Korean Job Discussion Forums

[JennyJJ]

Sorry, I'm feeling pis*y today, but check this one out:

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=15269

lousy wages to begin with - and THEN they want you to PAY a W7000 application fee! I hope they get what they deserve - exactly NO applicants - or preferably - burned out alcoholic applicants.

[Real Reality]

English Editor
Working Conditions
1. Work hours: no more than 22 hours a week (details will be negotiated
when signing the contract)
2. Pay: 15,102,000 won - 20,574,000 won a year
http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=15269

Pay: 1,258,500 won - 1,714,500 won per month

[mindmetoo]

Wow. When I worked as editor for the seoul metro government's tourism site as a contract editor, I got paid a pretty good wage. But then my friend was the web master and could argue for a good wage I suppose. English to Korean translators (and probably Korean editors) get paid really, really horrible rates here. I'm sure they're trying to base it on those pay scales. If there's no free apartment, the rate is derisory. If there is, the high end 1.7, is within spitting distance of a hagwon job.

Frankly, I'd work for 1.7 22 hours a week in an office doing editing, surrounded by spiffy well dressed office women, and not having to yell at kids all day.

One nice perk the city employees got, or at least my friend Min Sook got, was the city owned a hotel out in Suraksan mountains. City workers could book a room out there for a few nights every year for free to escape the urban hell. She took me out there a couple years ago. It was really nice. All the rooms have VCRs and you can get free movies from the hotel's front desk.

[Grotto]

If you look closely it says 22 hours a week but then at the bottom it says work days Mon-Fri 9:00 - 18:00. Thats nine hours a day which comes out to 45 hours a week.

It wouldnt be bad if you could work 9-1 Mon - Fri and leave.

[JennyJJ]

But since when did potential employers start charging APPLICATION FEES?

It sets a tone - about the workplace - doesn't it?

[dulouz]

I ran an for bilingual office help once. I got resumes from a variety of well qualified people. One was from a Polish woman who majored in "Korean Studies" at a uni Krakow. This would be a good job for her.

[Saxiif]

That's not THAT bad.

1,258,500 won - 1,714,500

Lets say 1,500,000 on average + about 400,000 that a crappy apartment's rent would cost in Seoul/88ish hours a month = 21,590 hour

That's actually narrowly beats our a 2,000,000 won job + 400,000 for the same crappy apartment you get for free where you have to work 120 month = 20,000 won/hour.

So the job would be OK if you hours were pretty early and in a nice block so you can go get a second job if you need the money. Of course if you have to hang around the office all day, it blows goats....

[JacktheCat]

What is even more silly, is that somewhere there is someone who will take that job.

And on it goes.

[mindmetoo]

[JacktheCat]

[ajuma]

[Saxiif]

[JongnoGuru]

As for charging an application fee, I wonder if that's never done in any hiring situation anywhere, but it did get me thinking.

We advertised for 2 positions and were flooded with a tsun--- er, buried under an avalanche of calls & emails until long (long, looooong) after we selected people.

I would never do this, but I can imagine a 20,000 won (or higher) "application fee" would not have detered the very persistent ones. (Which in Korea, and particularly during hard economic times, means essentially all applicants.) In fact, I'm sure it wouldn't have. They'll likely spend that much on personal grooming and taxi fare for each job interview.

And you know, there wouldn't even have to be a job vacancy. How would they know for sure? And if some applicant were to get stroppy, they could be refunded. But I'm sure many more would prefer that a potential employer "kept their resume on file for the future" and just forgot about the application fee.

Of course, I'd never do this. But if such a simple con occurs to me, I'll bet there are plenty of unscrupulous businesses out there that would run a scam like this on a more or less ongoing basis. Hell, it doesn't even require a corrupt management -- Kia Motors' labour union "sold" jobs in that company.

[jaykimf]

[JongnoGuru]