Korean Job Discussion Forums

[batmanbury]

I'm living in Busan at the moment, and I'm struggling to understand how exactly other teachers begin to build their schedules to make upwards of 5 million a month. Are most of those opportunities in Seoul? Even 3 million would be an accomplishment for me. I have an F visa but so far that's only felt like having been given a key to some door I've never seen.

Perhaps this is just bad timing? Is it not the right season to find jobs here? What strategies are other part timers or tutors using to find not just one but multiple jobs? Surely it's much more than lurking the job ads on Dave's and Koreabridge...

Should I just be "out there" meeting people, or making cold calls to hagwons?

I keep seeing threads of teachers whipping out and slamming their proverbial salary dicks on the table and I just feel like I'm missing something.

[World Traveler]

Start a recruiting company or open up a hagwon. That's where the big money is.

[batmanbury]

[s.tickbeat]

I got a great job by approaching an old boss - who I knew to be straight-up - when he was weak (needed someone in 3 weeks, because the replacement teacher didn't have their paperwork in order yet) and negotiating hard for myself.

[PRagic]

A lot of people were making 5+ million/month 10 and even 15 years ago. You have your F visa, so you decide. If you have the credentials and experience you can work a university job with an open schedule and full term breaks.

You can work around your sched and do privates. Those who did well with this route started out with one or two students in an apartment complex and then let the ajuma network ply its magic. Within a few months they had multiple students in multiple classes in blocked times.

Others I knew used to write practice exam test questions and then sell them to publishers or large prep academies. Some also wrote a continuing series os articles about learning English for magazines and newspapers

I even knew a handful of people with decent voices who made great coin recording English education materials.

I've been out of ESL for a long time, but if I were in the market now, I'd be looking to use tech a bit more, maybe via SKYPE lessons or something.

Please don't ask how you come by opportunities to get into these types of work. Like any other business, knowledge, networks, and opportunity are not going to be gifted. Who wants competition from someone handed the job on a plate? Definitely not the people who paid their dues, learned, networked and worked their way up the income food chain.

If you work at a university, however, put out some feelers to other foreign teachers. Sometimes people actually get too much work to handle and could use the help to deal with the overflow.

[batmanbury]

[PRagic]

Now you're talking! Best of luck to you. Threres a lot going on. Once you get your finger on the pulse, things should happen for you.

[mike in brasil]

I think it's Busan. Seoul just has way many more opportunities.

It shouldn't be too hard for you to hit the 4M/mo. mark if you work 2 afterschool programs in Busan though.

At least money goes further in Busan.

[singerdude]

I was lucky enough to get a 12 hour/week uni job 2 months after getting my F2. I also looked on Worknplay and found some camp jobs during my vacation time. Eventually through contacts I got some privates. I eventually gave up the camp jobs and got some part time company jobs from http://www.worknplay.co.kr/

After a year and a half of doing this, I decided to open up my own gongbubang (study room) and did a lot of advertising (flyers, banners, etc). Slowly but surely, students joined and eventually I had 15 students, which I took with me to open a hagwon. Now I have 20 students, plus my uni job and part time jobs. 20 students may not be a lot, but I'm optimistic I will get more. I opened my hagwon only 3 months ago though so I'm quite satisfied so far.

It won't happen overnight, but if you're patient you will get there.

[Malislamusrex]

First thing is get a good uni job as your base. After that it depends on what you want. If you want to teach children the jobs are easy to get. If you want to do corporate classes get a recruiter, get recommendations from your corporate student and then you can pick and chose what you do. In Busan you are going to get between 40-60k a class + travel.

[FDNY]

Some of the above posters are correct. Get a good base like a uni job or afterschool program. (forget hagwons entirely) Then in the evenings concentrate on privates. Design and print out a flyer, with your picture on it, then pay for posting it in the lobbies of wealthy apartment buildings. Charge at least 50,000KRW/50min. Once you get the ball rolling you will probably get a waiting list. I have about a three month waiting list for new students. I teach 17 private classes a week. That's 3.4M right there.