Korean Job Discussion Forums

[chronicpride]

There are many, many teachers who come here that don't care if they had to work Saturdays, they just want a good, reliable job for a year. The problem is that your director is looking for teachers on an internet site where teachers are conditioned to be picky. After spending 3 or 4 months reading this board, one will be trained not to accept anything below 2.0, split shifts, Saturdays, or less than 10 days vacation, unless there are uncommon perks elsewhere in the contract. The amount of scrutiny that gets placed on these contract details tend to be viewed with more regard than a school's reliability and 'super laid-back' environment. The excessiveness of this scrutiny is why teachers get burnt by bad schools. Dime a dozen for every great contract on paper,and then the teacher seeking a release or running after 3 months.

The best bet is to advertise on internet mediums where teachers just care about finding a good, reliable place to work and want to live in a foreign country for a year. Monster.com, hotjobs.com, workopolis.com, etc...Try the big job sites. There are a lot of people graduating from universities now and checking these sites.

[Derrek]

[chronicpride]

My beef is that the words 'reliable' and 'reputable' and 'on-time pay' and 'honest director who speaks great english', gets 2nd billing to 'no Saturdays', 'split shifts', etc...

My first year I worked for 1.8 and Saturdays, and 5 days vacation, and so did 24 others. The reason why those conditions were not a daily gripe from us and why they have many teachers sign for 2nd and 3rd contracts, is because they are a fantastic school to work for and have a great reputation with their teachers. Pay on time, overtime projects (only if you're interested), and negotiable vacation (I added another 10 days into my year. I know others that were able to get 20-30 days, and they saw a lot of Asia in one year.)

You don't see these things in a contract. So when people judge a school by their contract numbers, that greatly narrows the field of schools. Potentially very good schools.

Teachers 'should' sign contracts with schools, who they've researched and qualified them to be of good standing, financially solvent, good work environment, and then, only after that, choose from the schools for their numbers. The over-emphasis on contract numbers on this site strays people away from this practice.

[cdn]

Hi
Yeah I am in the same boat. I have no idea why my hogwon can't find someone new. They do waNt a female, but there are no saturdays and you work 25 or less hours per week. :(

[Zyzyfer]

[aussie col]

I don��t see what��s so hard to understand about the difficulty in finding a teacher.

So, you want a female? That removes 50% of the possibilities.

You want a North American. What��s that, about 25% of teachers?

You want someone to teach kindergarten. Maybe 60% of the rest.

You want someone to work Saturdays. Maybe 20% of people would.

So lets see. Of all the possible teachers out there you would only consider 1.5% of them acceptable (50%x25%x60%x20%). So you either have to offer a really good deal to get one of the 1.5% or get lucky and catch a newbie out of university.

[chronicpride]

[JackSarang]

The only place you've posted the ad is PusanWeb? Its not exactly the site with the highest traffic of prospective ESL teachers.

Tell your Director to toss out a little cash and post an ad either on Dave's or on englishspectrum. Two sites that get a hell of a lot more traffic than Pusanweb.

[Hagwon Muppet]

I think there is a tendency to over analyse the 'facts' in a contract.....I'm really surprised how many people think that 2.0m is WWAAAYYY better than 1.9m (its less than 25 US bucks a week folks) but at the same time the 'facts' are the only things you can really compare on.