Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jaganath69]

Maybe the topic is a bit of an overstatement, but I am begining to get a little worried. I taught in Korea for 14 months, up till september, when my visa expired. I worked for the same school for 12, with no complaints, and then due to a visa 'quirk' I was able to stay an extra 2 months and temp for someone I knew.

Now I am in Indonesia and have a ticket to return to Korea in early november. I have been applying for jobs through this board and others and made contacts with recruiters. My stipulations are few, no splits or weekends, single housing, in Seoul or Ilsan and a reasonable salary. I got this through a recruiter last year no problems within a week. Now after 4 weeks I only get offered jobs outside these stipulations or get told the school I applied to only wants North American females.

What is going on at the moment? Am I unemployable because I am a 32 year old Australian male (although I travel on a British passport)? Or is it a seasonal thing with Chusok being about? I want to tee up a job before I return, as it would make things alot safer for me, but as things are going now, it seems that I can't get one for love nor money. Anyone got any advice or had a similar experience?

Cheers

Jaga

[inkoreaforgood]

Probably partly seasonal. With Chusek on, nothing is happening. Better luck next week!

[HamuHamu]

Yep - North Americans only...preferably female. Same thing that my boyfriend is getting. (British male). Has almost 3 years of experience in Korea (2 years at same hagwan), CELTA certified with Young Learners extension, and a year experience out of Korea. Fantastic references, from all previous employers as well as his CELTA program(s).

NO ONE will hire him. Any recruiters who are bothering to respond are telling him that they can get him 1.5million in the middle of nowhere, but that they can NOT get him a job in Seoul, because he is not American.

It is NOT a Chuseok thing - he has been looking actively since the start of August.

I don't know what has happened that has made the change so drastic. A year ago he didn't have this problem....a year ago he as offered every single job ad he even looked at.

[captain kirk]

Get your butt back and look on foot. When you're right here right now things happen

[sadsac]

Try some of the other larger cities. Pusan, Daegu, though there is always plenty of jobs advertised for Seoul. As CK stated, being here is a big advantage.

[Thunndarr]

Yeah, same thing happened to me recently. 2 years exp in Korea already, the job search took a lot longer than I'd anticipated. I guess the supply of teachers muct be quite a bit greater than the demand at the moment. Good luck, I did eventually get lined up with a decent place.

[Us in DC]

[captain kirk]

Well, I'm 'old' (42). Which doesn't look good on paper. I speculate that the schools that look for teachers not in Korea at the moment do so because they're looking for young teachers who've 'recently graduated'. Or who have higher qualifications such as TESOL certificates, degree in education, Masters, etc.
Myself I've got a Ba (in English lit which looks good to them) and eight years haggie experience. Schools that choke at the idea of paying airfare over, are thrifty, and at the same time could use an experienced kid wrangler appreciate being able to have the teacher visit the school. Get a look at you, figure whether you'll be ok, then hire on the spot. Just move your stuff into the empty teacher's apt. that comes with the job.
It's got the benefit of making it possible to check out the bosses and overall vibe of the place.

[Alias]

I also believe that the number of schools offering to pay airfare to Korea has declined as well. Especially in Seoul and Busan. I guess they figure that there are enough ex-pats in Korea that they won't have any trouble finding a suitable teacher.

[captain kirk]

I was in Thailand last year doing internet searching for a job, jetting out resume online from Bankok. There were a couple. All they were, not finalized, were info re; an opening. What awaited was an interview. This was with the help of a few recruiters.
The place where I work now ususally has two foreign English teachers. I've helped the manager put the job vacancy up on English Spectrum, costs 9,000 won to put an ad up there. They didn't want an ad up on Dave's because it was too expensive, fifty bucks or something like that.
So nibbles are coming in and the manager is at my shoulder as we look at the resumes and photos on the computer. If anyone was not in Korea she wasn't interested. No matter if they were young, good looking, and just out of college. It wasn't an issue whether they had experience, or not.
She asked if I knew anybody already here.
Doesn't want to pay the airfare.
Meanwhile, like I said, there are usually two foreign teachers. No hurry. A Korean English teacher holds the fort. There might be little urgings from some parents for another foreign teacher, but time goes by with only one.
Walk-ins, foreign teachers already here and looking for a job, if they ask for airfare reimbursement at the start, don't get it. They go off in a huff.
Being here and school to school job shopping not only gives you a view of the manager, whether you like them or not. THEY also get a look at the foreign teacher and they want that. They'd rather not hire someone out of the blue and be surprised.
Korean people seem to do things at the last minute and be in a big hurry. Like do it now. You're here, you look ok, let's go you're hired. When can you move in to the teacher's apt. Can you start teaching tomorrow? That kind of thing.
And the hagwon wants to cut expenses. Don't have to pay airfare and get a close up look at the foreign teacher. Two good reasons.
No airfare, save a thousand bucks. No recruiter, save a thousand bucks.

[macosie]

When I came over the first time in Nov 02, I applied, and had a job within a week. It was November. THe girls I worked with, had been applying since the summer, but only found a job in Nov. I don't know if it always holds true, but for some reason, there isn't much hiring until Christmas. It seems it happens when all the May hires (fresh out of Uni) bale on their contracts after their 6 months, and schools are in a lurch to fill the positions again. Then again, my first school went from 4 foreign teachers to 2 after we all left. But who knows, maybe the market is changing. THis time I got a job in the south... will I regret leaving Seoul???

[captain kirk]

I lived out in the boonies between Kwangju and Gunsan, and the great thing about it was riding around on the motorbike along the West coast and in the country. Saw where they make salt by evaporating Yellow Sea water. Shacks and squared off evaporation ponds. And dolmens. It wasn't far from Kochang, which is 'dolmen central'. Or do you mean Yosu, Kwangyang, Mokpo south? Anyway it's good to have a motorbike to get around out there in the boonies, I found after considerable listlessness. Revamped the situation entirely

[Mankind]

[captain kirk]

Sex change ops among male esl'ers in Korea reportedly on the rise. Conveniently accomplished with a small investment while on vacation in Thailand. In related news, increasing numbers of stalking ajoshis surprised by strong right hooks.

[Zyzyfer]

I wonder what's up with that. Not slagging or anything...it's just that when I was coming back at the end of May, I didn't have a lot of trouble. I did find out that a lot of recruiting companies pretty much glossed over me, but there were plenty of offers that I looked into. One was filled before I could start and a couple more fell off the radar, but I arrived on a Friday and had an interview that Sunday. Went to one more and ended up going with the first school.

One thing I could say is that what I was offered up front isn't what I ended up with, as in I didn't get all of the terms that were stated on that standard recruitment spiel. It's really hard to gauge a school simply based on that...I usually just looked at a few key points (ages taught and location) and got in touch from there.

Another thing that I noticed is that a few of the schools to which I applied were actually looking for older teachers, as they didn't want irresponsible young 20 somethings (which I more or less am). Dunno...