Korean Job Discussion Forums

[PatrickGHBusan]

[DrugstoreCowgirl]

This is a tough situation.

I was living abroad for about 2 years total and came home because I wanted to go to grad school. I ended up not going due to cost and I ended up staying anyway and found a job that pays really well for my area. So in a sense, I have 'made it' back home, which was a fear of mine, never being able to have a job that made money. And I found this job about 2 weeks after I started looking. But I feel unsettled about my time away, like I didn't fully appreciate it when I had the chance. When I left for Korea I was young and thought I knew everything and now that I'm older and more mature I wish I could do one more year in Asia to really feel like I had the best experience I could have. Plus, having 2 weeks vacation (which I can't take all at once) makes it hard to travel, can't go to Asia anymore and there's still stuff I want to see. I am stir crazy.

So OP, I guess what I'm saying is maybe you could finish your contract so you feel like you got everything out of your Korean experience that you wanted. I know I had to mentally prepare myself for a few months about leaving, and I actually really wanted to leave at the time. It would have been really hard to leave on short notice since you know you may never come back and see your friends there again. So if you did stay, maybe the job at home won't be there when you get back, but you were able to enjoy the rest of your time in Korea and travel to Thailand and maybe some other places.
You guys could consider moving to a larger area in your state that might have more jobs and more employment options. I might be in the minority, but it wasn't too hard to find something decent. But even if I hadn't found this job, I would have been satisified with my time abroad because I did everything I set out to do, even though I am not as advanced in a career as other people I know who got jobs straight out of college. There weren't any loose ends, besides for the fact that I wish my attitude had been different. I think if you leave early you migth regret it a year or so down the road when you're working 40+ hours a week with 10 days of vacation a year and not much extra money after paying for housing and insurance. But if you think this job might lead to better things for your future and turn into a full time gig, maybe it would be worth giving up the Asian experience.

[atwood]

[Gamecock]

A no-brainer? Am I the only person who read the OP where he said the job was 25 hours a week at 16.50/hour??? My guess not many benefits for a part-time job. That's less than $20,000 per year BEFORE taxes! And taxes are not 3% in the good ol' US of A. Am I missing something about this "major life opportunity?" This is a paycut from an entry-level hogwan job in a country with high taxes, the need for a vehicle, gas money, car insurance, rent payments, health insurance, etc...

Unless you are sure this has the potential to open up to something greater, I wouldn't be so eager to jump back to live at essentially the poverty level.

[g0t soymilk?]

gamecock perhaps the OP wants credible relevant job experience and references on his resume more than the package offered here.

of course Korea looks brilliant on paper, so brilliant it would be insane to leave at all when we can save so much money here! but that's just on paper.

[atwood]

[Gamecock]

[Threequalseven]

After talking with my girlfriend over the weekend, we're strongly leaning toward staying in Korea. Not only would the transition suck if I took the job back home, but we would still want to go abroad some more before totally settling down. And, as one poster mentioned, it's not really worth going home for a job that doesn't pay very well despite being related to my major. Granted, everything is relative. I talked with one guy a couple weeks back who said he was "barely scraping by" making $60,000 a year. So I'm sure there a lot of people with degrees in fields other than social science or humanities who think $16.50 part-time is laughable. I don't think that, but I also don't think it's enough to move back for. I enjoy being out in the world, so I should do what I think is more personally rewarding. I shouldn't go home just for the off-chance that it might make me more hireable someday down the line.

That said, I'm surprised by all the people who are so sour on teaching ESL. I can only assume these are either people with big-league degrees, people who are jaded from being here way too long, or people who see absolutely no value in living abroad and would feel better off in the same town as their parents. In any case, this whole ordeal has made my girlfriend and I really think about what we want. We're not necessarily sick of teaching ESL, but we might be getting tired of Korea. We'll probably stick our contract out to November, travel around Asia for a few weeks, go home for the holidays, then try to find work in Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, or maybe Seoul if it comes down to it. I think the problem is that a lot of people get comfortable just saying in one country for far too long, then trash on the whole concept of teaching ESL because they never left their comfort zone and mixed it up.

[wonkavite62]

What stood out in your post is that with the new job in America, there are no guarantees that you would actually get the job. Yes, there is a chance that you'd get it, but I think you would be going home [/b]for an interview and not straight into the job. Am I right?
At least you have the hagwon job right now. I suppose that if your former boss contacted you about the job, it's a good sign. You could maybe contact him and try to establish whether you are really likely to get the job. Was that boss generally trustworthy? Is it possible to go home at the end of the contract and still get the job?
From a Korean point of view, if you walk out of a hagwon job without asking for, and getting a release letter, it may jeopardise the chances of working there again. If you give notice to your Korean employer, and they say yes, you can go, and give the release letter, that's okay.
But you would need a plan B just in case you don't get the job in America. This is important. You might also want to discuss the issue with your parents, and friends in your home state,v for their perspective on this.

[salutbonjour]

I assume you want this job as an entry into the job market back home, to build your CV in your domain and to gain valuable experience.

If you go for it, you will be broke as you will make less money than in Korea without a free apartment and while paying much higher taxes and other costs. However, when you try to go back home in 1-3 years, both you and your GF will be close to unemployable and it might be even more difficult then than it is now.

I would say that you should go back home if you have the job (not a chance of getting it) and think that it is a stepping stone for you. Once you have built that, it will be much easier for your gf to go home and at least have you to rely on.

[Son Deureo!]

I agree with all of the posters who are recommending the OP think twice about dumping a hogwon job with savings potential plus severance and airfare for a chance to interview for a part-time job with (presumably) no benefits at a poverty-level wage. To see that as a major life opportunity you'd better really love that field.

The other thing that strikes me about your post is that you don't sound eager at all to live in your hometown and worry about being stuck. If you're going back home to make that little money, you probably will be trapped in that cold corner of the world, as you put it. If you're OK with being here, why not stay in Korea, keep socking away cash, and start planning for a new start someplace you actually want to be? If you're worried about your skill set declining in your original field, perhaps there's a way you can beef up your credentials through a distance grad school program?

[Zyzyfer]

Just will chime in with an off-the-cuff comment, I don't think your employability back home outside of ESL diminishes drastically between one year and two years. If you are genuinely concerned about this, perhaps look into ways to self-study or do online courses in your field to stay up to date on things. But I mean just enjoy working here for another year, get yourself really prepared, go back after two years and you should be able to get sorted well enough.

Unless there is some massive room for upward movement with the company, the job sounds easy, but $16.50 and no guarantees that you'll get the job stand out.

[Threequalseven]

I should clarify that I could do the interview via Skype, so I wouldn't actually ditch my current job just to go home for an interview. Also, if I did get hired, I wouldn't have nearly enough time to visit Thailand on the way back like one poster suggested.

All that being said, we have officially decided to continue teaching ESL. Ideally we'll be somewhere other than Korea next year, though. We're planning an overland trip from Singapore to Saigon in November together, and I'm looking forward to that much more I was looking forward to going back home.

What's funny is the difference in advice I've gotten on two different forums. On this forum, I feel like the consensus was leaning toward taking the job. But on an urban planning forum, both the folks who responded said it'd be best to stick out the ESL gig. It's funny how that works.

[Warhammer820]

[Warhammer820]

Also, we live in a cheap state where our 974 square foot apartment is less than $800.