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bobbybigfoot
Joined: 05 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:17 am Post subject: 20 hours a week for 2.6 million |
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Realistically can I do better than this?
My current contract with a major hagwon is winding down and it's time to start thinking about renewing/finding another job. I'm expecting to get a raise bringing me up to 2.6 a month. Will be my third contract. Started at 2.2, went to 2.4, heading for 2.6.
Basically I have a part time job. No headaches, no coming in early/staying late, no weekends, no meetings. I have a decent apartment, decent area in Seoul, pay is always on time. Job is mostly meaningless but this is Korea.
I only have a BA and no CELTA etc.
Experience is essentially 2 years here in Korea.
Decent looking. mid 30s.
Is this about as good as it gets or do you think better jobs are still out there?
Feedback appreciated. |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:29 am Post subject: Re: 20 hours a week for 2.6 million |
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| bobbybigfoot wrote: |
Realistically can I do better than this?
My current contract with a major hagwon is winding down and it's time to start thinking about renewing/finding another job. I'm expecting to get a raise bringing me up to 2.6 a month. Will be my third contract. Started at 2.2, went to 2.4, heading for 2.6.
Basically I have a part time job. No headaches, no coming in early/staying late, no weekends, no meetings. I have a decent apartment, decent area in Seoul, pay is always on time. Job is mostly meaningless but this is Korea.
I only have a BA and no CELTA etc.
Experience is essentially 2 years here in Korea.
Decent looking. mid 30s.
Is this about as good as it gets or do you think better jobs are still out there?
Feedback appreciated. |
kind of depends.
is your focus short term or long term?
what are your plans (if any) down the road?
I'm not ideally qualified to answer this, since I've only been here for a year, but it sounds to me, based on the things you posted that you have a pretty nice gig. no coming early, staying late, no meetings, no hassles, nice appt and nice area of Seoul - these are conditions most people would probably kill for..
the only thing that probably sucks is your vacation time.
anyways - unless you want to move up to a uni - and you'd probably need to do professional development to get in - you're probably doing about as well as you're going to do without breaking the law. |
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bobbybigfoot
Joined: 05 May 2007
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 8:40 am Post subject: |
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Bogey,
You make some good points. In the short term, I'm probably just as well off staying put. But if I start thinking about the longterm, maybe switching over to the public board is a better option. Certainly looks better on a resume, and would round off my experience. I could knock off a CELTA in late July/Aug then start a new contract come September. But it's expensive to do so.
$2000 for a CELTA, + $2000 in lost wages + a drop in salary to switch over to the public school board.
My vacations now are nominal. 10 days. So extra time off would be a perk for sure. |
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waynehead
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Location: Jongno
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:01 am Post subject: |
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Your expectations sound reasonable to me.
Don't be too hasty to jump to a public school if you're satisfied with hagwon life. I worked at a PS last year and am at a hagwon now...I miss the extra vacation and random free time, but otherwise I'm as happy if not happier here. And the pay's a lot better.
That said, I'm only 3 months into my current contract. After 6 months or so more of no vacation time I might change my tune... |
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Draz
Joined: 27 Jun 2007
Location: Land of Morning Clam
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:27 pm Post subject: |
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| bobbybigfoot wrote: |
Bogey,
You make some good points. In the short term, I'm probably just as well off staying put. But if I start thinking about the longterm, maybe switching over to the public board is a better option. Certainly looks better on a resume, and would round off my experience. I could knock off a CELTA in late July/Aug then start a new contract come September. But it's expensive to do so.
$2000 for a CELTA, + $2000 in lost wages + a drop in salary to switch over to the public school board.
My vacations now are nominal. 10 days. So extra time off would be a perk for sure. |
Why do you need a public school on your resume? What's your long term plan with this? Unless you want to get into teaching back home, I don't really see what difference it makes. |
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Yu_Bum_suk
Joined: 25 Dec 2004
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:40 pm Post subject: Re: 20 hours a week for 2.6 million |
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| bobbybigfoot wrote: |
Realistically can I do better than this?
My current contract with a major hagwon is winding down and it's time to start thinking about renewing/finding another job. I'm expecting to get a raise bringing me up to 2.6 a month. Will be my third contract. Started at 2.2, went to 2.4, heading for 2.6.
Basically I have a part time job. No headaches, no coming in early/staying late, no weekends, no meetings. I have a decent apartment, decent area in Seoul, pay is always on time. Job is mostly meaningless but this is Korea.
I only have a BA and no CELTA etc.
Experience is essentially 2 years here in Korea.
Decent looking. mid 30s.
Is this about as good as it gets or do you think better jobs are still out there?
Feedback appreciated. |
A 200,000 raise is much better than average for no added responsibiltiy. It might not be the most brilliant career you could find but if you're happy at your job I wouldn't roll the dice and try another place if I were you. |
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bogey666
Joined: 17 Mar 2008
Location: Korea, the ass free zone
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 3:57 pm Post subject: |
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| bobbybigfoot wrote: |
Bogey,
You make some good points. In the short term, I'm probably just as well off staying put. But if I start thinking about the longterm, maybe switching over to the public board is a better option. Certainly looks better on a resume, and would round off my experience. I could knock off a CELTA in late July/Aug then start a new contract come September. But it's expensive to do so.
$2000 for a CELTA, + $2000 in lost wages + a drop in salary to switch over to the public school board.
My vacations now are nominal. 10 days. So extra time off would be a perk for sure. |
well..you pretty much answer why I, for e.g., went with a public school and why I'm staying for another year with the same school, despite the fact I could probably make at least 300,000 more working for a hogwan.
I plan/hope to return stateside and get a Master's in Intl Education or just Education (though there is an Intl Master's program that really interests me). The idea is to also get licensed, THEN go apply on the international school circuit, since I'm not especially interested in teaching stateside, but am very much interested in teaching overseas.
they typically want at least 2 years of int'l experience, even once you get licensed, so that's what Korea should accomplish for me, and I figured a public school (with letters of referral to boot if needed from my school) would be much better suited to my goals.
and yeah, I don't benchwarm, so I also REALLY like my vacation time.
on the OTHER hand... I have my 8 hour days.. no matter what... AND I have to stay after school for my after school class... and I live 1.5 hours away from Seoul in a shitty factory town (which is perfectly fine for me Mon-Fri, but sucks schlong on weekends)
so.. as an ex-boss once told me - life is all about tradeoffs.
for me, the vacation time and resume building, based on my longer term plans are the reasons I'm in a public school, despite lower pay and other disadvantages already noted.
you have to consider what's best for you and what fits best with your intermediate to longer term goals. |
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harlowethrombey
Joined: 17 Mar 2009
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:00 pm Post subject: |
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stay. sounds like you got a good thing. if you really want more vacation days you could bite the bullet and negotiate for some unpaid leave.
otherwise, sounds like you have a nice setup.
good luck |
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Xuanzang
Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Location: Sadang
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Nice money for the amount of hours. 20 is less than public school. |
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AD35
Joined: 03 Feb 2009
Location: Was in Dallas...now in Busan, South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 6:16 pm Post subject: |
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You can set up private tutoring and make a killing, and set your own hours, but you probably need to establish contacts and clients. Other than that, you have a nice job, and I would stick with it if you're not sure about your long term plans.
Public schools are okay, and hours are normal compared to a hagwon, but you have many perks (other than vacation) that we don't. |
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ekul
Joined: 04 Mar 2009
Location: [Mod Edit]
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| Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 10:04 pm Post subject: |
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| I'd stick. You're on 30k an hour and most public schools only pay 20k OT. If you start at a PS you will only get a pay rise of 100k a year. |
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