Korean Job Discussion Forums

[timmayyyyy]

do you feel a little stabbed in the back? Has this happened to anyone else? I'm heading back to Korea thanks to the lousy job market in America.

Recruiter just told me that they said I was good, but not excellent (I agree), but also said things like I "was a little boring." WTF? It's a middle school hagwon...how exciting can you really make it? I did my best under the difficult and soulcrushing circumstances...I never missed a day of work in a year of working 6 days a week. I seriously considered quitting 9 months in, but I stuck it out, rather than pulling a runner and f*cking them over. I did unpaid extra work such as grading 200 essays in a week on top of classes during test periods. I guess I shouldn't be surprised since I never felt appreciated much there anyway. Maybe I should have kissed up to the director more. :-/

[asams]

I'm pretty sure I'll be in the same boat as you when I leave my job. I'm pretty sure they're going to give me a lousy reference simply because I believe some of the demands that they make are unreasonable. My coworkers and I and extremely loved by the kids and even though all the Korean teachers have quit none of the kids have left (none that I know of anyway). I'm pretty sure this means we're (the NTs) are doing something right.

[timmayyyyy]

Amen brotha. I'm curious to hear why all the Korean teachers quit, and what did the school do to replace them? That must be one hell of a bad place to work! Is it a big chain or small mom and pop place? Mine is a small chain of about 5-6 campuses. How long do you have left?

[timmayyyyy]

Maybe I should have given them my ex-Korean co-worker's cell number who no longer works there either and had him pretend to be the director. I'm willing to be people have done it before haha.

[lifeinkorea]

I thought that reference letters were more about confirming employment than actual performance. I was told I could use reference letters from schools I taught at in Japan.

So, I would spend less time getting schools to fill out a "performance" letter, and provide them with a template letter such as "____ worked here from ___ to ____". If you renewed, "____ renewed and worked at the school ___ times." Or, change it to years if that makes more sense.

Don't go into great detail. Making a "good" reference which includes your performance is useless, as they have already hired you. Immigration DOESN'T NEED the reference letters. They are only to establish higher pay.

And that's why the recruiter, NOT the school nor immigration is discussing this with you. The recruiter is trying to negotiate a lower salary to give you.

[asams]

[timmayyyyy]

I finished in March and am back in the States.

lifeinkorea - it actually was just a reference over the phone. The recruiter asked me for the phone number of my old school, so I gave it to them...I don't think I could have really refused, because it would look like I have something to hide...which I don't. I was surprised that it was more in detail that just verifying that I worked there and I wasn't a horrible teacher. Is there an alternative course of action that I can take when a recruiter wants the phone number?

[iammac2002]

asams, I heard a little birdie say that all our kids have gone to your campus, because we only have English and math, and you people have other stuff across the street. That's why our K teachers are being let go.

My head teacher's office is now upstairs in the Avalon-thing. Hopefully I don't move in there.

[asams]

well, mac, if you ask the new mod edit director at our school our enrollment is bottoming out and we're to blame for it because we don't wear suits to school everyday. i'm pretty sure they've threatened to fire me about 4 times since I returned from the Philippines.

I'm pretty sure if I don't get a public school gig here where I can do some after school classes then I'm gonna set off to Taiwan next year.

[iammac2002]

[iammac2002]

Oh yes, and the hagwon doesn't have enough money for all the teachers. Guess they are paying us too much. Why must they have 3 guys all in one hole and just us girls all by ourself, in our own little hole?!

[kinerry]

[iammac2002]