Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Jessiegirl]

Okay, here is your chance to brag and compare. We hear about great university jobs, but I wonder who has a great deal. You don't have to say the name of the university you work at, but I would like to know how many hours you work a week, number of weeks for vacation and the salary. I would like only those who teach in Seoul to answer. I know there are great deals outside of Seoul, but it would be nice to hear the sweet deals you have in the city.


So far, the best one I heard has 12 hours a week, fulll vacation and 3.3 a month (this does not include housing). I won't say the name of the school, but it's in a great location. Can anyone top this one?

[PatrickGHBusan]

Nice idea jessie but considering how people who post about their good jobs get treated here, you might get very few responses.

Also, and this is my suggestion, you should not limit yourself to Seoul as there are excellent university jobs in other cities (not talking about small towns here)....

I worked for a university in Busan and my pay and conditions were a little better than what you outlined above. The job included a housing allowance if one took a housing contract. The vacation amounted to about 3-4 months per year depending on what you wanted. The university offered chances to take professional development classes (paid for), offered free Korean classes to all its foreign staff if they wanted. Foreign staff were also encouraged to get involved in other actitivies like hiring committees, conferences and so on.


Also note that a good university position comes with the required demands of higher qualifications and experience...

Good luck with the thread.

[Jessiegirl]

HI Patrick!

Thank you for your input and encouragement. I have read many of your posted comments and I think you do a great job informing newbies about opportunities and general life in Korea. I know you get attacked quite a bit by those who do not appreciate what you are doing, but there are many out there who applaud your efforts.

Keep it up!

[frankly speaking]

I for one have never had one of those great uni gigs. The middle ranked Unis that I worked for payed 2.2 (8 years ago, so the pay is probably higher compared to today) 3-4 classes a semester but a lot of editing work.

I have met too many that claim to get great hours and pay, but when I have interviewed for those same Unis, they didn't offer the same great conditions I was told about. Vacation time often had overtime summer camps and things attached that were spread out. So you couldn't just leave the country for 2-3 months. The best I could ever do was about 3 weeks holiday in a row. 2.8-3 million is on par with some offers but when housing isn't included it is the same as 2.3-2.5 that Hagwons often pay.

12 hours in the classroom isn't necessarily 12 hours of work. Grading can be time consuming if you teach writing courses. Especially if you really edit student's work and build their common repeating mistakes into your lessons.

Personally, I gave up University teaching in Korea. I have found that Universities in other countries are typically better jobs. Not as good pay, but the respect and ease of work relationships was slightly better. In Korea I am the rare person that actually prefers Hagwons. A good Hagwon can pay quite well and give a lot to a qualified person. If a Hagwon has a good academic director, not just a business person, they take care of you quite well.

I too will give a little praise to Patrick. The only people on this board that give him grief are the ones that are jealous or petty. He might come off as a know it all, but he is genuine. And he definitely isn't as harsh as I am. I think the other thing is that many think he is Kyopo and that pisses off the racist "whites only club".

[seonsengnimble]

I'm going to respond even though my school technically isn't in Seoul. It's about one subway stop away.

I teach 15 hours/week, make 3.0(no housing though) and have the standard four months vacation.

I'm pretty happy. Of course, there are things to consider like the week or two at the end of the semesters where you sort of have to stick around for the grade appeals periods and there is prep time. Although the grading and prep takes a bit of work, I only have to actually prepare two classes per week since most of the teachers at our school just teach one level per semester, and after all the paper work is finished, there is no way I average more than an additional 10 hours(this is being very generous) at the school.

[Jessiegirl]

Thank you for responding and giving others a picture of the uni scene.

This comment is for "frankly speaking". I regret posting my past nasty comment to you. I reacted based on my emotions and I should have taken a few deep breaths and counted to 10 before I posted. I shocked myself after I re-read my post; I was mean and I apologize.

[Bibbitybop]

This is a semester old, so a few things have changed:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rUN_Xc0l8QrY1VXAK8cgZdg

[Jessiegirl]

Thanks for all the information:) It's great to see the number of teaching hours and vacation time. I noticed some schools didn't have have anything written for vacation time. Does this mean they don't get a vacation?

[El Macho]

[PatrickGHBusan]

[makemischief]