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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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 Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 10:54 am Post subject: Couples Jobs? |
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Does anyone know how EPIK and hagwons go about hiring couples? What happens when one applicant is very qualified, even overqualified, while their partner is barely qualified?
For example, if I had a B.A. Applied Linguistics with TEFL, and my girlfriend only had a B.Sc. Biology with TEFL, how would they weigh us in terms of pay and how likely are we to be hired as a couple?
Also, are couples' positions only open to married couples, or is common-law suitable? What about long-term relationships? Or couples that plan on gettin married while abroad?
Really, any information/insight on couples positions (hurrhurr) would be appreciated. |
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hapigokelli
Joined: 04 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:15 pm Post subject: |
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If you want to get hired by any public school program and be placed in the same district or have housing together, You must be married, no way around that.
I have heard that some hagwons prefer to hire couples to save money on housing. Others prefer not to hire couples because if they break up, it causes huge problems at work, also if one wants to go home, they both end up leaving.
In my experience with public school hiring, they don't care what your qualifications are. I'm not sure that applied linguistics is going to help that much when you're standing in a room with a bunch of screaming 7 year olds.
Just get a good recruiter, explain that you are looking for a couples position, and see what they can come up with.  |
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SeoulNate
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
Location: Hyehwa
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| Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2011 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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stay away from public schools if you are a couple and NOT married imo.
You may or not get shared apartments and just because you will be working in the same city, doesnt mean that you will be close to each other. In my time here I have met a few different couples who thought they were getting couples placement from SMOE only to be 90 minutes away from each other on the opposite sides of Seoul.
Stick with Hogwons if you are not married. |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:05 am Post subject: |
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| hapigokelli wrote: |
If you want to get hired by any public school program and be placed in the same district or have housing together, You must be married, no way around that.
I have heard that some hagwons prefer to hire couples to save money on housing. Others prefer not to hire couples because if they break up, it causes huge problems at work, also if one wants to go home, they both end up leaving.
In my experience with public school hiring, they don't care what your qualifications are. I'm not sure that applied linguistics is going to help that much when you're standing in a room with a bunch of screaming 7 year olds.
Just get a good recruiter, explain that you are looking for a couples position, and see what they can come up with. |
Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. And while I understand that SMOE/EPIK jobs are generally more about occasionally lending a native speaker's input than actually teaching, it does make me more desirable as a candidate for certain types of ESL employment.
In any case, we hadn't decided whether to get married in Canada or in Korea yet, but I suppose this would be a bit of incentive to get it done earlier. Ideally, I'd like to get a position where we are both living in the same unit and working in the same school. I'm not fussy about getting into SMOE either -- any halfway decent job will do to start.
My real question is this: will the recruiters/school owners weight both candidates individually, or as a couple? Is a couple unlikely to be hired if one candidate isn't as desirable as the other? She's Canadian-born Chinese, which I would assume isn't going to help her in lower-tier hagwons... |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:15 am Post subject: |
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| SeoulNate wrote: |
stay away from public schools if you are a couple and NOT married imo.
You may or not get shared apartments and just because you will be working in the same city, doesnt mean that you will be close to each other. In my time here I have met a few different couples who thought they were getting couples placement from SMOE only to be 90 minutes away from each other on the opposite sides of Seoul.
Stick with Hogwons if you are not married. |
And if we were married? Then would SMOE/EPIK be more desirable? When I lived in Korea, teachers had a tendency to prefer public schools, but that was 6 years ago, and things seem to have tipped in favor of after-school programs now, correct? |
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Sinnerman
Joined: 19 Feb 2011
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
And if we were married? Then would SMOE/EPIK be more desirable? When I lived in Korea, teachers had a tendency to prefer public schools, but that was 6 years ago, and things seem to have tipped in favor of after-school programs now, correct? |
This will vary depending on who you talk to. One thing to consider though if you are applying to a hagwon. Vacation. You will want to vacation together, and unless the hagwon shuts its doors for vacation time, it could prove difficult for the hagwon to cover both of your classes while you are on vacation. Larger hagwons can accommodate as they have the staffing. If taking a vacation together is on your list of things to do, then be sure to bring this point up when talking to recruiters and owners. |
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SeoulNate
Joined: 04 Jun 2010
Location: Hyehwa
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| SeoulNate wrote: |
stay away from public schools if you are a couple and NOT married imo.
You may or not get shared apartments and just because you will be working in the same city, doesnt mean that you will be close to each other. In my time here I have met a few different couples who thought they were getting couples placement from SMOE only to be 90 minutes away from each other on the opposite sides of Seoul.
Stick with Hogwons if you are not married. |
And if we were married? Then would SMOE/EPIK be more desirable? When I lived in Korea, teachers had a tendency to prefer public schools, but that was 6 years ago, and things seem to have tipped in favor of after-school programs now, correct? |
Depends. I saw in your previous post about wanting to work together. If you are married and you get into SMOE, you will probably not work in a public school together since most of them have only one NET.
You will get to live together for sure, and work placement will hopefully be close, but that still may be a 30-40 minute commute each way for both of you.
Personally I would never work for a public school in Korea again, but that is just my opinion and other people will surely tell you differently. A good Hogwon is much better than a good public school and they will be more accommodating to you as a couple (I have been living here with my GF for the past 3 years and working together as well)
Just do your research, talk to everyone and you will end up in a good Hogwon where both of you can be happy. Make sure you ask questions about the apartment too, do not get stuck in a one room, no matter how large. |
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.josh.
Joined: 26 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 7:15 pm Post subject: Re: Couples Jobs? |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
Also, are couples' positions only open to married couples, or is common-law suitable? What about long-term relationships? Or couples that plan on gettin married while abroad?
Really, any information/insight on couples positions (hurrhurr) would be appreciated. |
In terms of working at hagwons, you'll be fine living together unmarried. My girlfriend and I went together, and were actually fortunate enough to live in a pretty nice place together (though it did require substantial cleaning upon our arrival).
The only issue we had was that we were at different schools with different schedules, and this wasn't what we were told prior to heading over. This kind of stuff is pretty common with hagwons though - first jobs are often less than stellar.
I actually wrote an article recently which you can check out on the topic, and if you have any particular questions, just let me know: http://hubpages.com/_jmor26/hub/Finding-the-best-teaching-jobs-in-South-Korea |
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smee18
Joined: 24 Mar 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:44 am Post subject: |
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| I came to Korea with my then fiancee and just said we were married. They didn't ask for a marriage certificate. We have since married, yay! Oh, that was for public school. |
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loubird
Joined: 27 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:06 am Post subject: |
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My (then) boyfriend and I were told we would need to be married to live together here. I am a certified U.S. teacher with English teaching experience, my boyfriend just had his bachelors (not in teaching). We'd been talking about marriage for a long time, and aren't really into ceremony, so we just went ahead and got married a few months before we came. My recruiter placed us both in public schools (relatively) near each other, but we live in the apartment my school provided. My husband get's a 400,000 won housing allowance from his school.
The funny thing is, no one ever asked for our marriage certificate in the first place... oh well. Anyway, The one issue we encountered was that several of the schools that wanted to hire us felt uncomfortable asking a married couple to share a single-person's apartment. It took a lot of convincing on our behalf to make people understand that it wasn't really an inconvenience.
The recruiter we used was Jessie Kim at Korvia, she worked really hard to make sure we found jobs near each other etc. etc. I know GEPIK is on the way out, but if you're interested, I would send Jessie and email and see what she can do for you. |
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DBXD
Joined: 16 May 2011
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| Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 5:34 am Post subject: |
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| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| hapigokelli wrote: |
If you want to get hired by any public school program and be placed in the same district or have housing together, You must be married, no way around that.
I have heard that some hagwons prefer to hire couples to save money on housing. Others prefer not to hire couples because if they break up, it causes huge problems at work, also if one wants to go home, they both end up leaving.
In my experience with public school hiring, they don't care what your qualifications are. I'm not sure that applied linguistics is going to help that much when you're standing in a room with a bunch of screaming 7 year olds.
Just get a good recruiter, explain that you are looking for a couples position, and see what they can come up with. |
Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. And while I understand that SMOE/EPIK jobs are generally more about occasionally lending a native speaker's input than actually teaching, it does make me more desirable as a candidate for certain types of ESL employment.
In any case, we hadn't decided whether to get married in Canada or in Korea yet, but I suppose this would be a bit of incentive to get it done earlier. Ideally, I'd like to get a position where we are both living in the same unit and working in the same school. I'm not fussy about getting into SMOE either -- any halfway decent job will do to start.
My real question is this: will the recruiters/school owners weight both candidates individually, or as a couple? Is a couple unlikely to be hired if one candidate isn't as desirable as the other? She's Canadian-born Chinese, which I would assume isn't going to help her in lower-tier hagwons... |
You think they care that you have a degree in linguistics? You are telling me and those that have been here many years and who have weighed in on potential candidates with their employers for open positions that they're wrong and you're right? YOu have no idea on the hiring practices in this country. I've personally gone out to dinner with my recruiter after getting here and he told me he just shot down a lawyer for a position because he questioned his motives for wanting to work here being "that" educated.
Korea doesn't care if you are a rocket scientist. If you have a 4 year degree in ANY field you are pretty much on the same plane as everybody else. Hate to break it to ya.
And if you try to spout that pretentious crap off to a prospective employer demanding more salary, prepare to have your precious resume thrown in the trash, as he can just as easily go with the next warm body with a degree in basket weaving demanding much less to do the same work. |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:03 am Post subject: |
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| DBXD wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
| hapigokelli wrote: |
If you want to get hired by any public school program and be placed in the same district or have housing together, You must be married, no way around that.
I have heard that some hagwons prefer to hire couples to save money on housing. Others prefer not to hire couples because if they break up, it causes huge problems at work, also if one wants to go home, they both end up leaving.
In my experience with public school hiring, they don't care what your qualifications are. I'm not sure that applied linguistics is going to help that much when you're standing in a room with a bunch of screaming 7 year olds.
Just get a good recruiter, explain that you are looking for a couples position, and see what they can come up with. |
Applied Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. And while I understand that SMOE/EPIK jobs are generally more about occasionally lending a native speaker's input than actually teaching, it does make me more desirable as a candidate for certain types of ESL employment.
In any case, we hadn't decided whether to get married in Canada or in Korea yet, but I suppose this would be a bit of incentive to get it done earlier. Ideally, I'd like to get a position where we are both living in the same unit and working in the same school. I'm not fussy about getting into SMOE either -- any halfway decent job will do to start.
My real question is this: will the recruiters/school owners weight both candidates individually, or as a couple? Is a couple unlikely to be hired if one candidate isn't as desirable as the other? She's Canadian-born Chinese, which I would assume isn't going to help her in lower-tier hagwons... |
You think they care that you have a degree in linguistics? You are telling me and those that have been here many years and who have weighed in on potential candidates with their employers for open positions that they're wrong and you're right? YOu have no idea on the hiring practices in this country. I've personally gone out to dinner with my recruiter after getting here and he told me he just shot down a lawyer for a position because he questioned his motives for wanting to work here being "that" educated.
Korea doesn't care if you are a rocket scientist. If you have a 4 year degree in ANY field you are pretty much on the same plane as everybody else. Hate to break it to ya.
And if you try to spout that pretentious crap off to a prospective employer demanding more salary, prepare to have your precious resume thrown in the trash, as he can just as easily go with the next warm body with a degree in basket weaving demanding much less to do the same work. |
Holy shit... You need therapy. Or a hug. Or a slice of Fluoxetine and Strawberry pie. 
I agree -- being a rocket scientist has nothing to do with teaching ESL, and neither does being a lawyer. Likewise, why would anyone hire an ESL teacher to work for a law firm or an aeronautic engineering company? But then again, I never said I was either. Having a degree in a subject related to ESL teaching isn't considered being "over qualified" for EPIK/SMOE/GEPIK, so long as it's just an undergrad. Well, I suppose it could be -- but only in the shithole that hired you.
Also, how am "spouting off pretentious crap"? I never mentioned anything about a salary raise or anything like that. I never said anyone was wrong; I simply asked for clarification. I mentioned that one of us is a bit more qualified than the other, and asked how that could affect the recruitment process. I was merely asking for a bit of input from the teachers themselves, since I don't know any couples up here that have been through the process.
I've been back-and-forth to South Korea since 2003, and one of my oldest friends has worked in HR at YBM since 2004. I'd say I know a fair bit about the hiring trends. Again -- and pay attention -- I was merely asking for the input of the couples themselves or people who have hired them.
Honestly, I see your type all the time, and if shitty hiring practicies are half the problem with the ESL market, then oversaturation of the market with cynical, self-entitled, elitist douchebags like you are the other half of the problem. |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:10 am Post subject: |
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| loubird wrote: |
My (then) boyfriend and I were told we would need to be married to live together here. I am a certified U.S. teacher with English teaching experience, my boyfriend just had his bachelors (not in teaching). We'd been talking about marriage for a long time, and aren't really into ceremony, so we just went ahead and got married a few months before we came. My recruiter placed us both in public schools (relatively) near each other, but we live in the apartment my school provided. My husband get's a 400,000 won housing allowance from his school.
The funny thing is, no one ever asked for our marriage certificate in the first place... oh well. Anyway, The one issue we encountered was that several of the schools that wanted to hire us felt uncomfortable asking a married couple to share a single-person's apartment. It took a lot of convincing on our behalf to make people understand that it wasn't really an inconvenience.
The recruiter we used was Jessie Kim at Korvia, she worked really hard to make sure we found jobs near each other etc. etc. I know GEPIK is on the way out, but if you're interested, I would send Jessie and email and see what she can do for you. |
See -- to me -- that seems perfectly reasonable too. As long as we are living together, it's not too important whether or not we are working at the same place. It would be a plus, but it's certainly not a requirement.
In any case, my girlfriend has just landed a 6-month contract as a chemist for some cosmetics company in Hong Kong, so we will hold out until then to head over to South Korea. Could I contact you then, if you are still in the country? |
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Charlie Bourque
Joined: 27 Jun 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 6:16 am Post subject: Re: Couples Jobs? |
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| .josh. wrote: |
| Charlie Bourque wrote: |
Also, are couples' positions only open to married couples, or is common-law suitable? What about long-term relationships? Or couples that plan on gettin married while abroad?
Really, any information/insight on couples positions (hurrhurr) would be appreciated. |
In terms of working at hagwons, you'll be fine living together unmarried. My girlfriend and I went together, and were actually fortunate enough to live in a pretty nice place together (though it did require substantial cleaning upon our arrival).
The only issue we had was that we were at different schools with different schedules, and this wasn't what we were told prior to heading over. This kind of stuff is pretty common with hagwons though - first jobs are often less than stellar.
I actually wrote an article recently which you can check out on the topic, and if you have any particular questions, just let me know: http://hubpages.com/_jmor26/hub/Finding-the-best-teaching-jobs-in-South-Korea |
Thanks for the help! That actually clears up a lot questions.
By the way, how different are your schedules? |
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loubird
Joined: 27 May 2010
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| Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Sorry Charlie, we're actually flying back to the states in September after our son is born, so we won't be in Korea much longer, but you could contact me anyway if you have any questions about recruitment etc. in the future. Good luck! |
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