Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thomas pars]

Has anyone else experienced this?

You send your resume off to a school or perhaps a recruiter. And then
you hear...NOTHING.

Not even a reply. I have send off maybe 20 emails to various schools and have got back exactly 3 replies.

I am not hideous. I am not old. I do have 5 years experience teaching here. Maybe too much experience?

I am kinda Korea'd out anyway. Time too look for a new line of work.

[YTMND]

Seems like nothing much has changed over the years. Do you have your documents ready? That's more what would speed the process up.

Do they know you have documents ready if you do? Are you talking to them on the phone? Just sending off a resume doesn't and won't guarantee a job.

[missty]

I was in the same boat. 6 years experience and a teaching cert and some recruiters just ignored me completely.

In the end I just became really pro-active and emailed constantly. Like every day I would email to get an update or to inquire again. In the end I had about 6 recruiters emailing me jobs/working to find me stuff. I got the feeling that they were quite surprised with my speedy replies!

But yeah. I emailed tons (and I mean at least 20, if not more) recruiters/schools, and I heard back from less than half. I had 6 recruiters that were ok, and only two of them who were great. I did get my perfect job in the end though, so its really about perseverance.

[rayne]

I'm the same with you guys. Contacted 20+ recruiters and less than half replied. And after a while (a week or two) half disappeared on me.

I thought my disadvantage may be because I'm not in Korea, it'll be my first year that, and that I'm Asian but I guess a lot of people are having the same issues.

[Arhat]

I'm experiencing the same thing.

I was 30 pounds overweight in my last photo (early June) so that could be part of the problem. I'll keep working out, dieting, and applying though.

I guess what I'm wondering is whether this is typical or whether these jobs have all become a lot more competitive recently to due a larger applicant pool. I really didn't expect it would be this difficult to get my first ESL job but I would feel a lot better if I thought it was just because of my personal shortcomings.

[PatrickGHBusan]

#1 reason why applicants get few or no responses from recruiters or schools when they apply: not having ALL the required documents ready in hand when they apply and not telling the recruiter or school this when submitting the application.....

Another common reason: applying at the wrong time of the year (ex: PS positions) or in an applicant market saturated with young grads, applying for programs that favour inexperienced teachers when you have experience and qualifications (ex: PS programs that hire assistant teachers for conversational English in a co-teacher scheme)

[rayne]

[Arhat]

[PatrickGHBusan]

If you prefer to teach adults, then you are eliminating a large chunk of the employment market and that may indeed slow down your job search....

[Arhat]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[leilam12]

I applied to two recruiters. Zero teaching experience, my resume is so lame. I attached one of my Facebook photos. Yeah I wasn't really serious about applying lol I got two responses back asking for initial interviews.

[PatrickGHBusan]

[tiddles]

Just stick with it. I started my job search in late June and just found a position that doesn't suck.

If you're willing to live outside of Seoul and work kindy from 10am-7pm, then there seem to be plenty of jobs. I wonder who the suckers are that are working those hours for 2.1 mil

[PatrickGHBusan]