Korean Job Discussion Forums

[charger]

... for someone with a BBA who doesn't necessarily want to be a teacher when he returns. I'm fed up working retail and I am ready to leave Canada and become an ESL teacher, but I know that teaching isn't something I want to do for life. If anything, going to Korea is about experiencing and working in a foreign culture, the fact that I am paid half decently is a nice benefit.

My dilemma is whether having a year or two of teaching in Korea is really going to get me any further ahead once I get back. It is debatable whether working at Future Shop in the interim and looking for a real job is any better though.

I am hoping that some people who have taught in Korea and came back and found that their teaching experience in Korea has helped them land non-teaching jobs back home.

[withgusto]

I think any work experience abroad is good experience and is noticed by employers.

"the fact that I am paid half decently is a nice benefit. "

Not paid decently. But, cost of living and saving potential is decent.

[frankly speaking]

One year isn't going to make a difference. Unrelated job experience doesn't benefit anyone. If you can somehow relate your teaching experience and life abroad to a job that you want when you return, then it won't hurt.

So many people have said for years how working abroad looks good on one's resume. I really don't think that it does at all. It might give you something to talk about and might look like you are interesting, but from a managerial point of view it could be read to show that you are transient and not going to stick to a career goal.

FYI if you are teaching in Korea it is EFL. I know that this is Dave's ESL, but there is a difference in approach.

If you have a career goal, I wouldn't waste my time doing something unrelated, even if it did give me a slightly better salary.

[ttompatz]

Working abroad is a definite plus (especially if you managed it for a few years) - it shows that you are adaptable, can think on your feet and can deal with unexpected problems.

When you return to the real world, with your BBA and no intention of going farther (MBA)) then you can look at things like corporate trainer, HRM, or international business / marketing (assuming you managed to pick up the language as well as some culture).

CAVEAT: IF you stay too long you will get too far out of touch with your major and it will require that you spend some time ( up to a year taking a business upgrade courses) to get back into the swing of things.

This time also gives you a chance to start networking again and make contacts in the business world so you don't end up as "mid management" at future shop.

Consulting is another option if you are inclined to be entrepreneurial.

.

[frankly speaking]

Ttompatz"Working abroad is a definite plus (especially if you managed it for a few years) - it shows that you are adaptable, can think on your feet and can deal with unexpected problems. "

Really?

I rarely disagree with Tom, he is quite on spot, but this time I think he missed the mark.

Have you actually tried to get back into your original field (if it wasn't EFL) back in your home country after a few years abroad?

I will tell you for a fact, it is very hard to get back into something that you haven't done for a few years. They don't care how you managed to eat kim chi for 2 years or how you can adapt to living at different cultures.

Managers want to know that you are dependable and will stay with their company, not run off to a foreign nation when the economy is poor.

[Depths of My Soul]

[ttompatz]

[cubanlord]

[cedarseoul]

My wife and I are planning to return to Seoul this summer because we miss living in Korea / teaching ESL. We're BA-holders, mid-20s...we didn't have particular passions at university, and at this point we find int'l ESL more appealing than most of the obvious alternatives in the States. (I contemplated law school, but I'm not sure it's right for me.)

That said...

We actually did quite well when we came back to the States last fall, and I attribute that largely to our int'l experience. There's nothing exceptional about our resumes aside from our work in Korea; we both did very well in school, but that doesn't seem to mean much these days. And our pre-Korea experience--internships, p/t jobs, extracurriculars--was pretty standard.

Nevertheless, in a tough economy, we both had multiple offers. My wife found a paralegal job at a large downtown firm in a matter of weeks, making a very decent salary...and I turned down several offers before landing on a kind of management/IT position at an online language institute. My international carreer was also a boon to my law school apps; I received some substantial scholarships due explicitly in part to my global experience.

I don't say all this to boast; like I said, I really *can't* take credit for these experiences. I'm not an exceptional applicant: I didn't go to Harvard, I never interned for a major company, my degree is pretty generic. But at least in my experience, employers are genuinely interested in folks who have demonstrated that they can adapt efficiently, absorb quickly, communicate effectively, and flourish in an environment that is sometimes uncomfortable.

Maybe this won't be true for everyone...but I think that, with some careful attention to the way you present it, your ESL experience could be very beneficial as a bargaining chip for future opportunity.

[kinerry]

Any continual work experience when everyone else is unemployed looks good

You just have to find a way to make it relevant to the positions you are applying for...that or just start a business and stop being a wage slave

[Sody]

[frankly speaking]

"We actually did quite well when we came back to the States last fall, and I attribute that largely to our int'l experience."

If in your interview the majority of the questions were about your year in Korea, then yes it was a factor. However in my experience getting back into my field in the US after a few years abroad doing ESL were not as optimistic.

Interviewer: "I see that you lived in Korea for a few years"
Me: Yes, it was a wonderful experience.
Inter: Can you speak Korean?
Me: NO not really.
Interview: What kind of skills did you learn that apply to integrated mathematics?
Me: I taught phonics to 8 year olds
Interviewer: thanks for your time.

Of course, I am making this up, but my point is that unrelated work experience isn't going to help anyone.

Cedar soul: Sorry but a paralegal job is entry level.

For those of us who have had careers and took time off to teach in Korea, will find it very hard to account for that time.

Working abroad is an interesting conversation piece but EFL in Korea isn't applicable for most jobs in your home country.

[Hotpants]

I had 6 years of TEFL experience following uni, and no previous work experience in my home country (UK).

When I returned to the UK, it was REALLY tough to find a job. I got a few interviews, but a couple of the interviewers even admitted that they didn't know how I would fit in with my teaching background, and thus passed me over for other candidates. It took me about 4 months just to get anything, and then by an absolute fluke of a chance, I got a post as an administrator in a language school, which has allowed me to build up knowledge of the business accumen side of the TEFL industry.

Overall, my TEFL experience counted for zilch if I wanted to find a job in anything non-TEFL related. As for TEFL-related, there are only 3 EFL schools in my hometown, all full with TEFL teachers applying to work there, and with no European teaching experience (Europe is hot on Cambridge exam teaching experience - Cambridge exams are non-existent in Korea) I couldn't get a look in. Likewise, there are a couple of big EFL publishing companies in the UK which would be good to work for, but the competition of EFL teachers coming back from overseas applying for their few posts is immense.

One of the above posters refers to getting offers for working in online TEFL companies. I think it therefore really depends on what type of job market you have in your region at home as to your chances of finding work after teaching. My hometown doesn't have such online TEFL companies located there, and the majority of work is call-centre or office/financial services based, so with a TEFL background, my experience is a non-starter. One company I interviewed with asked me if I had a certificate to back up the claim I could type! Pathetic, as I could touch-type by the age of 12, and have a typing speed of 50wpm!

I would definitely agree that you absolutely need to get other skills and experience while teaching out here. Some options might include: gain an MA, learn Korean, try to get into editing and publishing (lots of grads need their PhD theses checked), do some voluntary work, take cooking/music/yoga/anything classes, try even to set up your own small scale business venture out here, develop IT skills, and network as much as you can (there are lots of Koreans here who have contacts in overseas countries that have large Korean populations, such as in the States, and who knows, they might be able to help you when you go back home).

Overall, if you are from the UK in particular, Korean teaching experience counts for very little if you return home to work. (I've also never seen a single job advertised in the UK that requires knowledge of the Korean language). If you do plan to teach abroad, either just do it for 1 or 2 years, or do it for the rest of your life.

[ttompatz]

[Hotpants]

However, you've got to assume your resume gets accepted for interview stage in the first place for you to be able to do your spin spiel.