Korean Job Discussion Forums

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Taken from Bored, Trapped in Your Job? http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/career-articles-bored_trapped_in_your_job-495

If you're unhappy with your job -- and everybody around you probably already knows it -- it might be time for a career transition. Results from an Experience.com survey provide some insight into making the change. According to the survey, the top signal that it's time to transition to a new job is not the boss yelling at you. In fact, the number-one warning sign is:

* Your job has become boring. Most people are not in it just for the money. On the contrary, they're looking for something that gives them the chance to make a difference. If, in fact, you're finding a lack of intellectual stimulation and challenge, you have lots of company -- nearly 30 percent of respondents cited this as their biggest indicator it's time to leave a job.

* Another warning signal to workers that it may be time to make a transition is the lack of growth opportunities. If you're in a dead end job, with no place to move (unless a lot of people grow old and retire), you're in trouble. Twenty-two percent of respondents felt trapped in a position with little room for career progression.

* Others felt they were receiving inadequate pay or benefits. It may not all be about money, but some of it certainly is. Do you feel underpaid? Do you have lousy (or no) benefits? Seventeen percent of employees feel the economic pinch, and when that happens, may have to decide whether their job is really worth it.

* Work friends are very important. If your relationships with co-workers have gone bad, that's a definite sign that it's time to move on. Seventeen percent of those surveyed agreed -- if you're not getting along, you're going to feel like you're suffocating.

* Lack of investment in the company's goals/mission. This is more than just a self-esteem thing, but was mentioned by 13% of the respondents as a key factor indicating a career change. You need to be part of the big picture, or you're not in the picture at all.

***
#2 doesn't really apply to teachers since a classroom teacher is a classroom teacher. I've always considered moving to administration as moving 'over', not 'up'. It's related to delivering the service, but not the same ballgame.

Fishead soup · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Location: Korea

"Ever get the feeling you're been cheated"
John Lydon 1978

Cornfed · Joined: 14 Mar 2008

Unfortunately most jobs suck these days, and doing them is simply a matter of survival. To expect to be doing rewarding, mind feeding activities for good rates of pay is an unrealistic dream for most people.

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

Yes, I saw that printed in the Journal of Self-Evident Results.

Rock · Joined: 25 Feb 2005

I believe a lot of this applies. To be honest with you, ESL is kind of a dead-end job. Who here after being in Korea several years has actually made any advancement?

If you leave one job it's usually the same pay with the other. It gets redundant, too, which may be another way of avoiding the word "boring" but sure the heck is true.

I'm thinking about moving on. Things have become just so unprofessional in this job field, if they ever were. What's more, who's going to go home here and say I've taught ESL for five years! They'll say So what.

sojourner1 · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:55 am Post subject:

People will be impressed that you lived and worked over seas. I know every time I tell people during my trips home, many people are envious of the travel, no rent, and amount of vacation time. On account of low pay and stingy corporate employers, most Americans do not get to travel, nor get a rent subsidy, nor have health care insurance, nor have a real vacation that includes time off to go do cool stuff like ride elephants and explore great cities and museums. Only the small upper crust and a few smart ones achieve such things in life.

If you can impress and make new friends in high(er) places upon repatriation, then it's possible good things can come in your favor, but it's necessary to get into a growth industry that actually has something to offer by demanding you to do something for it; not this we are not hiring, we're laying off, and we're paying our people low wages crap I'm seeing all across the board at home. A job like a great management job within a growth industry in a growing well managed company is my dream job. I'd love to be an import/export agent. Who's hiring someone? No one that I know. I found many managers and presidents who'd hire me, but only if I brought money, resources, and expertise to the table; not just a warm body needing a pay check to survive.

I feel I can play it off in positive light that I taught English in Korea for a few years when I'm changing career like the way I'm contemplating. My main concern is the screwed up economy and tough personal financial situation that can arise from competing in a job market of starving over qualified desperate takers.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

In teaching, you want to stab the kids through the eyes with their own sharps until they are dead, dead, dead.

Starla · Joined: 06 Jun 2008 Location: Seoul

Yeah, I felt the same way about my last job on all those points. In the end, I couldn't motivate myself to work there any longer so I felt it was time to go before I became a slacker. Everything was so formulaic and I felt like I was just going through the motions. Like cornfed says, this is the way most jobs are though. Jobs nowadays are more rewarding now than they were at one time I would imagine just for the sheer number of different types of positions.

But for those who are looking for more than just a steady paycheck and want to continually have a sense of personal self-satisfaction, growth, mental stimulation and a salary that allows them to save a lot, it may be hard finding their ideal job. I know work wasn't intended to be a different adventure every day that resulted in great monetary rewards but in an ideal world, it would be.

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

It wasn't all that long ago that 95% of everyone was a farmer, no matter what your interests and skills were. Then it changed and most people ended up standing on assembly lines acting like a machine.

Nowadays there are a lot of different kinds of jobs. People have a choice. Three or four months is the longest I ever stayed at a job I just didn't like. Just long enough to come up with an alternative. Life is too short to waste time being miserable.

Underwaterbob · Joined: 08 Jan 2005 Location: In Cognito

itaewonguy · Joined: 25 Mar 2003

blaseblasphemener · Posted: Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:15 am Post subject:

tfunk · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland

ESL is a dead-end job if you don't enjoy ESL. A higher salary won't offset the boredom in 8, 12 years time if teaching ain't your gig. A lot of teachers in Korea don't buy teaching, they buy traveling Asia, paying off student loans and an entertaining life.

Kuros · Joined: 27 Apr 2004

some waygug-in · Joined: 25 Jan 2003

ESL is boring for me when, my school dictates the curriculum, my co-teachers run the class and treat me like a "side-show-Bob" kind of guy.
The co-teacher thinks the textbook is some kind of Bible and must be followed religiously.

ESL can be fun when, I am allowed to create my own or bring in other activities, when I feel in charge and feel like I am accomplishing something.

Sadly, my job is usually more like the first situation and rarely like the 2nd.