Korean Job Discussion Forums

[scott1985]

Allright guys,
I have an interview Monday online with EPIK. I was just wondering what questions to expect?

Cheers
Scott

[cheezsteakwit]

just had my interview Thursday night via skype - she could see me , but i couldn't see her

wasn't too bad of an interview , but I just finished working 12 hours @ 2 jobs that day, so i probably looked tired.

she basically confirmed a lot of things from my application.

& some ???'s that i can remember -

Why Korea? What do you know about Korea ? (food, etc..)
What are you doing to prepare for life in Korea?
Classroom management style?
You might have 30 kids in a class , each with different skill levels , how would you handle that ?
Were you aware you may have 1 -2 co-teachers with you in the class?
What are your plans for the next several years ?
Was i flexible if my first 3 choices weren't available & would I work in a province instead of a metro city? ( I requested smaller cities in the South , & NOT Seoul/ Busan)
What grade level would I prefer?
& finally , WHY am i requesting to teach ESL , given my background. ????

I presently teach science at an inner city high school as a long term substitute (one of my students just got arrested for shooting a kid in a drug deal gone bad , so a change of scenery for me could be nice)

& I have an MA in Education w/ certs in history / biology & 4 years teaching experience.

One mistake I made was NOT asking more questions (I've done my homework though - reading pretty much every major relevant thread on Daves , waygook , blogs, etc. since August , so i pretty much know what to expect, but i still should have verified some more things / came up with some more questions.

Oh, & I just turned 40 last month , so i'm curious to see if that is used against me ... I'll find out , end of next week I guess.

I wanted to teach ESL in Korea 20 years ago after my undergrad days but never did , so I figured ... carpe diem !

Good luck to you.

[scott1985]

thanks mate! Im after a career change as well. Ive been working as a youth worker for the last three years. Ive only done the basic 120 hour tefl course. I would prefer a city with an airport or sea port so I can do abit of travelling around Japan and/or china, but Im fairly flexible about where i get placed.

[cheezsteakwit]

I think she said that , if accepted, we'd be notified of our city/ general province region in early January, but not a specific school. You might want to verify that with your interviewer.

I asked about that so I could get an idea of when I should book a flight. Cheapest flights from the Eastern part of the states are going for about $850 right now, but that'd most likely go up in January.

I believe Incheon is the main airport , not too far from Seoul, but don't know if any other cities have int'l airports.

I believe Busan has a ferry to Japan , but Seoul & Busan are more competitive for EPIK and you'd need to submit a lesson plan & I don't know of any other ferries