Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Chet Wautlands]

Hey all!

I recently started a thread about the value of my MA TESOL that I'm completing online from an American university. There were mixed reviews, but the general consensus was that it would help me out here in Korea.

I took a stroll through a very nice part of Seoul yesterday and realized that if I ever want to be living "the good life" I need to start making my moves today.

Right now I'm doing my MA TESOL online and then I plan to go teach in a Korean university. What are you doing to make sure you have a great future? Recommendations? Regrets?

Are you learning languages? Studying a particular subject? Buy real-estate? Stocks? Savings?


What moves would you recommend to open doors in the future? What do you think is just a waste of time?

Best answer gets five points... go!

[RMNC]

Basically doing the exact same thing you are, with the same end goals. Gotta start somewhere!

[Cedar]

more than half done with my Ph.D. field research, will return to the US to do my last year of residency next year. That Ph.D. is my move! but within that move, this month I am submitting two articles for publication, I have an app due tomorrow and another on Friday for opportunities which will make me more attractive as a future employee, etc.

[Chet Wautlands]

[Chet Wautlands]

[UknowsI]

[Cedar]

Actually publishing too early has a lot of pitfalls. As an MA it's highly advised in my general field to only be a second-author or publish in graduate student publications (not listed journals). I was told repeatedly by all my advisors to hold off until my Ph.D. was nearing completion (but told that by the time I hit the job market I should have 2-3 publications -pending publications is perfectly fine). Why? Because tenure depends on your output. If I publish all my cool stuff now I may not have a bunch of cool stuff to publish to make the clock from tenure track to tenure tick by faster. Each thing I publish now is something that I am robbing my future tenure-track self of. Once it's published many other journals won't want it unless you've seriously rewritten it and it's basically a new article on the same subject. Also what if my future research uncovers something new and I realize that something I've already published is totally crap? I'm glad I didn't publish too early, because the sophistication of my arguments and the essential conclusions I'm making have definitely improved. I don't want my name out there on something I can't be totally proud of. So very carefully and strategically chosen publications in SSI listed journals at this stage is correct, but I won't be going off the deep end- I'll have 1 review and 2 articles published or pending when I apply for jobs. This will allow me to in interviews talk about the multiple papers that I will be publishing after I'm hired, not to mention the book...

[Cedar]

Perhaps I should clarify that I have over two dozen conference presentations, the vast majority at major conferences, not graduate student conferences. And a list of over a dozen invited talks. This kind of thing is also really important. Submitting for conferences as an MA should be your move long before publishing.

[UknowsI]

Thanks for the input Cedar. You brought up some good points I hadn't thought about. I still think it's a good habit to start preparing and reading papers, but you might be careful when it comes to submitting your work. As Cedar have done, I think it's a good idea to get some experience from conference presentations. My advice was basically to get used to academic research as soon as possible. I hardly knew anything about about the process of conferences and journals before I started my PhD, and I wish I had been more active with this during my Masters. It makes it much easier to motivate yourself to do research and it also makes it easier for you to chose which direction to focus your research.