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Applying to schools directly

 
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furtakk



Joined: 02 Jun 2009

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:26 pm    Post subject: Applying to schools directly Reply with quote

Anyone have experience doing so?

I've been working with at least 15+ recruiters over the past month and have had absolutely no luck. The emails usually look something like one of the following:

1) Hi we have a position at X school starting way before your earliest start date. We didn't even bother to look over application and started sending you random offers.

2) Hi we have a position at X school, which if you take a minute to google, you will notice that there are 10+ pages about how horrible the school is. You can find it on all the major hagwon blacklists.

3) Hi we have a position in some small ass town. We probably know that you requested specific locations, but we don't care. Here is some sub-par offer to work in some rural town.

4) Hi we listed over 100 offers, 10 of which you expressed interest in. We are not going to bother sending your resume to any of those schools because they either don't exist or we're holding on them. Instead look at this totally different offer that does not meet any of the requests you had.

If you can't tell, I've grown extremely annoyed. I've searched through threads where people always talk about applying directly to schools. I'm pretty far from the location I would like to work in, but I could always take a day off or go on a weekend to hand out resumes and the like. Does this actually work though?

The other idea I had was emailing schools directly. My Korean isn't amazing, but I can manage a coherent email with the help of a friend. It's nowhere near good enough to be calling up random hagwons though.

Any suggestiongs? 95% of the jobs on the major job boards are just posted by recruiters. I have seen some good jobs pop up now and then, but they go very fast.

HELP.


Last edited by furtakk on Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:26 am; edited 1 time in total
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tanklor1



Joined: 13 Jun 2006

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:34 pm    Post subject: Re: Applying to schools directly Reply with quote

furtakk wrote:
Anyone have experience doing so?

I've been working with at least 15+ recruiters over the past month and have had absolutely no luck. The emails usually look something like one of the following:

1) Hi we have a position at X school starting way before you're earliest start date. We didn't even bother to look over application and started sending you random offers.

2) Hi we have a position at X school, which if you take a minute to google, you will notice that there are 10+ pages about how horrible the school is. You can find it on all the major hagwon blacklists.

3) Hi we have a position in some small ass town. We probably know that you requested specific locations, but we don't care. Here is some sub-par offer to work in some rural town.

4) Hi we listed over 100 offers, 10 of which you expressed interest in. We are not going to bother sending your resume to any of those schools because they either don't exist or we're holding on them. Instead look at this totally different offer that does not meet any of the requests you had.

If you can't tell, I've grown extremely annoyed. I've searched through threads where people always talk about applying directly to schools. I'm pretty far from the location I would like to work in, but I could always take a day off or go on a weekend to hand out resumes and the like. Does this actually work though?

The other idea I had was emailing schools directly. My Korean isn't amazing, but I can manage a coherent email with the help of a friend. It's nowhere near good enough to be calling up random hagwons though.

Any suggestiongs? 95% of the jobs on the major job boards are just posted by recruiters. I have seen some good jobs pop up now and then, but they go very fast.

HELP.


I think you should be less picky. That's my opinion.
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furtakk



Joined: 02 Jun 2009

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My requirements are:

1) In Seoul
2) Not a sketchy school
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tanklor1



Joined: 13 Jun 2006

PostPosted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 9:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

furtakk wrote:
My requirements are:

1) In Seoul
2) Not a sketchy school


Stick to your guns. In my experience a school's a school. Doesn't really matter about the location.
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furtakk



Joined: 02 Jun 2009

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

that's cool, but location is really important to me.
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ttompatz



Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 3:44 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

so you want in Seoul and not sketchy (which eliminates 90% of hakwon jobs).

You are applying now (almost the end of the spring term) so jobs are fewer than usual (other than "camp positions").

When is your expectant start / available date?

Public schools are doing their mid-term intakes now.
Hakwons will pick up after the summer intensives and they have their enrollments for the fall figured out.



.
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furtakk



Joined: 02 Jun 2009

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:23 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

ttompatz wrote:
so you want in Seoul and not sketchy (which eliminates 90% of hakwon jobs).

You are applying now (almost the end of the spring term) so jobs are fewer than usual (other than "camp positions").

When is your expectant start / available date?

Public schools are doing their mid-term intakes now.
Hakwons will pick up after the summer intensives and they have their enrollments for the fall figured out.


Thanks for the info. I'm looking for end of Summer/September, which would explain the lack of offers I suppose. I figured most Hagwons simply filled in their positions when teachers left. I'm looking for positions that start around 2-2.5 months from now. Is this really still too early?

I have a few offers which are not horrible, but I'm not sure if I should hold out for something better. I figured the more reputable places would be hiring further in advance, but I may be wrong. Or maybe they simply don't need recruiters (which is the case for the better hagwons in my current city).
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fl4mers



Joined: 26 Jan 2010

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

As far as I know most schools start hiring 2-3 months before the start date, so for September you would only just be starting to get offers from now onwards. Don't give up, something suitable should crop up as long as you stay patient Smile
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mariposita



Joined: 07 May 2010
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

PostPosted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 12:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Avalon and YBM both have websites with recruiting sections where you can apply directly to them online. I know they say not all Avalons are reputable but I took my chances and took a position with them just outside of Seoul. Not there yet, but from what I can tell so far it sounds like a good branch. They had more positions for August but that was 3 weeks ago so September doesn't sound too far off.
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