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furtakk
Joined: 02 Jun 2009
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 Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 1:08 am Post subject: Coming back for a second year... |
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I have about 3 months left on my first contract and I'm starting to plan for my second year.
My current situation is this:
1.I am planning to go home for 2-3 weeks at the end of my contract, but this isn't a must if a fantastic job came up. If I do, do I need to go through the whole VISA process again or can my current Hagwon transfer the VISA over?
2. I plan on paying for my flight (if I go home). My Hagwon just gives us the value of a given ticket for our leave date and it's up to us to purchase our ticket. I figure I can snag a round trip for an extra few hundred. Can I use this as a point for negotiating a higher salary or should I just take their flight offer?
3. Should I use a recruiter or try and find employment directly? This wouldn't be as much of a problem if I was staying in my current city (as I have a few contacts at some good schools here), but I want to work in Seoul next year. Do some of the more reputable Hagwons hire directly or do most just use recruiters?
4. My apartment this year was bunk. How likely is it to receive a housing stipend and is this even a good idea? I would ideally like to find a place on my own so I could live in an area I desire (call me stupid, but I'd rather commute to work everyday) rather than being stuck near wherever my Hagwon is located.
5. How useful is TESOL? Right now I'm focusing a lot of my free time on learning Korean, but I understand this probably wouldn't give me a leg up on anyone. I have enough time before my contract is up to finish up a TESOL course. Is it worth it?
Thanks for any help/tips/suggestions! |
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lifeinkorea
Joined: 24 Jan 2009
Location: somewhere in China
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| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:38 am Post subject: |
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| I plan on paying for my flight (if I go home) |
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| My Hagwon just gives us the value of a given ticket for our leave date |
Then you aren't paying for the ticket, the hagwon is.
| Quote: |
| and it's up to us to purchase our ticket. I figure I can snag a round trip for an extra few hundred. Can I use this as a point for negotiating a higher salary or should I just take their flight offer? |
If you can get a cheaper round trip, then you should get paid more?  I don't believe the common employer, especially Korean, thinks like this. If you save the company money, then you save the COMPANY money, not you.
| Quote: |
| Should I use a recruiter or try and find employment directly? |
First decide if you want to stay or not. Don't use work elsewhere as a negotiating factor. Since you are already comparing them, then it indicates to me something (maybe you haven't told us) is making you want to not stay at your current school. With the bizarre money talk earlier, I suspect something to do with pay in the past has been a problem.
If you decide to go to another school, don't rule out recruiters. It's the luck of the draw, some schools are good and some are bad. I am in China having a real difficult time finding a school because there aren't really recruiters for individual schools. Instead, I get offers from major chain operations which work teachers like slaves. With Korea, I can at least talk to one recruiter on a regular basis and find a school. I have done this 5 times with really good success. I knew what I was getting into at least. Here in China, I am finding out the offer is changing each week. One week they will pay for me to visit them, the next I have to stay at a hotel and pay. Then the salary isn't as good as Korea. I am wishing I didn't leave Korea and worked with the recruiters I emailed in March.
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| My apartment this year was bunk. |
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| I would ideally like to find a place on my own |
I suggest you NOT do this. You need to be in a position to fork over a lot of money initially and wait it out. If you were to leave in the middle of the contract, at best you would need to find a replacement to get your money back. With your grass is greener on the other side attitude, I can only see regret if you tie your money up.
So, in that case, this is what I would do. You have time to find another school. Find another school. Do an in person interview while you are still in Korea. You have the advantage here over people like me who can't do this. We can only do phone interviews. I was asked for my photos a third time from the same recruiter. When I went in person in Korea, it was a different story.
Then, after you get a new school lined up, your current school will have to pay for your flight home. Go home, enjoy your time off for a few weeks. Your new school should be willing to pay for your flight back to Korea. If they refuse, and it is a good school with a good apartment, then it is better in my opinion to pay for the flight back than tie up 5-10 times the amount just so you can enslave yourself to some landlord. Really, I don't see the point in doing this crap unless you have moved up to F visa status. You said you could get a better deal for a round trip, so do that with the current school and just pay the difference for the way back.
In the end, you will have a new apartment, new school, new students, new experiences, and NO money tied up. Leave it to the Koreans to tie up their money. Go where you want to go, when you want, and not worry about losing your money.
Last edited by lifeinkorea on Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:49 am; edited 1 time in total |
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ttompatz
Joined: 05 Sep 2005
Location: Kwangju, South Korea
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| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 2:47 am Post subject: Re: Coming back for a second year... |
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| furtakk wrote: |
I have about 3 months left on my first contract and I'm starting to plan for my second year.
My current situation is this:
1.I am planning to go home for 2-3 weeks at the end of my contract, but this isn't a must if a fantastic job came up. If I do, do I need to go through the whole VISA process again or can my current Hagwon transfer the VISA over?
2. I plan on paying for my flight (if I go home). My Hagwon just gives us the value of a given ticket for our leave date and it's up to us to purchase our ticket. I figure I can snag a round trip for an extra few hundred. Can I use this as a point for negotiating a higher salary or should I just take their flight offer?
3. Should I use a recruiter or try and find employment directly? This wouldn't be as much of a problem if I was staying in my current city (as I have a few contacts at some good schools here), but I want to work in Seoul next year. Do some of the more reputable Hagwons hire directly or do most just use recruiters?
4. My apartment this year was bunk. How likely is it to receive a housing stipend and is this even a good idea? I would ideally like to find a place on my own so I could live in an area I desire (call me stupid, but I'd rather commute to work everyday) rather than being stuck near wherever my Hagwon is located.
5. How useful is TESOL? Right now I'm focusing a lot of my free time on learning Korean, but I understand this probably wouldn't give me a leg up on anyone. I have enough time before my contract is up to finish up a TESOL course. Is it worth it?
Thanks for any help/tips/suggestions! |
1) since the contracts are not concurrent (there is a gap between them) you will need to go through the VISA process again from scratch (with the exception of the consular interview - it will be waived).
2) The new school will only give you 1/2 the value of the return flight based on the RECEIPT not based on the ticket cost. Better to just take the flight home and, unless you plan to job search here and do a visa run, let them buy the ticket back.
3) If you have connections, go direct. IF not, use recruiterS.
4) SUP to you provided you have the key money that you are willing to put down and put at risk.
5) If you are staying in hakwons, and since you have a year under your belt, useless unless your future lies elsewhere or you are planning on a public school. |
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furtakk
Joined: 02 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2010 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| lifeinkorea wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I plan on paying for my flight (if I go home) |
| Quote: |
| My Hagwon just gives us the value of a given ticket for our leave date |
Then you aren't paying for the ticket, the hagwon is.
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I worded this poorly. I meant I plan on paying for the flight back to Korea as I would be purchasing a return ticket from and to Korea. My current Hagwon would be covering the cost of a one way ticket home and I am considering putting in an extra hundred for a return if it is worth my while.
| Quote: |
If you can get a cheaper round trip, then you should get paid more? I don't believe the common employer, especially Korean, thinks like this. If you save the company money, then you save the COMPANY money, not you.
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Again I worded this poorly and I think you understood me. I don't plan on saving my current employer money. They will give me the cash equivalent of a one way ticket home, but I plan to use that cash towards a round trip ticket if it is worth it. I.e. if my future Hagwon agrees to give me some sort of raise as they don't need to pay for my flight. Thinking about it again, this probably seems like a bit of trouble for an extra (maybe) few hundred thousand over a year.
| Quote: |
| Quote: |
| Should I use a recruiter or try and find employment directly? |
First decide if you want to stay or not. Don't use work elsewhere as a negotiating factor. Since you are already comparing them, then it indicates to me something (maybe you haven't told us) is making you want to not stay at your current school. With the bizarre money talk earlier, I suspect something to do with pay in the past has been a problem.
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Errr... I do want to stay. I thought that was made clear enough... I definitely don't want to stay at my current school for a variety of reasons, but I do want to do another year in Korea. As far as 'bizarre money talk' goes, I'm just trying to ensure that I can get paid as much as possible during my next contract. I don't really find that bizarre.
| Quote: |
If you decide to go to another school, don't rule out recruiters. It's the luck of the draw, some schools are good and some are bad. I am in China having a real difficult time finding a school because there aren't really recruiters for individual schools. Instead, I get offers from major chain operations which work teachers like slaves. With Korea, I can at least talk to one recruiter on a regular basis and find a school. I have done this 5 times with really good success. I knew what I was getting into at least. Here in China, I am finding out the offer is changing each week. One week they will pay for me to visit them, the next I have to stay at a hotel and pay. Then the salary isn't as good as Korea. I am wishing I didn't leave Korea and worked with the recruiters I emailed in March.
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Okay.
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| Quote: |
| My apartment this year was bunk. |
I suggest you NOT do this. You need to be in a position to fork over a lot of money initially and wait it out. If you were to leave in the middle of the contract, at best you would need to find a replacement to get your money back. With your grass is greener on the other side attitude, I can only see regret if you tie your money up. |
I am aware of key money and the related costs. I guess I should have elaborated more. I plan on staying in Korea for at least 2-3 more years and I would like a semi-permanent place. I have a decent chunk of savings and should be able to afford a reasonable key money fee. I was just wondering if it's worth it to try and do so with hagwon jobs. The only people I know who have done so work in public and they seem to have a standard housing stipend. I am also considering doing language intensive classes and an MA in Korea eventually so that is what is really influencing this. I wouldn't bother if I'm just planning on staying for another year. |
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