Korean Job Discussion Forums

[teacher!]

Due in part to the fact that hagwons seem to be closing left and right these days, I'm thinking about jumping that ship and going to a uni job. The uni gigs seem to pay a little less, but I'll trade the pay for some increased stability. Question is, is that the case? Are uni jobs typically stable? I mean, are they going to at least last the whole year? Anybody ever been fired from a uni job? Thanks in advance for any help.

[climber159]

I'd say public schools are the most stable jobs for those on E-2 visas. I have quite a few friends working in universities; from what I hear the universities can be pretty hit-or-miss. Two friends of mine work at the same university where three of the five "professors" were let go for no clear reason. What was common to the three who were fired was that they had all be teaching at the school for three years. Also, I just saw the new SNU job ad. They say the contract is renewable for up to three years (except in rare instances, longer). In short, uni's are probably more stable during your 1-year contract, but not necessarily from contract to contract. And, watch out for the uni-gwans (hagwons operated by the university); they can be as bad or worse than other hagwons.

[bassexpander]

We are waiting to see what the passage of some new national laws regarding PT/FT workers will do to many of the univ. jobs around.

The problem is that the gov't wants to force companies to hire workers as FT after they've worked PT for two years. What is actually happening is that companies just let people go and hire new ones so they don't have to make them FT. Same for many schools.

The rule at some schools has become 4 years max for hires due to the previous 4-year version of this law. Now it's about to become 2. As I understand it, LMB is trying to make it 2 years so that companies are forced to hire more people FT. This is a ruse. What will really happen is that people will just be let go in 2 years, keeping wages low.

[HapKi]

The way I understand this, the law was passed 2 years ago, and the 2 year limit before "part-timers" must be signed over or let go goes into effect now (summer 2009). Recent stories in the papers say both parties are stalling on a compromise.

What I don't understand is how, as foreigners, a E2 visa given by immigration would ever be lumped together with Korean citizen part-time workers.

[teacher!]

Thanks, bassexpander and HapKi, but I'm just wondering if once you get a uni job, you can basically count on it lasting the full year of the contract. Seems like you can't count on that from a lot of hagwons these days with so many going under.

[ACT III]

I'm only on my second contract at an uni and from what I've seen once you got a contract your set for the year. If you do your job and don't piss off the students or the administration too much you'll get renewed. Otherwise you won't get renewed. I think it's more trouble then it's usually worth to fire someone mid contract at an uni.

[livinginkorea]

That new law only affects F-5s not the rest of the F or E visas.

[teacher!]

Act III, that seemed to be my hunch - unis don't seem like they'd be as likely to try to drop you midyear since they don't tend to go out of business like hagwons! Anyone else can confirm this?

[livinginkorea]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[fred_c]

[pocariboy73]

[Richard Krainium]

[OiGirl]

Just because the government says the law doesn't apply to foreign workers doesn't mean universities won't fire people after two years because of the law.

I go through a struggle with this every semester, and every semester they come up with a new loophole.

[anynag]