Korean Job Discussion Forums

dastractionwolf · Joined: 14 Jan 2015

Hello everyone, first time poster, been watching the forums for a while now.

I've been planning to teach in the ROK for a while now. Recently a friend of mine expressed interest in doing the same thing. While I've done a fair bit of research over the last couple of years both from this site and other sources he's fairly new to the concept. One thing I couldn't field for him though, is that we would really like to work for the same school, be it public or private (I understand more likely private. I would qualify for level 2 EPIK for instance but I don't think he would). Baring that, we would like to at the very least be in the same city.

I was wondering if anyone knew how hard this might be to do? Do any recruiters to your knowledge try to work with this situation? Are schools fond of the idea? I feel like I had heard at one point that some schools like doing just that, because if you have a friend there with you your not as likely to run on a contract. I don't know if that is true, or if that still applies, etc.

But how would you guys go about this process?

Chaparrastique · Joined: 01 Jan 2014

Its highly unlikely, unless one of you is already at a school and they suddenly need someone else in a hurry.

They advertise for couples, but thats because they want at least one of the two to be female.

dastractionwolf · Joined: 14 Jan 2015

Gotcha. So the best bet would be to shoot for separate jobs in the same city you think?

Cave Dweller · Joined: 17 Aug 2014 Location: Seoul

Your chances are better in a small city or town.

dastractionwolf · Joined: 14 Jan 2015

So just for the sake of having a point of reference, if Seoul or Busan is a "large city" would something like, say, Gwangju be a "small city"?

Troglodyte · Joined: 06 Dec 2009

dastractionwolf · Joined: 14 Jan 2015

Thank you, all these responses have been helpful. We have a few months still before we are ready to go. I will have a full year of teaching experience here in the states by then, and will have had some time to talk to our families and get some affairs in order.

I think we are pretty sure we want two separate places. While working at the same school would be great because 1) if it sucks it sucks for both of us and we can get through it together or find a way out together if its really, really dismal. Not that I have any intention of doing any such thing but I don't think anyone does, going in. 2) Our schedules would likely be the same so we would be able to more easily plan to do things outside of work together. 3) we can plan together in terms of lessons and problem solving within our jobs.

But we realistically know that frequently there is one position to fill at any given time so the same city, preferably very close together location wise, is our goal.

I'm currently emailing recruiters to just test the waters about how they deal with this. So far one has said they try to specifically work with this situation....However that recruiter it turns out also works exclusively with one of the franchises frequently lauded as being not so great to work for on this site and even if a specific branch would be better, I'd prefer to err on the side of caution while we are still not desperate.

Outside of just testing the waters like that, we've been discussing, as per this thread, simply deciding on a location together and then applying to everything that doesn't have a bad reputation in that area.

One problem I'm thinking about is I, personally, wouldn't mind doing EPIK. EPIK I know recently changed their standards and stopped letting in people with a non-applicable degree, or something to that logic. My degree is in education and my current job is as a pre-school teacher so I'm pretty confident I'd qualify. I'm not 100% sure about my friend's, as his degree could work towards teaching and English but isn't necessarily designed specifically for it. So I'm also wondering how hard it would be to do this if I were to go EPIK and he were to go Private.

Chaparrastique · Joined: 01 Jan 2014