Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Czarjorge]

I've been looking for a position for two day, and between responding to jobs on Dave's and some other sites, and posting my resume on Dave's, I've been flooded with offers. A few have even sent tentative contracts.

So, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, and though I've been researching this for over a year now I've never really looked into what an ideal contract for a newbie would be.

What should I be looking for as a newbie?

[climber159]

What you should be looking for depends on what your qualifications are. Do you hold a teaching license? How about a graduate degree? What was/were your major(s) in undergraduate and graduate school? Do you have a TESL certificate (or something similar)? How much teaching experience do you have? And, in what capacity? These will all influence your salary and the quality of job you'll likely be able to land.

As far as the remainder of the contract...it's mostly standard throughout the industry so long as you avoid the schools who will try to weasel out of certain standard benefits.

Things to look for in the contract (in all cases you should read the wording carefully and make sure it is as difficult as possible for it to be misunderstood in a way that would make a particular benefit unavailable to you):
1. Housing (should be fully furnished)
2. Severance pay (1 month's salary upon completion of your 1-year contract)
3. National Pension (4.5% from you, 4.5% from you employer)
4. National Health Plan (50/50)
5. Monthly hours you will be expected to be at work. Daily hours you will be expected to be at work. Total daily, weekly, and monthly "teaching" hours.
6. Transportation to and from Korea (flight tickets)
7. Dress code.
8. Overtime expectations and overtime compensation (hourly rate). I think the crappy hagwons offer about 20,000KRW/hr.

That's what I've got off the top of my head at the moment as I sit here in front of my computer wasting away while my students take their final exams. I'm sure others will add to this.

[icicle]

Make sure that it does clearly include pension and health insurance with half paid by you and half by the school. You will get some contracts to look at that don't include it.

Make sure it includes a clear statement of the hours that you will be required to teach - and be at school. There will probably be some time that you will be at school and not teaching a class. Usually something like "work hours are from .... to ...." and "X teaching hours a week"

What you should be looking for in a newbie contract in general is not really different from what anyone is looking for ... The pay might increase or the type of job you can get might change but the things included in a good contract don't really change that much ... Though it is true that more "bad" contracts are accepted by newbies ... But you do not have to settle for second best dodgy contracts just because you are a newbie.

[jkelly80]

A few ideas. I'm in public, and ours aren't negotiable at the outset, so I'm not sure how this back and forth would work.

Be sure to specify how long a teaching hour is for (40 min, 50 min, etc). If possible, get the contract changed to say the binding language is English. Also, if it says "may be required to work weekends" try to eliminate that or stipulate some kind of notice (3 or 4 weeks in advance)

They may say it's ridiculous, but stranger things have happened. Demand outstrips supply, they just don't want you to know that. There's plenty of jobs out there.

[Dome Vans]

In short:

a. Teaching hour outlined.
b. Teaching week (Try and avoid contracts that make no mention of Weekend not being freetime.
c. 30 lessons maximum a week, anymore and you'll be looking at burnout after a while. As you've seen Czar don't even think about SLP.
d. Duties outlined clearly (nothing with duties include but not limited to rubbish)
e. Pay day no later than 10th of the month
f. Salary to be paid into a bank account nominated by the Native teacher.
g. Overtime of no less than 20 000 won per teaching hour (45 minutes)
h. Severance is one months pay.
i. Tax (Not a fixed amount and definitely not 3.3%)
j. Pension paid (4.5% each from you and 4.5% from the employer)
k. NHIC health insurance. Accept nothing less. On no account accept one without it or one that has accident insurance or one with a private health insurance company.
l. All these deductions should be outlined in a payslip.
m. Never accept shared accomodation.
n. All items in the housing included in the contract. A/C important.
o. Be wary of housing deposits for hagwons and when you receive it back.
p. Sick leave, at least 3 days paid sick leave accompanied with a sick note
q. Notice period of no less than 30 days and no more than 30 days. You sign it with longer you have to stick to it.
r. Outbound airfare is to be waived if you complete six months of the contract.

Actually that was quite long, sorry about. There's probably extra bits that I've forgotten but I'm sure others will add some. Be aware of vaguely written contracts, these will most certainly favour the school if a dispute ever arises.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Dome Vans]

[Czarjorge]

Do you hold a teaching license?
No

How about a graduate degree?
Nope

What was/were your major(s) in undergraduate school?
English, but does that really matter?

Do you have a TESL certificate (or something similar)?
No

How much teaching experience do you have?
Quite a bit though not in the standard manner.

And, in what capacity?
In college I tutored English composition for two years. Is this valuable at all? I've also been a boss most of my working life so I've trained and taught employees in Customer Service, Social Service, Retail and Recruiting jobs both how to do the job and how to do the job better. Is real world work experience applicable at all as far as the average Korean hagwon owner is concerned?

Thanks for your feedback.

I'm thinking of asking for 2.1-2.3 as a base salary. I've got English tutoring experience and an actual English degree. I don't think that's asking too much.

The question is, though, how far should I push to get an ideal contract? Don't I risk burning bridges if I push too hard? Even if I get the job and come over is the Korean culture one where hard nosed bargaining would be respected or considered an insult? (My impression based on reading is the latter.)

Also, in reading around here there's lots of mentioning of trading off pay for better hours. Is that really feasible? Most of the shift are 2/3-9/10 five days a week. How would you bargain down the hours without coming of as an ass? I'm gotten salaries bumped several grand at jobs stateside, but never negotiated for a shorter work week.

[Dome Vans]

Chances are Czarjorge, after posting your resume showing your credentials the job offers that you received would not be fit to use in the toilet. The SLP one is testament to that.

My advice for your first year is to take a PS job. Get your benefits paid, health insurance, pension and severance. Have the low working hours that you crave (22 hours) and get more holiday than you would than if you're working in a Hagwon. I think it's easier to find a ok PS job first time round than it is to find a ok Hagwon job. There are definitely good hagwon jobs out there but they take a good bit of searching especially first time round. I spent two months being offered all sorts of rubbish Hagwon jobs, turning down 50 in the process before being offered my current EPIK job, best thing I ever did.

Try the PS route first and then move onto a good hagwon gig usually found by a bit of networking and word of mouth from other hagwon teachers.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Czarjorge]