Korean Job Discussion Forums

liehtzu · Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Location: the sticks, Korea

Oh man, oh man. After over a year in Vietnam I decide to return to Korea. Finally settled on a job after thorough search, they told me okay, bought a flight from Saigon to Busan, and A DAY BEFORE I'M SET TO LEAVE THE RECRUITER WRITES ME AND TELLS ME THEY DECIDED TO GO WITH ANOTHER TEACHER! Now I'm in a royal mess, headin to K without a job, no work visa (that was to be taken care of with a trip to Japan upon my arrival), only about $1200 or so... I'm pretty sure my tic's nonrefundable, so I have no clue what I'm gonna do. Furiously re-post job wanted ads for sure.

Any advice would be truly appreciated. This just hit me like a ton of bricks.

the eye · Joined: 29 Jan 2004

get a room at a goshiwan, use a PCbang to post your resume on ESL sites, and search the jobs while you're there....
you'll probably have a job within a week.
...and you'l be able to check em out in person.

endofthewor1d · Joined: 01 Apr 2003 Location: the end of the wor1d.

i wish you luck. it's nice to see another buster keaton fan.

tzechuk · Joined: 20 Dec 2004

I don't think you need to worry. Feb is hiring season, just get over and there will be plenty of jobs.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

All of the above and next time don't pay for your own flight, for goodness sakes.

bellum99 · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: don't need to know

Could be for the best, really. The school must have been a bad choice. Now you can pick what you like and visit.

eamo · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Location: Shepherd's Bush, 1964.

keithinkorea · Joined: 17 Mar 2004

That sucks. So many Korean boss types are such dregs of humanity it is unreal.

With hindsight it is easy to criticise, and I'm not going to do that. Only offer you the best of luck. Please let us know how you get on, and take care.

For other maybe reading this thread:

Don't step on a plane without an e2 visa unless you have enough cash to deal with any problems.

1.2 million could be a sweet amount to arrive with, but start up costs must be allowed for. Salt, rice, pasta, confusion allowance(moving to a new place and taking taxi rides instead of economic bus or subway rides). Laundry detergent, maybe you need to buy bedding, pots and pans, cooking oil, etc all that stuff adds up fast and can add up to a lot of money.

Set up costs can be expensive.

I think his-her prospective boss is an utter w@nker!

On a positive advice note to the op, try and buy a ticket out of Korea and they'll let you in. Without an onward ticket or appropriate work visa then you may not be let into the country, then you're really in the *beep*.

Anyway, good luck to the OP.

dulouz · Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Location: Uranus

Thats a pretty light mess over. If I got screwed, I'd wanna get screwed like that. Its pretty stressful moving to a new country, expecting some normalcy and routine but meeting a cold shoulder like that. I recommend that you take a deep breath, look at the sky and thank god you're an American.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

Three jobs ago I supposedly got a job lined up from overseas. From a Bankok pcbang and through a Korean recruiter. I'd a long resume the employer liked so it was clinched and I went to the little town in the mountains in Korea. I'd been in Thailand for two months and it was Winter in Korea, which was a shocker.

And it was a shocker to see how small the town was. And how sort of shoddy the school was. So it ended up coming to pass that they changed their mind. So there I was out in hicksville with the sure thing having fallen flat, which was a pisser. After two months on vacation this was a rude awakening.

So I got mobile and to inteviews and found a better place. I'd never get a job without first being there in person after that, and other 'blind match' arrangements. I'm sorry you had to have this unfortunate experience. Good luck.

liehtzu · Joined: 24 Mar 2003 Location: the sticks, Korea

Thanks all. I managed to bump the ticket up a week and now I'm furiously looking for jobs in Korea again from here in the 'Nam. Got visa extension, too. As for why I bought my ticket beforehand - I had very little time and I figure it's in any employer's interest to reimburse me. I insisted it was to be done within a week of my arrival. They agreed. If I hadn't recieved it within a week I'd have walked.

Anyway, I still have the ticket, still have some time, getting some relatively interesting offers. I just got two weeks added to the ol' business visa (fortunately the girl who runs the office here can do miracles), and the flight moved up a week, with the potential to move it up another week at no cost.

The idea of going and looking for a job there is appealing. Esp if I have a couple of good possibilities lined up (I'm looking for something small near Busan, so I have a cluster of maybes in the area - offers in Jinju, Geoje, Namhae, Gyeongju etc) it would be good to see em firsthand. If I don't have a job within a week via internet I may still go to Kand look on foot.

So here's a further question: ONE-WAY TIC TO KOREA = PROBLEM? It sounds that way. That's what I've got. How difficult would it be to get in? Any recommendations? I've read here that it's best to have some onward flight to some destination that you don't really intend to go to. Agreement? What would be best (meaning cheapest)?

Once again, thanks all.

And Buster: love it, man!