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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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 Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 7:16 pm Post subject: Newbies who shouldn't settle for standard 2.0ish jobs |
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A lot of posts keep on popping on this forum from newbies who are asking if they should accept a certain job. In a lot of cases the jobs are the normal crappy 2.0 million a month ones being considered by people who could often do MUCH better.
The sorts of qualifications that newbies could have that'd let them avoid the standard gigs:
1. Having a BA/BS from any school in any of the top tiers of the latest US News & World Report college ranking (or basically any other college ranking system). Koreans love rankings and they love the idea of their kids being taught by people whose school is high on some ranking. If you graduated from a relatively good US school, shoot for a test prep hagwon (starting pay: 30,000 won/hour in most of them). They don't advertise on Dave's much, but do some google searches for SAT and Korea and you'll find them, they all do MASSIVE hiring at the beginning of the summer because of the influx of boarding school kids coming home for vacation.
2. Having a BEd (a year or two of teaching experience is good too). If you're a qualified teacher what the *beep* are you doing even thinking about accepting a job that accepts people who've never had an hour of teacher training in their lives? That's just selling yourself short. If you have a BEd you should be shooting for 2.5 million at the least and if you have some teaching experience go for international schools (www.iss.edu is an international school recruitment system for schools all over the world, they cost a bit but they're the real deal, my parents went through them when they got jobs in South America and Europe). Some of the crappier international schools don't pay much better than hagwons but they give you sooooo much more vacation.
3. Having a Masters Degree in anything and at least a little teaching experience. What you want is probably a university job. Less hours and a lot more vacation at even the crappier universities.
4. The right demographics/appearance. Korean schools want people who are: not ugly or fat, North American, young, female or half of a couple and white. Often these things count for more than qualifications. If you have them try to negotiate your salary up a bit higher.
5. Possession of an F-series visa. If you have an F series visa thanks to being married to a Korean or being ethnically Korean schools can hire you much quicker since you don't need to deal with as much visa paperwork. Korean schools often need people RIGHT NOW (thanks to runners or bad planning) and with schools in that position people with F series visas have a lot of bargaining power. Use it.
6. It's often amazing how little people with a lot of teaching experience settle for. I know people who've been here for most of a decade whose pay hasn't broken 2.5. Sheesh, show a little ambition. If you have some experience at least shoot for a university out in the sticks. They're not so picky and if they don't pay well the hours are short and they've got lots of vacation.
7. Got the sort of nice resume padders/life experience thingies that can be helpful back home? Did a lot of cool community service? Had a disabled sibling who you tutored and helped succeed? Travelled around Africa one summer and saw the suffering of the third world? Well, nobody here really gives a *beep*... |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 10:46 pm Post subject: |
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| I agree with everything except about the F spousal visa. If you have one of those, you aren't a newbie. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 12:15 am Post subject: Re: Newbies who shouldn't settle for standard 2.0ish jobs |
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| Saxiif wrote: |
| A lot of posts keep on popping on this forum from newbies who are asking if they should accept a certain job. In a lot of cases the jobs are the normal crappy 2.0 million a month ones being considered by people who could often do MUCH better. |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't all newbies do better than 2.0 million per month these days?
Good post anyway though- a lot of people need to aim higher. |
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sconner
Joined: 26 Jan 2006
Location: South Carolina
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:01 am Post subject: Re: Newbies who shouldn't settle for standard 2.0ish jobs |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
| Saxiif wrote: |
| A lot of posts keep on popping on this forum from newbies who are asking if they should accept a certain job. In a lot of cases the jobs are the normal crappy 2.0 million a month ones being considered by people who could often do MUCH better. |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't all newbies do better than 2.0 million per month these days?
Good post anyway though- a lot of people need to aim higher. |
They can, but do they try? That's the point here. |
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spliff
Joined: 19 Jan 2004
Location: Khon Kaen, Thailand
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 2:22 am Post subject: |
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| I possess a "top tier" degree, can I get a good job? |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:11 am Post subject: |
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| spliff wrote: |
| I possess a "top tier" degree, can I get a good job? |
No. |
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Mi Yum mi
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:24 am Post subject: |
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| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| I agree with everything except about the F spousal visa. If you have one of those, you aren't a newbie. |
How so? If you are an ethnic Korean you can come over with an F. If you married a Korean back home...the same thing. |
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Lekker
Joined: 09 Feb 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 4:15 pm Post subject: |
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| You can come over for the first time on an F if one of your parents is Korean. |
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Mi Yum mi
Joined: 28 Jan 2008
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 5:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Lekker wrote: |
| You can come over for the first time on an F if one of your parents is Korean. |
Which is what I said. |
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JustJohn
Joined: 18 Oct 2007
Location: Your computer screen
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| Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm. I think my school is ranked #17 in the world. I got put in the public school system where it's 2.0 base salary for noobs. Are you saying you think I could be doing 30k per hour at a hagwon?
Though, would it even be worth it? I've heard a fair number of hagwon horror stories. |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 12:19 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| If you have one of those, you aren't a newbie. |
Right, but I just wanted to put that in for completeness. Who knows, maybe some newbie married a Korean in their home country...
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't all newbies do better than 2.0 million per month these days?
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You'd be surprised, especially given how much people exaggerate how much they get paid on Dave's.
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| I possess a "top tier" degree, can I get a good job? |
I would hope so...
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Hmm. I think my school is ranked #17 in the world. I got put in the public school system where it's 2.0 base salary for noobs. Are you saying you think I could be doing 30k per hour at a hagwon?
Though, would it even be worth it? I've heard a fair number of hagwon horror stories. |
What I would do is email out a resume with a cover letter that's centered around pimping your school's ranking. Hell, put the ranking in the title of the email, this isn't exactly the country for being subtle and see what comes up.
It also depends on the country that your school is in, if there's a market for people to study some kind of standardized test to study abroad in your country's schools then you could make some good money, if not you can still do a good bit better than 2.0. Maybe shoot for 2.5
Of course there's risks involved with hagwons (my first hagwon was one of those horror stories), what I'd recommend doing is looking for a hagwon in one of the really rich areas, those tend to be a bit more professional. Or just work at a public school for a year and learn the ropes and then move up once you know more things and can start looking for jobs by word of mouth. |
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Kimchieluver
Joined: 02 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 4:00 am Post subject: |
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| Mi Yum mi wrote: |
| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| I agree with everything except about the F spousal visa. If you have one of those, you aren't a newbie. |
How so? If you are an ethnic Korean you can come over with an F. If you married a Korean back home...the same thing. |
I never said anything about being ethinic Korean, I said F "spousal visa". And yeah you may be a newbie relatively speaking if you married a Korean national back home, but you would have a lot more support and help when you come to Korea wwith your Korean spouse. |
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Saxiif
Joined: 15 May 2003
Location: Seongnam
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| Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:18 pm Post subject: |
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| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| Mi Yum mi wrote: |
| Kimchieluver wrote: |
| I agree with everything except about the F spousal visa. If you have one of those, you aren't a newbie. |
How so? If you are an ethnic Korean you can come over with an F. If you married a Korean back home...the same thing. |
I never said anything about being ethinic Korean, I said F "spousal visa". And yeah you may be a newbie relatively speaking if you married a Korean national back home, but you would have a lot more support and help when you come to Korea wwith your Korean spouse. |
Right, but you get people who have local support here getting screwed over as well. At one of my old jobs one of my colleages was half Korean and a relative of the boss, she and her bf got their salary cut in the middle of their contract, a good number of kyopos with family in the area get screwed around as well, although probably less often than whitey. |
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Larissa
Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Location: Lake Placid, NY
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| Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 2:33 am Post subject: |
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I'm sitting in the Bundang apartment of one of my boarding school students in the US right now, beginning my job search for teaching in Korea starting this summer. The mother of my student has insisted over the last two weeks that I've been here that being female, American, attractive, experienced in teaching both English speakers and Korean students in US schools that I can make a lot more than what schools seem to be offering. I started to feel like that was a bit misguided while perusing the Job-related Discussion Forum until I saw this thread.
I've been teaching in the US for about four years in private schools now and I'm a bit tired of boarding school life. Also I'd like to pick up a little Korean language to help me out when I get back to wherever I get back to.
To get the most money, is it best to strike out solo and send physical cover letters/resumes/photo etc to schools and academies? Or is a recruiter a better bet?
Should I pimp the fact that I've been teaching Korean kids for two years in US boarding schools in my cover letter? I caught that I should talk up my rank of my school.
I'd really like to avoid being one of the unknowing n00bs that settles for far far too little.
Anyway, any other tips on how not to be that newb? |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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