Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ebes]

Hi guys, I'm new on here, and my girlfriend and I are just going through the initial trauma of internet research, first contract inspection and subsequent triple-revision, a recruiter (asknow.ca) that supposedly helps the first timers but is only interested in making money off of schools (ie they forwarded us the first version of the contract with no salary listed or our names on it) and so forth.

My question about this recruiter-school, little river is the following. The director gave us 2 emails, and the first one pretty much gave us a reasonably balanced report, though any of the neutral statements were never about the school itself, the school was all good according to him. I know contracts are not really as big a deal in SK as they are in North America.

We emailed him a few times, but as soon as we emailed the second person, the first emailed us back telling us the second was too busy at the moment to respond, so hed answer our questions instead. should this ring the bad bells of RUNTHEHELLAWAY? or should we persist with a contract that the recruiter and school are currently revising for the 2nd or 3rd time ,and trust that this guy isnt being paid? Should we try to get a former employee teacher's email from the recruiter?

Paranoia, yes. Especially after spending as much time on this site as I have recently. shit, this seems like a huge gamble sometimes.

[icicle]

My first thought was "yes" it is a risk because you haven't been able to get an email reply from the second person ... But if they really wanted to fool you ... All they had to do was to send you a reply claiming to be the second person ... So there may actually not be a problem ... Or there could be ... It is not certain ... But then any response from third parties may be biased one way or the other .... So you need to consider the whole picture .... And not getting a response from a second person doesn't in itself make it a bad school or a poor risk

[CentralCali]

[CHUMCHABUNGA]

Hey OP,

Im on the same boat as you buddy, I've been using recruiters and the whole ordeal seems shady. I agree with you that it all seems like a big gamble. Perhaps we'll both take a leap of faith. You know the saying-- to get that fruit you gotta go out on a limb!!

Goodluck!

[htrain]

I can tell you that if I went down to the bar where all the foreign teachers hang out here I would have a hard time selecting one I would even trust to make my sandwich at Burger King. What's that tell you?

[ttompatz]

The devil is in the details. READ the contract VERY CAREFULLY.

Post it in the contract review thread or better yet, READ THE DAMN THREAD and see what should and what should NOT be in the contract.

Make sure EVERYTHING is defined in writing so it doesn't come back to bite you in the ass later.

The problem lies in poorly worded contracts that get interpreted in ways you could not imagine.

Add to that, newbies who can't be bothered to READ the labor act (it's only a few pages and is posted above here as well as linked to the current versions) but will give you a MUCH better idea of what you are ENTITLED to and when the boss is screwing with you.

Take your time. There is NO RUSH. Any place that tells you that you need to hurry is definitely NOT in your best interests and the reason for the rush is often trying to replace a runner or WORSE YET, trying to get you to sign a bad contract and accept a bad deal and get committed before you learn how bad it really is.

.

[New Luck Toy]

Hey, teachers lie anyway. I have seen it. Call it Stockholm Syndrome or whatever, but it happens for sure. Go for ex-teachers if you can. Ask very detailed questions too.

[Nowhere Man]

Why use recruiters?

They're getting a cut of your pay.

If I were new, I would just go for one of the big chain schools. Probably YBM -Sisa.

This ensures you're not going to find yourself in some weird, isolated situation. It also means you'll get to meet a lot of people and network. It also means you have at least some kind of teaching support.

Do that for a year. Then, after being in country for a year, you'll be far better equipped to check out other offers and whether the potential couple thousand won an hour is really worth it. You can go visit a school, be able to ask around about a school, and be able to do the same for recruiters.

I'm not saying it's a dream job, but I'd recommend new people sticking to the beaten path.

And one more thing. Openings at the big chains are far more fluid, and they generally don't use recruiters. As such, they may not be advertising, but may have openings now or fairly soon.

[Longun]

As one of those people you would'nt trust to make a sandwhich thanks a lot.I think it is amusing that you come on here in a cowardly fashion and make a remark like that. Come into Beer and Girls and say that nonsense.I am guessing you don't live here anymore.

People in that bar go out of their way to be helpful perhaps it is you that has the problem. I guess we'll find out who you are eventually and we'll have hard words you coward.It sucks me off when people come here for a year put no effort in and blame the long termers.

Why do you have such a problem with people who enjoy a drink and a laugh.Perhaps you spend too much time hiding under you bed.Frankly. Every time you post rubbish like that it does the community no favours. What you need is a good spanking you spoilt , childish fool.I know who you are, you are the invisible man or woman J.

[htrain]

[Longun]

To the couple- I am sorry you are having these problems. I have been here for a few years so maybe I can be helpful. My email is [email protected] if you want to contact me urgently. We try our best to foster a community spirit, but it is difficult with anal assailants around. Let us move forward and ignore this pignorant, social retard.

I can only reply to the idiot, career adviser in kind.� The Community is very sorry we were not able to meet you high standards of sandwich making, intellectual mass debate and are in tears that we have such low lives�. I would like to concentrate on what is important and that is sadly not you. We live our lives why don�t you or go back to Uranus.�I don�t want to seem childish but I can�t help it. Have one for you and one for your dog-on the house mate

[CentralCali]

[Atavistic]

Recruiters got no cut of my GEPIK pay.

OP, I TOLD my replacement at my first hogwon NOT to take the job. (I was fired AFTER he was hired, but my boss still refused to admit that she wanted to fire me and claimed it was a spur-of-the-moment decision.) He took it anyway, used to email me every once in a while about how great the job was, and was fired in the eleventh month.

Idiot.

I was told by the teachers at my second hogwon that it was a fine job, they always got paid, etc. Less than 5 months later I was homeless because she hadn't paid any rent and I was also missing over 2 million won and some furniture that she stole from me. (And my coworkers were missing over 11 and 8 million won each). Still haven't seen that money more than a (several Labor Board meetings, a court ruling, and prosecutor after her) year later.

My THIRD job in Korea (and the first contract I finally finished--thank kimchi!), the teacher gave me a very honest, accurate assessment of the public school job and my coteachers. She told the truth.

I'm giving these stories just to get you to understand that people can tell the truth (I did at job one, former teacher did at job three) and people can lie lie lie (job two). Take anything anyone in Korea tells you with a huge lump of salt.

[Longun]

Frankly are about as interesting as a hermit's diary.Perhaps you might visit a Procotologist to remove all of the backed up s--t you have internally.

[garykasparov]