Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Malislamusrex]

I have been offered a job at a university. I have never had a interview with this university but I did send in all of the documents for the 3 stages of the screening process.

The semester is suppose to start in a week and I have been asked to 'get' a letter of termination from my current employer, and go to Japan and wait.

I haven't even seen a contract yet, so I don't even know the terms, the terms in the advert were good.

on a scale of 1/10 how strange is this?

I'm not going to name the university but it's not small.

[DaHu]

absolutely do not go to Japan and wait

and I've never heard of a letter of termination.. geez they've got letters for everything over here

[oldtactics]

I assume they mean a letter of release, which is a letter from your current employer releasing you from your visa so the new job can apply for your new visa from immigration.

[Tamada]

This means another teacher has either quit or backed out at the last minute, meaning the university is scrambling before the new semester starts, in just over a week.

The exact same situation happened to a friend of a friend a couple of years ago, and I do know the university's name.

If you want, you can pm me the name and let's see if it is indeed the same university.

[jrwhite82]

If you had a letter of release you wouldn't need to run to Japan would you??
Couldn't you just transfer it with a LOR?
A lot of university gigs say Uni in the title but are just a standard hagwon job. Beware.
I wouldn't go to Japan to wait without a contract. At that point they've got you by the juevos. What would you do if you are in Japan, paying your own way, and the terms of the contract are awful?

[koreatimes]

Usually, they pay for the flight in this case. I have never had a school send me out of the country expecting me to pay for it. If they are serious about hiring you, then they will foot the bill.

[lawyertood]

Most universities don't foot the bill in my experience. See and sign a contract first would be my advice.

[koreatimes]

If they don't pay for it, then I wouldn't do it. They can give you a place to stay, pay the high security deposit, but they can't get you a plane ticket? Seems rather dodgy.

[Tamada]

[Highwayman]

Giving the name of the university might clarify a few things.

[lalartu]

yeah, you don't need to do a visa run if you have a letter of release and are applying for a new job right away.

i've been here for a few years and (unfortunately) have never been to Japan...

also the university seems a bit disorganized and potentially really crappy. make sure to go through everythign in the contract before you even consider taking this job

the fact that they didn't bother to send you anything and just told you to go to Japan is really really weird...

[Malislamusrex]

They let me know on Wednesday if I have got the job, but expect me to start next Monday, I think the admin office sent the documents the department, they decided they want me and now they will do anything they can to get me there. I think they expect me to do a midnight runner. But I am not going to leave my school without a teacher and if they suggest the visa run thing again I'll tell them how it is..... I'm not going to a place that expects me to betray a former employer that has been good to me.

Is it possible to do my 22 hours at the public school until they get another teacher and work the 9 hours at the university legally? will the visa be a problem?

[Malislamusrex]

That's not the problem, the problem is I am expected at work at my current job on the 28th.

[Malislamusrex]

I wont say the name of the school, but let's just say I'm surprised this university is doing things like this.

[Mr. Peabody]