Korean Job Discussion Forums

[BoholDiver]

I got an e-mail from GEPIK last week.

Yeah, buttheads. An F-2 teacher that makes 4-6 million a month suddenly wants to go down to a 2.1 salary while putting up with a co-teacher. I had a good laugh.

I wrote back telling the guy that so many of my friends have had bad experiences with GEPIK that I will not ever consider it.

[Riker]

Man, I'm dealing with recruiters right now. It's crazy.

I had one offer of "30" hours per week and in the advertisement it says
10 - 8pm M-F.


So I emailed back for some clarification on how 50 hours = 30 hours, and I got a nonsensical answer back.

Good times!

[BoholDiver]

30 teaching hours a week I guess.

10-8 is a freakin' long day.

[earthquakez]

I honestly think some of us won't be around next year. I'll be going to China. It's got its problems and is undeveloped and overcrowded in many areas but I think we're best to go while there are still good jobs in the better cities like Shanghai and Beijing.

China with Korea's population (talking about numbers here), infrastructure and lifestyle would be THE place to teach English, absolutely. But Korea has the big downsides of increasingly shrill attitudes about foreigners in one sense (tho in a few others it has got better for us), instability that has increased up North, nonsense that will never go away re how diseases come from outside Korea and they have to 'guard' themselves against us, hoopla about 1 year, increasingly horrible contract jobs with worsening conditions that don't focus on good teaching in many cases, shallow rubbish about how somebody's face and thinness as a foreigner is more important than your ability to teach and ethics, and passive-aggressive national insecurities that are acceptable in all sorts of bureaucracy, workplaces and other aspects of Korean society.

Recruiters are one of the most negative things about teaching in Korea. I haven't used them for some time thank Buddha but a few of the stories I have heard recently from people in Korea with friends who have had no choice but to go through recruiters to try and get a job in Korea are damned bad, including a recent case where a recruiter had a verbal stoush with somebody, personalised the issues and gave them no choice but to withdraw after they'd jumped through nearly all the hoops and were on the verge of coming.

I can only shake my head and say this wouldn't happen if there were fewer people interested in teaching in Korea. All I can tell people who've related these horrid stories from their unfortunate friends is that the 5 years or so ago when I came to Korea, recruiters were more respectful, some gave you time to consider things, had contracts re written in some cases, and didn't accuse you of anything when you simply asked questions or asked for information. That was because there weren't the numbers coming then that have been for about a year and a half. Now the arrogance is really coming out.

I have to say that some of these recruiters have hit a new low - and that's bad because they've always been sharpies, many of them.

[BoholDiver]

In my 2nd year in Korea, I worked hard to get good favour with a certain recruiter. They offered me a nice job and a not so nice job at the same time. I took both as a favour to them as well as for myself. In exchange, they referred me to a few decent positions and some one-shot jobs.

A few months later, I e-mailed them to ask for Recruiter A and then Recruiter B answers. Who are you? Recruiter A quit the company and I am her replacement. I don't know you. Did you do some work for us?

Wow, great. Why bother anymore?

[BoholDiver]

I keep getting e-mails from one Daniel Kang. The guy sucks as a recruiter, and I asked him to take me off his list.

I got another mail from him today. I told him off but good.