Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rolough]

Hi,

I am looking to teach English in Korea with the ASKnow program. I had my initial interview and it went well so now I need to get all of my documents in before I continue the process. Has anyone worked with them before? I've heard mostly good things but then I heard that sometimes Jason Cresswell (the leader of ASKnow) sometimes places kids in shady schools. Any thoughts or comments are appreciated. Thanks so much!

Ryan

[poppy56]

I haven't heard anything about Jason placing teachers in shady schools (it doesn't mean it's not true) but I've used AskNow. I'm going in february to teach at a public school with EPIK and AskNow helped me with the application and walked me through the process. I was very pleased with their service. I found Jason to be very helpful and quick to answer emails and questions. I would recommend them but I've also never used them to secure a hagwon job so that experience might be different.

[Tumtum]

I arrived in Korea about a month ago after working with ASK NOW. I had actually worked with a few recruiters and during the job search I liked ASK NOW the best. The schools that they found for me always seemed really good and so far I'm quite pleased with the job I ended up taking. My only complaint is that they seemed to forget about me when I was actually getting ready to get on the airplane. They never sent me an "emergency contact" in case I had trouble at the airport. (They said they would.) BUT that was also right at Christmas, so that could be the explanation. Overall I would recommend working with them. I don't think that the schools you'll be offered by ASK NOW will be any shadier than other recruiters.

[GTG09]

Overall ASKNow is a good recruiter. I worked with them for a while but didn't get my current postion through them. I gathered all my documents as requested and gave them an idea of where I was looking to be placed.

The first offer I saw from them was 3 months after I had my stuff and it was simply and EPIK application which anyone can do on their own. I assume they just submit it for you with their company name in the referall section to get paid.

I liked Jason and the others that worked there, but they continually gave me offers that were extremely different then what I was looking for. I got an SLP offer with shared housing on the opposite side of the country I wanted.

After that offer I went to the job section here and within a few days of sending my resume I had 10 interviews with schools in the area I wanted to work in.

ASKNow had all my documents in their Korean office because I accepted a job that was later kept by the current foreign teacher there. Luckily they quickly sent my documents to another recruiter without a problem.

They are definitely trustworthy and quick to respond to questions. However in my case I didn't find that they were as concerned with where you wanted to go as much as just placing you somewhere to get paid.

This was my experience with them and can only talk to that.

[tokkibunni8]

Getting a "good" school is a luck of draw. What newbies don't know about the public school system here is that all staffs (teachers, principals, vice principals) are required to rotate school every so often. Therefore, a "good" school the year before can be a horrible school the following year with the change of staffs and vice versa.

Rotations happened at the start of the school year, so if you're coming in right about now, what you hear about your school can be totally different come March!

Oh yeah, haven't heard anything bad about Jason nor Ask Now.

[maingman]

Tumtum wrote :

I had actually worked with a few recruiters and during the job search I liked ASK NOW the best. The schools that they found for me always seemed really good and so far I'm quite pleased with the job

[WormBones]

AskNow should put a disclaimer at the top of their page that reads:

"Public School placement in Gyeonggi Province"

They're a good company from what I have heard. I was also working directly with Jason for a short time and was quick to respond and his e-mails were personal and in his native Canadian tongue, which was a plus. Their website is also a wealth of resources. I recommend it even if you don't find a school through them. The sound clips and video actually helped me tremendously when I was rounding up my visa docs a few weeks ago.

Then again, from personal experience I wasn't too pleased with their initial phone interviewing process (you have to talk to an AskNow rep in Australia). Mine was delayed 2 weeks due to "trouble finding wireless internet". When they finally contacted me, I was told that if I was looking for a position in Seoul that AskNow couldn't help me. (Having specified Seoul when setting up the phone interview I was obviously irked, but this kind of miscommunication happens, which is why you work with tons of recruiters).

In summary, it seems that they are focusing on working with the public school programs right now, especially GEPIK (Gyeonggi Province around Seoul). If this is what you want, then go for it, but you might have to wait until the August placement at this point. I can't recommend them for finding a Hagwon position right now, especially not in Seoul.

Hope this helps!

[banjois]

They seem super informative (too much so for this guy), but yeah, expect to wait. After promising to call within 3 days, I didn't hear back from them until I'd already found a job with another recruiter. And they gave me the old "forget Seoul, buddy" business.