Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Artris]

I've put my resume out there, forwarded to many schools. I've also given it to a few recruiters I saw on the job board.

My first recruiter was setting up an interview with a hagwon for the following day and told me to be ready for a call. I waited and on the next day he calls and says "I had to schedule it for tomorrow". I wait another day and no call from him OR the hagwon. This was last friday, and so its been quite a few days since I've heard from him.

This Monday morning, Korean time, I talked to another recuiter. She sent my resume to one school only to have me turned down, because I'm a guy. She then found a second school and asked me when I could start (all of this in a matter of hours). I told her ASAP and she responded "thats great" and told me she would set up an interview. The next night rolls around and I don't get a call or email. Then tonight I again get no call or interview.

How long does it take to setup an interview? I really liked my second recruiter: she seemed to be keeping my interests in mind since both schools were great matches (on paper at least). I'm just wondering if I've been shoved on the backburner again, thats all. Is this sort of thing common: i.e. a recruiter sometimes just stops coresponding with you for no apparent reason? Will they eventually get back to me, or should I move on?

Thanks.

[Tobias]

Do both. Remain on the back burner with some places and move on at the same time. In this environment, you gotta apply at far more than just a few places. While you're waiting for these emails, are you still looking for jobs or are you idling waiting for replies?

Be patient and keep applying. You'll soon have so many offers you'll be able to cherry pick the one best for you.

[Goku]

I've worked sales for a long time, and I was a candiate for a high end recruiting firm back in the states (made it btw but rejected the offer).

Here are some common recruiting possibiltes that explain your dangling.

1) You could be a "Open" lead. They are actively looking at your profile and trying to fix you up, despite a failed attempt. They don't call you because a) makes them look bad b) wastes their time calling you -because they crunched for time they won't bother c) gives you a reason to search with other recruiters

2) You could be a "on hold" lead. They have better candiates or better people they can match with a shcool and are not working on you because their time is more efficently working on others. They'd get back to you after a week.

3) You could be a dead lead and they don't feel like contacting you, because they want to leave you in that "just in case" scenario. They think that you could potentially still be hooked up but in the immediate now, they haven't found anything.

Or they could be bloody lazy asses. I've found a lot of recruiters working the ESL Korea market, with the exception of one, are lazy as hell. I tried to email and contact like freaking 10 recruiters. Only that 1* ever followed up immediately and 2 followed up AFTER I arrived in Korea 6 months later. They were like "Oh are you still looking for a job?" If anything pisses me off more than digging through a list of old leads thinking you're gonna catch someone when you should have worked them from the beginning. F***ing amateurs these recruiters in Korea. And it's not like I was some hard sell.


*His name was Rowan from ESL planet btw if you want to look him up. He's really amazing. And a lot of people will vouch for him on Dave's too.

[billietea]

[okayden223]

Yeah I feel your pain on the waiting game. Basically you have to remember that very few schools are only going to use 1 recruiter. Recruiters compete with each other for business and that means that Hagwon owners are looking at a lot of resumes. It's just not possible for every recruiter to get you interview immediately. With that being said a good recruiter should promptly answer your questions and keep you updated. Don't expect to go to Korea a week after you apply. They are cautious and the market is flooded with the unemployed from the English speaking countries right now. Two recruiters I'd recommend are James Jeong at esl411.com and Jason Creswell at ASKNow.ca for jobs in Seoul and Gyeonggi province. KimnJoe.com is a really good outfit for getting jobs in the east coast, namely Busan. Post your resume and try to get references from teachers currently employed at the schools. Try doing a facebook search for the school to see if anything pops up and message the employees directly. Good luck and keep trying.

[Artris]

I hadn't even thought of facebook. Great idea and I'll give it a shot. The recruiter I 'like' got back to me today to say she had setup an interview.

I guess since I had gotten 4 offers from Hagwons with very quick interviews I was expecting a similar experience with PS.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I will look into using the recruiters listed in this post and those PMed to me if this school falls through. I do have a few more questions, but they are more related to the specific school and city. I will likely start another thread for that.