Korean Job Discussion Forums

df1983 · Joined: 15 Aug 2009 Location: Pyongtaek, Korea

Why are SMOE and Epik already actively hiring but Gepik hasn't released any positions yet? I really want to get into public schools in Gyeonggido but everyone keeps saying it will be the end of November before any positions are announced. I was also told that Gepik will let the schools go directly through recruiters for their positions rather than have a centralized application process such as Epik. This means you will know where your school is located before coming... right? Does anyone know anything about this?

thelad · Joined: 11 Oct 2008

I was wondering the same thing!

WTF, i`ve been waiting ages for the details to come out!
Ive been looking for a positon in Ilsan for the last 3 months after finishing my last hagwon contract. Really hope I get back there.

Any info from anyone else????

cruisemonkey · Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2009 7:23 am Post subject:

GEPIK will start to hire for March (2) when they figure out how to have the FT owe them money for teaching compusory overtime classes.

daddy daycare · Joined: 15 Apr 2008

Gepik positions open 25 th November, or so my recruiter told me ...

So let's wait and see

DWAEJIMORIGUKBAP · Joined: 28 May 2009 Location: Electron cloud

Yeah GEPIK is prety much all taken up by recruiters now.

One explained it to me that each recruiter depending on size and influence in each city / district get allocated, like a loterry, a certain number of Elem school positions. They are 100% in charge of the interviewing and hiring process and most schools won't even bother having their staff (Korean English teacher or Vice Princiapl etc) speak or interview the prospective teacher during the hiring period. It's all the recruiter.

I was worried over some document or something and was like 'what if they decide togo with someone esle?' She told me (the recruiter) 'Don;t worry, it's up to me, if I put you forward for the position, the job is yours, 100%.' Was true.

df1983 · Joined: 15 Aug 2009 Location: Pyongtaek, Korea

cruisemonkey · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 12:15 am Post subject:

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

Yes I am a recruiter. But here is what you may want to know for GEPIk this year.

1. You should be in contact with EVERY recruiter who deals with GEPIK.
2. Be careful with submitting your stuff to GEPIK Head office
3. Positions open end of November
4. No one knows what is going on.

1. As far as we know ( refer to #4 ) GEPIK are trying to decentralise their recruiting. They have put into place a system where schools must individually contact the contracted recruiters to find a teacher. So a school will call 1 or more recruiters asking for ( usually ) a Nth American blonde californian female with well endowed assets and who loves children and is willing to bend over backwards to please the Korean co workers.
The recruiter must send the school any resumes that fit this description.
Schools will have their known recruiters. Some may call only 1..some may call several. This means that some recruiters will have the same jobs, some may have many more than other companies, some will have much less.
Tell your recruiter that you are in touch with all other recruiters and you are only wanting to apply for locations suited to you.
If you have specific requirements for a placement, do not rely on one recruiter to match those. Have a few different companies working for you.
Simply send your resume and your photo to each of the bigger GEPIk companies and let them know your age group and location preferences. State very clearly that you wish only to be put up for jobs that match your preferences.
If other companies are like us, they would be sending out info to schools asking for them to call their office and take teachers through them.
Schools have their favourite recruiters but many have no idea and could care less who the recruiter is. Pot luck really who gets all the jobs.
I'd say it would be between us ( ESL-PLANET ) , Footprints, Korvia, WnP, ASK NOW, Korean Connections.

2. If you are registered with GEPIK Head Office, they will place you in whichever school they want. You will have little choice as to where you go. We are assuming ( refer to #4 ) that GEPIK Head office has about 50 positions that they will fill. Most of these ( refer to #4 ) will probably be rural areas. If you are offered a job by GEPIK Head office and you reject it, you may well be blackballed. If you are going to go through GEPIK Head office, you should be very clear with your location and age preferences. You can tell your recruiter that you would prefer to have interviews with the individual schools that call their office wanting a teacher like you rather than going through Head office.
If you are flexible, going through Head office will be fine.
Make sure that you only go through ONE recruiter to be registered with GEPIK head Office. If you go through more than one, GEPIK may blackball you.

3. We heard from GEPIk ( refer to #4 ) that positions will be opened on Nov 30. But these are ( refer to #4 ) only the Head office positions. Schools may call companies at any time and hopefully they will start doing that soon. Just have your visa docs ready to submit. So when the interviews start coming in, you can send your docs over in a hurry and snap up the job you want before someone else does. Don't send your docs to any recruiter before you get an interview.

4. With GEPIk it is hard to know what is really going on. The staff there work hard and Dain is great. She is a bit of a "one man show" trying to do too much with little support. She works around the clock and is professional in her dealings with us at least. She is hampered by the lines of communication between GEPIk and the schools and the recruiters and the applicants and simply has too much to deal with. It does all get sorted out in the end though. But between Nov 30 and March 1st, it will be a circus.

blonde researcher · Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2009 3:26 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the update : much appreciated and it makes more sense now what has been happening lately.

What do you think will happen to the existing teachers in the schools if the Principal and co teacher are now in control of selection and hiring?

Maybe the hard working, but competent 'older' 'uglier' or' ethnically or nationality non favored' will get told they are not being resigned for another year ? -- All in the ultimate quest for the perfect pretty Californian Blonde female new teacher ?
Popular areas like Bundang and Ilsan may end up full of young females ?????

Will this new change of hiring policy mean that South Africans, Kiwis Brits and Aussies are sidelined and not wanted ? I suspect so.

Hagwon thinking and hiring power has now moved a step further into public schools !! Recruiters will be chasing all over the place and falling over each other and offering incentives to get the jobs from schools.

Then the big question - When will the EPIK bulk hiring disappear under similar new policy and all the main cities start hiring directly like Gyeonggi?

This will be interesting to watch post November

shostahoosier · Joined: 14 Apr 2009

I always thought that the school and co-teacher chose the teacher...

df1983 · Joined: 15 Aug 2009 Location: Pyongtaek, Korea

Thanks for the info!

Aussiekimchi · Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: SYDNEY

This independent hiring started for the August/Sept intake with GEPIK.
We found that we could not get anyone an interview who was over 40 or not caucasian.
Nearly every school that contacted us wanted a Nth American female.
Interestingly too...we struggled getting level 1 teachers in. I guess schools were tightening their belts with the economy how it is and had less money to pay a foreigner.

Of course every highly qualified non caucasian 45 year old from every country outside of Nth America contacted us looking for a GEPIk job last August.
Sometimes, it just aint your day.
Really do not know what kinds of applicants are going to bed in vogue this time around.