Korean Job Discussion Forums

[WillTurnerinVanCity]

[SandyG21]

I arranged a phone interview - had to ask for a special schedule from 2 jobs to talk to the recruiter - recruiter failed to call - I called recruiter - who was very rude and unprepared - and FORGOT! to call - they had not even looked at my information - clueless - told me none of those jobs online were available (not the Korean ones) - tried to get me to take a low paid job with a dorm room and fly over without a visa - told me I had to sign an exclusive contract with them for forever. IF I had tape recorded the conversation - I would love to play it back to Ben Glickman. One thing I do know is that the recruiter has many agents - some work directly in his office in Vancouver - some are overseas - some work independently on a contingency basis. I have heard some people are very happy with footprints - on the other hand some people have had horror stories. Seems to me if your going to have a business - you would want some consistency in how you treat your clients.

Seems like most recruiters just post random pictures and ads for jobs - always saying they are the exclusive agents for those jobs. Then you see the same jobs advertised with other recruiters.



I got their newsletter - not to impressed with that either - poorly put together IMO.

[WillTurnerinVanCity]

[imaginingdreams]

Hmm...all of this is interesting information. It seems hard to truly pick one recruiter to go with, they all seem to be after the same thing.

Also, the only way I can find anything out is by asking people about their experiences. It really doesn't seem to be positive or negative overall, but generally balanced on both sides. So is there really a way to decide whether or not to go with a recruiter/recruiting company? Hm.

[Marissa0687]

I was just placed with the SMOE through Footprints. I had a good experience. I worked with Dave, who was always quick to answer any of my questions. They were also much clearer about explaining the process. I was also impressed with the information they provided (booklets, PDFs, maps, etc) to prepare teachers for Korea. I would recommend them. I was also impressed that they were working pretty hard to reassign the teachers who were cut at the last minute. Like the others said, though, work with a few recruiters. Korvia and ESL Planet are also very reputable.

[SandyG21]

I never got to talk to Dave.

I am glad that they found you a job with SMOE - were you cut from a job - but they found you another one?

Everytime I contact them the job I want isn't available - then they offer me the lowest paying job living in a dormroom with a bathroom up the hallway. Or they say - come on over without a work visa.

Maybe it's because I actually am a state side licensed teacher?

I found FP to be such a disappointment - they were actually the first website I found to learn about teaching overseas.

I think they provide some good info on their site however.

Just wish they could follow through.

[Ben Glickman]

Hi Sandy,

I'm sorry you had a negative experience - e-mail me or send me a PM about your experience - I'd like to do better in the future. However there are a few inaccuracies in your post that I'd like to clear up.
1. No teacher signs a contract with us - exclusive or otherwise. The only legal relationship we have with teachers is the waiver we request teachers sign.
2. All of our recruiters work in our office as full time employees. Perhaps you applied to us through a third party agent? For specific public school contracts we source a percentage of teachers from third party agents - although for a variety of reasons we are curtailing this.

[cruisemonkey]

[Snowkr]

From everything I've heard and from my own personal experience, Footprints and Korvia are very organized and reputable.

But they are businesses first and foremost and like any business, the cannot please EVERYONE. They're also bound to have their glitches from time to time probably because they are staffed by human beings who rely heavily on computers.

Anyway, I would recommend both- Korvia and Footprints to a newbie coming to Korea for the first time. That said, I would be hesitant to recommend Footprints to someone with experience and higher qualifications who has specific guidelines as to where they are to be placed.

Overall though, both recruiters are quite sound, in my opinion. Feel free to pm me anytime with questions, OP and good luck!

[ropebreezy]

I am one of the unfortunates that got thrown to the curb by SMOE.

Footprints basically saved my ass and got me a job with EPIK in Busan. And they did this over the course of a couple days so I could keep my flight. Not only that, they paid for my bus and taxi ride to Jeounju for EPIK's orientation. Me and about 6 other people.

I HIGHLY recommend this company only in that I honestly don't think any other recuiting agency actually did this for the people who got the boot from SMOE.

[morrisonhotel]

Sorry to bump this up again but I just found an advert for a position that Footprints have been advertising. I was led to believe that everything was full up (and that I should strongly consider a Feb. PS start) so what exactly is going on with Footprints? Are there positions available or not? I would try emailing them but in the few emails I've had from them they've come across as rather terse.

In the advert I saw, they were still advertising as offering 'teaching jobs in South Korea EVERY MONTH'. Surely this can't be true?

[roadwork]

[morrisonhotel]

[roadwork]

[morrisonhotel]