Korean Job Discussion Forums

[kimjoohui]

I am currently teaching at an elementary school in a small city through the EPIK program, but am considering breaking my contract because I want to teach in the city where my birthfamily lives - JinJu city. I applied directly to the EPIK program and had requested that I be placed in JinJu city but was instead put in my current location which is about 2 and half hours from JinJu and difficult to access through public transportation. (My mistake was applying directly to EPIK and not going through a recruiter.) When I called the EPIK POE supervisor to ask for a possible transfer (I had seen some public schools being advertised in Jinju but the recruiter said they are through EPIK and so I would need the POE supervisor's permission) he said that he would not be in support of a transfer as they have only done a mid-year contract transfer once in ten years and the guy still ended up leaving Korea early. I then asked if I chose to renew my EPIK contract, would I be able to pick my location and he said if I get a good end of the year evaluation from my school and have a good open-class review, it would be possible for me to chose my location for next year. However, I'm not sure I want to continue any longer at my current location as I am not too pleased with my current situation/ school, and I am not happy about the distance between my birthfamily and myself. Thus, I am thinking that I might break my contract and trying to obtain a part-time hawgwon job supplemented by private tutoring jobs. (I am a Korean adoptee so I am eligible for a F4 visa and am currently in the process of obtaining one.) However, I have not seen any advertisements for part-time hawgwon jobs in Jinju so I was wondering if anyone had any ideas about how I could go about trying to find one. (Should I try randomly e-mailing recruiters? - if so, should I tell them that I would be breaking my contract?) Also, does anyone have any idea about how easy it would be to obtain private tutoring jobs in JinJu? Lastly, how would this impact my ability to obtain a contract with EPIK in the future if I wanted to teach at a public school in JinJu? For it seems that all the adverts for public schools in jinju from recruiters still have to go through the EPIK program... Thanks for any and all advice!

[ChinaBoy]

can you break that into some paragraphs to make it easier to read?

[Ya-ta Boy]

Generally, hakwons don't hire part-timers on E-2 visas. That might be different for F visa holders, I don't know.

Getting private tutoring classes/groups together is most often done by word-of-mouth. Some people just stumble onto a gig quickly and others have to wait for the lightning to strike. Maybe someone in your birth family has some ideas. One of them could put up posters in apt complexes with their name/phone number--I wouldn't recommend you doing that.

Be careful when quitting your job. People everywhere have long memories when it comes to being inconvenienced by someone.

Good luck.

[cruisemonkey]