Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wintersnow7]

Recently there was a job posting on Dave's for the Pusan University of Foreign Studies TESOL department. I applied for the job and although it was already filled they said there was an opening at Tamna University on Jeju Island teaching linguistics in their TESOL department. So they recommended me and talked with some university staff and I got the job. Or so I thought.

So they asked for the usual documents which I sent. They even sent me the contract. Done deal. Then about 3 weeks after I had been offered the job, I get a phone call from one of the faculty at Tamna. He is really angry and rude. Typical spoiled Korean. "Are YOU still interested in the job??" He's talking really slow and angry on purpose. Then he wants to know where the documents are. "Why haven't they arrived yet?? Why didn't you send them DHL? Post office is too slow blah blah." They asked me before to send the documents express air mail.

Then he says "What address did you send them??" I said the address you asked me to send them to. He insists on knowing the exact address which I obviously don't have memorized. He keeps asking me. "Why not DHL??" Since I got my postgrad degree abroad it is really difficult to get transcripts and my university can't send them DHL! typical Korean stupidity. Always blame others.

Anyway, then he starts asking about where I worked in Korea before. He sounds very suspicious. Apparently he knows the owners of the school I worked at. So he asks me who my reference is at the school. They had never asked me for any references before this. I told him who the manager was. Keep in mind this is already 2 or 3 weeks after they told me I have the job and they have already told me to arrange my flight! Then he calls back about 20 minutes later and says, "I'm sorry, I cannot offer you the job. Your school did not recommend you."

WTF??? So I say, "Why didn't you ask for this before? Why now after I already wasted my time and money??" He says, "YOU SHOULD'VE GAVE US THE REFERENCE BEFORE!"

I am totally baffled by this. This is the most unprofessional thing I have ever heard of. Offering a job to someone and then taking it away is outrageous. And I contacted the manager of my previous job and she said she was not contacted. So whoever he talked to had no idea about my job performance if he even contacted them at all.

Does anyone have any incite into this? It is just too much to take in. There's no way to get your head around this clusterf**k. Anyway, it is a good thing that this didn't happen over here because I would go in there and pay that guy a personal visit. Give him a taste of old school swift justice.

And to the person out there who did get this job: you got the job over a perfectly qualified person who already had the job and the person you are going to be working for is a nightmare. I'm sure you will get screwed over.

The thing is I should've known what to expect from Korea. I will never apply for another job in Korea again because of this. Korea is definitely off my list of countries to work in.

[Jackofall]

I had a similar incident when i applied for a new college English Department. I was offered the job and told to send all my documents to them. I asked if i could see a copy of the contract first, i thought it was important ha ha, and they sent like this hastily typed up piece of ****. In the email with the "contract" they said that we can negotiate and so I began asking questions like housing, ot pay, and airfare. You know the normal stuff someone coming across the globe should know before they come. Well they answered two emails and then stopped replying. It�s not that i was pestering them to change anything i just wanted them to tell me how it was going to be, so there would be no surprises. I mean they offered the job and then just never replied anymore, not even to tell me to **** off. After one week with no reply i looked for another job and now I�m happily, for the most part, in Korea.

Just keep looking for what you want and if they were that messed up to begin with then you probably wouldn�t have liked it there.

[blaseblasphemener]

I recommend you take a little vacation to Jeju and kick this joker's ass.

[Darkness]

Same thing happend to my g/f at Chongju University, but she had already bought a non-refundable air plane ticket...

Welcome to the unprofessional world of Korea....

[valkyrian2]

duplicate thread can be found in the jobs forum.

http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?p=1571449&highlight=#1571449