Korean Job Discussion Forums

[scotttteacher]

Hi all

I've got a job interview with a company called YBM coming up, who provide business English classes.

I'm just wondering if anybody has heard about them or worked for them before. Can you tell me anything about them?

Any feedback would be awesome

Cheers

Scott

[stew1988]

Hi.

I applied and got offered a job with YBM, however they pulled out at the last. This was in many respects understandable however given my situation. I did a bit of research on them before and I noted the following things...

- They seem to play by the rules. You will most likely get what is promised in the contract, something that is not to be sniffed at in South Korea.

- They seem to have a stringent curriculum that doesn't offer much scope for creativity in teaching.

My information isn't worth much, but I thought I'd let you know nonetheless.

Good luck with the interview.

[myenglishisno]

I worked for YBM. They had me teaching 10 classes a day, sometimes six days a week (and a few times seven).

The classes weren't scheduled in clusters like a split shift, either. It was usually class, break, class, break, class, break from the early morning until the late evening, meaning you couldn't go home. It was much worse than a split shift and done that way so it would be more convenient for the students.

The average person at my workplace didn't finish a year contract, either.

Maybe other YBM branches are different? I taught one-on-ones. The people below me taught normal classes but they didn't have split shifts either (they usually had so much work to do they had to prepare throughout whatever break they had). Anyway, make sure the working hours are good. Their contracts are usually solid.

[scotttteacher]

Great, thanks a lot for the info.

Can you tell me what branch you worked for? It sounds pretty awful and I'm not up for working that kind of crazy schedule.

[Zyzyfer]

It sounds like myenglishisno worked at Premier. There are several divisions that all have their own nuances. I believe Premier does more of the one-on-one classes. ELS is more generic conversation classes - though they do offer some business stuff as well - and you ideally won't have classes littered throughout the day.

The only way to really avoid splits with the ELS division is to pay your dues and build up tenure at one of the major branches. In Seoul, that's Jongno and Gagnam. Jongno has been steadily reducing teachers though, it's less than half what it was when I worked there.

I'm not familiar with Premier but from what I've heard, it's more stressful than ELS.

[Otherside]

[missty]

Interesting that someone else has experience of YBM pulling out at the last minute. This happened to me too. Two weeks before I was due to start they pulled out, it was a huge stress and although at the time it was horrific I am kind of glad that they did.

From what I can recall they were offering me split shifts (adult and maybe business, I can't remember for sure) for around 2.1 and mentioned that they have a favoritism scheme where the longer you have been there and the more you are liked, the better the schedule you will get. But aside from that most people seemed really friendly there ... until I got the email saying that they were downsizing their department and they couldn't hire me that is.

[myenglishisno]

[bdot]

I work for Ybm Els.

The job is not that bad. Its true there is very little opportunity for creative teaching. They have a lesson structure that you are supposed to follow pretty strictly. If you are willing to play along it will help.

The pay is a bit sucky but they pay on time and as long as you don't annoy your senior teacher the conditions and experience should be good. You work split shifts usually (Jongno and Gangnam might be different). These suck but you get used to it... then sick of it.

You teach on average 6 classes a day... 50 minute classes. You just present a few sentences or brainstorm with the class. Then basically listen to them talk for 30 mins then do some corrections at the end. Pretty cruisy really.

I recommend it... having said that your experience with senior teachers/colleagues will vary branch by branch.

btw pay after deductions is usually only about 1,700,000 per month