Korean Job Discussion Forums

[hirujikan]

Ok, before anyone says to search archives, let me just say that I have done tons of reading of past posts but I just wanted to spell out my own specific situation.

Okay, so I was offered a couple of options of positions by a company B2Corea. First off, what can people say about this company? Are they good to work with?

The positions they offered me were placements in either Seosan or Gwangju. Here's a little breakdown:

Seosan:
Beginning in June. 2.2M Won
option1: Kindergarten-Elementary, Mon-Fri 9am-5pm
option2: Elementary-Junior High Mon-Fri 12pm-8pm
My thoughts: Seosan is a smaller city (roughly 150,000), still good sized but I would kind of prefer something larger. But the area around Seosan looks much more beautiful with it being on that peninsula, plenty of coast and mountains. I like to hike and go to beaches, I'm also a photographer/ filmmaker and plan on doing a lot of those things in my free time, so I feel Seosan is probably better for this.

Gwangju:
Beginning in late June. 2.2M Won
Kindergarten-Elementary, Mon-Sat 9am-6pm
My thoughts: Gwangju is certainly larger, almost 1.5 million, so that's a plus. It's more land-locked though, it would be a bit more of a ride to a coast. I'm sure the land around Grangju is still quite beautiful though. Also, the pay is the same as Seosan, but with longer days and working Saturday.

That's basically it, I'm sure there is a lot of details I'm failing to mention, but hopefully I get some good responses and we can have a good conversation on it, then I'll remember other things.

Also wanted to ask, do you think being TOO flexible and open to pretty much anything will be something a company will take advantage of by just placing me in a bad school or bad apartment or something? Probably just depends on the company, but I'm hoping that doesn't happen.

Thanks!

[sesyeux]

sorry i can't help you with any in field knowledge of the two places you listed, but i'm in the same boat. i'm talking with someone from b2, and so far not a lots happening, i've sent my resume and he offered me a few places but it's not really what i was looking for so i passed.
then he sent me an email asking for 'a first interview' at any time thats good for me.

is this what happened with you - is he just calling to see if he wants me on his books or whatever, or is he talking about an interview with the school?
either way, if you've had a similar interview / situation, what did they ask and how did they respond to your questions? i'm interested to know - so far they seem pretty legit and everythings okay, but like you, i've not heard a lot about them.

in terms of not getting screwed over, you just gotta make it less likely yourself. i'm picky and so when recruiters send me jobs i don't want, i just refuse. i don't think that because you don't mind they are going to give you 'bad' jobs or living conditions - rather the ones that they've had sitting around for a while.
either way, just ask all the questions about everything to do with it before you sign. the more you know!

[hirujikan]

hey, thanks, good to know someone's in a similar position.

In terms of being picky, you see, I don't have ESL certification or much teaching experience, so I'm already at a disadvantage. So I feel pretty lucky to be offered anything. So I feel like I can't really be picky if I want to find a job, but maybe I'm wrong.

And for me, I just sent my online app and then got a call like 7 hours later, and it really wasn't much of an interview. The only interview kind of question I was really asked was something like, "what is your best trait that would make you a great choice for a school." Something like that. Otherwise she basically just said she had those options for me, explained them a little and that was about it. It was pretty straight-forward. But that's why I was a little nervous about it. So I just told her I'd let her know my answer in a few days.

[ttompatz]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[air76]

I am not familiar with Seosan...but I don't think that Gwangju is all that nice of a city. You'd certainly meet more foreigners there and have foreigner bars and more shopping options and all that, but you'd definitely need to get out of the city if you wanted to find nature. To me Gwangju has most of the negative benefits of a big city with less of the positive ones. On public transport you'd definitely be at least 1.5 hours from the coast. I've never lived in Gwangju, but lived in 2 coastal cities in the same province and spent a lot of time in Gwangju and I certainly wouldn't choose to live there, although it's fine for visiting to go shopping and hit up Burger King and Starbucks.

[hirujikan]

thanks air76,

yeah, being around many other expats or having western-style bars is not a high priority for me at all. I do like bigger cities, but not for those reasons. But like I said in my original post, I also love the outdoors, so I think a medium-smaller sized town like Seosan would be pretty good.

And like other people have said, taking weekend trips into Seoul or Busan is completely possible, expecially with CouchSurfing! Anyone know about how much it would cost to go from Seosan to Seoul or Busan? I know it would be bus from Seosan then train to the city.

[ttompatz]

Perhaps you should actually look at the contracts.

Job particulars are MUCH more important than location.