Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ippy]

Its not SOOOOOO bad. But my advice, having faced the problems of applying outside the country AND ticking zero of the core hagwon boxes (female, North American, young), is as follows:

1. Do not apply during peak hiring seasons. Sounds counter intuitive i know, but facts speak for themselves. Recruiters will completely ignore you until theyve started running out of applicants. It was amazing to see nothing in my inbox for almost all of August and September and then after scoring a job having them all start getting in contact to apply for stuff around November. If you dont fit the demographic, avoid August and September.

2. Though its tempting, do not look for positions recruiting within a month. Despite how "urgent" these positions sound, almost 100% of these will never ever get back to you. I dont know if theyre real or not to be honest. There was a position, for example, advertising on craigslist that i must have sent about 2 or 3 applications on. It was urgent for a good two or three months despite "paying" 2.4. If it is truly urgent then the advice in the post above applies: its face to face interviews and swift visa transfer. You dont fit the criteria. So be smart, apply for the jobs looking for people three months in advance.

3. Use social networks. More and more positions are cropping up on facebook. Recruiters, (or just the dude still working at the company looking to either find a replacement or a colleague on the cheap), also seem more likely to pick you up.

4. Age is important but image is significantly more important. Do you look like an old, haggard, greying, jaded, fed up ESLer? Get a makeover. If you look the part, youre in with a shout. Age isnt the be all and end all. Outside of the big chains and their god awful contracts, smaller hagwons are picking us up because they know that despite our cost, we still add huge value to their business. BUT this comes with the caveat they need to be able to market you to parents. If they cant figure out how to market you, youre not getting the gig. Its not a coincidence theyre on the lookout for young pretty females. Until you come here, take a walk around your block, and realise theres about 20 English hagwons, you dont quite realise just how competitive this industry is. Your hagwon needs to be able to sell you at the end of the day to parents. If youre a 50 year old slob, then theyre picking up the younger ESLer instead.

5. Which i guess leads us to: experience isnt all that highly regarded. This is because the job is rather easy at the end of the day. Usually youre not the one doing the heavy lifting here: your Korean co-teachers are. Obviously at the higher end of things this isnt the case. But most ESL gigs in korea are barely a step up from the human tape recorder. This doesnt mean you CANT do the heavy lifting (and it will be appreciated by your coteachers), it just means youre not really expected to. And this means that experience is nice and all, and its always good in my self intro to parents to tell them my teaching experience, but its sort of a distant second to my bouncy, cheerful, smiley, happy, genki-clown disposition.

6. Apply through Epik. Due to the lack of business pressure and marketability, epik positions arent necessarily looking for the same thing as a private language school. This means they are far more tolerant about the whole age thing. Epik want dedicated, committed, cheerful, friendly teachers with a bit of classroom skill. Its a different ball game. If there is one piece of advice to older teachers, its to skip hagwons and try your hand at Epik instead. Go through the MAIN epik application process though. Dont go with the outsourced ones in the hands of recruiters (since recruiters still have that hagwon mindset).

7. Youll never really know unless you try. I guess the documents are a pain in the nuts if youre outside the country, and the 6 month limit on the CRC really puts you under a spot of pressure, but have a pop at it. Its a nice place to live and work. Just avoid those kindy sweatshops. I reckon 2.2 or 2.3 is a fair salary for entry level when you dont tick the recruiter boxes. And if the worst comes to the worst, cut your losses and head to China instead where the process is REASONABLY swift (about 1 month), jobs are still aplenty (as you know), and age and experience is actually seen as a positive.

[Fallacy]

On the other hand, for promotions, seniority is great:

Level ------------- Years ---- Market Average Annual Pay Range
사원 (Sawon) ------ 0~3 ---- 26-35k KRW
대리 (Daeri) -------- 3~7 ---- 36-40k
과장 (Gwajang) ---- 7~12 --- 41-50k
차장 (Chajang) ---- 12~15 -- 51-59k
부장 (Bujang) ----- 15~20 -- 60-64k
임원 (Director) ----- 20~ ---- 65-100k

[isitts]