Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I posted a long post about a new job offer from SMOE I've accepted after having been one of the 100 "deferred" until next semester.

Here, I want to highlight how my recruiter played a part in this:

I got dumped shortly before I was supposed to leave for Korea like many others. I was less screwed because I had not gotten the Visa stamped in the passport yet, and I had held back on buying a ticket until I got the visa. But I still was not terribly happy...

I let my recruiter know it before I found out I was not along in getting bent over: I didn't go outrageous on the recruiter. My rebuke was strong but stuck to the justified areas. He replied with an apology. I replied with a shorter note that his apology did nothing for me and explained why. He sent a brief apology again.

Then - I heard here at Dave's that about 99 other people were trashed at the last minute, some much worse than me, and that it was SMOE's doing.

So, even though I felt my dealings with the recruiter were over since he recruited for SMOE exclusively and SMOE wouldn't be taken on new people until next semester and too late for my needs ----- I emailed him to apologize for laying my (justified) anger on him...

He had been good as a recruiter for the ESL market for me. He did one thing I still didn't like: I had wanted him to get a new, lower contract from SMOE as soon as I learned they wanted a specific type of document to prove working experiene from my previous hakwons, because I had a good guess that one of the crap places I worked for would refuse. The recruiter didn't do that. Instead, he tried for awhile to get the document from that hakwon - and failed. Maybe if I had gotten the lower contract signed earlier, I wouldn't have been one of the 100....

But, that wasn't a big deal for me - all things considered, and I wanted the guy to know I apprecitated his effort overall and that I understood he had been screwed by SMOE just like the TESOLers...

....I also sent a 2nd brief email letting him know I had come to Dave's and located all the other comments I had made mentioning his agency in a negative manner --- and editing them by deleting the previous comment and leaving the same note that the edit was based on the fact that I had subsequently learned all that wasn't the recruiter's fault....

And with that, I considered my relationship with him finished.

My (Korean) wife and I decided we'd pay to fly me over to look for work in person, because her mother was waiting and needed some support since my wife's father had recently died after a bout with cancer.

I did contact the old recruiter asking if he could get my application packet back from SMOE so I could more easily land a hakwon job. He got it back in good order and I could pick it up.

Then, a couple of weeks into this new phase of the job search, and about a few days ago, he called to tell me SMOE had asked him for a recommendation for two teachers at two job openings, and he recommended me for both - though one didn't work because they wanted a certified history teacher and I'm certified in English.

I just accepted the other offer after checking it out.

So, I guess this was a karma moment....

There are bad recruiters in Korea. I don't what percentage of them are bad today. In the late 1990s, before public school jobs mushroomed greatly, I think the percentage was high. It wasn't bad advice back then to avoid them if you could...

So, in this 2nd go around for me in the ESL industry in Korea, when I had a recruiter who treated me pretty well compared to past experience from the 1990s ---- I thought thanking him for that effort would encourage him to keep it up for others.....

....and doing that paid off for me in the end....

Or, at least that is how it looks right now....

......I do not have a visa for the new offer nor have started teaching there yet.....

.....and in the ESL industry in Korea, you never cross a bridge before you cross it....(They have a habit of exploding in the mean time -- occasionally...)

[Snowkr]

nice post. I wish there were more positive posts like this one on the forum.

I also had very good recruiter (probably the same one as yours) the first time I came to Korea and though I've not used ANY recruiting agencies for the past couple of years, I'm still here... and working in one of the best job scenes imaginable for this country... in my opinion.

Had it not been for that positive experience the first year (for which the recruiter played a huge role), I would most definitely have not gotten into this position now.

If anyone is wondering who I'm referring to, it's Footprints.

[PRagic]

Nice post, and I hate to paint over this love fest with a negative brush, but this is how it works here. Just try to figure out where your recruiter fits into the system and go from there.

_______________________________

Open a company

Work one's tail off and bend over backwards to get customers

Learn as you go

Become marginally successful

Hire employees on the cheap (who basically just want to learn the ropes so that they can head out on their own)

Push employees to the brink

marginalize your customers, skimp on quality

decrease actual input into the work process

look for investments and opportunities to shift money around when at work...if at work

neglect to pay taxes and employee benefits

customer base dries up from lack of service and diminished quality

boss gets tracked down by tax authorities

business goes into bankrupcy, all employees and customers in the wind screwed

business reopens under relative's name within a month

repeat cycle

Actually, this is how it works in many places around the world. Gotta be fair.

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

Then, a couple of weeks into this new phase of the job search, and about a few days ago, he called to tell me SMOE had asked him for a recommendation for two teachers at two job openings, and he recommended me for both - though one didn't work because they wanted a certified history teacher and I'm certified in English.

Iggy, do you know why they wanted a certified history teacher? I'm wondering as I am one but it's not like one would be teaching history rather than "Where's the Post Office?"

[iggyb]

halfmanhalfbiscuit,

I didn't get the details because he found out quickly it was not for TESOL. I was told it was in international school, and I took it that it was at a well-known one, but could be wrong on that, and there was something about a well-known river island, but I had no idea what that was about --- he was asking if I'd heard of it, and I hadn't.....maybe some of the veterans here will be able to figure out what school it was from that....

Everybody,

The recruiter was ESL Seoul...

....(not Seoul ESL which I see in the job board a good bit.....which has me think they're trying to ride the coat tails of ESL Seoul)...

http://www.eslseoul.com/default/

By now, some veteran would have a mind at least a little that I might be a front or sock for them. Shady people in the ESL industry would do that kind of thing...

For anyone with doutbs, search for my posts from a few weeks ago to a month ago and look at the ones about my recruiter --- you'll see where I went back to edit previous comments that ripped reasonably into this recruiter based on what I knew at the time - and before I learned who was really behind the screwing I got (along with 99 others)...

Having said that, I know the ESL industry in Korea is a rough place that chews a lot of people up and spits them out. Many or most of them are fine people with a college education who would like to do a job to at least minimum standards it requires if they were given the chance.

I think positive posts should be written - with disclaimers like this - when we find good or adequate places and recruiters and so on.

And we should thank the recruiters and managers and co-teachers and other people who do try to make the life of a TESOLer good or at least adequate while they are hear ---- to encourage them to continue the effort ---- and to show people where to look for work and recruiters - and give any of the Korean-side of the industry who might come here to read or hear about what is written here incentive to treat people better...

[halfmanhalfbiscuit]

"there was something about a well-known river island"

Must be Yeouido I guess.

[iggyb]

I don't think so unless I just missed his pronounciation. I'm familiar with Yeouido as the heart of the central government and business district...