from the center that you'll be working in. The line managers and the senior teachers are the people that will be mentoring you and helping you through the process of the first couple of months. They will take you to the school and show you around. They'll also help you complete the process of opening your bank accounts. Then you have the weekend to get acclimated, start looking for a house and see a bit of the city that you've moved to.

On Day 3 the focus is slightly more academic and you're going to learn a little bit about the typical problems that Chinese students face when studying English. You'll also learn more about the growth mindset and how this can help you in your job. You'll have an introduction to English language teaching and the history of the methods that have been used to teach English over the last hundred years or so. Further to that we'll also give you some information on how you can develop your career and the c, and you'll also get an introduction to the teacher engagement side of things, including the teacher events and teacher travel which you can enjoy while you're with us at EF.

That's it for Day 3. After that you will go to your various departments and receive more specific training from them on how to teach the particular classes and students that you're going to be teaching. If you'd like more information about EF, subscribe to our Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, or LinkedIn channels.

Hope to see you in China soon!