Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hogwonguy1979]

man the market must be saturated given the app process for this job

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=55247

to do all that for 2.3/month and in Andong

thing is I bet they get 500 apps for it.

[edwardcatflap]

Ridiculous. As if the people doing the hiring are going to bother to plough through all that stuff. Why don't they just ask the people they short
list to provide it to save everyone's time? Mind you for those wages they might find it's not such an onerous task after all.

[timhorton]

It's a good one for a newb to get a foot in the door! The lenghty application process may decrease competition

[Zackback]

I seem to almost always associate Andong University with bad news. I used to jog all the way up there when I lived in Andong. It is quite remote. I guess the best thing about the place are the pretty chicks that go to school there...but that applies to any university so no big deal I guess.

[newb]

[diver]

[No_hite_pls]

[Stan Rogers]

How much do you want to bet some of those writings that are required will be plagairized by somebody.

[thrylos]

[mumblebee]

Hey folks, I work in this dept (until the end of the year) and I just wanted to assure people that it is a pretty good job, and the pay is the same pay you would get at any public uni...not the greatest, but what can ya do?

Vacation time is great, and the students are all English Ed majors; their English level is quite good for it being lil' old Andong. You have a huge amount of freedom in your teaching, and the students are pretty motivated. I have taught the incoming freshies for the past year, and they were wonderful, motivated and fun students. Of course, they get more cynical as they age, but these guys were super-sweet compared to my freshies in Seoul...

I submitted the same stuff required here with my original application. It took me about an hour to pull it together. I consider a decent job opportunity worth an hour of time. If you are well-qualified for the position, you will not have too much trouble getting this kind of application together, since you will almost certainly have syllabi, lesson plans etc. from previous jobs. If this kind of application seems like an overly onerous task, then it could be a sign that you are not the best qualified for the job. More and more unis are starting to ask for this kind of portfolio, as the market gets more competive, and hirers are starting to look beyond the name of your alma mater.

As someone who has assisted with hiring for specialized TESOL jobs I can say that while this kind of application seems like a bit of trouble from the applicants POV, it is a REAL time saver when sifting through the 100s of resumes that land on your desk. With a smaller set of these porfolios in hand, it becomes pretty easy to determine who is best qualified, to say nothing of highlighting those applicants who are willing to 'play ball' versus those who resist and complain about anything perceived as "extra work." If I was hiring again, I would ask for a similar portfolio, although I would prolly ask different questions.


Andong is a pretty small little place, but I ended up liking it a whole lot. The apts are one-rooms, but nice, and there is very good bus service in town. AND...there are practically NO mosquitos here; not sure exactly why, but I smacked only one mosquito the whole year. Anyway, I enjoyed my time here a great deal.

[NYC_Gal 2.0]

It doesn't sound terrible for a first uni job. There are better ones, of course, but for someone who wants to get out of the hagwon/public school grind and get some uni experience as a stepping stone for a better uni job, it's not horrible. The extra-curriculars could be a pain, and the holidays are a bit short, but for the work experience, I'd bet that many would jump at the opportunity.

[Zackback]

There is no way I would spend more than a few minutes applying for a job somewhere.
What a waste of time.

[elquainn]

Why would you even spend a few minutes applying for a job when the guy hiring is probably going to plagiarize your resume? (I agree with the other posters that it's obvious they will be stealing your cover letter/teaching philosophy/lesson plan)

We, the commentariat, need to stick together when facing this creeping professionalism in the Korean ESL market. It is ridiculous to spend literally DOZENS of minutes applying for a job where you make only a couple thousand dollars a month, have to teach 13 hours over 4 days, and get only 2-3 months paid vacation.

Outrageous!

[PRagic]

A complete joke, IMHO. The salary is WAY below par, the university is in the sticks, and when they stick you with writing classes, and they will, you'll be doing twice the work for that low pay.

Those 'other' classes that they WILL have you teaching will also mean that you'll be doing multiple preps, again soaking up more of your time for that low, low salary. The 'head teacher' seems a bit full of himself to boot, but that may be just the way he comes off given his style of writing.

In short, for what they're offering, they're asking entirely too much in the discovery phase. Who knows what the actual job would entail, but it doesn't look promising.

[swashbuckler]