Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Rebound]

In Korea, there is such a huge demand for English teachers, it causes the working conditions there to be better than pretty much anywhere in the world, over all for English teaching. Higher pay, fewer working hours, more jobs to choose from. This, despite that alot of other aspects of Korea are rather unwelcoming to English teachers, relatively speaking of course.

Here in Australia, the market for housing works in the opposite way for renters. I wanted to rent an apartment. First, its ridiculously expensive. about 1000$US (1,300AUS$) for a slightly below average 2 bedroom apartment in an average area of the city (for Australian big cities, demand increases the closer an apartment is to the city center, generally. This is mostly due to the very very poor condition and design of the mass transit system and highways here; it takes so long to commute in to work for each km traveled that it causes people to be willing to pay alot more to live closer to work and most ppl work in the city center).

Second, supply of renters very much exceeds demand for renters. In major Aussie cities, you dont just go and see an apartment, meet the landlord, and then pay the rent and move in. Instead, they have, "inspections" whereby large groups of people show up to see a single rental unit. Each person who attends the inspection then submits an application to rent the property. The inspection is organized and run by real estate agents. The landlord usually has 10~50 applications and gets to choose the best one of those. Consequently, even if you have a good job and appear relatively stable and safe, you could go for months without finding an apartment.

Finally, the service afforded by the real estate agents makes the service afforded by government employees at unemployment and welfare offices seem 5-star. I just found an apartment here, (finally) and they are simply terrible. First, they when they call you to say you can rent the place, they dont just ask if you want to rent it. They demand you "hurry up and get in or else they're going to have to give it to the next applicant". Then, when you come in to sign the lease and pay the bond/deposit, they basically toss the lease in front of you, give you like 2 minutes to read, tell you they are busy and hurry up, etc etc. Then when it comes to getting any info. about the unit they are completely lame.

Me: so, does it use gas heating?
Her: I dont know, you need to go look.
Me: Is there parking?
Her: I dont know, but its you job to find out.
Her: Now, you must use a direct deposit to pay.
Me: What if I dont want to use direct deposit? There must be another way.
Her: If you dont use direct deposit, we rent to the next person.

And thats how it goes...


Anyway, for all of you in Korea, even if you dont like living in Korea, take advantage of your situation in the job market there. You are actually on the upper end and the employers are on the bottom end, overall.