Korean Job Discussion Forums

[nstick13]

My girlfriend and I applied to EPIK through a recruiter who has been very helpful. We had a successful interview and sent all of our documents, and were awaiting our NOA. We knew we may not get one of our preferences, and were told we'd be e-mailed if we didn't get one of our top 5.

This morning we got up to find an e-mail from our recruiter saying that we didn't get one of our top 5 preferences, but that we'd been placed in Gyeonggi-Do. We looked back at the application, and that wasn't even an option, and I had always thought that Gyeonggi-Do had it's own version of EPIK, and recruited separately from EPIK. We e-mailed back, but he's out until the 28th for the holiday.

In the mean time, does anyone have any thoughts on this?

Cheers!
NSS

[Bucky]

Sounds eerily like what happened to me. I applied for Incheon, Busan and Daegu, but ended up in Seoul instead. (Not a bad deal, since my top choice was Incheon due to its proximity to Seoul.) Maybe it's a repeat of that.

[HunterORL23]

I applied for EPIK as well thinking that Gyeonggi was not a choice. I was offered a position in Gangwon and sent in my documents back in November. My recruiter told me a few days ago that there might not be any positions available in Gangwon and to fill out two forms and send them via fedex using their account number to secure one of the 20 positions being opened in Gyeonggi by EPIK. I did as I was told and I am awaiting a response. Still havent received any word on my NOA.

Did you guys have to send in additional documents via mail to "secure" that you will be getting one of these scarce positions opening in Gyeonggi?

[nstick13]

Hunter:
We have not been informed of that yet. What were the documents?

Our recruiter didn't mention any additional documents in the e-mail about the positions, and as I said is not around again until the 28th. If it's that important to get them in, I'll be upset if we miss out by not getting the additional documents in on time.

Do you have a CELTA or TEFL?

[Raquel82]

[antoniothegreat]

it is simple, recruiters get paid by schools to place you at their school.

so you want to go to location X. the recruiter has offers from locations ABC and D. they email you and say you cannot go to X. you sign on for location C. recruiter gets paid. you get stiffed. contact a new recruiter...

[HunterORL23]

[nstick13]

Got things squared away with our recruiter in the past day.

GEPIK gave EPIK 20 positions. These positions are officially with GEPIK, on the GEPIK pay scale, etc. hence why the additional GEPIK documents are needed. A hassle, to say the least.

Also, sending the documents does not guarantee a job (this was my girlfriend and mine's main point). For us, our recruiter said that EPIK was more inclined to have us in Chungbuk or another province I can't recall off the top of my head because being close in proximity was more important to us is more important. Also, they weren't sure if the Gyeonggi-Do locations were suburban Seoul or more rural in the province.

It's a frustrating twist, and also frustrating to find out that we're ruled out of 4 of our 5 preferences (and another, now with Gyeonngi-Do). We just want a NOA and contract so we can make sure our visa gets done here in Cairo and book our flight.

[HunterORL23]

I got an e-mail yesterday from my recruiter saying that she received my additional documents that I sent in for one of the 20 GEPIK jobs available. She said EPIK has confirmed that I have secures one of those 20 positions. Now I just have to wait on my NOA and contract.

[jmuns]