Korean Job Discussion Forums

[cactusg]

If this is covered in another part of the forum, apologies, please redirect me! I am now attempting to write my resume for work in South Korea. Having only experienced resume writing for jobs within the UK I am unsure as to how to go about writing one for work abroad.

Is anybody able to donate any samples, templates or advice in structuring my resume for looking for English teaching work?

Any help would be hugely appreciated!

[John_ESL_White]

google resume or google work and play korea and look a tthe resumes that current teachers have posted.... hope that helps

[cactusg]

Thanks for the lead, they want me to pay to view the resumes though, the assumption being that I am an employer rather a jobseeker.

[John_ESL_White]

[John_ESL_White]

http://www.resume-help.org/free_resume_examples.htm

This site gives you some semi-blurred examples of resumes.

Basically, you want your name, adress, phone number and e-mail at the top of the page.

Bold face and bullets are your friends when writing your resume....

You want to write one sentence that lays out your objective...

ex.,
Objective: To find challenging employment in Korea teaching English-e to middle school students.

Then you list your education background (most recent first)

1994-1996 Oxford University
PhD. Physics

1992-1994 Stanford University
M.S. Physics

1988-1992 Seoul National University
B.A. Basket Weaving

Then, list your job experience.... and duties

1989-1988 Mr. Pizza
Director of Marketing
-drank soju with my uncle who first owns fifteen Mr. Pizzas in Seoul

etc...

if you are lacking in job experience.... make a skills section emphasising your special skills... i.e., proficient in Adobe Flash Programmin, etc...

make stuff up.... no one in Korea will double check, read, or even ask you about your resume...

5 months into my first job in K, my director asked what my major was and what country I was from.....

"didn't you read my resume'?"

"no, we looked at your picture..."

lol

just make it look good.

[oldtactics]

Yeah I agree with John - the only thing that they have any interest in looking at is your photo. They don't care about your education or your work background. I just used my normal resume.

[harlowethrombey]

If you want to skew it towards ESL teaching just try to think of everything you've ever done that was related to English.

Did you ever present in English class in college? Have you written or edited anything that was published? Did you help get drunk foreign students back to their dorms?

Anything that shows experience is ok, you can throw it into the 'Additional Experience' section if you want to have one.

If you dont have much/any experience just list your work and academic history. If you're a native speaker and went to a university in the west you wont have much trouble landing a job.

And, of course, the picture is key. If you're white and have blonde hair and blue eyes you're gold.

[mole]

Agreed. Only the picture is relevant.
They'll look at the name of your uni.,
look for companies/entities they recognize
and scan for the words, "teach, taught, instructed," and the like.

[gazz]

PM me - I think I have some CV templates on my laptop at home.

You can just delete the info on them and add your own.

[nomad-ish]

i think it might also be good to throw in any volunteer work you might have done. schools will like that you worked for free

[Goku]

Actually,

I put in my non-related English references as well.

I think it helps if you've worked any high positions or professional jobs. It shows you are serious and capable.

I believe my recruiter said my professional experience earned extra points. Of course they questioned why I would leave my job to teach in Korea, suffice it to say "working in a brand new enviroment where I'm not stuck in a cubicle" is convincing enough.

[cactusg]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. It's been really helpful so far.

[muffintop]

I got this through the employment office back in the states. If you would like a copy of the cd..please let me know.

You can put in the job you did and it lists so many things you might have done that you would never even think of. Then you pull out the most important...say four or five ...and make bullets on the resume. Very good and shows your skills.

So many attributes for each job skill.

pm me and I will get the cd that I got from the library back home.

[gazz]

Hi

I had a quick look this morning for the templates - But I couldn't find them. I know they are on my lap top somewhere. I did a search of my computer witht he letters CV but nothing poped up.

I will have a proper look tonight. As/when I find them I will have to email them to you as an attachment, something which I dont think you can do with a PM???

So if you could put your email up on here - PUT (AT) instead of @ though to avoid spam.

[cactusg]

Thanks for all the help. I have completed my resume and applied for a few different jobs now.

Fingers crossed!