| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
danbren
Joined: 10 Oct 2012
|
 Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 4:41 am Post subject: When will I get to Korea?! |
 |
|
| Hey all, I've been applying to a bunch of recruiters over the last few months to work either in public or private schools. I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all. I'm not hearing anything back from other recruiters now though so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll find something before the fall intake? Should I hedge my bets and get a temporary job til then? |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Dodge7
Joined: 21 Oct 2011
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Korea is not the same anymore. Too many English teachers. I'd get a job in your home country. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 5:31 am Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| danbren wrote: |
| Hey all, I've been applying to a bunch of recruiters over the last few months to work either in public or private schools. I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all. I'm not hearing anything back from other recruiters now though so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll find something before the fall intake? Should I hedge my bets and get a temporary job til then? |
There are NO temp jobs as teachers in Korea.
If you take a job that comes with an E2 you will be committed for the year and unable to just quit, walk away and move to another job.
Take a temp job in China or Thailand until something comes you way
or just keep hitting at it if you are dead set on Korea.
. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
War Eagle
Joined: 15 Feb 2009
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 06, 2013 7:25 pm Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| danbren wrote: |
| Hey all, I've been applying to a bunch of recruiters over the last few months to work either in public or private schools. I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all. I'm not hearing anything back from other recruiters now though so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll find something before the fall intake? Should I hedge my bets and get a temporary job til then? |
Yea, you're not hearing back now because school has started. Most positions are filled. And, what recruiter you use doesn't really mean jack squat. Its the school that matters. Don't worry about being impressed with the recruiter. Once you get to Korea, you'll never talk to them again, unless you choose to.
There are jobs to be had at the moment, but most of the good jobs are gone. It all depends on how good looking/young you are, how much crap you're willing to put up with, and what qualifications you have, in that order. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mw182006
Joined: 13 Feb 2013
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:17 am Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| danbren wrote: |
| Hey all, I've been applying to a bunch of recruiters over the last few months to work either in public or private schools. I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all. I'm not hearing anything back from other recruiters now though so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll find something before the fall intake? Should I hedge my bets and get a temporary job til then? |
You didn't interview with Sasha by chance did you? I felt the same way you did after dealing with Korvia, which was pretty disappointing after reading so many good things. She was unenthusiastic, gave me some wrong info on a couple occasions, and basically called me a fatty mcfatterson. I laughed it off and took the first chance I could to tell her I was no longer interested. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 6:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| There are other recruiters recruiting for EPIK all over Korea at different times. Are you being really picky and trying to do only Seoul? If you're willing to do a rural area, you should find an opening, I would think. If you're really desperate, you might find a place next to the DMZ. Ha ha. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
|
| Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 9:16 pm Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| War Eagle wrote: |
| There are jobs to be had at the moment, but most of the good jobs are gone. It all depends on how good looking/young you are, how much crap you're willing to put up with, and what qualifications you have, in that order. |
That's a darn shame.
Halo effect:
| Quote: |
How can smart people get fooled so easily? Psychologists blame what
they call the "halo effect." It's what happens when we notice something we
like about a person�often it's physical beauty�and then start imagining
other positive qualities. It's the reason good-looking people often are
paid more than average-looking people, and it happens all the time in
online dating. We see an attractive person, or read an interesting profile,
and soon we are projecting onto that person who we are looking for, letting
our guard down, ignoring red flags. |
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576300973195520918.html#articleTabs%3Darticle |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
earthquakez
Joined: 10 Nov 2010
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 4:16 am Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| Mw182006 wrote: |
| danbren wrote: |
| Hey all, I've been applying to a bunch of recruiters over the last few months to work either in public or private schools. I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all. I'm not hearing anything back from other recruiters now though so I'm wondering how likely it is I'll find something before the fall intake? Should I hedge my bets and get a temporary job til then? |
You didn't interview with Sasha by chance did you? I felt the same way you did after dealing with Korvia, which was pretty disappointing after reading so many good things. She was unenthusiastic, gave me some wrong info on a couple occasions, and basically called me a fatty mcfatterson. I laughed it off and took the first chance I could to tell her I was no longer interested. |
Seriously, why are you demeaning yourselves to get a job that's on average worth about 1,900 bucks per month before tax in your home currencies unless you're a Brit?
The 'free housing' is usually included in the quoted salary and most of the 'housing' is actually nasty, unhealthy little 'one room' places where the toilet is right near your sleeping, washing and if you're especially unlucky, cooking areas.
Many people I knew in my time in Korea got on average 5 proper hours of sleep living in such horrid, thin walled accommodation with mostly Korea's low income citizens who in these kinds of places think nothing of stomping around all night (students especially), banging around in the early hours of the morning, coming home drunk and vomiting loudly right above your head, etc.
Those who have been in Korea about 3 yrs or more will have the advantage over new people re a job that's half decent. From what I've seen advertised and from what I've heard from friends and acquaintances still working in Korea, the job situation is rather grim.
More hours, less days off - '5 days vacation and national holidays' does not qualify as vacation when you're under the hammer at hagwons which are mostly run by clueless Koreans who will make many demands of you while not giving you the working environment, curriculum, teaching materials or support to succeed at your job.
Korean parents often ruin their children, expecting others to teach their kids manners but will scream blue murder if you dare to discipline their kids (not talking about physically here).
Korean parents and hagwon bosses/owners often do not know what an English education is and trying to please them is like trying to please a bi-polar control freak in the sheer mood swings and constantly shifting demands, rational or not.
EPIK, GEPIK whatever are slightly better but even when I was working at a public school and getting paid more than what most EPIK/GEPIK teachers are getting paid now and getting far more vacation than now, it was still a lot of hard graft for a lot of nonsense and blatant using up of the foreign teacher by the Korean English teachers who slept in the staff room while I taught solo the classes that were supposed to be taught with a Korean teacher in the room.
Add to that the fact that most public schools do not have a curriculum for your classes and you're expected to design your own lessons, give your own original teaching materials for free with no compensation or acknowledgement and set up a curriculum for the next foreign teacher or for the Korean English teachers to pass off as their own.
I can't understand why some foreign teachers see all this as reasonable and natural cause it's not. It's exploitation and intellectual property theft. In reasonable countries the makers of original materials and lessons are compensated for them whether it's higher pay for curriculum design and development, etc. In Japan I was never expected to hand over courses and materials I had made myself to Japanese teachers or the employers.
Then there are more issues such as how you can't win with many employers in Korea whether in the hagwons or school system. Be a real teacher and you're boring. Then make the lessons more geared towards activities and the boss who told you to do it for more fun will then criticise you because parents say you're not a serious teacher.
Korean recruiters are mostly ignorant, rude, lying manipulators. They ignore you then offer you terrible jobs because they know you are willing to put up with their bullshiz for one of those sub standard 'teaching' jobs. Put them out of work, don't encourage them. Ignore them. Look outside Korea for English teaching jobs.
Don't put yourself thru all the rubbish about looks and weight. When I worked in Japan, unless people looked odd or were truly obese, Japanese employers did not emphasise looks and whether a foreigner was thin, medium or chubby.
They wanted their teacher to have a good image and dress reasonably well but the Japanese were nowhere near as shallow regarding image in terms of looks and weight, and employers certainly were nearly always polite in discussing what they wanted.
The Korean obsession with image is immature and something to be discouraged by not buying into it especially when there are plenty of Koreans who don't look great.
I won't even get started on the nonsense of the continual demands for document verification every 6 months or so. Other countries don't do that - their Immigration officers understand that once a document has been verified as a true and accurate one, you don't keep insulting institutions, govt departments and individuals by demanding 6 month updates of the same document.
The Koreans became cocky about westerners wanting jobs and instead of implementing reasonable verification, decided to go with the needless bureaucracy. It is irrational to continually question other countries' norms of verification when those countries are developed ones with established laws and customs.
Those of you who are desperate to work in Korea are just feeding all this mess. Why don't you just do some job at home until less people go to Korea and the Koreans have to curb some of the arrogance and the employers will once more offer reasonable if not great conditions again? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pinehurst
Joined: 14 Aug 2011
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
World Traveler
Joined: 29 May 2009
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 3:35 pm Post subject: |
|
|
OP: "I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all."
Pinehurst: "Have you heard of this great company called Korvia?" |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Julius
Joined: 27 Jul 2006
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 5:02 pm Post subject: Re: When will I get to Korea?! |
|
|
| earthquakez wrote: |
| Korean English teachers who slept in the staff room while I taught solo the classes that were supposed to be taught with a Korean teacher in the room. |
What was frustrating is the tendency for co-teachers to hamper your success at every turn, apparently due to jealousy.
If you did something that was working, they would find a way to crush it. if you had developed a good connection with the students, they would find a way to undermine it. There was too much interference and the foreigner was trapped in a situation where you really had no power to change things much. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pinehurst
Joined: 14 Aug 2011
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 5:06 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| World Traveler wrote: |
OP: "I had an interview with Korvia but man they did not impress me at all."
Pinehurst: "Have you heard of this great company called Korvia?" |
I am just saying they don't discriminate on looks like some have implied. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Mw182006
Joined: 13 Feb 2013
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Pinehurst wrote: |
| I am just saying they don't discriminate on looks like some have implied. |
Uh, I can assure you I'm not making it up. First, she asked for my weight in lbs as she thought I couldn't do a simple kilo conversion on the application. Second, she said more or less 'apparently EPIK has a bmi requirement, and can you get down to 100kg?'. Whatever.
And earthquakez: Little stuff like that doesn't bother me in the least, and I'm sure I'll get plenty of comments when I get over there, nukes permitting. And who are you to generalize so much about people you know nothing about? I've had a steady job for the last 10 years and have done well for myself. Yeah, I'd much rather sit in a cube all day then spend some time traveling abroad and doing something different for awhile. Get over yourself. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Pinehurst
Joined: 14 Aug 2011
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:18 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Mw182006 wrote: |
| Pinehurst wrote: |
| I am just saying they don't discriminate on looks like some have implied. |
Uh, I can assure you I'm not making it up. First, she asked for my weight in lbs as she thought I couldn't do a simple kilo conversion on the application. Second, she said more or less 'apparently EPIK has a bmi requirement, and can you get down to 100kg?'. Whatever.
|
Yes, I do know someone over 100kg placed, by the same recruiter, with GEPIK. If you look through the party pictures that I linked you will see I am not lying unless they all put on weight after arriving in Korea. I did not want to make this into a post on weight because that is not the OP's issue.
OP: What is more impressive? A recruiter who interviewed you, or one that never even got back to you. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
I'm With You
Joined: 01 Sep 2011
|
| Posted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:41 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Mw182006 wrote: |
Uh, I can assure you I'm not making it up. First, she asked for my weight in lbs as she thought I couldn't do a simple kilo conversion on the application. Second, she said more or less 'apparently EPIK has a bmi requirement, and can you get down to 100kg?'. Whatever.
|
That's crazy but I believe it. Hair color or eye color can also make a big difference at some schools. Looks are very important, especially at hogwans. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
