Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Kimchifart]

[Swampfox10mm]

I sort of walked out of one at my current university job. Let me explain.

First off, I was NOT their first choice. I was something like #3 or #4. I knew this because they hired two of us, and they told this info to the other guy.

Here's what happened...

I was called as an alternate. They said they "might" be calling me back if another person called back. I didn't expect much, but sure enough, 2 days later, they called me in to talk again. That's when they laid it on me that I would be hired if i accepted 1.9 per month for teaching 15 to 22 hours per week. I would get 4 months of paid vacation, yes, but that didn't seem like much to me because I was then making 2.3 per month with national pension (better) at my then high school job. I laid-out all of the benefits side-by-side on a piece of paper in front of them, thanked them, then said I couldn't accept the salary. The interviewer made a call, and said they couldn't'go higher. I then said my goodbyes and left.

I got a few subway stops away and they called me back in. I got a raise to 2.2 (or 2.3, I can't remember as it was 7 years ago). I then took the job and have been there ever since. I learned a few weeks later that they had to raise the salaries of the other two English teachers, who were making 1.9 and 2.0 per month! They were very happy. Frankly, I was amazed they were working for that at the time.

So yes, I walked out after getting an offer. But it was not an offensive situation. They basically realized that they were not going to get anyone decent unless they upped the pay. The others before me took better offers.



Another good story... 10 years ago, my first job interview in Korea (I was here on a tourist visa) I showed up in a suit. It was my first time in a hagwon, so I asked if I could look around before the interview started. The secretary didn't mind, so I did. I looked in the windows of the rooms, etc., and just looked around. After the interview started, the owner of the school cut the interview short and asked me to come back after an hour. I did, and was then told by the secretary that the owner didn't believe I was "just visiting" Korea and thought I was a spy from another school! They then kicked ME out!

That was the owner of a well-known hagwon that spends a lot of money on here in ads. I've posted about it in the past, but then my posts have a habit of disappearing, so maybe I shouldn't mention the name of the school.

[Mix1]

I had an interview at a military complex here once for a proofreading position.

Military guy: "Did you do military service?"
Me: "No, I didn't."
Military guy: "Why not? Are you COWARD???"

Great way to start an interview.

And this was after he had scheduled the interview but forgot about it completely. He tried to tell me it was the 'wrong day' but I'd already arrived.

He generally came off as a bully. He had some weights next to his desk and all the coworkers around looked extremely sheepish, just staring down at their desks in complete silence.

He then went on a tirade about how I needed a criminal check so they know I'm not a criminal and how according to the newspapers, there are many 'bad' foreign teachers in Korea.

He then ended the interview saying he would give me the honor of sharing something with me about his service in Iraq. I told him I had no questions.

Awkward... I guess if I had walked out, there would have been nowhere to go since I was escorted onto base and needed a ride back to the gate anyway, but what a weird experience.

[YTMND]

[Mix1]

[alongway]

In Korea? no...
many years ago back home I had an interview at IBM, set up through a recruiter/head hunter

I showed up at the appointed time, at the appointed place, and there was no one there.
An employee saw me waiting and asked why I was there. I told them, and they tried to find someone, made a couple calls, but generally seemed clueless.

I waited about 15 minutes past when the interview was scheduled for and left.
I was about half way home when the recruiter/head hunter called me in a panic wondering where I was.
I told him I had little patience for a company that couldn't be bothered to show up for an interview in their own building.
He begged me back, passed the interview and they offered me a job that day, but I turned them down for a place paying 20% more that gave me my own office.

[Zulethe]

I interviewed with the JET program in Seattle back in '93 just after I graduated from college.

I had no teaching experience whatsoever and I was given this list of idioms and five minutes to prepare before I gave my "mock" class.

There were a number of idioms that I had no idea what they meant. One was "a stitch in time saves nine."

This white lady in her mid fifties did her best impersonation of a Japanese school girl and kept saying in THAT voice: "I don't understand"

I was nervous, didn't know how to teach idioms that I wasn't sure of and to top it off there was this lady completely freaking me out.

I Knew I was bombing the interview so I told her exactly that: "You're freaking me out lady." and then left the interview.

A few months later I was sent a class action law suite against JET claiming age discrimination or something like that. I didn't participate because I truly did bomb that interview.

The positive side is that I forgot about Japan and landed in Jeju Do back in '93....now those were some wild times!

[PatrickGHBusan]

Sure, I think most people with some experience have walked out of an interview early.

I have done so on a couple of occasions in Korea and in Canada. The reasons vary but typically range from figuring out that the work environment is bad, the job differs from what was offered, the professionalism of the interviewers (happened just once).

While interviewing people for jobs in Korea and Canada, I have had applicants leave early in the interview. Most did so calmly and politely and thats fine. A few stormed out and that made for a funny story for the hiring committee.

One guy we interviewed stormed out because we asked him what he did when he was abroad (in terms of work). He just snapped, started yelling that this was private information (it was on his resume lol), got up in a rush, picked up the grocery store plastic bag he had used to bring his documents to the interview and threw the interview documentation that was on the table all over the floor as he stormed out of the room.

In hindsight, we dodged a bullet on that one!!!

I walked out of an interview in Korea in the md 2000s because the place ended up being a fly-by-night operation and the project I was applying for seemed to be managed a bunch of loons

[Julius]

[silkhighway]

On three occasions, all language schools, I had prepared for a face-to-face interview and shown up to find out it was a group interview. The first time I sat through it. The next two times I left within 10 minutes. When someone is trying to "sell" you a job rather than determine if you would be a suitable fit for it, I take it as a sign to walk away.

[PRagic]

Does AMWAY count. Had one of those zombies offer to buy me lunch if I'd hear out this awesome 'business plan'. Was I ever so young? Ordered the food and then it sunk in that it was AMWAY. Eeek. Plowed through my burger, said, 'Thanks, but no thanks,' and boogied the hell out of there.

[ayahyaha]

OP, as a general rule, I take and finish most interviews, even if I don't want the job.

I do this to first and foremost to keep the recruiter on my side, if I'm working with one. I also do this to:
1. Practice my interview skills.
2. Gather a list of possible questions and think up some strong responses.
3. Learn more about Korean (or whatever country I'm in) schools in general
4. See how much money I can pull (and if I know I don't want the job, sometimes I try to negotiate for A LOT more, to see if I can pull that pay at a future job that I DO want)
5. See if I'm dressed appropriately
6. Ask questions about the school that I'm not sure I'm supposed to ask

...and a bunch of other things.

Of course, if it's really ridiculous (and some of these stories above are awesome), I would bail out. But usually I've invested enough time, and I'm already there, so I try to get something out of the experience.

In a case like yours, where you know you don't want the job, I might've at least just tried to see how much money I could get out of them, for my own reference and practice.