Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Oreovictim]

I've done two years of hagwons so far, and I'd like to switch and go the public school (elementary) route this time. If someone could answer me these very basic questions, I'd appreciate it. (I tried the search function; it's not working.)

1. Is it too late to find public school jobs now? I thought that I read on here that all documents had to be in on the 14th of this month.

2. Why do people apply straight through SMOE or GEPIK instead of going through a recruiter? From my understanding, when you apply through SMOE or GEPIK, you have no idea which area you'll live until after orientation. But I've seen adverts for public school gigs through recruiters where you pick the city and even the school. I know recruiters lie about shady hagwons, but if all public school contracts are the same, you should have nothing to worry about from the recruiter, right?

Thanks for the help.

[alphakennyone]

1. I just today saw a job ad for SMOE. Maybe they were lying about all the job shortages. Obviously there are still jobs left. Since I imagine you are in country, you'd be at the top of the list.

2. I've seen some public schools advertising via recruiters independently. I don't know how that works, but apparently conditions are the same as GEPIK/EPIK/SMOE but you have the added benefit of speaking directly to the school and knowing where you will be.

To more directly answer your question...everyone goes through a recruiter. GEPIK and SMOE as I understand do not hire directly. However, some individual schools under their umbrellas do.

[andrewchon]

1. Perhaps it is but openings come up when the applications don't meet the target.
2. Recruiters are for hard to fill places.

Why would you want to leave Bundang and go PS?

[Oreovictim]

A little misunderstanding. I haven't updated my profile. I finished my Bundang hagwon gig in May. I'm in America now.

[blonde researcher]

The EPIK office in Seoul, the one that does the recruiting for most major cities and provinces , closed in early June and has since been overfilled They hired directly to the offices of education in Busan Incheon etc.
With EPIK you get the letter of appointment direct from the individual offices of edcuation. NOTE. Busan office of edcuation employs all its teachers from this EPIK recruitment. This is why there are no Busan jobs left.There are no more EPIK public school vacancies in any of the other big metro cities and some of the provinces. Any that get advertised will certainly go to the people with their documents in who were too late for the cut off date.

In June the EPIK office was given an additional 100 extra jobs from SMOE that are only for level 1 and 2 people and these must be about filled as many applicants were switced from EPIK to SMOE. Incheon, Busan Daegu and Daejeon and Ulsan are full.

The office of education in Gyeongsangnam and Jeollam and some other provinces such as Gangwon also hire directly via some recruiters (not always from EPIK). There were some public school jobs still available in these areas as they only listed their jobs when the other EPIK vacancies were known last month ( after EPIK closed)

The Gyeonggi office of education (GEPIK) did a hire in May /June In Gyeonggi many of the public schools work directly with recruiters and the papers are done in the immigration office (not with letters of appointment). Some more jobs are probably due out in the next month directly from the schools.

Many public school positions advertised are actually after school programs run inside public schools by outside private companies such as Daekyo
Very often these are advertised as "public school" jobs because they are in public schools and because the contract has to be signed by the principal of the school. BUT they are not true public school jobs: you are contracted to the school by the company and it is the compnay who pays your salary.

When you see a public school jobs listed anywhere, ask the following questions
1. Is there a letter of appointment issued for my visa ? If so it will be 100% a genuine EPIK contract. If there is no letter of appointment issued it may still be a genuine school ( such as in Gyeonggi - GEPIK ) that is hiring directly so ask:
2. Are you to be given a genuine EPIK contract and all conditions with 22 hours working 9-5?

If you are to be working different hours such as 11am - 6pm you are almost certainly not in a real genuine EPIK public school contract, you are in an after school program. This is why you see many advertisements still around saying they have public school positions.

There are now a lot of after school jobs in public schools in Seoul and Incheon and Gyeonggi marketed through a lot of different private companies, so know what you are asking for and what you are getting.

[Oreovictim]

Thanks, blonde researcher. I appreciate all the advice.