Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cmr]

What are the jobs that offer a nice vacation package as opposed to the standard 10 days off with hagwons or the 14 days with the public schools (although, it is usually more)?

I read that universities have much more vacation, but is that the only option?

[Pak Yu Man]

Pick a job based on vacation time. Nice.

It's nice to see a lazy b@stard like myslef here:)

Uni is where it's at. Or unemployed. You can get more vacation doing that. Oh Oh Oh, male stripper...I bet you get a lot of free time with a job like that.

[Juregen]

Not working is the best vacation.

Or did you mean "PAID" vacation?

[laogaiguk]

[ttompatz]

[PRagic]

Universities for sure, but avoid the ones that make their teachers do mandatory, unpaid camps as part of their overall compensation scheme.

Figure that you'll teach 15 week semester, but that at least one week is usually thrown to the wayside with a festival or holiday. You also don't really teach during midterms or finals.

You get roughly 2.5 months off in the summer and winter. Most schools only have you working four days a week, so, given the free fridays, that's another 30 days off. All in all, if you really want to 'go lazy', you can envision yourself actually only working 6 months a year plus or minus. Not bad.

If you are serious about working over the long-term, though, then the time off is used to gain additional certifications, attend courses, or publish. Once you have all the degrees and certification out of the way, though, publishing a paper a year, or semester for that matter, isn't that big of a time stealer. Depends on how motivated you are.

Having said all this, if you are young and just staring out in ESL here at the university level, beware. Already, there have been developments that spell the end of the line here in Korea. They are already hiring anyone with a bit of experience and a BA and giving severely diminished compensation packages and increased work loads. MAs are competing for fewer and fewer decent positions. To the best of my knowledge, there are only about 3-4 universities worth teaching at in all of Korea for those with MAs, certifications, and experience. Ph.D.s are getting on in some of the bigger schools, and, if Korea goes the way of Japan, will have secure positions over the long haul, or be able to move from school to school with little variation in terms of employment.

Most of the highly qualified people I know are frustrated with the market here unless they are at one of the very few worthwhile institutions I alluded to before. Many are applying to schools in the middle east, Hong Kong, and Japan. The Korean university system is hollowing out as more and more students go abroad to study, realizing that Korean degrees, for the most part, are not competitve, either here or in other countries. Rather than trying to bolster necessary English programs, the universities are trying to cut corners by cheapening their core liberal arts classes.

[spinario]

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Yes, please. Name them.

[PRagic]

Start researching...or guessing. Shouldn't take long to figure out. None of them require summer/winter camps or mandatory teaching during breaks, none of them have more than 12 base contact hours, and all of them offer pay of at least 2.5. All of them require an MA and experience.

[VanIslander]

[cmr]

PRagic, I like your idea of getting additional certifications. Actually, I've been thinking about it for a while, but in the past I've read some posts where people said that their on-line degrees weren't recognized.

Does anyone have any idea/advice/information about what is usually recognized and worth it, what is to avoid; especially, considering the cost of some of the on-line programs?

[antoniothegreat]

like the post directly above, i am interested in continuing my education, but i am not sold on the online thing.
one idea i had is to get a master's at a Korean Uni, would that be good for teaching later in a Korean Uni? how poorly do they hold up internationaly? i know bad, but how bad?

[Rockwell Bergstrom]

Was an English Language Fellow (U.S. State Department Fellowship) and one of my colleagues had his MA from a university in Seoul (Sungshin?). Apparently, the degree was valued enough to land him the Fellowship.

[Pyongshin Sangja]

Yup, I know someone doing that ELF with a Korean MA too.

[Rockwell Bergstrom]

PRmajic. Your post was right on concerning the recent trends in university jobs.

I would have to say that the 3 or 4 left would have to be Ewha, Yonsei, and Korea (though with its three year limit I am almost reluctant to include it). Notice I didn't include Seoul National because of the recent news that there will soon be a two year limit.