Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Voodoo27]

Would "rural" be anything outside of the major cities like Seoul, Busan, Daegu etc?

I'm planning to apply to EPIK in May once I get my degree but my recruiter has told me that it is harder to get a job in thoses metro cities but easier in the rural areas? Now I know from what I've read on here that recruiters aren't always truthful so I figured I'd post and get some feedback..

Anyway, I was really just wondering if "rural" means very small population in Korea? I wouldn't really want to relocate to a population under 500,000 people.

[Bloopity Bloop]

Yes, that is what it means. A friend of mine lives in the countryside and the only Western establishment she has is a Dunkin Donuts which just opened a few weeks back. She works at a school with 60 kids and has nothing to look at but rice fields for miles and miles.

[mayorgc]

If you're a young, fun loving, skirt chasing male, then you probably don't want to hit up the boonie towns.

[Voodoo27]

Well I'd much prefer to be in a city than a rural area but from what I've read on these forums and heard from the recruiter it is growing increasingly harder to land a job in one of the metro cities right?

[NoSimpleHighway]

If you tell a recruiter that you WANT a job in the countryside they will probably wet themselves with excitement. Very few newbs would list working in a rural area as their first choice so as a result recruiters often have a difficult time filling positions there and schools take who they can get. It is much more of an employer's market now than it used to be so there is more competition for jobs in desired locations and it can take longer to get a job in the city (especially Seoul) than it used to. If you want to live in a city I would suggest using multiple recruiters and you will still get offers.

There are still plenty of jobs in the main urban areas available, but there is also more competition than there used to be. YOur best bet would be to use a few different recruiters so you can weigh your options better and choose what you like the best.

[techno_the_cat]

I worked in a village of a thousand (or so) next to a "city" of two hundred thousand for two years. The job it's self was quite good, the kids awesome, but the management horribly ignorant.
I was lucky to have a few friends (and make a few more) in the area but still managed to meet quite a few characters that worked in nearby schools. The one teacher we called "Spiderman" was without a doubt a prime candidate for Dave's freakiest waeguks thread.
All in all the good memories did out weigh the bad but there is no way I would do it again.
Techno.

[VanIslander]

[Smee]

Well, it depends person to person, and you'll want to ask your recruiter exactly what the definition of rural is.

That's because some places offer a rural allowance/bonus, though this is not always consistent. For example, most people would consider all of Jeollanam-do "rural" because it's outside of Seoul (it's not all rural, people). However, there are 22 counties and cities here but only teachers in 4 of them got rural allowances (last time I checked Wando, Jindo, Goheung, and Shinan). Reason being those four places are made up entirely or mostly of islands. I taught in Gangjin county, lived in a town of 16,000, and one of my schools had, like, 72 students, but I didn't get any rural allowances.

There are pros and cons to a rural placement---by rural I mean a place like Gangjin, not any place outside Seoul. I appreciate the time I spent there, but it was a lonely year and, believe it or not, there wasn't much opportunity to improve my Korean because there simply wasn't anyone to talk to and of course no classes available. However, I am proud to say I lived in a place few foreigners have heard of let alone seen.

Some people consider anything outside Seoul a hardship, and consider places like Suncheon---a city with two Home Pluses, movie theaters, coffee shops, and Western restaurants---the sticks. Korea is smaller than Pennsylvania, and you're never far from anywhere else. Plus, if you're the kind of person that needs two dozen Dunkin Donuts locations to survive, and measure a place's worth by the availability of imported groceries, maybe Korea's not the place for you.

So, yeah, to reiterate get the definition of rural from EPIK and your recruiter.

[DeMayonnaise]

I live in a very, very, very rural area. There are no chain stores in town (GS25, Kimbabnara, Paris Baguette...nothing). There are a few little mom and pop markets and restaurants. I live at my school in the teacher apartments. I have a few Korean friends who teach at the elementary school and we hang out sometimes. My school has 75 students who I know pretty well.

The advantages here are I have a nice after school job to go with my public school job so I save a lot of money. I don't spend any during the week obviously, since there's nothing to spend it on. I also get a lot of vacation time since my school understand how much it sucks to live here, so they let me leave whenever there's no school, and sometimes even when there is school.

So there are definitely reasons why it sucks, but also reasons why it's not so bad in the long run (money + vacation). This is my 2nd year here and I'm definitely moving closer to Seoul next year, but it's OK. I'm also content being by myself and reading/watching tv/playing video games at night...

[rgv]