Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Man known as The Man]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Edit double post

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Bee Positive]

Here's my slightly different take on physical appearance in Korea:

If you're a man, wear a suit and a tie. You might lose the tie in summer, if coworkers are doing so. But the suit should be conservative (grey or black), and of course has to be worn with an Oxford shirt. Wear good leather dress shoes, always, and keep them shined on a fairly regular basis.

Don't wear any facial hair at all. Keep the hair on your head trimmed short.

No visible tattoos or anything else "weird."

What I've just described amounts to THE UNIFORM for Korean men, whatever their profession, beyond university. Exceptions are manual laborers, wearers of other uniforms (police, military, fast food), and the occasional little old man in hanbok.

I'll be frank in saying that I myself do something of a double take, and even register a bit of discomfort on occasion, when I encounter other waygooks in the street. Why? NOT because they look non-Asian, and NEVER because they're overweight/underweight/too short/too tall, or any other such thing. It's the blue jeans, the backpack, the funky hairdo. It's even, in all honesty, the semi-conservative looking guy in his late twenties or above who . . . well . . . may be wearing slacks and a collared shirt, but isn't in a suit.

Wear the suit and you'll fit in here. NO BACKPACK, either. Look at what the Korean men carry. That's right: the man purse. Get one, if you've got stuff to carry.

I remember a couple of years back sitting down to a pizza at Sbarro's in Seoul. (Now gone, sadly.) I was wearing the regulation dark suit and tie. At the next table were a couple of English teachers who were dressed . . . well . . . like undergraduates. These bozos were openly snickering at my outfit and making snide remarks ("Maybe he's German or something": whatever that's supposed to mean!), and I just sat there thinking, "Look around you, bozos! NO ONE DRESSES THE WAY YOU DO! DON'T YOU GET IT?"

When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Dress for college when on a college campus back home. Here in Korea, EVEN IF YOU'RE TEACHING KINDERGARTEN, invest in a good couple of suits as soon as you possibly can. Trim the hair above your ears. You'll be amazed at how you start blending in here.

Forget weight loss. Fat Korean guys blend right in if they're dressed right. You can too. GET A SUIT. ESPECIALLY if you're a kindergarten teacher.

And yes, I've landed good jobs, beyond my expectation even, on what are frankly very slim credentials. (BA in English, nothing else.) I'm a tad tubby myself, short, not exactly handsome. None of that matters. I wear a suit, and of course when going to an interview I wear a tie as well. That's it. That's what you've got to do.


BEE POSITIVE

[Kimchieluver]

I agree, a suit makes a world of difference. After I started wearing suits (I had 11 suits at home but was told not to bring them) I got compliments everyday and was invited out a lot more often. A lot of teachers weren't just interested in my country or learning English, they actually thought of me as a teacher.

I have recently received an offer from a university (through a friend) and had to decline because I like where I am living and don't want the pay cut. If I was to take it I would have worn a suit to meet the Dean and would be wearing a suit every class.

I wore a suit in Canada and it made me feel good. My job required it. Here I could probably get away without one but why give up the perks?

[DougieG]

Solid suggestion; you are definitely are bang on the money. The only problem with your theory is that 99 percent of foreigners I've seen wearing suits look like jokes. Out of fashion, ill-fitting and dirty with the whole image even further undermined by cheap shirts, ties, belts and shoes. I recall seeing a couple of English teachers playing dress-up in Kyobo bookstore. The cringe factor was through the roof! If they'd taken to lying down and begging for money no one would have thought them overdressed. If you're going to wear a suit, be prepared to invest handsomely in the venture. As Roxette, those quirky Swedish hipsters from the 90s sang: "I'm gonna get dressed for success; shaping me up for the big time, baby. Get dressed for success."

[SuperHero]

[DougieG]

[quote="SuperHero"]I buy my ties from Andrews Ties. Since I started wearing higher quality ties I've had many people (foriegn & Korean) comment on my ties - no one ever did that with the cheap ones.[/quote]

Wearing good quality ties is very important. While Andrews sells the best quality budget ties in Korea, I've found their colours to be somewhat dated and a little too last season for my liking. Mail order from the UK is the only way to go in my books. Sure they cost more but the English have what it takes when it comes to sartorial splendour. Though I still stand by my earlier statement: 99 percent of foreigners wearing suits in this country look like bums who have just stumbled out of a Salvation Army soup kitchen.

[Hawkeye2]

I like not having to wear a suit.

[JongnoGuru]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[chronicpride]

[JongnoGuru]

[schwa]

Is she thinking "Wow thats one smart-looking male" or "Jeez, what a peabrain" ...

[DougieG]

[quote="JongnoGuru"]"Dress for success! Dress for success!" Oh please. :roll: Beyond a job interview, exactly what does it matter for most of you, and who do you think you're fooling? Yes, we call them "[u]business[/u] suits", but don't let's get presumptuous about that. If you're a Western guy in Korea in your 20s, 30s, even 40s and beyond, then aside from not wanting to appear an utter raggamuffin, how spiffily you're dressed or how dashing you want to imagine yourself matters not a whit.

While you do lose points for being a slob, dressing like a GQ model isn't going to convince any of us that you aren't a kindie klown, a uni lecturer monkey, a hagwon marsupial, a corporate f**ked-up English fixer-upper boy, etc. Your job and doing it as professionally as you can -- that's where real success comes from, not from masquerading as an investment banker.

As for the 99% of foreigners in suits that "look like bums who have just stumbled out of a Salvation Army soup kitchen", they win my respect for sartorial sensibility, and several number among my coolest and very closest friends in Korea or anywhere. The other 1%, they win everyone's derision and snickers for being jumped-up, self-delusional little pillocks.[/quote]

Shame that one percent is more than likely have the best jobs, not to mention keep them, irrespective of ability. I wonder how they do it?