Korean Job Discussion Forums

[eamo]

I've been offered a position at a brand new school. Not even any students yet. It seems the first couple of months will be spent teaching very few students and just doing a lot of organizing and training. (full pay of course)

Would you agree with the conventional wisdom that new hagwons are too choatic and should be avoided like the plauge?

Or do you like the idea of starting in a pristine enviroment with the distinct possibility of very little teaching hours?

Anyone any experience/stories on the subject?

[humanuspneumos]

The reasons I wouldn't do new schools are:

1. You are creating/making/measuring/thinking about the new program 24/7. Even if it's a franchise- setting it all up can be a pain.

2. You have extra pressure to treat each student like a piece of gold. Losing 1 when you only have 20 can put everybody under tons of pressure.

3. It's easy to fall prey to the "It's my school" when things are finally on track and someone does something you don't like. It's not the roll you want to play. Better to be detached to a certain degree.

4. Interviews- Supposing the school should grow you could find yourself doing hundreds and hundreds of interviews between classes or getting pulled out to do them when you are teaching. I used to be the primary interviewer and it put stress on me and my students whom I had to leave to do my interviews.

5. It's more fun being at a school that has lots of cash flow- that seems to produce more smiles.

[kimcheeking]

[humanuspneumos]

I'm curious as to whether or not you have. Honestly- there are 100's of hours of donation time that doesn't get paid for, eventually teachers coming who say- "who put this together- it's crap"- and finally all the nicely tied shoe-strings being eventually untied.

I admit that altering/creating/making programs is fun. However, throwing it all into the time/social mix can be extremely tough. I heard of someone with an MA taking it all so personal- his program- that it eventually led to him quitting when someone tried to change several parts of his "good ideas." Doesn't that strike you as "Welcome to the Jungle.......?"

I do admit that being paid to do that and that alone- program designer would be a thrill- however it's never that simple.

[William Beckerson]

New school Pros:
Boss will be desperate to keep you in order to keep costs down, so you can suck at your job.

They'll probably turn the airconditioner on when it gets hot.

New school cons:
You'll be worked like a dog.

You'll get the blame when things dont go right.

New mothers, new crap.

Old school pros:
Good chance for you to find out if they can be trusted to pay you.
ie: You can research them.

Possibility of materials already being there instead of you having to rely on internet printups.

Cons:
Probably about to go out of business.

Better at lying to you.

If something goes wrong, they'll probably blame you.

Prognosis: Pray for the best.

[bucheon bum]

dude, working at a new hogwon can kick ass. I'm the first foreign teacher at my hogwon and it had only been open 6 months before I arrived.

Why does it kick ass?

1. I started out working 14-15 hours. I had Thursdays off. Unfortunately I now have 23 classes and work every day but the first few months were great. My wage worked out to be like 50,000/class the first month. Not bad for a hogwon huh?
2. The boss thinks you're a kick ass teacher. I'm not, but the enrollment jumped up 25-30% in the first couple months after I arrived. Because of me? Uh maybe, but because I'm a weigook-in, not because of my teaching skills. Enrollment is still going up, but has slowed down a bit the last couple months. Anyway, thanks to that jump, my boss hasn't said a word to me about my teaching except for, "you're doing a good job" a couple times.
3.Haven't had some slack foreign teacher screw things up discipline wise. The students generally think you are there to actually teach.
4. Boss doesn't want you to be unhappy or sick. He knows you're crucial to his business.
5. I can turn on the air-con whenever the heck i want- even in winter .

I don't really work my butt off, but I do have to create a lot of worksheets. That does suck. WHoever replaces me will have a fair amount of less prep time.

Finally, if I had not met my boss in person, I might not have taken the job. I looked at a number of new hogwons and chose the one i'm at now simply because the owner seemed like a decent guy and not some slick sleeze-ball.

[William Beckerson]

[bucheon bum]

ok, well i'll add something else: my boss had been running a hogwon for years (first was a cram school, then only english) and was a teacher before that. I figured he must have some business sense...

But you're right, never know.

[eamo]

I'm going off the New School job. They won't answer my questions as to if I will be expected to do Kindergarten or split-shifts.

I think this is because they simply don't know. If the market presents itself they might run Kindy classes or very early-morning/late night adult classes.

I'm not going to sign for a job that might one day ask me to start work at 6:30 am.