Korean Job Discussion Forums

[dairyairy]

I've been reading some threads and listening to some friends talk about CDI. How can you lose a job in the middle of training?

[andrewchon]

It's like the recent NFL draft. Most teams took 7 players but not all are going to make the cut, are they? 1st round choices do also hold-out on signing until contract can be agreed. Some players, even after exhaustive scouting are: not professional enough , not a good fit into the team, maybe hiding injuries, maybe said the N-word somewhere, etc.

Most likely reasons are:
1. Projected number of students intake didn't materialize, so one less teacher is required.
2. Rubbed off the higher-ups the wrong way.
3. BO

[ttompatz]

Round pegs in square holes.

.

[Beeyee]

It's down to a few factors, but let me just say that failing training is VERY VERY hard to do.

Ignoring the trainer's feedback, coming unprepared, and failing the same test 5 times (once per day) MIGHT get you failed. But, even if you do manage to be a complete f**k up and get failed, chances are you'll still have a job. That's because it's then down to the branch if they want you or not. Since you are almost certainly their only option at such late notice, you'll probably still get your job.

So I wouldn't worry about it.

[World Traveler]

In case anyone is planning to teach at the Chungdahm Institute, I'll offer my firsthand experience. I went to the training and it was a week long and very intense. Some people fail, about 10%. These people either find other jobs in Korea or go back home. I managed to pass training.
There is CCTV in the classroom. It can be used by the head instructor to watch your lesson. My head instructor also sat in the back of the classroom to watch the lesson. The school is fairly rigid about what to teach, how to teach, how to grade, how to input attendance. I found out the hard way that if you don't do everything correctly you get fired.
http://www.waygook.org/index.php?topic=34263.0

[faeriehazel]

IME, BeeYee is correct. It's actually pretty hard to fail CDI training. I trained with a woefully incompetent and incredibly lazy guy. He was a terrible teacher. He was blatantly prepping for his mock teaching while the other teachers were mock teaching (as opposed to the others, who had prepped the day before). And he still passed.

[Lucas]

[Weigookin74]

Just read those links. I have heard mixed things too. But, if you work for CDI, you should make sure they pay you enough to afford these extras. I had seen ads of 31,000 won an hour. That was a year or two ago. Maybe it's the same or more now? If it's these rates, it should be enough to cover your fees (taxes, medical, pension, etc). You have to pay all your fees yourself instead of you and your employer. If you choose not to pay your pension and medical insurance, don't cry to me or anyone else on this board when the government either goes after you later or you get injured and have to pay through the teeth because of no insurance.

You should also figure out what rents are in your area and negotiate hard over the hourly wage offered. If it's too low, tell them to p off and go work somewhere else. Only do it if it's worth it. Do the math, only you can determine. Even if you're a newbie, no way should you work for anyone as an independant contractor for less than 30,000 an hour. (Though getting more is better and you can easily get more if you're on an F visa.) This is based on at least 25 to 30 hours of work a week.

[Troglodyte]

I don't recall hearing about people getting booted from a CDI training program. I've heard about plenty of people failing it though. The thing with CDI is that they don't offer you a job until after you finish the training program. That's why it's totally legal for them to "fire" you - because you were never actually hired. It's good for them because then they don't need to reimburse you for the flight over. I don't think that anyone has ever challenged them in court over it but there might be a case there because they technically have to offer you a job in order to get your visa in the first place. Still, they do it.

As far as what people fail for, there are various things. Most have already been mentioned here. Not enough students - CDI brings over more teachers than they need to make sure they they have enough to cover their needs and since they can easily just boot the excess.

I think that 30k/hr is a bit low. Maybe if you were living out in a rural area and rent was cheap but not in any decent size city. You'd be best off taking a standard hogwon offer that includes all of the mandatory deductions and stuff.

[LPKSA]

I went through the training and passed. The problem was their job placement. It seemed that every day they had another assignment for me, and they would just scratch the previous day's assignment. I swear they were just throwing darts at a map of Korea when trying to find a place for me to work. They told me about six different times where I would be going, to six different locations. The first day it was Seoul, the second day it was Daejon, the third day it was a different area of Seoul, then it was Busan, then it was some small town all the way out in the east. They made me wait in the hotel while the other teachers were all sent to their assignments, then they told me that I would have to pay for the extra time in the hotel so I told them to shove it up their (insert explicit object here) and I walked. The woman chased me down the street screaming and I jumped into a taxi and headed from Gangnam to Itaewon, where I ran into some expats who needed a teacher in their school. Strange experience, I would stay away from CDI. They most likely can't manage a pile of runny (insert explicit here) if you paid them to.

[Blanca]

Why is anyone considering a school that offers such bullshit terms? I recently enquired about this school through Aclipse Recruiting, and asked if some of the terms were negotiable, you know, being a couple with 4 years' experience and wanting more than zero days paid vacation. This was my response:



Alex,

The contracts terms are not negotiable. Actually, candidates who consider themselves desirable are the least desirable. The combination of high salary from teaching experience along with the expectations of the employer from candidates who feel they can negotiate leads to candidates who are difficult to place and often difficult to work with. In addition, there are many ESL teachers with years of experience behind them who would not expect an employer to change their working conditions for them and understand that a job application process means the candidates will be proving themselves to the school. Add to this that plenty of experienced teachers even with teaching degrees are not necessarily stellar at teaching and schools want to see candidates who seek to show the school they can do a great job in the classroom while adapting to the company structure already in place.

Misty



In other words, they look for someone who's going not going to stand up for themselves, be easy to push around and not know any better.

[edwardcatflap]

[Beeyee]