Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jvalmer]

Is your difficulty in finding a job possibly related to you only wanting to work in the Seoul area? Consider the rest of the country, super easy to find one if you're willing to consider all areas.

[PatrickGHBusan]

First of all it is too late to apply for a PS position as most are filled.

The same is true of University positions.

Bad timing for you there.

As for your qualifications, for a PS position you are actually overqualified as these are assistant teacher positions and the market is still flooded with applicants. In essence, applying at PS is working AGAINST you as you are not in a favorable employment stream. PS will naturally hire less experienced teachers, for many reasons.

You could do very well a a Hakwon with you qualifications and experience but that would require some networking on your part. From your post, it seems you are hitting recruiters for positions, which tells me you have not made that many good professional contacts in Korea. That will again land you in entry level positions and again you will be competing for positions that can typically be staffed by lesser experienced applicants.


You should try (if in Korea now) to VISIT some schools personally. That can give you an edge.

If not, you will need to be patient and find a job that nearly matches what you want, if what you want is realistic of course.

Contact people you know in Korea since you appear to have been there for a year or more. Ask them if they heard about any openings. I assume this based on your numerous posts on the value of teaching ESL in Korea (or lack of value). Unless I am mistaking you with another poster...

Try to contact schools directly if you can.

This is your best bet as you said initially: Here's my plan: tell me if it is a good one. I am going to apply for a D4 visa and fly to Korea on my own dime to study Korean at a university language institute. This way I will be in country during the prime university hiring season. I will try my hardest to network during this time also. Is this my best option?
Good luck.

[Konglishman]

I mostly concur with Patrick. Also, if I were you, I would make the most out of learning Korean during this time.

[Hotpants]

I'd say:

i - Don't go through a recruiter. Apply direct to schools. Most recruiters are not interested in your qualifications. They just want to find anyone to fill hard-to-fill-bottom-of-the-barrel positions. A lot of recruiters also advertise for jobs they don't actually have.

ii - Choose your timing. There could be a few last-minute hires for good places such as unis for early Sept start after applicants have dropped out at the last minute - check the job board. But you'd have to have all your docs in hand to get in this time around. Otherwise, the next peak hiring season will be for next March.

iii - It is easier to get a job if you are here in person for interview. However, if you haven't had an E2 before, there'd be a big chance that you'd have to fly back to your home country for your first E2 visa issuance - a lot of money spent if you don't secure a decent gig at the end of it all.

iv - Don't give up, but be prepared to consider some other options, including non-Korea options.

[DaHu]

If I had a teaching masters I'd stay in my home country.

[minos]

I don't buy this guy's story unless he has a screwy recruiter. Everyone I know with a Master in edu. is making bank and has top pick of hagwons.

Try SAT hagwons, Foreign language private schools, gangnam public schools, or international schools. Don't even bother with generic places like GnB or Kindergartens(although some can pay a premium).

The only factor stopping you is not being able to interview in person, BUT masters of Edu. are not common here. I can think of plenty of schools that would ship you over.

[Illysook]

Don't bother with recruiters, approach schools directly. I have a masters in HR, finished my CELTA at the end of June and had a job offer less than a week later. Good timing helped, but I'm not exactly chopped liver and neither are you. Keep fishing, you will catch something good.

[PatrickGHBusan]

There is fishing and then there is FISHING.

Meaning you can have all the qualifications in the universe but if you do not know where to drop your fishing line, you will have a hard time finding work anyway.

If you have a MA in Ed, a CELTA and experience in Korea then minimally speaking you should be aware of where to apply for work (NOT via Recruiters and NOT for jobs who favor new grads). You should have have (again minimally) a couple of contacts that can clue you in on jobs or at least be AWARE of the job market itself. Those are the vary basics of career management.

Heck with those qualifications just minimal networking should have landed him a job before he was done with the old one!

Good luck.

[northway]

[Bruce W Sims]

Since nobody has raised the question, I'll stick my neck out.

Since the market is considered pretty bad right now, will individuals find themselves faced with the probability of taking a position at a less "respectable" (IE. history of bad behavior) school in order to get by? Thoughts? Comments?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

[PatrickGHBusan]

[some waygug-in]

Did you try Taiwan?

I think they might show a bit more interest, but I don't know the market there.

[Tigerstyleone]

He failed to mention.

He only wants to teach adults between 2pm and 6pm.

He only wants to work and live in Hongdae and Gangnam.

No other options will be acceptable.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[World Traveler]

Don't make assumptions. I never said any such thing. I was open to any location, anywhere in Korea. Unfortunately, EPIK has a policy stating anyone who has worked in Korea at any point between January 2009 to present must have, as one of their two reference letters, a letter of recommendation from their most recent Korean employer.

The problem is, my employer tried to cheat me out of money, then, after a lot of misery, I took the school to court and won. I saved documentation to prove I was in the right, too. But it doesn't matter. A rule's a rule, and why would the ministry make an exception when there is a flood of applicants. (Conflict with one's school is a huge red flag, regardless of what happened.)

GEPIK doesn't have the requirement that one letter be from the most recent Korean employer...but GEPIK's budget has been cut.

I wonder how long a bad reference will haunt me. I can't leave that part of my work history off of my resume; if I do, I will get in trouble with immigration. What really gets to me though is that prospective employers will contact former employers in Korea, but not former employers in the West. (With e-mail, this should not be too hard to do.)

Of my two recommendation letters (and I have more than two), one was from the head of my city's school board, and the other was from the professor who oversaw my university's writing center. He wrote of me, "[His] willingness to embrace cultural diversity, personal warmth, intelligence, and tenacity as a writing center consultant were such I dare say it is unlikely I will encounter his equal in meetings with future students and workers."

But all of this and more is negated by slander from my ex-boss. (And my boss was a masterful liar. She could lie better than anyone I have ever met.)

I've spent only one year in Korea and the one job I had didn't end on friendly terms (because I stuck up for myself and didn't accept shady deductions, and fought for money owed).

100% bad feedback from places called (in this case, one) certainly doesn't look good for me.

Do prospective employers see a Korean school on a resume, google (naver) it, and call it early on as part of initial screening? In the States, I believe interviews come first, and then the candidates being considered have former employers called as one of the last steps. How do things work in Korea?


P.S.- Patrick, your good friend The Urban Myth, who has worked as an English teacher in Korea for more than 10 years, wrote this: