Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ampersandman]

to teachers located outside of Korea before the start of their contracts, that is?

or is it becoming more of a 'we'll reimburse you later, maybe, when we're satisfied that you were worth it' type of thing?

[ttompatz]

[ampersandman]

[Beeyee]

I have it on good authority that various hagwon associations throughout the country have decided to stop offering airfare full stop.

Expect to see the majority of jobs not include airfare in the next few months.

[goat]

I would never take a job, hakwon job, that didn't provide airfare upfront.

[ttompatz]

[War Eagle]

[ontheway]

[tob55]

Back in 2004 when I arrived in Korea, the recruiter provided the airline ticket (round trip) and it was a great advantage. Today schools and recruiters seldom provide up-front tickets and offer "reimbursement." This is good or bad depending on your perspective, but in my case, having round trip tickets didn't help anyway since the company I worked for cashed in the return flight portion of the ticket and left me high and dry when I left the hagwon. So even if you have it paid there is no guarantee that you will even see the benefit of having a return flight included. I never left Korea anyway, but it was always something I remembered and wanted to keep in mind for others who might want to know.

[wooden nickels]

[big_fella1]

hagwons - yes
large chain hagwons - if they have to, although they are trying to hire in country these days.
public schools - no it's reimbursed
universities - not for English teachers without PhDs although some in rural areas will reimburse airfares.

It is possible to negotiate higher salaries with hagwons if you don't need an airfare.

I hope this helps.

[young_clinton]

If you owned a Hogwan would you provide a pre-paid ticket to the prospective teacher? I wouldn't, no way.

Like I mentioned before the public school I worked at was hectic. They had a "cool" male teacher with nice attractive long hair come and teach. He was from New Zealand. They must have thought that they hit it big. He must have had an easy time picking up the job. He stayed 3 days and made a midnight run and took the 300,000 won they give you up front with him. Fortunately for the school the ticket wasn't pre-paid.

Even a reasonable Hogwan will have many many teachers that will be quick runners with a major expense for the Hogwan.

Anyway in a more directly related manner of speaking, I doubt if many Hogwans give tickets up front.

[12ax7]

[Dalton]

I'm looking for a new position in S. Korea now. I've received lists of job offers from a few recruiters totaling almost 100 positions. I've done nothing to verify anything such as a huge list being a single chain. But I've only seen one offering so far that did not include a pre-paid flight and a return ticket.

There is no reality that I would pay first and trust that a hogwon would reimburse me.

[ttompatz]