| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
|
 Posted: Sat Aug 22, 2009 7:01 pm Post subject: How many will come and stick it out and where??? |
 |
|
Now we have some better information from one of the recruiting agencies.
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=163839&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=45
| Quote: |
| we were told that that the SMOE needed to cut 100 out of the 600 teachers recruited total |
Now, as a job hunter, I wonder how that is going to influence the market???
How many of that 100 just dumped will take whatever number of jobs the other public school branches can offer them? How many will just fold and write Korea off? How many will turn down placement in other areas and come to Seoul and hit the Seoul hakwon market which is already somewhat tight? Will this significantly influence the Seoul and suburb job market or not???
I booked a flight for the first week in September. My mother-in-law was expecting me to arrive early next week, and I need to get over there. So, I'll be looking in country now instead of from home.
(We had hesitated telling her I was coming over until I had a job, because we knew finding an adequate position might take some time, but my wife went ahead and told her when it seemed SMOE's visa was just around the corner, because my wife said her mother needed some cheering up....Then SMOE came through for me like a couple of hakwons did back in the 1990s -- thanks bunches....)
I just wonder if I'll have to give up on working in Seoul or suburbs? I really, really want to do some volunteer work with NK-related NGOs. I've been wanting to do that for a few years, and now I have the chance, but if it is too difficult to find adequate jobs in or around Seoul, I'll probably have to give that dream up.....which I'll hate....But my priorities have to be getting to work sooner rather than later given my primary purpose for returning to Korea...
I guess only time will tell... |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
arrangingpieces
Joined: 08 Aug 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:53 pm Post subject: |
|
|
i think you will be fine to work in Seoul. i really do.
if i am able to use this E2 visa i'm leaving asap as i still have this ticket which i had to pay for...
keep pushing it on seoul--it will work out. lots of jobs opening up and even better once you're over there.
did you get the smoe job through a recruiter? they've been helping everyone recover apparently. mine said he could maybe help me hook up with other jobs. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 3:59 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Well, as bad as that was, I'm not overly worried. 100 teachers sounds like a lot, and it is. However, considering how many ESL teachers are in Korea right now, it's kind of a drop in the bucket. Also consider what Footprints said about EPIK stepping up and taking a bunch of them on. I wouldn't worry too much myself, these teachers might cause a bit of a downturn in the job market briefly, but I think soon enough things will be back to normal. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
asmith
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| AgentM wrote: |
| Well, as bad as that was, I'm not overly worried. 100 teachers sounds like a lot, and it is. However, considering how many ESL teachers are in Korea right now, it's kind of a drop in the bucket. Also consider what Footprints said about EPIK stepping up and taking a bunch of them on. I wouldn't worry too much myself, these teachers might cause a bit of a downturn in the job market briefly, but I think soon enough things will be back to normal. |
Back to normal? We're in a depression. Things won't be normal for a long long time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:10 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| asmith wrote: |
| Back to normal? We're in a depression. Things won't be normal for a long long time. |
Of course, I meant the new normal. 
P.S. It's a recession, not a depression. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I don't know if I'm one of the 100 or not, now that I think about it. I was told a couple of days before that the visa material I needed for the consulate was in route. I'll have to check with the consulate or immigration in Korea just to see if a visa number was issued or not...
My recruiter hasn't had any notes for me. I sent a couple of pissed off emails the day I found out I was dropped. Nothing too over the top, and nothing grossly exaggerated, but ones that struck home. I posted the exchange here as a thread somewhere.
I actually just sent him another short email earlier today telling him I'd heard here about the crappy position put the recruiters in - that I wished he'd have gotten the lower level contract from SMOE when I asked weeks ago so I might have been one of the survivors - but thanking him overall for his effort.
I'm looking at new recruiters now since he generally works with the public schools and I'm sending out resumes to the big hakwon chains.
Mainly I'm waiting to get some copies of stuff apostillized to take with me a week or so from now when leave for Korea... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:11 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| In October, we might see the opposite happen. Teachers who are hired and come here might not like working in Asia. So, there might be some runners in a couple months. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:16 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Runners --- that's another minor reason I decided to go to Plan C and go to Korea. There will be people who take off, and I want to be in country to respond when schools need someone immediately.
The one problem with that, you have to figure there is a significant chance the position is bad if the other person fled. Some will flee just because they weren't mentally or socially prepared to live in Korean society. But some will flee because their school or department is the pits... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
oldfatfarang
Joined: 19 May 2005
Location: On the road to somewhere.
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| In October, we might see the opposite happen. Teachers who are hired and come here might not like working in Asia. So, there might be some runners in a couple months. |
Think about how many runners there could be when teachers who thought they would be living in Seoul - are now 'helped' by being given jobs in rural riceville.
Give it 2-3 months. Time will tell. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pie eater
Joined: 07 Jul 2009
Location: The Bando
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
You have to laugh - here is the greatest chance for the Korean ESL industry to make sure they have their pick of teachers for the next 10 years and what do they do? Take away their airfare, their severance, their holidays and draw up new age limits - this latest trick what SMOE has pulled takes the biscuit - what the Koreans don't understand is this recession will be gone soon and everything will be back to normal - including the 50% of E2 holders who midnight run it out of Korea before 6 months. And they will have to give all those benefits that they are gleefully witholding at this moment in time, back.
All they had to do is pick the best people for the job and treat them fairly, no-one is asking for much but even in this time of bounty - the Korean ESL industry have to eff it up for themselves as usual. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:38 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| pie eater wrote: |
| All they had to do is pick the best people for the job and treat them fairly, no-one is asking for much but even in this time of bounty - the Korean ESL industry have to eff it up for themselves as usual. |
Sounds about right, SMOE really shot themselves in the foot, their reputation was tanking before this. Now it's really in the crapper! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bixlerscott
Joined: 27 Sep 2006
Location: Near Wonju, South Korea
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Are they offering the 100 or so dropped SMOE teachers a placement in GEPIK or EPIK? Are GEPIK and EPIK accidently in-processing more new teachers than they want or need? That remains to be seen. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
iggyb
Joined: 29 Oct 2003
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Of course I haven't been living in Korea or in the K-ESOL market for a long time, but I've kept up with the news and blogs...
...and my guess is that one reason this happened is that the SMOE and other orgs are probably not staffed with people who are gung-ho about the idea in the first place.
As I understand it from the news over the past 5 years or so, this was the brainchild of the top level of government. And of course, it is the lower levels that have to actually implement it. If they aren't crazy about the idea, it falls flat.
And I'd say, if the bulk of the public educational establishment really liked the concept from the start, we'd have already seen TESOLers put to getter use and would not have witnessed what we just witnessed... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 4:54 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| bixlerscott wrote: |
| Are they offering the 100 or so dropped SMOE teachers a placement in GEPIK or EPIK? Are GEPIK and EPIK accidently in-processing more new teachers than they want or need? That remains to be seen. |
From what I heard on Bassexpander's podcast, it was Footprints who worked some of their connections with EPIK to get some of the Footprints applicants taken in...it certainly wasn't all of the screwed over people. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
TheUrbanMyth
Joined: 28 Jan 2003
Location: Retired
|
| Posted: Sun Aug 23, 2009 5:00 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| In October, we might see the opposite happen. Teachers who are hired and come here might not like working in Asia. So, there might be some runners in a couple months. |
But a lot fewer than there would be in better times. Nowadays there's nowhere to run back to, unless they like living in Mommy and Daddy's basement without a job.
Given how bad the global economy is suffering, a lot of people are not going to have any other choice. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
