Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Cspon]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if any of you could give me your thoughts on this. I know that housing isn't everything and that some hagwons that have nice housing can also be nightmares to work for but I was wondering if there any notable ones with good housing. My girlfriend and I are currently living together and although my current apartment is alright, it's pretty tiny for the 2 of us. My girlfriend is not a native English speaker so the option of finding a hagwon that could hire us both under one larger apartment is not available to us. Has anyone worked for a hagwon with relatively large, modern housing? It doesn't even have to be in Seoul. Suwon, Bundang, there many places outside of Seoul that I would consider as well. Thanks in advance!

[ttompatz]

I had decent housing when I worked for EOS in Yeongtong (Suwon). They have their own issues (it is a hagwon) but housing was OK and the work wasn't anything unexpected.

When I was working for the OPO education office (30 minutes east of Bundang) they supplied me with a decent officetel in Poonglim I-Won (Bundang, Seohyun Stn.) as well.

In the last 12 years I have only had one job that offered a tiny one-room villa and that was in 2002 in Suwon (Buk Mun).

.

[Skippy]

You are asking for something that is very hard to nail down.

I know one job that has a great house but.... whoops it has already been filled.


Ok...

I once heard of a waygook that had a great apartment provided by his school. But that was 10 years ago.

Ok....

My friend said he had a nice 3 bedroom apartment with great furniture but the hagwon went out of business.


Get what I mean. It is changes all the time. There are thousand of different jobs and schools. There is no real centralized listing of jobs and schools. People ask similar questions all the time asking for schools that pay well or are not crook. Yet it all varies from each person and school.
Really I know people who work at the same school. One has a nice apartment while the other had a crappy one.

Your question is pretty hard to answer. Through I do recommend consider finding jobs that will give housing allowance and then finding your own great apartment. Through you might need to save up some money for deposit or key money.

If not when you are looking for jobs. Ask to get details on the provided apartment. Yet knowing it could easily change.

[andrewchon]

If you want nicer housing then negotiate a contract where you can choose your own.

[Aine1979]

My boyfriend and I were living in a very small apartment, as he was hired at my school 6 months after me, and so just moved into my apartment. When it came time to renew my contract, I opted for housing allowance, and we found a really lovely place ourselves. Taking housing allowance is probably your best bet.

[Stan Rogers]

Ask the hogwon to send you pictures of the apartment before you sign with them. They all have cameras in their phones so it shouldn't be hard for them to do.

I understand your question and its a good one. Nobody wants to live in a dump.

[le-paul]

My last place was pretty big. However, the boss wanted me to work 5-ish hours a week overtime for love and gave me strict instructions that I should be preparing for work in my freetime, not watching tv.

Not a fair trade in my opinion.

[wanderkind]

Only speaking from personal experience, but I would suspect people who live outside of Seoul generally get more space. When I lived in the metropolitan area, I had a one-room, now in the country, a full apartment. If rent is lower, it would stand to reason schools can afford a bigger place?

I don't know how often that actually proves true though.

[furtakk]

Finding your own housing will always be the best option.

Even the best jobs (in ESL) offer tiny officetels at best (in Seoul).

[EZE]

My current apartment is small, but it was very clean from Day 1. If you want to start in August or September, maybe you can inherit it.

Be careful about working at Wonderland, especially the branch in Anyang. The apartment they gave me was very comparable to the house in this video, in terms of trash. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8RmWpwPiz4

[Weigookin74]

Asides from YBM, I can't think of anyone who shows their housing right on their website for each location. Housing is hit and miss. You could have great housing, but terrible work conditions or terrible housing and great work conditions. I worked for EPIK in the countryside and the housing was an old one room that was terrible. No air con. But they were so desperate for foriegners back then that I was able to make them buy one for me and install it. The foriegners who came the next year got equally crappy housing and no air con. Then after a couple of years, the local ed office had some developer build a new villa for us. But it was cheaply built with expensive heat, no soundproofing, no insulation, bad mold, and the like. Really BS. In spite of the contract saying we could get 400,000 a month, they wouldn't let us move out. So, I moved to another city and chose my own housing.

Long story short, just make sure you canpick your own housing or that option is available. But, I wouldn't recommend it for a newbie to Korea. If you know your way around and how the system works, then ask for a housing allowance. A newer home will be better maintained, a newer landlord will be more likely to fix things, less low class noisy neighbors (this includes other foriegners who view Korea as an extention of their 5th year of college).

Seoul will be most expensive, while other places outside of Gyeong-gi will be much cheaper for rents and deposits.