Korean Job Discussion Forums

[moosehead]

have heard different versions don't know who's telling the truth or not - but why tell them bad news? will they find out if you don't say anything?

it seems to be a pretty common occurrence here so now it's my turn i suppose

like to hear what others did

moosehead

[captain kirk]

You're at the school and in the office with the boss who doesn't speak much English. He has a resume in front of him which he can't really read. But a foreigner is there in front of him. He is using his face/character reading powers on you, like Jedi Mind Tricks. He trusts that and takes pride in his ability to discern character from your facial expression(s). He squints a bit, maybe part of this is his unconsciously dectecting one's aura. In all this he might ask, 'did you finish your contract and work there for a year?'. This question is asked in a tense, accusatory way. Even if you were fired, I figure, you worked there for long enough and signed a contract with that school. So I say, 'yes, I worked there for a year'. I know that the Korean boss doesn't want to dig around. He's happily busy with his face-reading powers. Those same powers would have diqualified you earlier, easily, but you've passed. You have a good 'mask'. The bosses usually seem eager to own you, and gungho to make an impulse purchase there on the spot. I think it's funky and charming that bosses rely on personal intuition rather than actual questions like, 'did you work here for a year?'. Or, 'have you ever been fired?'. They know teachers get fired all the time. They themselves have fired teachers. They have amnesia about it and don't go there.

[Sincinnatislink]

That sounds pretty sketch to me, dude.

[captain kirk]

You haven't arrived in Korea yet. Please don't call me, 'Dude'. Anyway, I'm joking around but Korean bosses often, in my experience, seem to be impulse shoppers who rely on non-rational means in making their decision to hire. I've seen them rely on what we in the West would call a 'vibe' from a person to clinch the agreement. If you haven't arrived in Korea yet that would seem 'sketch' to you. It seems 'sketch' to me, too. That's why I mention it, that's why it's funny. Getting hired seems important to us but to a considerable amount of Korean bosses they're just taking on a foreign person who's white and has a pulse; "ok, you're hired, I want to own you now, let's work together".

If you've been introduced via a recruiter I suspect the boss listens to what the recruiter tells them, and looks at the resume in front of him. Mostly he would trust the other Korean, the recruiter. The boss could easily call immigration, but that's legwork. He'd assume the recruiter had done this. He's paying the recruiter a thousand bucks. The recruiter's job is to tart you up, talk you up, to the boss. In the end the boss uses his Korean Jedi Mind Probe to finally decide.

No, I wouldn't tell the employer if I was fired from a previous job because being fired in Korea often means the boss was cheap and didn't want to pay severance from the get-go, never intended to honour the 'contract'. Part of the interview might be the boss deciding to himself (via Korean Jedi Mind Probe, of course), 'can/would this foreigner be fooled, cheated?'. Previous firings, if he consulted the record/previous bosses, aren't necessarily trouble, then. If the teacher was reportedly hard working, previous firings would indicate exploitable weakness which is like the smell of fresh morning coffee and donuts to a hagwon owner, especially firings in the final quarter of the contract(s).

[formerflautist]

I told my recruiter when it happened. If the school asked then I would have been honest about the situation. I just finished a year's contract with a public school. I was hired there after being fired from a hogwan. What my recruiter told my public school I don't know.

[waynehead]

Honesty's the best policy.

[Sincinnatislink]

[TECO]

Don't bring it up if you're not asked.
I've never been asked if I've been fired.

Is this a typical interview question in Korean hogwans?