Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wonkavite62]

I have just had an interview scheduled with Wall Street English, and I would like some information on what it is like. What is my schedule likely to be? What is my salary likely to be? What is it like to teach there? What is the housing like? What kinds of problems do teachers encounter there?
I am aware I will be mainly teaching adults.
I want objective answers. No sarcastic "jokes" please. I know some schools pay teachers a recruitment fee to hire teachers. It is too late for that.

[SeoulNate]

I have never worked there, but I have had friends work there (it's right across from where I live if you are taking about the one in Hyehwa)

Schedule is bad, but they can give you as much overtime as you want

They want you to live in Hyehwa, which is a good place but might not be where you want to live.

Management treats teachers semi-badly

This is all second-hand, so take it for what you will.

[cdninkorea]

I used to work at a branch of WSI Korea, but it was back in 2007. Not great pay, terrible vacation, but great students and a decent curriculum (it's well-designed, but you'll get bored of teaching the same lessons again and again).

Your questions in detail:

[wonkavite62]

After the initial interview I was rejected by WALL Street Institute. I have lots of experience. It could be that there were too many applicants. My feeling though is that while they said I had a choice between block shift or split shifts, maybe they only wanted people keen on split shifts. Details like that can have an effect.

[cdninkorea]

That's interesting- when I worked there, they didn't have split shifts at all.

[actionjackson]

[wonkavite62]

I thought I'd get tons of information on this forum about WSI but relatively little came up. So they MAY be okay to work for. What I know is that now is the time to apply for tons of jobs, and something good will come up. I am not that unhappy about the rejection. But it was a 2 interview process which suggests they aren't that desperate for new teachers anyway.

[LPKSA]

Interviewed with a location in Shanghai. Too corporate for my taste.

First interview was with a head teacher from Australia. The interview went well, and that was that. I was asked to come in for a second interview, at a different location, so I could give a demonstration lesson, but the thing was that they didn't tell me when until the day of, which was a Friday evening.

I received a phone call Friday, the day before the lunar new year holiday start (3.5-5 weeks in China). It was a very proper and well spoken English gentleman on the phone. He asked if I could come in for the interview and mock lesson that night. So... I did as I was requested. I prepared a lesson and came in that evening to a class full of cheery and well mannered Shanghainese students.

I was asked to do a 20 minute lesson, but this Englishman of no more than 30 years of age was anything but proper during his observation. He consistently sat there sighing, checking his watch, fiddling with his whatever he had in his lap; basically he was being disruptive and rude and it was beyond distracting.

Halfway through the presentation stage of my lesson, he says "okay, times up, lesson finished." I told him 'you wanted 20 minutes, right?'

He just dismissed the students and requested me to come into his office for the remainder of the interview. He did apologize for cutting the interview short, because he had to leave to go on his vacation. I wanted to tell him that it would have been way more prudent of him to have the lesson a few hours earlier, but I bit my tongue. He eventually asked if I had any questions, so I asked him 'what are some things your teachers really enjoy about working here and on the contrary is there anything they don't like?" Then he slams his hand on the table, and says in a very very very snobbish tone, "(sarcastic sigh), I find that question HIGHLY inappropriate."

So he told me that he would CALL me within a week, but instead I received a generic letter from WSE saying that I was not offered the job, which was a real bummer because the Australian man who interviewed me in the first interview was really cool, and made it seem like a great place to work. The students in the second round also made the place seem like a great place to work.

Englishman with an attitude, well, no comment necessary.

What I did like about their facilities were that they were clean, impeccable actually, and well organized. The students seemed motivated and the good thing was that class sizes were small, so you can have more attention from them on an individual basis, which will definitely improve your teaching style.

Unfortunately, classroom walls are transparent, and there were monitors walking around in constant observance, which I could see as becoming more annoying and discouraging rather than helpful towards improving your craft as a teacher.

I don't know if locations in Seoul are any different, but I did visit one of their locations in California and it was the same system: transparent walls, constant observation.

It's just too corporate, and these kinds of places tend to work you harder, criticize you more (without fair reason), and would just as soon fire you and take on the next teacher.

I would say give it a shot if you want that corporate experience, but it's more about image than anything. Good luck.

[wonkavite62]

So I suppose it's a case of "There but for the Grace of God go I." I got mixed messages about the school. In the end they decided not to hire me. But would Chungdahm English be worse?
I am looking for a job I can deal with, and it's good to know if I've been rejected by a job that would have been problematic.

[DosEquisXX]