Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Vanish]

I will have my Masters degree in history next year and my friend who is currently teaching in korea is telling me I could be a professor at a university teaching English. Is this true? Does it not matter that my degree isn't in English or education?

[air76]

Yes, it is true.

However, you will probably not be able to line up a job at a university from overseas. You will most likely have to work here for a year at public school or a language academy and then apply to universities for the next year. For one thing you generally need to interview in person for university jobs, and another thing, most schools will require SOME experience.

You can often get a uni job after 1 year of teaching whether you've got a Masters or not, but with a Masters you'll be pretty much guaranteed that you will find a school to hire you with even minimal teaching experience.

Koreans are crazy for titles...a lot, not all, but a lot of schools would prefer a Masters holder (in anything) with 1 year of experience over a teacher without one who has 5-6 years experience.

It is very important that you get a job that finishes either at the end of August or the end of February. 95% of all uni jobs start either March 1st or Aug. 30th, so it's easier for you to change jobs if your contract ends at the same time the university jobs start....but you can also have a contract that ends say in December and then work month-to-month until the end of February....March 1st is the official beginning of the academic calendar, so the best time to apply for university jobs is in October and November.