Korean Job Discussion Forums

[atomjuice2]

Check this gem of an ad: ( Global Student Services...a recruiting agency)

Job Title: English Teacher
Located at: Seoul (South Korea)->map
Vacancy: 5 or more
Salary: $2500 USD
Requisites: 4 Year University Degree in Any Discipline
Details:
Working Conditions
As an active recruiter in the field, we are regretful that teachers are paying too much attention to their salary. Of course, salary is an important issue for teachers, but there are other important factors as well. You should consider both external factors(such as salary, housing, timetable, etc) and internal factors, such as the quality of the institute(i.e. the characteristics of your employers faithfulness to the contract, etc). After staying in Korea several months, you will learn that salary is not the most important part when accepting a schools offer. To ensure you dont encounter pitfalls, we strongly suggest that you ask about the institute from persons familiar with the institute, especially former or active employees.

Wow, what insight! I don't know about other teachers, but I've never made an employment decesion in Korea based upon salary conderation alone. Nice English writing in this silly ad too...I had this sent to me this morning by Serious Teachers ( a good sight to join actually...but some of the ads...!) These people have more nerve than a toothache. This ad nicely displays the attitude that we ( foregn teachers ) should be altruistic saints, while we all know how every recruiter has a hard time to fit you into their schedule between their reading of Mother Theresa, Protesting for Amesty International, and Burning busses for GreenPeace....not to mention their outrage at the Japanese slaughter of Whales that they took to the streets for in the last few weeks....hard to imagine they have any time to recruit, or the schools any time for us with their tight schedule of philanthropic activities.

[shantaram]

Your reaction is slightly hyperbolic? An 'oversite' in your spelling, too.

[cruisemonkey]

[wylies99]

Looks like a typical hagwon ad. If any "problems" arise with nonpayment of salary, the hogwan's attitude is "Hey, why focus on money? Are you greedy?"

[Imrahil]

[valkerie]

'Is everything always about money?'

A recent quote from my Director when told that teacheing staff would not take kindly to being told they have to do yet MORE prep in their own time.

As it is we have NO paid time for this and work around 150 contact hours a month.

Errr...YES. It is about money.

[atomjuice2]

shantaram


Yes, I exaggerated a bit when it came to philanthropy. Point taken...and my spelling is never 'spot on' in here.

The posters attacking me as an 'idiot'...well...that doesn't change the point I was trying to illustrate...why keep using the same old ad hominem routine to avoid genuine issues? Why not participate and engage in logical refutation of my posts? Just a suggestion.

[Netz]

[KoreanAmbition]

I can say I disagreed with the OP's opinion on this ad.

I remember reading this ad and to be honest I thought that it was really interesting that they tried to talk about things OTHER than salary.

In my opinion, the ad tried to give a fair salary $2500, but was inefficient in their sales pitch for the intangible benefits of the job.

I don't think they were trying to convince people to take a lower salary.

I think they were using some quasi form of "reverse psychology" to let people know that THIS hagwon tries to care about teachers' needs outside of finances. I think in a strange way they attempted to lead the reader to think that this hagwon was better than others and would take care of a teacher's needs after they had received their paycheque.

I didn't say they WOULD follow their promises, and I have no idea if they would or not. However, I took the ad to be a sincere and "intelligent" approach to hire teachers given that MANY FT's are always complaining about poor treatment.

What should the ad have said? "Come work for $2800. You make a bit more, and with that you can buy a whole lotta K-Y that you're gonna need when we're done with ya".

[atomjuice2]

I don't agree. I know they were trying an unorthodox sales pitch...I think my shortcoming in the original post was that I did not mention that, in my experience, I've seen so many Korean Teachers quit schools soley based on their disatifaction with salaries which were much higher than mine. At this present school, a korean student told me with a sad face that he had 6 Korean teachers of English change since March! I usually hear fts talking about 'overall' conditions, not salaries only.I felt the ad was lop-sided. Were they sincere, I don't think so. I have one recruiting ad that is almost too sincere...it jerked a chirp of laughter out of me the second I read it...I'll post it here later...too tired now.

Good luck to us all.

[cruisemonkey]

[bizrandom]

I saw this ad.... deleted. I have enough offers for jobs that don't use this type of nonsense tactic... move on

[PRagic]

The line about money was good, but what I found really interesting was the fact that a school actually honoring its contract should be seen as a serious plus.

If a school is good, and if a school is reliable, then they should be able to pay top buck to get the best teachers. This recruiter is a schmuck.

[mountainous]

[xingyiman]

$2500 is a pretty descent salary considering there are lots of hogwans still paying 2.0. As far as pushing the other "benefits" if they were offering a 3 bedroom place with a big kitchen and 4 weeks paid vacation I could see the point. But don't try to lecture me on the "incentives" when you are basically offering me a box apartment and the standard hogwan thing. I can go down the street and get the same thing.