Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mr. Pink]

[Masta_Don]

[htrain]

[freshking]

Unfortunately, this is a society where age is supremely important, especially in male to male relationships. I'm 30 but I look young. I taught an intensive course at my university last summer where the students were 24-27 years old. I could tell that a few of them thought they were older than me and the vibe was far different from the freshman courses I usually teach.

Anyway, the bottom line is that you can teach at a uni at 25, but if you look young you will be in for a bit of a power struggle with your older male students. If they want to be a-holes though, just let them know up front that they're going to fail from lack of participation. Then they can shape up or quit showing up.

[Homer]

htrain,

Sorry for your bad experience. As someone who works for a University (same one for a few years now) I can tell you that age does play a role. Not a dominant role but it comes into the hiring equation.

Your qualifications are decent but as pointed out not extraordinary (no offense intended). Experience in China is not widely recognized as very valid or valuable yet when it comes to university positions here.

There could be many other factors at play. How did they react to you? What are the hiring policies at the university? Requirements?

The age thing comes into play for administrators as it would be strange for some to have a teacher that is barely older than his students. This links up with credibility and the image of the university.

Anyway, I hope you find what you want here htrain.

[bassexpander]

Our uni flat-out refused a guy based on age. I was disappointed, but they just don't want people below 28 or so. Too close in age to the students.... a host of problems can result from this.

It happens at international companies here, too. I know someone working for a German company. She does hiring, and says they don't even consider a Masters Degree as a useful thing to someone who had no life experience between the BA and the MA. She made the statement that an MA is of more use to someone in their 30s. Interesting.

She also said that they only hire people within 6 months of graduation from their university (either 6 months before or after graduation). The other resumes, they just toss. Age doesn't matter to them so much, but they only want recent grads.

[PRagic]

You could try SNU's ELI (NOT the department job). They were looking for people who can teach content courses in Business or Engineering. Just a thought.

[IlIlNine]

[htrain]

[Bibbitybop]

[htrain]

[ajstew]

I wouldn't give up in your search here just yet. There will be about 20 more universities and colleges hiring in Korea before the end of this hiring period (on the job board). All it takes is one to give you a shot. I had an MA and one year at an institute teaching elementary and middle school, and sent out a ton of application packages after that first year. I didn't hear back from many and it became frustrating (asking you to have experience at the university level, and being unwilling to give you the chance to get that experience.) Then I got an interview for one and got the job out in a smaller town's university. I was 25 at interview time and 26 at hiring time. It is possible.

[anyangoldboy]

Yeah really you should be older than most of your students when teaching. 25 sounds ok for a university but when some of students might be 26 when they leave they might be older and they might find it harder to learn from you etc etc.
Sounds logical to me if someone says you are too young.

[htrain]

[mateomiguel]