Korean Job Discussion Forums

jay-shi · Joined: 09 May 2004 Location: On tour

My school is looking for a teacher. As I have done in the past I placed an ad on Dave's. However, this time I got 9 replies from candidates. In the past I would get 30-50 replies. I volunteered to help find a teacher because I have to work with the new teacher for a year.

The job offer isn't spectacular but it's a good job at an excellent school by hagwon standards. The job ad can be seen here : http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/index.cgi?read=17970 .

So my question is this; why the sudden drop in applicants? Is it the time of year? Are teachers only interested in working at public schools now? Any other reasons?

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

My vote goes to the competition from public schools.

BigBlackEquus · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:33 am Post subject:

Many factors:

1. Lots of jobs due to public schools.
2. Bad publicity in Canadian press and elsewhere.
3. Bad publicity online
4. What your school is offering.

Raise the pay high enough, and you'll get a lot more applicants. This is really what it is all about. Your offer just doesn't sound good enough compared to what else is out there. If your boss is too tight to do that, then that's his/her problem.

Porter_Goss · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Location: The Wrong Side of Right

jinju · Joined: 22 Jan 2006

Hagwons have dug a grave for themselves and its going to be hard for them to compete. And guess what..they deserve to have difficulties. Infact I hope many go bankupt due to being unable to find teachers. Hagwons deserve to be driven out of business. They are run by people who deserve financial ruin.

Homer · Guest

Big increase in jobs due to Public Schools. This has out stripped the offer or the pool of available teachers in a more competitive ESL market.

This can be only good for Foreign teachers as some places have already raised the base salary.

ontheway · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 6:42 am Post subject:

I would agree with Homer on this one. You need to raise your base salary to 2.0 or 2.1 million. The top of the range, I'm not sure what that should be now. The demand is rising. Pay levels have to go up.

Zark · Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 8:28 am Post subject:

All the other factors mentioned above - but also that fact that April is kind of an off time of year. People graduating in May/June aren't looking yet. People who finished school in December already found a job.

I do teacher training in Thailand and April is the slow season for that too. Just isn't the time when people are looking for change.

Gord · Joined: 25 Feb 2003

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Offering 1.9-2.2 creates the impression that the starting wage will be 1.9 which is far too low to attract quality applicants. Something firmer like:

No experience 2.0
One year experience 2.1
Two years experience 2.2

would be more likely to attract interest.

The ad also sounds too rosey. Something like 'teaching in Korea using English is the language of instruction can be difficult but we'll make sure you get full support and training' would sound better.

Good luck with things. I think there are just too many crap hogwans and good public school jobs to get many teachers, especially those already here with experience.

ilovebdt · Joined: 03 Jun 2005 Location: Nr Seoul

OiGirl · Joined: 23 Jan 2003 Location: Hoke-y-gun

Somewhat curious how "Alejandro Chavez" got an E-2. Sure, it's possible, but...

TheUrbanMyth · Joined: 28 Jan 2003 Location: Retired