Korean Job Discussion Forums

[eslteacherlooking]

Without a Masters? How did you do it? Do you develop your own curriculum? Do you choose your own course books? Design your own classes? Or are you forced to do it the Uni way?

Are you located in the middle of no where? Do you teach the class alone or do you have a korean staff member in the room? Are you invited to faculty meetings?

Is there a possibility of taking on additional working hours?

Some insight would be great!

[hugekebab]

[Unposter]

My suggestion is to poke around the end of January/early February when the teachers that universities thought they had hired decide to not to come, go home, secretly get better offers etc...leaving the university desperate to hire someone.

A few years ago the competition seemed less. These days everyone and their mother has an online MA. I would think it would be pretty difficult for someone with just a BA (unless they could offer something else) unless it was in English to get a decent university position.

There are probably some universities in the provences that still take people with a BA.

Good luck!

[PRagic]

I taught at a university that hired BAs back when I first got started. By comparison, a lot of the things they ask are kind of insulting. No, you don't develop anything. No, you're not invited to sit in on meetings. The prevailing attitude was that foreigners should consider themselves fortuntate to have the jobs because Koreans had to have their Ph.D. just to be considered (and even then, it was competitive as hell).

No, you don't have a Korean co-teacher. Yes, your classes are usually overcrowded. Yes, you are usually asked to teach overtime at ridiculously low wages.

They even wanted people to turn in their tests for departmental/college review; in a word, they didn't trust the professionalism of the people they hired. It was glorified hakwon work, but the prospect of free housing and fully paid vacations kept people lining up for the jobs.

Glad that chapter has closed. Wouldn't do it again if you put a gun to my head.

[Sector7G]

Not to brag, but I only have a B.A., am a mediocre teacher at best, and have actually been offered two different Uni jobs. I did not accept either one. Neither was a decision made lightly. I thought uni jobs were the way to go, and the low hours and 3 month vacation were hard to pass up. But both times I was offered a significantly higher salary elsewhere. If I was sure I could have made up the salary difference doing "cultural exchanges" on the side, I would have jumped at it. I find adults much less stressful to teach.

Anyway, I just flooded the universities with resumes every time I saw a job posted that did not require a Masters or ESL certification. I have a pretty good cover letter and I dress and look the part. You know how big image is to Koreans. After a lot of near misses I got lucky.

[ajgeddes]

I work at a Uni with only a B.A., but have since moved past that and am only 6 months away from my M.Ed..

At my school, we have quite a bit of freedom with what we teach, and we teach a variety of classes. We don't have certain points that we must finish to, but instead just get done what we can. In many classes, we can teach how and what we want. Booked are almost always chosen for us, but again, we follow them to the extent we see fit.

We have small class sizes, and only 12 hours a week. It is sometimes possible to have overtime, but generally it isn't common, nor does it seem desired by most people.

[bassexpander]

We have 3 BA's teaching at our school: Myself, an extremely bright and fun guy who graduated from Cornell, and a recently-hired (8 months) Mensa member who is kind, attractive, and an all-around nice guy.

What got me noticed with just a BA in Journalism/minor in English was an interactive shockwave video business card I produced and sent out. Also, the fact that at least one of the MA's they'd offered the job to before me turned it down. Oh, and two years of high school teaching experience in Korea (along with a few in hagwons) didn't hurt either.

I had to do a demo lesson in front of a panel of 5 Korean profs. I was called and notified that I was an alternate. Two days later, I was asked to come in and sign a contract. When I saw the pay (1.9 at the time) I politely refused, and showed them my then-current pay/benefits at a high school. I would have been taking a large pay cut to work there. I was very kind about it, and even bowed and smiled as I left.

I was no further than 2 subway stops away before they called and asked me to come in and talk some more. They offered to bump the pay up (I think it was to 2.2 or 2.3 -- can't remember), and I signed. The vacations sounded too nice to pass up. They also had to bump up the pay of the two foreigners currently working at our school -- something they were just thrilled about!

Right place, right time, right situation.

[PRagic]

Have to agree with the Bass on his take; it has a lot to do with being in the right place and the right time, plus a little bit of sector7G's 'pepper the market' strategy.

Getting a university job with just a BA is possible (and they do love those fancy sounding university names!), but be careful what you wish for:

1) Your hold on your job is more tenuous than even MA holders at this time and very often your terms of employment can severly deteriorate while you work there. All it takes is a change in management or policy and you're out. With a BA in academia, you don't have much of a seniority leg to stand on, and not many people will go to bat for you.

2) In general, and I mean no offense to the BA holding university teachers out there, the programs out there that hire BAs tend to be less professional and the people you'll work with tend to be less serious about being a professional.

So I'd have to say that ajgeddes is on the right track. Get the university job, get the MA, and then get out of any university that hires BAs. There are exceptions to every rule, of course, and if you happen to be in one of those positions, maybe you'll want to ride that horse for a while. Be careful, though: see number 1 above.

[Sector7G]

[PRagic]

Classic example, and there are a ton more like that out there. Here are a few that I've heard of or experienced:

1) Ooops, you have to ALL teach more hours (translation: it's cheaper for us than hiring more teachers). Your overtime rate is a joke, we know, but we can't do anything about that.

2) Ooops, now you have to teach at a university affiliated hakwon (kids) in addition to your university classes.

3) Ooops, now you have to teach a camp or two. You won't be paid extra for these.

4) Ooops, now all of your positions will fall under a university institute, not a department. All pay will go down, and all hours will go up.

5) Ooops, now we have term limits. You get 2 or 3 years with no raises, then you have to leave. You might be able to come back after a semester away, but you'll have to re-apply and go through all the b.s. again.

6) Ooops, hate to tell you, but now the university wants only MA holders. You can work here if you have a BA, but only until you can be replaced. Of course you can understand.

7) Ooops, housing is only offered for 3 years. We didn't know. You can work here still, but you're on your own for housing now. No, we can't give you an allowance. Oh, and, yeah, we're very sorry about that pay cut, too.

Ooops, now we need foreign teachers to staff our English Cafe. We'll pay extra for your time...wait, no we won't.

And it keeps going on...

[Sector7G]

[bassexpander]

The English Cafe is a real thing. I seem to remember hearing that a SKY univ. pulled this one on some of the foreign staff recently, but I can't remember the details, so I'd better not say. This is not an April Fools joke, either.

[cdninkorea]

What's an English cafe? Hang around in a room and do some free talking, that kind of thing?

[Sector7G]

[Thiuda]