Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Banana Bender]

If I may so, the chance of getting a good Hogwan is simply that . The Hogwan I have been at for the past year was achieved by pure luck and has been great ( albeit with a few hiccups on the way ) How lucky do you feel ????

[The Bobster]

Um, I've heard a few complaints here and there about uni jobs, tooo ... and having taught adults, well, there are times when it is just another kind of babysitting.

In the end, depends on your temperament, perhaps.

But if you have a knack for kids and can enjoy spending your day that way, the reality is that you can market yourself in that niche rather well here.

[matthews_world]

[schwa]

Hakwon can be a valuable training ground. Youre paid to learn to teach. It takes time & you make mistakes, & youve got small relatively uncritical audiences. Figure what works by trial & error. Hone your skills. Most importantly, discover if you wanna teach. Its not brain surgery & even if youre not very good you do your year & learn something about yourself.

Opened my eyes (later in life) that I was meant to teach.

[dirtysoap]

thanks for all the advice everyone... i've got some thinking to do now.

[rapier]

Hogwons do indeed suck at times. But not all of us are that ambitious. I for one like the easy conveience of scoring jobs with hogwons. Walk in, walk out, at short notice- without a huge amount of damage done. It fits well with my travelling lifestyle.
I'm not sure I'd want to get into university jobs, even though i'm qualified, as its a different ball game of higher expectations. I can't picture myself telling the university director that I want 2 weeks of for a holiday and that my friend can cover me. I can't picture getting away with the odd lazy lessons of games and fun on a hot day with adult students. I don't think they'd be into finger painting. I can't picture resigning after a few months from a Uni, if I want to go somewhere else.
hogwons suck sometimes -but they're like casual sex as opposed to marriage. An easier ride.

[chilsung]

I think that people tend to think that Uni jobs are the promissed land. I must admit that I have found that the students aren't any better and there are a lot of extra responsibilities. Like proofreading 100s of papers a week for free. Meeting after countless meeting.
I do feel sorry for anyone that has been ripped off completely. But that is not always the case for every private academy. There are many problems and difficulties, but there are with any school. Back in the USA the beuracratic system kept me going in a million directions. I find that I have less stress now and less problems with the school owner than with school politics and the new testing systems.
besides I will reiterate what others have said. We must all start somewhere. Get some experience work with some various groups and levels then you can go on if you enjoy it. Good luck with your decision

[richinkorea]

[crazylemongirl]

Hi,
For the hagwon debate. I think there is a tendency on daves for people to vent about something bad that happens at work. I know I'm one of them and thus the picture of what hagwon jobs are like gets somewhat skewed.

I'm not denying the horror stories don't exist, but in general my hagwon experience has been reasonably good. The hours suck, but I did get an extra 100,000won a month from my boss without even asking, I've been paid on time, I have a really good apartment, and the programme is reasonably well organised.

However if your holding out for the perfect job you maybe waiting for ever. There are good hagwon jobs out there, but I'm not 100% sure how you get them.

CLG

[Son Deureo!]

[crazylemongirl]

[quote="Son Deureo]
The reality seems to be though that hogwons are a crapshoot. Sometimes you win big, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you break even.

[/quote]

And you've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run...

Yeah, this place is a gamble but so is life. Anyway good places can go bad, which demonstrates that you can't really assume that if you get the great job it's going to be the same 6 months from now.

CLG

[William Beckerson]

[ulsanchris]

While its next to impossible to get a job at a great hagwan, its not to hard to get one at a school that is not so bad. Unfortunately it's easy to get a job at a bad one. There are some things you can do to get a decent job.
1. be patient if you don't get a job right away don't worry, better to wait a bit then end up with a crappy job.
2. try to make contact with the foriegn teacher there, however becareful. make sure you can talk to him when he is alone. I had one foreign teacher make me phone him back when he was alone, when I did he told me the place sucked. On another phone interview I did I could have sworn that the director was listening in on the conversation.
3. Try to avoid recruiters. They tend to be crooked. Also if a school is good then the foriegn teacher there usually is willing to recruit. Schools that do their own hiring tend to be better. But still you have to watch your back. Some foriegn teachers are less than scruplous.
4. Try to find out how many days in advance you are to arrive and if they have any training program. IF they want to land you here a couple days before you start teaching and give you little or no training than this isn't a good sign.
5. Try to find out if any foreign teachers there have renewed their contracts. If none ever have then this might not be a good sign.
6. Make sure the director can speak english.
7. IF you think you have found a good school and want to work there run a post on dave's here to see if anyone knows about it.
8. get info on the apartment, will you have to share, how far is it from the school, is it new or old, what appliances come with it (rice cooker, microwave, washing machine, vaccum, etc.) If you can ask for pics.
This is about all i can think about. oh yeah don't go for anything less than 1.8 mil or 10 days holiday a year, and make sure these are working days, mon, tues, wed, thru, frid. not sat and sun. A lot of schools will try to claim that your 10 days will include sat and sun. Say noway to that.
If you teach in Seoul you might be able to get more money. Outside of seoul you will make less, but possible save more.

[humanuspneumos]

Rapier is humming my tune: flexibility

Also- adults? Split shifts can make your time far less enjoyable than teaching an age group you thought you didn't want to teach. I was up at 5:30 and finished at 10:30 at one place- teaching adults.

Uni? Me thinx being female and pleasant looking can snag you Uni jobs at places that regularily post for teachers (note: why are they regularily posting? people come and go throughout the year). One I have seen on Dave's advertising virtually forever is Jeju and that's where a pleasant looking BAer I knew went in, sat down, handed her CV to the director, and snagged a job by being good at the interview.

Companies? There's an underground thing going on - not many know about it- foreigners are contacting companies for 3 month programs (usually 3 levels and about 18 hours of teaching). Sure the adults die out after about the third lesson- still you get the pay you negotiated. A fellow in Mokpo did that at Halla (they have all kinds of companies out there). I've heard of this in other places too.

BCM is one of the few franchises that focus on adults. Sure- the schedule was gruelling- however- my experience gave me more ideas as to where one could branch-out than any other language school ( I was farmed out to about 7 very different situations in a year) Other than that- getting the other kinds of jobs I outlined- you'll likely have to start at a kiddy school first for a year. Then- move out your footing to some other interesting opportunities before you're finished your year.

[The Man known as The Man]