Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[peppermint]

At my current job they'd wanted a guy but I was told to apply anyway, as it was getting to crunch time and they didn't have any candiate of either gender they considered suitable.

[cubanlord]

hahahah...oops. I meant to say one guy I interviewed. I didn't hire the idiot.

[keithinkorea]

Every place I've worked at has hired males and females. I have had several supervisors tell they would often rather hire a male than a female as they can often be easier to work with and often aren't as inclined to make outrageous demands. Some female teachers have a real princess syndrome and a massively over inflated view of themselves.

Some -not all- female teachers think they are great teachers just because they are female. I comes down to individuals, males or females can both be great or terrible teachers.

[teachingld2004]

Yes, some schools would rather hire one sex. Then again, in the USA we do the same thing, but we do not advertise it when we look to hire.

When my son worked in a Health Club (Bally's), they interviewed all who came for an interview. The job was for the front desk position. My son knew in advance who he was looking for. The person had to be fit. He would have hired a person of any age, as long as they were well dressed and looked good. Why? Because when cliebts came to register, they wanted to see some one who looked good working at the front desk.

In Korea, there are many people who look for jobs who would never get hired in any country, yet they seem to get hired here.

Sure lots of jobs here are very bad, but so are some teachers. Plenty of people are treated like crap here also who do not deserve it.

I just left a job that was so awful even I could not believe it. But I left. I only got paid half the money owed to me, but after I get the rest (and I will) I will be happy to tell all the name of that school.

Yes, some schools want to hire a female, some a male, so what? Its like that all over.

[Gopher]

[Gopher]

[Homer]

The OP matches (to a tee) the experiences we had at our school when we had to hire 2 new teachers. I ended up on the hiring comitee (there were 3 of us doing the interviews and calling references).
We had much the same experience...

One guy sent his application with a cover letter that said:
"I have been working in Seoul for 2 years and I am better then most if not all of the teachers here. I am an asset to any school. My demands are (these are not negociable): 2.6 or higher, no kindergaten classes (our school offers none!), no split shifts, no involvement in any meetings or workshops."

While some of these demands could have been reasonable, a quick check on his credentials revealed this:

B.A. in Sociology with an avg of C.
4 schools in 2 years in Seoul, none with references or contact information.
No other educational qualifications.
His only reference: his girlfriend.

This was but one example of the many applications we got. It really shed some light onto what the decent recruiters have to sift through!

We ended up hiring a guy and a girl (American guy and British girl) as they were qualified and professional in the way they presented themselves. Also, they had actual references.

They got the job with a pay over 2.5 and have been happy here and made good contributions to the school.

Like the OP, I was flooded with applications from people making big demands with nothing to back this up.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I'll take people's word for it that some places prefer to hire men, but in my personal experience, every time I've been aware of the hiring process, pretty, young women have been at the top of the list.

[Gopher]

Sort of unrelated to the topic, but I must say that I was worried about finding employment when I return home in a few weeks.

Reading this thread gives me courage, because it reminds me how flaky the "competition" can be...

[NearlyKorean]