Korean Job Discussion Forums

[williamsabia]

I was accepted to the program of Footprints. Has anyone worked with them and know them to be good job providers and helpful in the process?
I'm concerned they're too big to focus on helping each teacher become successful.
Did anyone do more than one job through them in different locations?
If you do like them why?
And if you weren't pleased why?
Thank y'all

[northway]

They only test for HIV.

[SeoulNate]

lol, you realize that 80% of the adult population in the world has Type 1 Herpes right?

If they were checking for and deporting for having herpes, they would be hard pressed to find enough people to fill the void.

[Modernist]

I talked to them at the beginning of my job-hunt. They are pretty nice but very large, so you don't always get prompt replies to questions. They tend to want to put you into the slots they already have open, not look for what you are trying to find. So if they have Ulsan slots, they will push hard for you to apply to Ulsan even if you want to be -- and tell them you want to be -- closer to Seoul.

They do tend to give honest answers to most questions though. Stay with them long enough and you will get a decent job, if not the best job you could find. They also have a lot of good info on their site about how to get E2 reqs done, what kinds of things to bring to Korea, etc. Good stuff if you are just starting to think about doing ESL here.

FYI, DO NOT TAKE any positions they try to push on you in Georgia. They have some huge contract with that country and are always going on about teaching there. Rinky-dink backwater, no money, sucky housing, etc. If you want to teach English for nothing, join Peace Corps instead

[winterfall]

Use multiple recruiters and don't let them try to push stuff on you. Evaluate your options. Do your homework on the schools, find former / current teachers and talk to them. Short list your choices and take the best out of the bunch.

[SeoulNate]

lol what happened here... this thread started out about Herpes and the blood check and now it is in some bizarro world about footprints.

[koreatimes]

[WillTurnerinVanCity]

[rayne]

Do they have an email? I sent them a message via their contact form and never got a response. I can't seem to find their email anywhere.

[SeoulNate]

[jackson7]

I had a fantastic experience with them, as have all of my friends that went through them. I randomly met one of the owners, Jeff, at a family barbecue and was on a plane a few weeks later to start my ex-pat adventure. At the time he said something along the lines of, "You strike me as a guy that will likely be abroad for a long time..."

Five years later I've been in universities in South Korea and Iraq for several, have banked gazillions (of won and dinar), and am now working on my doctorate after having finished my MSEd in TESOL. Have corresponded with Ben Glickman, the other owner/founder, as well, and have nothing but good things to say.

One of the things I liked most was that they either come over themselves, or send over folks from their agency to set up partnerships with schools, so they actually know what's going on here as far as conditions are concerned. I think you could do a lot worse than this outfit. I think it also says something that they don't take any cute face and try and place them in any ol' school.

J7

[Lorilou]

I wouldn't recommend footprints. I got a terrible hagwon job through them my first year that failed to fullfill several contractual obligations (no health insurance, korean roommate that spoke no english when I was supposed to have single housing, failing to pay me for sick days when I was in the hospital for pneumonia) and I couldn't get footprints to respond to a single email for advice. I finally got out of the contract and am at a much better job that I found through a different recruiter.

That being said, I don't blame them for the bad job, it just would have been nice to get more support. I will also say that the person I worked with was fired eventually, too. so they obviously recognized that he wasn't doing his job. But several friends have used them as well, and it seems that footprints likes to push the less-than-stellar jobs on newbies who don't know any better (maybe all recruiters do this, though?). At the end of the day, a recruiter is only as good as the schools they work with.

[rayne]

^Which recruiter did you use that got you a better job?

[Lorilou]

[rayne]