Korean Job Discussion Forums

[SrBurrito]

Hey there, I was wondering how long I can expect it to take to find a job teaching in Korea? My wife and I are both looking for jobs, in the same area if not at the same school. We both have four-year degrees, and my wife has 3 years experience.

We started applying about 2 months ago through a recruiter and have been told that we started the process earlier than necessary, as most jobs don't open up until 2 months before the start date and we want to leave in August. We have also been told that there would be problems with using more than one recruiter, although from looking through this site I've decided to use all options available.

If there really are so many jobs available and so few teachers, it seems it should come down to (at the very least) choosing which hogwon opening we like the best, right? The problem is we've only done one interview with Avalon and haven't gotten any official offers, although the interviews we've done with the recruiter and Avalon seem to have gone well. Is this a symptom of a bad recruiter or are we just early? Or is this just how it works?

I guess, ultimately what I want to know is:

1. Can we can more or less count on leaving when we want to leave?
2. How long before the departure date can you expect to accept a job offer?and
3. If (based on the lack of any offers we've gotten at this point) we should be expecting anything at all out of the recruiter we've been using?

Thanks in advance for any assistance you may be able to provide.



PS In this thread: http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=20656
There is a link to a thread supposedly called "How long will it take to get a job?" but the link is directed to a different topic. I have looked around for these answers, but could not find them.

[big_fella1]

[Zaria32]

From what I've read recently, just over half of all ESL teaching jobs in Korea are unfilled...but that hasn't stopped Koreans from looking for a
teacher at what seems to be the last minute, at least to Westerners!

Looking 2 months before you'd like to leave is about the earliest..6 weeks
pretty reasonable, and if you have your paperwork in order, don't be surprised to find a job, accept, and be in Korea 3 weeks later.

Use multiple recruiters and DON'T send your paperwork off to the recruiter until you have a signed contract...signed by you AND the school..

Recruiters here are somewhat notorious. Lying seems to be a way of life for recruiters.

My school recently hired another teacher. My boss wanted to talk to the teacher before making a decision. The recruiter responded "If you insist on calling him, he won't accept your offer. He doesn't want to talk to the school." He did insist, and when the conversation occured, the teacher said "I told the recruiter I wanted to talk to you. He said you were too busy and if I insisted, you would withdraw your offer."

Use a lot of recruiters...or just look at the jobs posted on this site. That's what I did for my first job here...never used a recruiter.