Pros
The #1 pro to English First (EF), and specifically the Shanghai Online Center, is that they do make the process of moving to SH very smooth. They provide offer letter and work visa, put you up in a hotel for up to two weeks free after arrival to give you time to find an apartment, provide a transportation card (bus+metro) with plenty of money on it to get you through your first couple weeks, and even give each new employee a basic personal phone with working local SIM and number. They also handle pick up from the hotel to bring you to the international hospital where the fully paid medical exam was done, and return to the hotel. You are given a clear upfront schedule of exactly what happens each day during the induction period. Also, when I was there the scheduling options were good for those who performed well. Morning and afternoon shifts rather than afternoon and evening ones. Total number of working hours per day was 6 hours once you got into the flow of things and had established a routine to handle the admin work that came with each lesson. The local support staff was helpful. Easy to get along with other teachers, especially since everyone is sharing the same experience of living abroad and in China. Good opportunity to meet people from the various approved native English speaking countries,
Cons
The first 2-3 month probation period means a very bad shift, working 3 weekdays + Saturday and Sunday, and always from 2:30p-10:30p or so. Add the commute time on the metro and you get home pretty late. When I left the timetabling was changing and it's not very appealing anymore with forced "admin hours" and inconsistent staggered shifts from day to day regardless of performance. Many under-performers and other clearly unmotivated so-called "teachers" were assigned some of the better shifts in a sort of random lottery across teams. The office hours were increasing to 9. Students are required to rate the lesson every time and, at the time, there were a lot of technical problems which resulted in students giving very poor marks to a teacher for something that was out of their control and which counteracted the positive lesson review they had given. This resulted in declined performance form a reporting standpoint which then has negative consequences on your shift-picking options every 3 months and pay increase at the end of the one year contract. Team leaders are largely unqualified and the environment they operate in is clearly very cliquey. I.e.: Those who seemed to be getting promoted were the ones who went out to have lunch with other team leaders and managers. Center management is too cheap to turn on the air conditioning even during the highly humid and hot months of the Shanghai summer, leaving the thermostats set to a high temperature resulting in man y foreign staff feeling uncomfortable and sweating all day long while in the office.