Korean Job Discussion Forums

[badfish77]

So I have a huge dilemma here, and I was hoping for some advice from the vets. The big question here is whether a hagwon with a casual atmosphere is better or worse than a large corporate environment. Read on if you want the nitty gritty.

I'm really torn between two positions.

Position #1: Jukjeon: Kindi's and elementary kids. 10-6ish. The foreign teacher I've been working with is awesome. She gave me the emails of every foreign teacher working there. They're paid on time, get two 500K won vacation bonuses/yr for flights to other Asian countries. The director takes them on day trips around Korea twice a year. They've all extended or renewed their contracts at least once, in some cases several times. The pay is 2 mil. which is .3 less than the offer I got from another hagwon in Seoul. But I have a great feeling about it.

Position #2: YBM- Ilsan, near near Daehwa subway station (line 3). Sounds great. I'm fairly certain it's grades 3 and up. It's with an established company, offers paid training at the corporate office, seems to be in a sweet location. The personnel guy that I talked to said that I'll likely get more than 2 mil. though I don't know what because my criminal record check is in the works and they don't offer contracts until the documents are ready to go. They've been around a long time, offer a set curriculum, relocation bonus.

I'm fairly certain they'll offer me the position, but it's a position starting at the end of March which I'm not particularly keen on as my lease expires at the end of Feb. Also, since I know I'm leaving my job here, my heart's not in it anymore.

And while I'm posting, has anyone heard of IJQ Academy? (another offer that's not described above)

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[soviet_man]

If you take on Kinder, then you can forget about having any free time in the mornings and early afternoons.

The one [and perhaps only] benefit of working at a hakwon is not starting work until about 3pm in most cases.

3pm to 9pm will always beat 10am to 6pm hands down.

Don't sacrifice your free time for the same pay.

[David Wieder]

A couple of weeks ago I had an interview and was offered a position at YBM in Busan. The pay was 2.1 mil but they do not offer a housing stipend, only key money. I haven't been to Korea yet (I took an offer from another company, will start in Feb) but as far as I can tell an apartment will be at least 300,000 - probably more. When you deduct the cost of housing from the pay that makes this salary the lowest of all Korean ESL jobs. Public school positions also pay 1.8 but you only teach 22 hours instead of YBM's 30. Additionally, I think working for YBM involves a split shift - sounds miserable to me. On the other hand, you get to teach adults instead of little kids.

For comparisons sake - the hagwon I ended up with pays 2.1 and provides housing or a 400,000 a month housing allowance (and no key money).

[Atavistic]

[badfish77]

I guess I'd have to agree I'm with soviet_man here a bit. After several years in the corporate world, it might be nice to be able to sleep in for a change. The YBM position I'm looking at involves showing up to work around 2 or 3.

But the teachers at this other job sound awesome. There are no guarantees of who I'm going to be working with if I go with YBM, but I'd imagine there's a certain personality type that's drawn to this type of thing...

Forigive me for the stream of consciousness rambling. So many decisions, so little time!

[PGF]

[badfish77]

That's what I'm gravitating toward- happy foreign staff. I think that ultimately, knowing that I'll be in a good place with good people is worth a whole lot more than a few $100/month anyway.

Problem is, I applied directly to the school and have been corresponding with their head teacher, a Canadian. She's awesome, emailed me at 4am after norae bang the other night. She asked the director about possibly offering me a bit more, and he didn't go for it.

It just seems like so little money. I just got a killer promotion at my job here- if I stay it will probably work out to about $10K more than I made this year, and I'm doing pretty well, so I keep asking myself if I'm out of my mind to walk away, and into something that I have no idea about. For what? $25K/yr? (yeah, yeah, and the experience of a lifetime- I'm entirely cognizant of what an incredible ride it could be)

I know this is rapidly evolving into something entirely different than the original post, but tell me veterans- if you had to do it all over again, would you?

[Shredd]

I'm in the same boat as you OP. I've been working at the same company here in the states for 2 years and they offered me way more money, a company car, and eventually (maybe 4 yrs down the road) want me to take over the company at which time I would make 6 figures. I played along until early January when I told them about the ESL/Korea thing. It works this way in my mind:

What would I regret more, passing on Korea and keeping the 8-5 office job or impulsively jumping ship and changing my life perspective. I think the choice is obvious, my Dad thinks I'm crazy.

The thing is, you can always come back and pick up where you left off but will you want to???

[badfish77]

Seriously, I'm so with you on having no regrets. I do not want to look back on my life and wonder what might have been.

It's just wild. When I decided I wanted to do this, I was in an entirely different place in my life. Work sucked, I had just gotten out of a relationship (because I didn't want to settle down- which led me to this question, "if I'm not ready to settle down, then why not?"). Now things are just so damn good at work, and my life is working really well for me and I am about to walk into my boss's office and drop a bomb that could very well send her into cardiac arrest?!?!?!

But there's two things that I keep coming back to:

a) there's only so much living that can happen in a cubicle

b) my favorite quote. "A mind stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions."

I've got to just jump, I know that, but it's a scary thing to do.

[hari seldon]

[Shredd]

[Aurora_Redwinters]

I can SO relate to this in my own roundabout way.

It has always been my "dream job" to work for Disney, which I have been for the last 3+ years, although I am doing something I don't want to do long-term. (reservations) I am graduating this spring and I been trying so hard to get someone at Disney higher-up to notice me, offer me suggestions on a career I can make there with my degree (international studies), but I been hitting brick walls for the past year, which is frustrating.

Then, maybe it was fate, I so happen to discover this thing about teaching ESL somewhere like Korea, since Japan is way oversaturate with teachers now. Teaching has always been my second love, and now I can not wait until I graduate in the spring to get the gears moving on getting a job there.

OP, I am no Korea-expert, and I would have to do research on both locations to get a feel for where they are and the vibe there. That said, it sounds like you have a tough choice because both sound great. I would lean towards the first, but ask the foreign teacher that you are talking to if the boss is more willing to increase your salary when it comes time to renew the contract. If so, then you might be more able to get a better amount and still reap all the great benefits.

Plus I haven't heard of many hawkon jobs where you get paid to visit other Asian countries! Take that into consideration too.