Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wbryant400]

I have an interview this Sunday night with EPIK and I wanted to know if anyone who has already interviewed could tell me what I can expect. I am not unfamiliar with interviewing but since this is my first time going for an ESL position I wanted to know a little more about the questions (especially hard questions) I might get. Really any advice you can give me would be really great. Thanks for your help!

[Underwaterbob]

It might have changed recently since there are more teachers than ever trying to come over, but an "interview" used to mean that you had the job already and they're just going through the motions.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[pumpkinstuffing]

Some questions I was asked:

What will you do if your co-teacher is too shy to speak English in front of you
Why do you want to teach x level of school
Thoughts on classroom management
How will you handle a class containing kids with different levels of English
Why do you want to teach in Korea specifically

I'd poked around google a bit before mine and came across this site, definitely helped me familiarize myself with the kind of questions they were going to ask:
http://www.no-kancho.net/epik/

Good luck!

[wbryant400]

Thanks for the help guys (and gals). I'll definitely be thinking about all these questions.

[Reaver_Reader]

[matthew90]

I was rejected after the interview also. Interview went well, strong recommendation letters, fully flexible on where I would go and what levels I would teach. There were something like 700 applicants on the first day this year from recruiters (or direct, can't remember which one, but it was one or the other). They said they were expecting over 2000 applications for just over 500 jobs.

Definitely a hard job to get into now, regardless of how easy it used to be.

[inthemorning]

Some of the questions that stood out to me were:
- How would my majors (journalism and graphic design) would help me as a teacher of ESL / why I wanted to teach
- how I would deal with students who acted out (especially in the case of high school students who may not take me seriously because of closeness in age)
- how I would deal with co-teachers who treated me like an audio tape (only good for repeating to the class, etc)
- any Korean language skills (if you can say "Hello, I am ____," they will be super impressed!!)

I'd recommend googling "epik interview questions" for past term questions...It definitely helped me feel more prepared for my interview, and I passed ^^ Be sure to emphasize how flexible you are in regards to dealing with cultural change and difficult co-workers/students. I've heard all of the interviewers this term are very personable, so just relax and do your best. Good luck!

[wbryant400]

I passed my EPIK interview. I want to thank everyone who helped me out in this forum. Now let's just hope I can get my CBC back in time.