Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ohme_ohmy]

Hi everyone. I have noticed that many people on this forum recommend not using recruiters, but instead contacting schools directly. I am just curious...how exactly is this done? Every job opportunity I've seen has been from posts by recruiters. When I try to google about private schools in Busan (which is where I am looking to teach), again, they are all positions offered by recruiters.

I've tried Koreabridge (formerly pusanweb) and it's pretty empty. I've also tried Serious Teachers (again all recruiters).

Any recommendations on how to find direct postings from schools themselves? Thank you in advance for your help and advice.

[iggyb]

You'll notice that many recruiters talk about how there are virtually no adults-only hakwon jobs. I think that is partly true - but I also think the other part is that the adult hakwon chains seem to recruit for themselves --- and since many people prefer adults, I can see how they could manage it and avoid recruiter fees...

...Anyway, you can contact the HQ of the big chains - K-adult - and apply to them directly. If you scout their websites, you can also find email contact info or fax for schools in their chain and send your resume to those schools directly hoping they have an opening coming up in the near future.

If you know just a little Korean, or use a translation site like Alta Vista's Babel Fish, you can do a Google search for hakwon and Busan/Pusan.

I did this recently for adults - English language - hakwon - seoul (all Korean script/words) in Google Maps and turned up a boat load of hits with a fair amount of the hits having more info tagged to it already.

I was able to spot a few adults-only places on my own.

My Korean wife is going to continue the search for me looking up emails and street addresses/nearby subway exits for me to check out in person.

[Captain Courageous]

I oftentimes wonder why people hate recruiters so much. You need a job, they find a job for you, and you accept or decline.

I'm not sure why anybody expects a recruiter to hold their hand through anything or immediately coddle, house, and bathe them if the job goes sour. They connect points A and B, and that's it. I love recruiters.

[ChinaChao1]

I don't know about Korea but in my case... ahem, a recruiter kind of lacked common sense in the area of informing me about my job details and well... kind of ultimately helped in costing me a job and a lot of wasted time... I don't think more elaboration needs to be given except there is definitely some MAJOR lost in translation sometimes if your recruiter doesn't speak or understand English well enough.

Oh, and some recruiters are really paranoid (I guess they should be because well, look at the title of this thread) that you will go directly to the school after they've given you the name of the school (ripping them of their commission), so yeah, good luck with that one.

[morrisonhotel]

I've been trying to do this but with limited success. As so many don't appear when searching in English, can anyone recommend a good translation site to translate some terms that may come up in the name in Korean (not babel fish)? I'm using Google and Google Earth to search but a lot of the time all I seem to be coming up with is the major chains and I wonder whether it is possible to find some of the mom and pop places or local chains using Korean terms in the searching.

[snurglersons]

http://www.ybmecc.co.kr/
http://www.ybm.co.kr/english/biz/02_lang03.asp
http://www.topiaenglishzone.com/
http://www.teachinkorea.com/
http://www.yesenglish.com/english/

some recruiters do recruit into franchised branches with these names, but they are independently owned. you can apply directly to the corporation at these sites and that will be for company branches. if HR is looking to hire you, you may get a choice of campus.

[ohme_ohmy]

Very helpful. Thanks!