Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BolderBoulder]

Hello all...

I am a college grad with an English Lit degree and TEFL certification. I would LOVE to teach for a year in S Korea and would really like to share this experience with my partner. He is a professional chef. Any information out there on how we might be able to make this work? I am unsure about job opportunities for him in the restaurant industry and what type of visa he would need. If anyone has advice, I would greatly appreciate it!

[sirius black]

This would be a guess on my part. Obviously you would have no problem securing a job anywhere in the country.

The question for your partner I think is what restaurant or company would pay for him to work? I think from the start he would have to pay his own plane fare (you would get it paid for you).

Second, I think you would probably have to work in Seoul or Busan because I would think job opportunities for him in his line of work would be fairly limited outside those two cities. If its more important to be together than his wage then its possible to find work outside those two cities. I've seen and heard of western owned restaurants/pubs outside those two cities.

Any job he gets would have to have sponsor his visa and those have costs. So, the question would be why would someone spend the time and money when they could get someone local?

Does he have a college degree? If so, it may be possible to teach some sort of food related course at a university. Throw in a TEFL certificate and that's possible. If no uni degree then his options become a lot more limited obviously. I am assuming he has no degree. If he has some sort of professional certification as a chef there could be some wiggle room there for a high end restaurant in Seoul or Busan to give him a job. They wouldn't have to provide housing since your school would provide that, so that's a plus.

Depending on his finances he could enroll in a korean uni and be on a student visa. Some small cheap uni possibly but it would take 5 or 6 grand to do that. The visa may allow him to work or possibly work off the books but this is illegal-wink wink. Expect posts after this to emphasize its not legal and he risks deportation which is very true. The liklihood of this happening is debatable. The dirty little secret is that thousands of teachers do private lessons and it rarely ends up in deportation and when it does its some disgruntled person that has a personal conflict with the person in most cases.

Lastly, he could accompany you on a tourist visa and spend those months looking for a job and some business that would sponsor his work visa.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[ttompatz]