Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I've applied to a couple - no response.

I'm not worried about eventually finding something. I'll broaden my search as I go.

[Times30]

I believe a lot of recruiters working for Korea are NOT looking for qualified applicants with good reason.

They are looking more for the bright eye starry eyed newbies fresh out of college. My guess why is because they are totally ignorant if they get a bad deal, and thus won't break contract as easily as experienced or certified teachers.

Most recruiters (and I mean not all) look to get a quick buck. Basically by pulling the wool over the applicant's eyes. High cred apps know the in's and out's, have networks, and basically know if they getting the raw sticky end of a deal. It's more headache for a recruiter if anything is wrong. But a newbie is much less likely cause a fuss.

When I first started ESL, and had NO credentials (although take into account that was 4 years ago) All the recruiters kept bugging me. Emails left and right, and I literaly felt annoyed at how incessant they were. However, after 2 years and a TESOL with some knowledge, I don't even get emails back. The market definitely plays a part, but I'm not going to overlook the fact that many recruiters probably know I'm going to have a standard... and they know I will be tougher to deal with.

However, I have noticed that recruiters for China are almost the exact opposite. They seem to value credentials so much more. This maybe isolated to just me, so I'm just putting it out there for discussion.

[iggyb]

Well, after talking with another recruiter for the ME area, I might have a better idea why the other turned me down:

This new recruiter asked me some questions, and as we were finishing, I asked if he would keep me in mind for other potential positions outside of the UAE which he had in mind for me. I said that I had seen ads for international schools and such that were straight English Language Arts gigs.

He said the problem there was those jobs require you to be a full licensed teacher in your home country...

On the CV I've been sending out, I had at the top:

Certification
English (grades 6-12)
ESL (K-12)

He thought I meant "certificate" as in the type so many ESLers in Korea are getting online these days.

When I told him I meant I'm fully licensed in 2 disciplines in my home state - that it was tied to the MA in education -- he said that should open up many more possibilities...

And I checked the reply the other recruiter that shot me down when I sent a short note about being flabbergasted I didn't qualify with them.

She had written, "I have asked the recruiters but I do know we do not typically get TEFL jobs."

OK. But, I can teach ELA too...

If it is a matter of experience, I can completely understand.

Almost all of my experience is in TESOL, because that is what I like the most. I only have the student-teaching experience for ELA and 1 year of teaching Freshman Writing as a TA in another MA program...

Which is probably why the straight ELA jobs I applied for in my home state this year didn't come calling or went with someone with more experience in the few interviews I had...

Anyway, I've changed my CV so that it hopefully shows what type of certificates I have...

I had a somewhat similar issue in Korea when trying to get my public school contract bumped up to a higher level due to ESL certification. They kept asking me was is a 100-hour program or 120. I kept telling them it wasn't that kind of certificate - that the course work was a summer long - 8 hours a day - and required taking a Praxis test and resulted in certification to teach ESL in public schools in the US...It took some time to get it through to them...