Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Agent Cooper]

My friend and I (canadians) are planning to start teaching in Korea in the fall. �Ideally we would like to:

- teach in Busan or Seoul

- teach at the same school

- live in a two bedroom apartment provided by the school

- start in October or November (September if it would be much easier to find a job)

In case it's relevant: I�m male, she�s female, and we are not a couple.

Does anyone have any information or advice? Mostly I�m wondering how realistic a scenario this is, and how to look for such a situation. E.g. should we mention to schools that we are a package deal?

Thanks!
-Andrew

[Charlie Bourque]

Tell them you're married. Badabing!

[Agent Cooper]

Really? Wouldn't that be a hard lie to maintain? Also, wouldn't the school assume we would be okay with a 1 bedroom apartment in that case? We're close friends, but we really need a bedroom each.

[northway]

Most schools already have one room studios rented, so you're basically saying "Rent an apartment just for us." You can probably work the other stuff, but sharing an apartment is unlikely.

[Agent Cooper]

Ohhhh I see. That is useful, thank you.

Would it be easier for us to apply to schools as a package (do people even do that?), or to apply individually and just try to find schools within close proximity?

I think it would be nice to work at the same school, but I really do not know how likely that is.

[MyNameIsNobody]

OP: I applied with an older sibling, so I'm not exactly in the same position as you. Applying together becomes easiest during the busy hiring season and when you have all your documents in hand. The latter makes you especially desirable.

You have to decide what is most important to you and your friend. Do you really have to live together? Do you really have to work at the same school?

I'll second the poster who said that the two-bedroom apartment is probably not going to be offered to you. Gender issues aside, it seems like most schools have one-room apartments for their teachers. Maybe you could work out housing allowances instead of housing if this is really important to you.

It is possible to find work at the same school. Just apply to positions that are advertising for friends, couples, or 2+ teacher positions. (Note: I've seen plenty of positions that say two female friends are okay, but I've never seen a position advertise that two males or a female and a male are okay.) Apply to as many recruiters as you can handle calling you late at night. We applied to about ten. Most got back to us, but some may not contact you much, if at all. Two people are harder to place than one. Again, you really have to decide how important it is for you two to work (and possibly live) together.

My sibling and I were resolute in sticking together, but we were offered:
1) positions at two different schools and two different companies who were willing to co-pay for our apartment so that we could live together (we turned this down)
2) positions for the same company at different schools (turned it down because the contract sucked)
3) one position and then a chance that the other sibling might find work in the same city (turned it down because we didn't care to gamble)

We also did receive offers to live and work together, but the contracts were often jokes, and big sibling had a higher salary requirement.

Applying together is harder, but there are certain things to make you and your friend appear more flexible. It's good that you're willing to live in either Seoul or Busan, but have you considered working in one of the other major cities? (I think we received one offer in Seoul and a few in Gyeonggi-do, the province around Seoul.) Do you care about age group? Do you care about salary?

As much as I'm telling you to be flexible, also be firm. Compromise when you can, but don't accept crud. You may have some recruiters lose interest after you turn them down a few times, but don't worry. Just apply to ten more.

However, if you decide to go solo, you'll definitely have an easier time. It took us about four months to find our positions (we didn't have all of our documents in hand when we started, but when we did it only took about a month). We were hired during the busy season, although we're starting later this month.

As a heads up, as the male applicant, expect interviews to be heavily skewed towards you. In our case, gender didn't play out, but age did. My older sibling had most of the "hard" questions. I got "nice picture" and "you like spicy food." Confucianism and all that jazz. Westerners will interview the both of you.

Best of luck.

[rayne]

I used to read a blog about a Canadian couple who said they were engaged in order to live together. (They ended up really getting engaged and got married.) That may be the best lie...

If you say you're married, it'll be hard to keep the lie up (no wedding ring, etc.) and if you guys have a falling out a lot of rumours about you two divorcing may come about.

If you say you're related (cousins or something) and then maybe you start dating or something, again, bad rumours will start flying around.

[lifeinkorea]

Schools give each teacher an apartment. Why would you want to share? To try to save money? Just an extra 300,000/month? That's only 150,000 for each person.

I don't see the point. Why do you want to share an apartment?

One solution is to work at one of those English villages (paju comes to mind) where you room with someone (I understand). This might be easier to arrange than a public school job way out in the boonies.

Also, if you do this with a hagwon, you are gambling big time. The school can screw both of you. So, if you 2 do decide on doing hagwons it is my suggestion to find a hagwon who has like 5 or more teachers. Then only 1 of you go first. If it is a good school, then find out when a teacher is leaving or the school needs another teacher. This way you can be sure both of you won't get burned.

[ThingsComeAround]

I've known of two sets of friends that were coupled together in a hagwon/English village (M-F & F-F) so it isn't that rare. As the above posters mentioned, get the docs, check that the school has over 5 teachers.

Research is most important!

Don't worry to much about the school messing with you. Friends have the advantage of leaving together, giving one leverage over a crappy school. Still, ask many questions and you can't go wrong

[Agent Cooper]

Wow great this is all really useful information!

We thought we would likely share an apartment to make it cheaper for the school (to make us more appealing to them). But apparently that is not how it works, very good to know.

I think I probably have a skewed idea of how this works, so it's good to have these perspectives.

At this point it seems like we may as well apply separately, and try to find jobs close together. Maybe we can approach recruiters with this in mind to see what they can find for us. It's free so as long as we're careful, why not?

We definitely want to live in Busan or Seoul, and not too far apart (it would be nice for it to be easy to hang out). Those are the only essential things I suppose.

[samcic]

Seoul is pretty big.

[northway]

[Sinnerman]

Something else to consider. Are you planning on vacationing together? If so, you will want to look for either a job that shuts their doors completely for their vacation time, or a school that has a large staff so that there are teachers to cover while you are both gone.