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.res.ipsa.loquitor
Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:22 pm Post subject: Job market a little dry? |
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I'm planning to begin my second contract in Korea this fall, and began job searching about a week ago.
For my first contract, I sent one application and was in Korea teaching three weeks later. This time around, it seems like I'm just getting the same old form emails from recruiters, no matter who I contact.
Plus, when I see a job posted that I like, and apply to that particular job, the recruiters just ignore everything in my email send me their usual dumb sales-pitches and ask me for my resume, which was already attached to the email! It's happened 5-6 times now.
Is it swine flu (or at least the ridiculous pandemonium associated with it)? General economic sluggishness? Higher than usual demand for positions?
Any and all opinions appreciated. |
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halfmanhalfbiscuit
Joined: 13 Oct 2007 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:26 pm Post subject: |
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There's a stack of kindergarten/ elementary school positions (which stay open for good reason).
MS/HS/Adults- Chuseok might have something to do with it...but that's only a long weekend.
Simply more people in-country and/or more people re-signing? |
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Demophobe

Joined: 17 May 2004
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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There are no jobs! The US / World economy is in tatters! Foreign workers flood Korea! Wages plummet! Working conditions at all-time low! Job competition rises!
Sorry, but that's all Dave's is about these days. I suggest looking over the last 4 or 5 pages of posts: you are sure to find many on-topic opinions on the matter. |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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Oh my God! Don't even get me started on the crappy market! I hate the USA and Korea is quickly getting on my crap list, too. Why don't you just say adios Korea and go somewhere else? There are more places than just Korea and your native country. Everyone and their goldfish is looking for jobs in Korea now. I have Korea to thank for making me lose thousands of dollars in a job hunt. Never again...never! Oh, and three years ago, I flew here and found a GOOD school in 6 days. Not this time. |
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Gibberish
Joined: 29 Aug 2009
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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princess wrote: |
Oh my God! Don't even get me started on the crappy market! I hate the USA and Korea is quickly getting on my crap list, too. Why don't you just say adios Korea and go somewhere else? There are more places than just Korea and your native country. Everyone and their goldfish is looking for jobs in Korea now. I have Korea to thank for making me lose thousands of dollars in a job hunt. Never again...never! Oh, and three years ago, I flew here and found a GOOD school in 6 days. Not this time. |
The only moron you have to blame for going to Korea before having a job secured and not being able to find employment is yourself. |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:45 pm Post subject: |
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Gibberish wrote: |
princess wrote: |
Oh my God! Don't even get me started on the crappy market! I hate the USA and Korea is quickly getting on my crap list, too. Why don't you just say adios Korea and go somewhere else? There are more places than just Korea and your native country. Everyone and their goldfish is looking for jobs in Korea now. I have Korea to thank for making me lose thousands of dollars in a job hunt. Never again...never! Oh, and three years ago, I flew here and found a GOOD school in 6 days. Not this time. |
The only moron you have to blame for going to Korea before having a job secured and not being able to find employment is yourself. |
Whatever. Moron or not, all I know is that I did it before and found a job in 6 days. I also agree with another poster on here who said people should keep their mouths shut about teaching in Korea. Too many people have gone and blabbered to everyone, even to strangers, that they should come to Korea. Way to give your job away folks... Like I said, I'll never do this again. Another psoter on here said he lost thousands of dollars by coming here without a job too. He said it was total lunacy. Yes, it is. Well, for sure these days it is. |
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asmith
Joined: 18 Jun 2009
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Posted: Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:53 pm Post subject: |
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princess wrote: |
Gibberish wrote: |
princess wrote: |
Oh my God! Don't even get me started on the crappy market! I hate the USA and Korea is quickly getting on my crap list, too. Why don't you just say adios Korea and go somewhere else? There are more places than just Korea and your native country. Everyone and their goldfish is looking for jobs in Korea now. I have Korea to thank for making me lose thousands of dollars in a job hunt. Never again...never! Oh, and three years ago, I flew here and found a GOOD school in 6 days. Not this time. |
The only moron you have to blame for going to Korea before having a job secured and not being able to find employment is yourself. |
Whatever. Moron or not, all I know is that I did it before and found a job in 6 days. I also agree with another poster on here who said people should keep their mouths shut about teaching in Korea. Too many people have gone and blabbered to everyone, even to strangers, that they should come to Korea. Way to give your job away folks... Like I said, I'll never do this again. Another psoter on here said he lost thousands of dollars by coming here without a job too. He said it was total lunacy. Yes, it is. Well, for sure these days it is. |
It has nothing to do with blathering. It has to do with desperation.
The real unemployment rate in America is 17 percent. That's only 8 points below the unemployment levels during the Great Depression.
The western economies are in the crapper. People are coming here in droves because there aren't many places to secure a job these days.
Try China. |
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Hornbill
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:08 am Post subject: |
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I was sent an email with 46 job openings about 10 days ago. Of course, these are obviously jobs no one in his right mind wants, as they ARE available during this manufactured crisis, despite the fact that hordes of whites have invaded Korea.
I guess I don't have to tell you that those jobs were of the brat-teaching variety. Well, 45 were. And they were all hogwans.
If you can teach brats, there are jobs open for you in Korea. But remember those jobs are open during these bad-moon days. Filling one would be akin to running into a burning theater. No one smart does that unless he's properly prepared. And then only if he HAS to. And I don't have to. |
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princess
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: soul of Asia
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:23 am Post subject: |
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Hornbill, I think you are right. That's all I have been offered...bottom of the barrel crap jobs and I didn't want to bother with them. I didn't spend thousands of dollars to come here and take the first bad thing I could find as soon as I stepped off the plane. I could sit at my Mom and Dad's house and get some recruiter to send me to a bad place like ECC with roommates. Or schools with no housing. I even had a recruiter try to talk me into doing 2 or 3 weeks of illegal work, and later, she said she would set me up with a legal hagwon job. When I refused to "help" her by doing illegal work, she stopped talking to me about the other job.
I just hate going back to the states with a few thousand dollars to my name. I haven't been down to peanuts in a long time. And yes, asmith, I am looking into other countries, as well as states where no one wants to go. |
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Hornbill
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 12:32 am Post subject: |
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princess wrote: |
Hornbill, I think you are right. That's all I have been offered...bottom of the barrel crap jobs and I didn't want to bother with them. I didn't spend thousands of dollars to come here and take the first bad thing I could find as soon as I stepped off the plane. I could sit at my Mom and Dad's house and get some recruiter to send me to a bad place like ECC with roommates. Or schools with no housing. I even had a recruiter try to talk me into doing 2 or 3 weeks of illegal work, and later, she said she would set me up with a legal hagwon job. When I refused to "help" her by doing illegal work, she stopped talking to me about the other job.
I just hate going back to the states with a few thousand dollars to my name. I haven't been down to peanuts in a long time. And yes, asmith, I am looking into other countries, as well as states where no one wants to go. |
I'm so sick of the BS in Korea. In all of TESOL, really. TESOL is just like all other industries--if you have the proper connections, great jobs will fall into your lap when you need them to.
And the notion of going to work for a lawbreaker after being forced to jump through the CPN hoops really burns me up.
You also have to realize that many recruiters are lazy. They aren't going to exert much effort for little ol' me or you. The jobs they offer are going to be those bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, as those are always available and constantly fall into the laps of the recruiters. Hmmm. If I'm a recruiter and I get the same commission on a job that falls in my lap that a job that I have to hunt down will pay me, I'll simply sit on my ass and let the jobs come to me. They may be crap jobs, but most teachers don't know the difference between a great job and a crap job.
Welcome to TESOL reality. You worked your ass off to get your degree and this is what you get for job prospects.
It's all about connections. Establish your network and remain in it, and you may be able to get a great job before too long. These are jobs that will be advertised via word of mouth. They definitely won't be falling into lazy reruiters' laps or be advertised here. |
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runthegauntlet

Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Location: the southlands.
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:01 pm Post subject: |
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Gibberish wrote: |
princess wrote: |
Oh my God! Don't even get me started on the crappy market! I hate the USA and Korea is quickly getting on my crap list, too. Why don't you just say adios Korea and go somewhere else? There are more places than just Korea and your native country. Everyone and their goldfish is looking for jobs in Korea now. I have Korea to thank for making me lose thousands of dollars in a job hunt. Never again...never! Oh, and three years ago, I flew here and found a GOOD school in 6 days. Not this time. |
The only moron you have to blame for going to Korea before having a job secured and not being able to find employment is yourself. |
No kidding. |
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runthegauntlet

Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Location: the southlands.
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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Hornbill wrote: |
princess wrote: |
Hornbill, I think you are right. That's all I have been offered...bottom of the barrel crap jobs and I didn't want to bother with them. I didn't spend thousands of dollars to come here and take the first bad thing I could find as soon as I stepped off the plane. I could sit at my Mom and Dad's house and get some recruiter to send me to a bad place like ECC with roommates. Or schools with no housing. I even had a recruiter try to talk me into doing 2 or 3 weeks of illegal work, and later, she said she would set me up with a legal hagwon job. When I refused to "help" her by doing illegal work, she stopped talking to me about the other job.
I just hate going back to the states with a few thousand dollars to my name. I haven't been down to peanuts in a long time. And yes, asmith, I am looking into other countries, as well as states where no one wants to go. |
I'm so sick of the BS in Korea. In all of TESOL, really. TESOL is just like all other industries--if you have the proper connections, great jobs will fall into your lap when you need them to.
And the notion of going to work for a lawbreaker after being forced to jump through the CPN hoops really burns me up.
You also have to realize that many recruiters are lazy. They aren't going to exert much effort for little ol' me or you. The jobs they offer are going to be those bottom-of-the-barrel jobs, as those are always available and constantly fall into the laps of the recruiters. Hmmm. If I'm a recruiter and I get the same commission on a job that falls in my lap that a job that I have to hunt down will pay me, I'll simply sit on my ass and let the jobs come to me. They may be crap jobs, but most teachers don't know the difference between a great job and a crap job.
Welcome to TESOL reality. You worked your ass off to get your degree and this is what you get for job prospects.
It's all about connections. Establish your network and remain in it, and you may be able to get a great job before too long. These are jobs that will be advertised via word of mouth. They definitely won't be falling into lazy reruiters' laps or be advertised here. |
I find it a bit ironic that you're lamenting about lazy recruiters while using said recruiters to find a job because you're too lazy to find one yourself.
And you worked your ass off to get a degree so you could teach in Korea?! Huh. Bit of a fail already on your part, eh? |
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DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP
Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Electron cloud
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Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2009 11:57 pm Post subject: |
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If you treat getting a job as a job then you'll land a decent job.
Gone are the days of just emailing a few recrutiers or posting a job wanted add on worknplay and prime jobs falling into your lap. Koreans are wising up....
There are more candidates now and you now need to put effort in and make call backs and chase up interviews rather than just doing nothing at all like we did a few years back.
Get your resume up to shape, go to interviews clean and well dressed and ready to answer all and any questions and really sell yourself. Chase up recrutiers you've had no reply or only confusing / luke warm replies from. Make them see that you are serious and you really want the job, just like you would back home and you'll be fine.
I've never been out of work for more then 2.5 weeks here since 2003 because I make getting a new job a job itself and am relentless until I land a new gig.
Jobs in Japan and Taiwan are drying up enormously though.... |
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Hornbill
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
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Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:28 am Post subject: |
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runthegauntlet wrote: |
I find it a bit ironic that you're lamenting about lazy recruiters while using said recruiters to find a job because you're too lazy to find one yourself.
And you worked your ass off to get a degree so you could teach in Korea?! Huh. Bit of a fail already on your part, eh? |
How's this for irony: I may become a...a....a....recruiter. Why not? |
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Forward Observer

Joined: 13 Jan 2009 Location: FOB Gloria
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Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2009 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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I was just watching ABC news on podcast. 10-02-2009
"disappointing news on the economy today, fresh evidence that a rapid recovery from the recession, is unlikely. The dept of labor said that employers eliminated 265,000 jobs last month, 175,000 more than expected. The unemployment rate now stands at 9.8%."
I have a feeling that Asmith was correct. Who knows when things will get better. |
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