Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Seoulo]

Does anyone know how much recruiters actually get paid for their services? I've heard figures of anything from 50% all the way up to a full months wage of the new employee.

[prairieboy]

The recruiter my last school used was paid 1million won per teacher placed. And they had an exclusive agreement with that chain, so imagine the money they made placing teachers. Several teachers each month and that was not the only industry they did recruiting for.

Cheers

[kangnamdragon]

The recruiters have expenses too: advertising, phone bills, etc.

[Grotto]

Recruiters can get paid anywhere from 1,000,000 won to 3,000,000 depends on how bad the school needs a teacher, teachers qualifications and location, location, location. It is easy to place teachers in big cities but some rural areas have alot more difficulty.

[chronicpride]

We usually charge 800-900,000 Won in the larger markets, but with the smaller schools and smaller areas, we often charge 1,000,000 Won, as they have less access to teachers and recruiters.

As Koreans are into developing trust and developing long-term relationships, often you will see a fee go up after a year or two of a successful relationship. Perhap to 1.1-1.2 million Won.

We called about 15-20 recruiters before we started getting involved in the biz and cold-shopped them for their fees. The highest was 1.3, the lowest was 1.0. As with all things, I would imagine that these would be negotiable depending on the situation.

I do know of a recruiter in Seoul that has a tight relationship with some schools and he accidentally CC'd me on an email that was intended to a school. My Korean secretary at the time translated it and she said that he was quoting a fee of 1.5 plus 400,000 for the airport pickup at Incheon.

I haven't seen nor heard anything more than this, however.

PS, Further to what Kangnam said, there are expenses that often get overlooked.

There are website fees (design and development, hosting, domain fees, web marketing fees, advertising fees), office fees (to have a registered recruitment company in Korea, you have to have an office. Not a home office. And as you may know, real estate in Korea is a factor not easily ignored), long-distance calling fees (a good recruiter will use phone more than email, however dealing with 40 resumes per job, means a lot of calling/qualifying.), payroll(if they are a bigger operator (5-10+ placements/month), they will be out talking to schools a lot. A secretary, plus 1 or 2 admin assistants to deal with inbound/outbound calls and emails. Fortunately, salaries for these type of positions are cheaper in Korea than back home, but a cost to factor in, nonetheless.), transportation (driving around to meet directors, pick up teachers at airports, etc..), and after-service (meeting the needs of after-service can run up one's time more than costs.) And as money=time, this affects the bottomline.

Some recruiters offer no after-service to schools and teachers and just deal in empty promises and volume recruiting. They don't last long, as directors are moving away from them. The better ones are always ironing out wrinkles in contract or working relationships between teachers and schools.

Many directors use the recruiters as a 'foreign teacher manager' to act as an ongoing intermediary to discuss problems with one's teaching style or attitude, as well as more technical issues (recruiter having to work with immigration on an ongoing basis for the school's teachers or work with budongsans (real estate agencies) to find and locate new accommodation.).

I have one recruiting friend in Daegu that has become more of a foreign teacher manager than recruiter, and as a result has strayed a little away from his core business and revenue.

So it's not all gravy in this biz. There are significant costs to be concerned. In addition to your sanity. People always owing you money and chasing down accounts receivables. Dealing with ultra-picky teachers. Dealing with ultra-picky directors. Being overwhelmed with resumes and emails from teachers and trying to find time to review, respond, interview and develop a good shortlist for your schools, all while out doing your running around meeting school directors and performing the other needs of the business.

That's why you see a ton of operations come and go. People think that this is an easy way to make a buck, but then get tossed around like a ragdoll for a year over the volatility and unpredictability of the business, and pull out.

[Mankind]

2 things made me laugh in this thread.

[chronicpride]

[Mankind]

Well since you asked

[chronicpride]

[chronicpride]

deleted (double-post)

[Mankind]

[Hagwon Muppet]

I don't think I would mind doing some ad-hoc recruiting work on a part-time basis to supplement a steadier income but I'm not sure if I would rely on it or want to make it my main job.

Too many inconsistent, over-demanding, nightmares on both sides of the director-potential teacher relationship.

I think I've only met 1 director and about 6 teachers that I would like to do business with.

[jajdude]

400,000 for airport pickup? That's a bit funny.