Hello, I've decided to start up a blog account of my adventures on Taiwan working under Hess language school. I must first warn you that thins blog may be tainted by my pessimistic attitude, but I will try my best to be truthfully and to the point.
I first discovered Hess a few months back when I was a student studying Chinese in Taiwan. I was low on funds, and decided the best way to fuel my Chinese langauge drive would be to find a part time job. I originally chose Hess out of the many other language schools because it seemed stable, and they were the first to hire me. Because I was already in Taiwan I went for an interview in person, and was forced to do a one minute teacher demo, that they only told me about the night before. (It was not a pleasant experience.)
I then went back home for a month because I thought it might be a bit cruel to go without seeing my family for a year and a half. I thought that being hired gave you job security, but apparently I was wrong.
When I arrived in Taiwan it was during their peek hiring season, and training went for two weeks. It was unpaid, but the hotel, breakfast, and lunch were provided. We had to go out and forage for our dinner. One thing that you should be clear of if you ever decide to work for Hess is that they can fire you any time during the training period if you don't meet their expectations. Out of my training group, one guy left to go to China, another decided he couldn't take the pressure, and one more was let go due to poor performance.
The training involves many demos that you will be forced to do on your own or as a group. Most of them give you a night or so to prepare. I actually did really bad in my final demo (I cracked under the pressure) and they gave me a talking to, and I had to do it again the next day. I think you attitude is really important here, so if you aren't doing so well, whatever you do try and appear as enthusiastic as possible.
Once you pass the demos they finally let you sign the contract, and you are locked in for a year. If you decide to opt out and leave they will apparently fine you a fee as a reimbursement for the training costs.
How I personally feel about Hess: I really wished I picked a different job. I should have listened to what everyone back home had been trying to tell me about getting a real job. I've only been doing it for a week but I'm already considering my options. All throughout training all I could think was
“I should go to Tokyo”
“Tokyo is so cool.”
“I know Japanese, I could understand what they say over there.”
“They would pay me so much more as well.”
As great as Tokyo sounds I knows there's a high chance of me dying in a tsunami/eathquake/landslide/typhoon/Godzilla with the way things are at the moment. Last time I was there for five days and there was an earthquake at the airport. Therefore I'm going to stick with this Hess job for the moment. I look out their 30,000 loan so that I could pay the deposit on my apartment, so they're holding my passport hostage. I'm aiming to stick with this job for a few months until I get get some money together and then maybe I'll go for a career change. I'm hoping to stick to this for at least a year but I don't know if I can last that long. This company is already driving me mental. A guy in my training group once called it a McDonalds education.
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