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rayne
Joined: 05 Aug 2009
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 Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 6:16 am Post subject: |
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| shostahoosier wrote: |
I got my placement through Korvia for the Fall 2009 intake, which was pretty much around the time that it started to get more competitive to get hired in Korea.
Korvia managed to get me an interview at a huge school in Ansan right away but apparently I wasn't what the school wanted. Korvia did eventually place me at a very rural school on the edge of Gyeonggi which I love but it was done so last minute, I almost think they wouldn't have bothered to place me had this school not needed someone.
I basically found out about my school the 1st week of August. This was terrifying for me because that was almost 3 weeks from when I had last heard from anyone at Korvia. I know from your side it sucks because you need to know if you'll be leaving in September, but I think for a lot of people, things tend to be close.
They definitely never offered me a hagwon gig anywhere.
Have you tried skyping the recruiter or maybe trying to speak with someone in the Korean office (pretty much all of their staff here speaks English)?
I have met some of the Korvia people (staff) in Korea and I thought they were cool. I used to text one of the directors whenever I had questions and he would respond even though I wasnt applying for a new job. (No, I dont have his number anymore, sorry).
You should realize though that at the end of the day, being a recruiter is a business and they're not really your friends. They're busy this time of year but disappearing hardly seems acceptable to me. I wouldn't pester them, but I wouldn't let them forget that you're out there either.
Also to the gyopo male, I have a gyopo male friend here in Korea who was placed in one of the nicer planned cities just outside of Seoul. The school specifically requested a male gyopo, so there's always a chance. If you're "ethnic" (I'm African-American) a lot of times it boils down to how the last teacher performed. A lot of schools will request a particular demographic (for instance, South African female) because they had a pleasant experience with the last teacher and dont want to bother with change. Korea right? 
Good luck! |
I've given up on Korvia. The bait-and-switch tactic they tried to pull on me and everything they have said so far has made me lose all trust in them. I never expected them to be my friend and I knew that they make commission off me but I at least expected them to be somewhat professional. The bait-and-switch, ignoring me, and all their lies are not professional.
I don't think contacting other recruiters within Korvia would work. With EZ English, for example, I hated my recruiter and tried to switch to another one within EZ English and at first, she was nice. Then, when she found out I was already working with someone else within EZ English, she refused to help me and became cold and rude. I said that since she's in the same company, why couldn't I get help from her? (She had job postings I was interested in.) And she said it's due to a conflict in commission. I guess recruiters are fighting against each other within their own companies as well. |
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erngu
Joined: 10 May 2012
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:29 pm Post subject: |
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I got placed in GEPIK and also used Korvia. Like someone else said, they are not your friends, they are a business. They have no obligations to you, they need to get positions filled if they want to continue striving as a business.
That being said, my recruiter has always been nice to me. Early on though, I realized communicating through email was not going to work. She never replied unless she needed something from me. So now I only contact her through skype. I kept on bothering her for updates, so I think she realized that I wanted to be informed of anything, even if it wasn't good news.
I put all of my stuff in back in April like you. I didn't start bothering her though until May. Then she recommended me to about 4 schools, got one interview, and luckily got hired by that school.
I have also heard that this year was very competitive. I was told that having a TEFL certificate or a English/Linguistics degree is now the minimum to get a job. I got a job that some would say is a less desirable area (a bit more rural than city), but I am pleased with it in the end and am happy to get a job.
They also say to use one recruiter because the schools don't like receiving multiple applications. I know that SMOE/EPIK will just out right throw your application out. |
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rayne
Joined: 05 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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| erngu wrote: |
I got placed in GEPIK and also used Korvia. Like someone else said, they are not your friends, they are a business. They have no obligations to you, they need to get positions filled if they want to continue striving as a business.
That being said, my recruiter has always been nice to me. Early on though, I realized communicating through email was not going to work. She never replied unless she needed something from me. So now I only contact her through skype. I kept on bothering her for updates, so I think she realized that I wanted to be informed of anything, even if it wasn't good news.
I put all of my stuff in back in April like you. I didn't start bothering her though until May. Then she recommended me to about 4 schools, got one interview, and luckily got hired by that school.
I have also heard that this year was very competitive. I was told that having a TEFL certificate or a English/Linguistics degree is now the minimum to get a job. I got a job that some would say is a less desirable area (a bit more rural than city), but I am pleased with it in the end and am happy to get a job.
They also say to use one recruiter because the schools don't like receiving multiple applications. I know that SMOE/EPIK will just out right throw your application out. |
As I have said in a previous post, I never expected them to be my friends. I don't know why people keep telling me "they are not your friends" I never implied that I even wanted to be friends with them, haha I just expected a certain degree of professionalism, but I guess that was too much to ask as well.
I have also mentioned this in a previous post: for GEPIK, you CAN use more than one recruiter. For EPIK/SMOE, you cannot. Korvia told me at the beginning that I should not use more than one recruiter and after I declined their attempts to stick me with a hagwon, they told me to use more recruiters. Way to stick with a lie. |
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erngu
Joined: 10 May 2012
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 3:48 pm Post subject: |
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Which recruiter are you using if you don't mind me asking? When I said I didn't want haegwon in the beginning, I never heard of it again.
Also, since you didn't reply to the rest of the post. Like I said, try skype. Emails never worked for me, but skype does. I got my friend that is using Korvia to go through skype too and she hears from her recruiter a lot more. |
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rayne
Joined: 05 Aug 2009
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| Posted: Thu Jul 05, 2012 4:04 pm Post subject: |
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| erngu wrote: |
Which recruiter are you using if you don't mind me asking? When I said I didn't want haegwon in the beginning, I never heard of it again.
Also, since you didn't reply to the rest of the post. Like I said, try skype. Emails never worked for me, but skype does. I got my friend that is using Korvia to go through skype too and she hears from her recruiter a lot more. |
In my previous posts, I've talked a lot about my experience with Korvia. Korvia was the first recruiter I used. I have contacted about 20 other recruiters since then.
As I have said in a previous post, I have given up on Korvia. Their last email to me basically said that they don't want to work with me anymore (they told me to contact other recruiters). They never gave me an interview with any school and whenever I tell them I'm interested in a job posting, they would completely ignore me or lie. I think they wanted to put me in a hagwon in the first place. In the beginning, I said that I do not want to be put in a hagwon. When they tried the bait-and-switch on me I said, "I will consider hagwons when it comes to it, but since there are a lot of job postings on your website, please continue trying to find a public school position for me." They wanted me to be completely on board for a hagwon position. They never gave my resume to any schools. |
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