Korean Job Discussion Forums

[i4NI]

For example, some kind of job that requires 2 years experience and you didn't have any experience at the time you applied, or very little experience.

I seen a job posting I was interested in, but no not have 2 years experience, actually my only experience is teaching privates as I'm attending language school here currently.

Should I even bother to reply or is it a waste of time in general?

[VanIslander]

references are the key

you can get pretty much any job with the right people backing you

(I got killer letters from the head of a journalism dep't and - most importantly - from a well-respected journalist known to the potential employer.;.. and as a result I got to become head editor of a community newspaper over staff members with 7 years experience!)

they ask for experience largely because they want to know COMPETENCE, so if you have taught privates perhaps a letter from one of them demonstrating what great work you did could address the competence issue

and figure out your competitive advantage: flexibility? hard work? ability to speak Korean? wha?

[Juregen]

Qualifications in Job postings are references.

If they require 2 years of experience, what they are asking for is people who know how to work.

Someone who has never used his hands until he graduated from University hardly knows what working really is. It takes about 6 months to train a complete novice to actually become good at his job.

So what they are asking for is someone who can hit the ground running.

[Rob'sdad]

I'll tell you how not to get a job.

Show up as a '95 grad of Nebraska and not know jackcrap about your football team.

You can follow that up with, "I can't speak Indo-European" or "What's Sanskrit?"

Another bit of ung-ga outta this boy's mouth was "Korean's eat ketchup and rice".

[Gollywog]

My Korean co-teacher has.

[Rob'sdad]

[laogaiguk]

[the_beaver]

I did.

My last university, at that time, only wanted to hire people with MAs, which I didn't have then. They actually threw out my initial application package.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

[aka Dave]

Sarah Palin!

[cubanlord]

Who got a job and was unqualified for it? Over 90% of the people teaching English in Korea. That's who. Now, I say that while comparing teacher qualifications in the U.S. & Canada to those teaching in Korea. Most foreigners in Korea couldn't teach back home without having to take some course or courses.

[bassexpander]

[spliff]

^Agreed, I wonder if he himself believes all that crap he spiels.

[sojusucks]

I always hear about unqualified teachers but no one ever defines what unqualified means.

Besides, many teachers move on to other countries after about 5 years. After the five year mark in Korea, many teachers that I know said that they lost marketability.

How many Korean teachers are able to teach in foreign countries? I have only know a couple that are able to teach in China with a Korean teaching certificate.

So, what does unqualified mean?

In Korea, it means using a teaching methodology that is not approved by the teaching community and lacking teaching experience. In the rest of the world, the Korean methodology is considered a joke. I have know a few universities professors who were banned from teaching upper level courses because of their methodologies (many Western students hate memorization, listen-and-repeat, and of course, open negative criticism).

Korean teachers and idiots will deny this. Those who are familiar with the ESL/TESOL... communities know this far too well. Why else do mostly new teachers come to most Asian countries (Singapore and Hong Kong being the two obvious exceptions)?

Unqualified is culturally relevant, so the meaning changes when you enter another culture. I don't know about you, but I would like to remain marketable globally and not limited to a specific geographical region.

[oskinny1]