Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gideon]

I have an interview with Kyungwon Univ. Language Center. I was going through my old emails and found this uni i applied to 2 yrs ago. So i decided to send an updated resume and managed to snag an interview.

Its been a couple years since i saw the posting about this job, but i cant remember what they offer.

If anyone on this board works there or has any info about the conditions, e.g. salary, housing, teaching hours, vacation time, summer winter camps.. ect.. it would be appreciated.

cheers.

[Gideon]

update.. i got a call from the uni today. I asked about teaching hours and they said 3 hrs per day in class and 1 hr is online. when i asked about vacation time he said, i will call you on monday to give you more detail, as its a bit complicated.

I reckon they dont offer the 4 months vacation like most unis.. or they do, but expect you to work OT hours.

[TECO]

I wouldn't take that as a sign of good things to come!
But who knows...

[Gideon]

Gotta bump this one.

I do have some more info about this job. I was emailed this information today for the 2008 contract conditions.

2008 Contract condition

1. Master�s degree holders related to (English Education/ TESOL) + Over 2yrs ESL experience in Teaching

: 3,100,000 won per month

18 hrs per week

2. Master�s degree holders related to (English Education/TESOL) + Less than 2yrs ESL experience in English teaching

: 2,900,000 won

18 hours per week

3. Other Master�s degree holders Or Bachelor degree holders related to English or Education major + Over 1 year ESL experience

: 2,750,000 won

18 hours per week


3. Other Bachelor�s degree holders

: 2,650,000 won

18 hrs per week

* All teachers should teach during either summer or winter vacation with extra pay.

* housing allowance offered ( not specified)


If anyone works at this place or has any info it would be appreciated.

[Intrepid]

This seems decent. At least for an MA with more than two years of experience. If the overtime rate for summer is around 40k or so you could save some money.

I cannot believe the University of Suwon listing--still near the top of the Korean job board. That has to be the worst I've seen.

[bassexpander]

Those pay rates are good news.

My uni finally upped pay this year, as well, although 2.4 is the newbee (BA or MA) base for 15 hours a week.

Given the cutbacks at places like SNU, teachers may, one day, decide that smaller schools can be better places to work.

[Darkness]

Can someone pm me some links to Uni jobs and where to apply.

Thanks

[MarionG]

Ditto !

[PRagic]

"My uni finally upped pay this year, as well, although 2.4 is the newbee (BA or MA) base for 15 hours a week. "

GOOD GAWD. That was my starting salary in 1998...no, wait, it was 2.5!

Pay bases in ESL for universities and unigwons have stagnated in Korea. Not a bad place to work, but not too much for the long term prospects.

[bassexpander]

That's base. OT here is about 30,000 an hour, if it's after 6pm, which all of mine is. Not a bad deal.

I also have a fully-paid (well, they take out 50,000 in utilities) 2 BR apartment, and a new 8 pyung office with a sink, all to myself. The vacation is only about 4 1/2 months paid, but I usually elect to teach winter/summer school for double monthly pay two months of that.

[Intrepid]

Korea University just posted with 41 million per year base. A step up. It's in Jochiwon, which is not great, but good pay.

[PRagic]

1) That first job of mine I mentioned also provided a 32 pyung place for my wife and I. Overtime rates were around 30K, but I never chose to work overtime on campus. It's a matter of fairness in my book. They pay 1) below market rates for instruction, and 2) pay less than time and a half for overtime hours. I say let them hire another teacher. See where that goes. Not.

2) The Korea University job sounds more along the lines of what university programs should be paying, but watch out. That's only around 3.4/month, which several other places pay (in better locations) for people with premo qualifications. Also, Korea U. has become notorious for requiring stupid amount of contact hours and campus duties. With any outside potential, I'd take a straight, no-strings-attached 15 hours at 2.5 over a 30+ hour 3.4 job any day.

People seem to forget that:

1) Pay (for ESL jobs) really hasn't gone up at universities in 10 years. If pay rates have increased, it hasn't been by much.

2) Housing? Keep it. In my experience, it's always better to be out of university housing. I'd take either a higher salary or the allowance. I'd avoid jobs that make university housing mandatory.

3) While pay has stagnated, contact hours and mandatory camps (a joke) have increased. After almost 15 years here, I have not seen ESL programs at Korean universities develop past the 'hey, we have foreigners here...so let's make more off of them!' attitude. Little is given to the thoughts of the foreign teaching staff. Chalk part of this up to the hierarchy ingrained in the society, and part of it up to parochial bosses who rotate in and out of management positions.

4) The quality of teachers has gone up, but they're not getting compensated for it. The system is slow to change from its roots of employing transatory, less-that-qualified instructors. Indeed, many institutions still seek out this type of employee as the bottom line matters more than the quality of education.

[bassexpander]

Perhaps Korean Universities don't see the benefit of paying a lot extra for overqualified foreign teachers?

I'm interested in reading some new material over vacation, and I put this thread up, but haven't gotten any responses:

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=107085


I hear a lot of complaints about wages not increasing above a certain level, but from where I'm standing, people with qualifications above an MA aren't exactly breaking new ground in the field around here.

What's the point of paying a doctor to do a nurse's job?

Then again, maybe it's a "chicken & egg" thing... the Ph.D's may not be interested in busting their tails until they feel they will be compensated correctly for their hard work? I know of one Ph.D. who wrote me (on the topic of foreign Ph.D. compensation), and I certainly can sympathize with that individual's situation.

[TECO]

[Gideon]

Here is an update to my interview that took place this morning at Kyungwon University.

First, I have to start by saying how terribly unstructured this interview was.

A week b4 my interview I was asked to email them , the attachment they sent me called, "INTERVIEW CARD". It�s basically a brief overview of your resume (CV).

This morning I got there about 30 minutes b4 my interview and found no one waiting outside or even a notice on the door with directions. In case you are wondering, no directions to the building were emailed to me and I only had the contact number given in the email.

About 15 minutes later I found the building and room, after they put a whitie on the phone to give me clear directions.

I eventually make my way toward the interview room, where I see the Korean guy I initially had contact with from previous emails, waiting outside the room, when at this point he gives me a handout that outlines a brief overview of how the interview will be conducted. And then asks me if I happen to have the "INTERVIEW CARD" with me, since the dumb $%T forgot it. Thanks to my experience with previous interviews i thought they might not be organized, so I came prepared with my interview card, expecting someone to ask for it.

Below is the handout given to me word for word:

Dear all applicants,

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to you all. I hope you relax and perform your best at the interview.

The interview procedure is as a follows:

1) You have about 20 minutes to prepare for a lesson plan designed for a low-intermediate level undergraduate class. The class time is 50 minutes. The class has 25 students, who range in age from 18 - 21 years. You have some portions to teach taken from the SMART CHOICE, level 2, by Oxford University Press.

2) You have 5 minutes to give a presentation on your lesson plan. Talk us through how you would handle your lesson.

3) You have 4 minutes to answer the questions regarding your presentation and other personal or work-related questions.

4) You may ask questions for a minute.

5) The interview panel has five members: dean of academic affairs and head of the external affairs of Kyungwon University, and director and two program coordinators of the Kyungwon International Centre.

6) You can expect to hear from us in 2 weeks via email & SMS.

First of all, I was given maybe 10 minutes at best to prepare for this mock lesson , which 5 minutes was used for reading. They handed us a plain piece of paper to make notes on. How unprofessional this process is.. Why not email the candidates b4 hand so that the panel of 5 members can see how a teacher conducts a lesson they are fully prepared for RATHER than drop it on them the last minute. Sure, perhaps they want to see how u can teach under this kind of pressure or act like an English monkey. Either way, they should have informed the candidates about conducting a lesson plan prior to this interview.

Second, they asked me some typical interview questions and that was fine. HOWEVER, they only allowed us 1 minute to ask questions about the university. And when I did get to ask a question to the only whitie in the room among the panel, the Korean lady across from her cut me off and said if I have any questions u may ask the Korean man outside, after we finish. But of course I pressed on and asked regardless. My question was , "what is your position at this university and how long have you worked here, and what is the typical teaching load for teachers here". She said 3 yrs but this is my last semester as I am leaving. During which point, I could read the Korean lady's body language across from her, and she looked uncomfortable about my question and then basically cut me off again and told me that�s enough questions and for me to ask buddy outside. But I pressed on again and asked the whitie , "Since I applied to this university I was not given answers to basic questions like, salary, vacation time, teaching hours, housing, whether OT is mandatory and how is the teaching schedule structured , i.e. blocked, Monday � Friday, 5 days a week, split shifts.. ect, could u please elaborate on this?�

Only answer I got was , your teaching schedule will consists of NON credit classes during the semester and throughout the summer and winter breaks you are required to work a NON-CREDIT program. This is what we call a UNI-WON, a hogwon using the university name. In addition classes start either in the morning at 7am or late in the evening at 7pm.. hmmm.. sounds like your teaching adults.. is this an adult school.. they were not very informative to say the least.

Third, even though they know I am bound by my contract to work exclusively at my university until it expires, they have the nerve to ask if I would work a "program" in December.. hmmm.. At this point I had no interest in this place what-so-ever, actually I lost interest minutes after I sat down. Unless this was a trick question, but I doubt it and answered with, "It�s not only illegal for me to work elsewhere without my employers consent, but it�s also breaking the terms and agreements in my contract that does NOT expire until Feb. 2008.

My conclusion:

This place sounds like a UNI-WON, a university that wants to take advantage of the hogwon market by using their name to operate an academy.. And sure they might throw in a few uni classes to make it look like a uni position, BUT they can�t hide behind the fact that this place IS NOT A TYPICAL UNI JOB!

I�d recommend staying on the cautionary side with this place if anyone is applying. And be FIRM, by not allowing them only 1 minute for a question and answer period pertaining to the position they are seeking. The whole point of an interview is for them to see what u have to offer and how you can contribute to their organization, AND the opportunity for you to see what they have to offer. SINCE it wasn�t discussed to me b4 hand!!
I think this place wants to "own" you. From what I gather, there isn't much vacation time for this position. I reckon maybe 4 weeks a year, since I was told the summer and winter programs run 10 weeks... sounds like a glorified hagwon job to me!!!

Good luck future candidates!!!