Korean Job Discussion Forums

[H&A]

Just thought we'd finish off this thread by saying we've both now got jobs in the same school after being in Seoul for a week. Actually, we didn't need to do much door-to-door searching (although we did check out the Pyeongcheon area - thanks Glen! - which we can also recommend as a really nice area to live). Basically, after posting an ad here saying we were actually in Seoul, we got plenty of recruiters baying for our 'custom'. We can't emphasise enough how helpful it is to be here in person to check out the schools. All the offers were pretty similar (apart from some weird and varied contractual clauses), but the attitude and standard of the setups we saw were hugely wide-ranging. As was the housing (one school offered us a tiny studio with no furniture except for a single bed. When we asked if we could maybe get a chair, the director asked: "What do you want a chair for?"). Anyway, the school we've gone for contacted us directly (bypassing the recruiters) to make us a really great offer. It's in the Bundang area, which is a way out from central Seoul, but is really nice, and we feel close enough to the metropolis to be happy). So, now we just have to do the visa run and the fun begins...

A word about recruiters, as they get mentioned often. Some got quite stroppy when we didn't like the school they showed us - others were really understanding and did their best to meet our needs. We had good experiences with Niki at EZ Consulting, and Seonjoo at Korea Global Connections, and would recommend both (Niki was one of the few people to offer us posts while we were still in the UK, and was very dedicated to helping us as best she could). Hope this is of use to anyone else thinking about taking the plunge and just showing up here on a tourist visa. We reckon it's the best course of action, particularly now we've seen the varying standards and attitudes of schools here. To all that replied to our original post: thank you, your advice has been invaluable.

[Holyjoe]

Congrats and welcome to Korea.

Where in the UK are you guys from, and most importantly what's your football team?

[just because]

Good to see you did the legwork and found the school you wanted. let that show everyone that it is much better to come here and look for yourself then to use a recruiter from overseas with zero knowledge of what the school really has to offer. Good job

[H&A]

cheers guys! We're from Portsmouth and Birmingham respectively and our football teams are Arsenal and West Brom. Thanks to the genius of ESPN at our motel we've been able to watch Arsenal live at midnight two Saturdays in a row. Get in!