Korean Job Discussion Forums

tfunk · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland

My director has asked my opinion on the best way to recruit a new teacher. On the one hand there are recruiters, and they can guarantee a person but at a hefty price. Perhaps more importantly, they can find a replacement teacher relatively quickly if the original teacher doesn't work out.

Then there are the online job boards. I'm curious about the success rate of these boards e.g. how many applicants apply, are the applicants of comparable quality etc.

What's your opinion - filter through the applicants or have a recruiter take care of the process?

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

For a public school, just use a recruiter. If the hagwon is good and doesn't treat you bad, then I would put in some time (not too much) in finding someone interested. I did this for the first hagwon I worked at, but the guy never showed up for the interview. The hagwon owner just thanked me for trying and let me go without finding a replacement. He didn't have money to pay for another teacher anyway, so he decided to teach the classes on his own until more money came in.

tfunk · Joined: 12 Aug 2006 Location: Dublin, Ireland

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

Well, it wasn't at the 12 month mark. As stated, he "let me go". His hagwon wasn't doing as well as he wanted. I was supposed to work at 2 schools, but when I got here I ended up teaching only at one hagwon. So, he was paying me twice as much as he intended on paying (even though it comes out normal).

I got past the 6 month mark, and I requested to end the contract. At first he wanted me to get a replacement. Some guy from England who was teaching in Thailand came to Korea on a promise he would have a hagwon or uni job (I don't remember which), but when he got here they no longer wanted to hire him.

So, he needed a job immediately. Of course, this isn't easy to do, but if you have schools who aren't doing well and want to save money, you can offer to walk away without severance and airfare home. Also, I put in a half a month without pay in order to get out of the contract early. It's still better than paying the same amount for a flight home.