Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Botasky]

I'm in my first year in Korea but I'd like to move to Busan. My contract doesn't end for another few months, but I was wondering how to go about setting up a job for September. Anyone got any ideas? Ideally, I'd like to have a new job ready to go and just finish out my contract here, go home for a visit to see my family and then come back to a new job/location.

I think they'll approach me soon to see if i want to renew my contract here and I'm concerned that the GEPIK application could be too slow moving. Would approaching schools directly be better? I'd like to get moving on this soon.

[SeoulNate]

seems like common sense, but here goes:

Step one:

Secure new job for three weeks after your current job ends. If you are in the country you can get jobs quite easily. Look on here and other well known Korean job boards.

Step two:

Find a friend to watch your stuff while you are away

Step three:

Fly home for 2 weeks

Step four:

Fly back, move into new place and start new job


It isnt rocket science. You have 1 month after your job ends to find a new job thanks to the new visa being 13 months rather than 12. You can fly home during that time and come back into the country using your ARC and same visa. You dont need any special documents to transfer to a new school, just a new contract and their business registration.

If you want to go home for longer than that, get a D-10.

[Botasky]

Maybe you misunderstood. What I'm looking for information on is how to secure a job in Korea for September, now. All the job ads are for March at the minute. Maybe once the new semester starts they'll start advertising for the September starts.

[YTMND]

What he stated was good advice.

[ttompatz]

[mayorhaggar]

If you want to apply to EPIK for Busan public school jobs, and you want to know if your GEPIK school wants to renew you before you consider applying to EPIK, then the GEPIK renewal process, if it's anything like EPIK's, is probably going to happen too late for you. You should be getting your docs together around now in order to apply to EPIK, and GEPIK probably isn't going to gear up the renewal process for another couple of months, and it will probably take a few weeks to a month for your application to be approved. But I'm just making assumptions based on what I experienced with my EPIK province, people who have renewed with GEPIK will have to confirm their renewal process timeline. Also keep in mind Busan is really competitive to get into via EPIK, they've cut a lot of positions there, and foreign teachers all want to live there for obvious reasons. It's still a big city and they do hire a lot of people every year, but the risk is gonna be that you get turned down for Busan and end up somewhere like rural Gyeongbuk, which probably wouldn't suit you.

If you want to apply to non-EPIK public school jobs in Busan (stuff like after-school programs run directly by the school), I'd keep an eye out for them over the next 3 months, starting now. If there are any, a lot of them probably get filled by word of mouth, a lot of them probably get filled 4 months in advance of the start date, and others probably get filled a few days in advance. Because they aren't related to a centralized hiring program like EPIK they can be pretty random.

If you are more interested in hagwon jobs then I'd keep an eye out for them starting now, the ones that are more organized can hire fairly far out in advance. But definitely a lot of them will hire more like 2 weeks to a month in advance. Recruiters can help but be careful with them. The main issue is that they will want to get you into any random position ASAP, and if they can't do that then they will quickly lose interest in you and move on to the next applicant. Best thing with recruiters is to find ones based in the place you want to work, who specialize in jobs in that city/province. Even better is word of mouth, but not being in or near Busan can cramp that.

[Botasky]

@mayorhaggar thanks for taking the time to write out that for me. Sound advice. I'm in an after school program currently. Something similar or a public school job would be what I'd be after, but I'm aware that positions in Busan are being cut. I'll keep my eyes and ears open. Worse case scenario I do another year here. I only plan on one more year in Korea anyway and I'd save more cash where I am. I was just wondering if people had any ideas or experience with how easy it is to line up a new job well in advance once you're here. Thanks for your post. Much more useful than "Step 1: Secure new job"