Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ilsanman]

I love looking for work here. Aside from the few professionally run companies here, it's like watching a car wreck in slow motion.

1. On my way to work yesterday, I got a phone call from some lady at a university. She said 'Hello Ilsanman, I heard we're going to work together.' I said 'No, there's been a misunderstanding.' She called back 5 minutes later, saying sorry, she was meant to ask me if I wanted the job. I asked for terms and hours, and eventually refused. They need someone by Wednesday (tomorrow), and they can only use an F visa holder. SOL!!

2. Some mom and pop hagwon in Gimpo calls me and offers me a job. He really wants an F-2 visa holder, he says. I say it's too far, and he offers me school housing. I say 'I'm married and have a kid. I can't move anytime I want.' Then he tries to sweeten the pot by offering me 2.2 instead of 2.1 for 30 hours a week.

3. Some lady calls me and asks 'Do you want to work in public school?' I try to ask her for terms, location, and she dodges questions. As if someone will accept a job without knowing anything.

4. Some doofus e-mails me, offering me a university job. The only condition is that I pay him 600,000 (30 or so % of my 1st paycheck) one time as his fee. I e-mail back and ask for location of university. He says 'I can't tell you, I can't trust teachers. But send me your documents please.' Needless to say, I e-mailed him something that this site can't show.

Is this the same crap for everyone?

[PGF]

Sounds like schools are getting more desperate.

2.0 or 2.1 is just a retarded offer.

The guy selling a uni job sounds like a very unethical freak.

If you are married and not willing to move, why not just hit the pavement around your home base? That's what recruiters do (western recruiters anyway). That way you can check out facilities, etc.

[shaunew]

This is my experience as well, This week I had a guy phone and ask if I can move from Seoul to busan for a job that is only 8 hours a week, he pleaded with me that he really needed to fill this job and ask to move there. I told he I have jobs in Seoul and own an apartment he still begged me to take his job

[Ilsanman]

Nah, I found work. But I hope to get a phone call later today asking for me to start tomorrow.

[PGF]

This is how retarded it's getting. My old hagwon owner asked me to find him a foreign teacher. I found him a Yale graduate in his 40's willing to work his winter program. He asked me to get his information and do a phone interview. I did. He said he's hired. I told the guy. Then, one day later, he tells me that the guy is too old, overqualified and he was in the army 20 years ago (which I guess means he's not submissive enough), so tell him to forget it.

I call the guy and apologize profusely, etc etc. The next day a Korean recruiter drags in this 21 year old kid from the canadia who looked like a backpacker. The kid is here on a tourist visa.

The kid, not the hagwon owner, turns down the job. Probably wanted something in Seoul.

Hagwon owner asks me again to get the Yale guy to come. I politely declined.

Now he's stuck with one FT, one KT and K recruiters have told him that it's impossible to get FTs right now. Hagown owner logic. Had he hired the Yale guy in the first place, he would have had to pay me for finding him. Instead he gambled on a Korean recruiter and his one prospect which fell through. Oh well.

My friends who work at hagwons in the same area are being asked to re-sign as early as 4 months into their current contract.

One guy threw out a ridiculous request for pay increase and housing allowance and he actually got it.

With foreign teachers on the decline, I don't understand why or how some hagwons are still clinging to the 2.0/ month. I think a wake up call is coming to K hagwon owners in the very near future.

[Ilsanman]

2008 = death of mom and pop hagwons.

[sojourner1]

2008 will get quite interesting with the new E-2 visa changes.

[PGF]

Yes. And, hopefully, it'll mean a higher quality of education in those (hagwons) that survive and a better quality of life for those who can/will stay. Maybe late pay and shiithole studio apts will become a thing of the past......

Maybe E2 holders are on their way to becoming the new F2ers. i.e., less BS because they'll be rare.

I hope so for my friends who remain. The guys I've met and stayed close to while in Korea are all excellent, conscientious teachers who want to stay here for reasons ranging from girlfriends to good medical benefits. If they get past the new E2 barriers, they'll definitely be rarities around here.

Anyway, the job market is changing in Korea. I don't know when or if the hagwons will adapt. From the calls you've received, and from my former boss's attitude, they are not adapting very quickly.

When I explained the situation to my wife she said it's normal for the Korean powers to throw out new rules and then not go through with implementing them because they realize how unworkable the new rules are. So, this might blow over in a few months.

I guess we'll see.

[Ilsanman]

I also sympathize with people I know who have not married locals (for various reasons) and have to put up with this. Many of them are good people.

If E-2 teachers become the new F-2 teachers, what will the F-2 teachers become?

If you want a laugh, go check out Work n play. There are tons of jobs wanting people to start tomorrow.

[crusher_of_heads]

I'm an E-2 with my principal [great guy except he thinks I am not married becasue I can cook] constantly wncouraging me to get married.

Perhaps I am an optimist, but the longer the squeeze goes, especially in March, I think this foolish house of cards is going to fall over and the regulations will be lightened.

Sucks for those in the crosshairs right now...KOREA SUCKING

[Thumbnail Postermonkey]

I just threw my hat in the job ring lately and I'm experiencing the same stuff the OP wrote about...I'll wait quietly and see what's bound to come up in the future...I'm thinking it's going to be like shooting fish in a barrel here in a few weeks.

[Ilsanman]

Change 'in a few weeks' to 'now' and you're right.

But, as one poster mentioned earlier, many schools are still clinging to crap wages.

[just because]

I too am looking for a job at the moment and having a good chuckle...

Here is one telephone conversation i have had with a recruiter..

Applied for a job through a recruiter, hours were 2-6pm monday to friday for 2.3(plus 300 000 for housing)...about the deal i am looking for.

So recruiter rings me and says all the right things, no problem with previous teachers and will give emails, etc,etc and then he lays the bomb...

Rec: Oh, by the way, you need to work every saturday from 9-5.
Me: That wasn't in your listing, why would you lie about that? If i had of known i would not have applied.
Rec: If we had of put that in nobody would have applied as teachers don't want to work on saturday.
Me: You won't get any teachers by lying to them. you will just make them angry.
Rec: So are you still interested in the job?
Me: Are you an idiot?? (hangs up phone)
*******************************************************

Also have had the following things happen to me the last 2 weeks while i have been looking(looks like i have just landed a nice job though).

*Had schools up the offer from 2.0 to 2.1(or similar) to sweeten the deal. I told them good luck but times are-a-changing.

*Been given the run around about school conditions and phone numbers.

*Been told the wrong information by several recruiters in regards to what documents I need. They tell me E2 and F2 are the same which i know is wrong(with the exception of public schools).

*had a shady public school recruiter telling me he can reserve whatever school i want with EPIK (which I know isn't true as it is a random pick) but I know is just trying to get his recruiter fee. 23 emails in 1 weeks shows how desperate he is....i refuse to give him any of my contact details or resume yet and he is going crazy.


Anyway, fun times..............

[TheChickenLover]

I'd say this is actually a GOOD thing. Recruiters may be going crazy because they have family's to feed also, but the traditional Korean style of recruitment will end up going nowhere.

The new laws are going to be a boon for those who are able to stay. We will be able to dictate more preferable terms and I would hope the schools will consider themselves lucky they managed to get a foreign teacher.

I personally never liked the old school style of recruitment. Hogwans are a den of vipers where teachers are constantly thrown into by recruiters and have earned themselves a sufficiently imfamous reputation worldwide.

Public schools seem to be safer on the point of being paid, however many schools tend to treat their FT's like exotic pets rather than real teachers (keeping you in the school cage during vacation is not appropriate nor acceptable).

I also get emails from recruiters from ads I posted last summer. I found my high school position from an Australian recruiter who lives in Korea on an F visa. The principal was surprised I did not expect to remain at my desk for 5 hours when I had no classes. I could only imagine what their reaction be if I simply resigned immediately if they insisted I sit in the school during the holidays alone. I'm not a pet, but too many people here I'm afraid cannot financially leave their jobs due to housing or economic circumstances.

EPIK has come to realize this as well. I've already refused every single "extra" class at other school requested from me. I already teach 4 hours a week extra classes & that's plenty. "Extra" being outside the curriculum classes which are graded, regardless that I lecture 19 hours a week. Travelling to anohter city once a week to teach 2 hours is plenty compromise & my school knows it.

This is going to get much worse coming March when teachers are not here or are leaving. I honestly feel that the administration is avoiding this problem hoping the regulations will be eased. I'm sorry to say, but this is not going to happen. Life for schools (especially hogwans) are going to be much harder.

On an additional note. I was shopping at home plus when a man approached me asking where I work. I answered "Do you normally ask people where they work everyday?". I gave him an annoyed look but he proceeded to ask me if I could "introduce" a NT to him. I told him "I don't give referrals, and I don't recommend anyone to schools.". He asked me if I knew many teachers. I said "yes of course, but I won't introduce anyone to you." He asked why & I said quite simply "I don't know who you are and I don't like people who start up a conversation asking me where I work".

There IS some desperation on part of some owners who seemingly were soothed by recruiters that things would blow over. They haven't, & now their livelihoods are at risk. One thing you'll learn in Korea is that when you start playing with their money, they will go all out to keep what they have. We are a very strong symbol of prosperity to them, expect more of it from those who stay.

Chicken

[lucas_p]

I am not looking for a job now, thank goodness, but I have NEVER been asked with such frequency as now whether I have friends (foreigners, obviously) who can work this position or that position.

Have that many people really left Korea, and are that many people going elsewhere?