Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Stalin84]

Hey guys. I received a job offer starting in mid-December. It's an adult conversation school offering me 2.5mil per month. I spent several hours looking at the contract (mailed it to some friends too) and it looks really solid.

The only thing dragging it down is the 10m key money with 300k housing allowance. The job is in Kangnam which means I might have to commute if I don't want to drop a fortune on rent.

I used to live in Anyang and am familiar with the prices there. 10m + 300k/mth would probably be enough in a satellite city but would it be enough for Seoul even if I pay 200-300k per month out of pocket?

Thanks!

[Isehtis]

I'm in an almost identical position, what's the school?

I've got free housing for 2 months, then sort my own. I'm looking at somewhere around SNU since it looks a fair bit cheaper than everywhere else I've looked at

[OBwannabe]

Just be careful. Many schools will offer 10 mil for housing allowance, but pay 100,000 less/month to recover what they would have made in interest/month if it were to be invested.
400 grand/month is pretty standard for housing allowance. 10mil will lower your monthly rent by 100grand. So your situation comes out to the same except that you have the benefit of having the deposit that is required by most landlords.

[Stalin84]

[sulperman]

[Stalin84]

[crossmr]

[Stalin84]

[crossmr]

[dongjak]

I use to live near Soongsil University subway stop on line 7and I met a bunch of other people who also lived there that worked in Gangnam/Isu etc. I guess it is a cheap area and you can get a newly built villa/apartment for 300 or less with 5 million key money. But the area is very boring. And they didn't choose to live there, their gangnam hagwons set them up there.

Seoul University and Nakseongdae are cheap areas.

[PigeonFart]

WARNING! Some schools will tax the housing allowance so teachers end up with less housing allowance than they expected. So 300k might not actually be 300k. That would be worth investigating. I know teachers who experienced that situation.

Yes, live outside gangnam. You'll have to pay a few hundred of your own wages to top up your housing allowance, if you want to live in a decent officetell.

Don't just look at the subway map to find housing that has a commuter link to your school, use the 'Congnamul' bus website to find an Officetel that's in a quiet area (hence cheaper) but still connected to your school on a bus route.

http://www.congnamul.com/

[Cedar]

It's not a very good deal if you want to be ANYWHERE near Gangnam. In an outlying area, or another city it's not bad though. For a decent place, with some luck when you're looking, in the Noksapyeong to Hyatt Hotel area up near the top of the hill so you can ride the 402 to Gangnam, you'd be able to find a really nice one bedroom for 500,000 with that key money. That's what I'd suggest you do.

[waywardwanderer]

This may sound like a stupid question, but I have never before looked for an apt in Seoul (or anywhere in Korea) and now it looks like if I take a position in Seoul I will have to find a place. So my question is about "key money": Does the landlord give the key money back when you vacate the apt?

When I lived in Japan, key money was never refunded so a renter had to include key money as part of the total cost of moving into a place. Usually key money was an extra 2 or 3 months rent. How does it work here?

[Los Angeloser]

[War Eagle]