Korean Job Discussion Forums

yangban · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:40 am Post subject: Starting date - ASAP

Why are so many people hiring on this magical date called ASAP?

Crois · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 3:44 am Post subject:

For people already in Korea i guess or on a visa run.

kangnamdragon · Joined: 17 Jan 2003 Location: Kangnam, Seoul, Korea

They wait until the last minute or a teacher ran away.

crazylemongirl · Joined: 23 Mar 2003 Location: almost there...

just because · Joined: 01 Aug 2003 Location: Changwon - 4964

ASAP:
All
Suckers
Apply
Please

paul · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Taiwan

Here's the answer: The school is either really bad, just starting out and is disorganised, or they just say that to get you interested.

Check into these so called "ASAP" jobs and most of them won't start until the beginning of the next month of longer.

sadsac · Joined: 22 Dec 2003 Location: Gwangwang

Crazylemongirl got it right, forward planning isn't a priority here. They think that hundreds of teachers will apply for their incredible jobs. Smile

FUBAR · Joined: 21 Oct 2003 Location: The Y.C.

chronicpride · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

FUBAR is the closest to the truth.

As much as people here try to paint it as a negative thing and that it's the schools fault or because the school is bad and someone ran, blah-blah, that's not true, as a general rule of thumb.

Contracts are for 12 months in length, and directors will not know 100% if their existing teacher(s) will extend or re-sign a contract until the 11th month. Sometimes teachers give their directors the heads up a few months before, but a lot can change in those final 30-45 days for the teacher and school. The teacher may opt to extend for a month or two, or negotiate for a raise and a new contract, or a teacher who has previously indicated that they are staying on for a 2nd year, but change their mind in the 11th month, to move on to another school, country, etc...This creates many legitimate last-minute hiring efforts.

I work for an association of 170 schools in Daegu and have to see their hiring practices and timing of it all, up close. Waiting to hire at the last minute and/or having to hire asap to replace runners is really not that common. This place tends to use negative excuses as a fill-in-the-blank, when they're actually not sure. Filter all advice(good or bad) here carefully.

aussie col · Joined: 31 Jan 2004

I��ve been looking for a position in Korea for the last 5 weeks. I also discovered the magic of ASAP. After a few weeks of a trickle of offers I decided to step things up a bit. Last Monday I sent out a few emails like normal and had a few responses, nothing major. That Wednesday I decided to add ��ASAP�� to everything that I sent out. My inbox filled up with contract offers and my phone still hasn��t stopped ringing.

It seems that when recruiters and schools scan potential teachers, ��ASAP�� sets a little bell ringing in their head. The funny thing is that I didn��t change the date that I want to start in Korea. I just added ��ASAP�� to draw attention to my start date.

Gollum · Joined: 04 Sep 2003 Location: Japan

yangban · Posted: Wed Apr 21, 2004 2:07 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a lot of procrastination. I Should I beware of these ASAP positions? Aussie col thanks for the tip. I will add the the four-letter "word" to my postings as well.

chronicpride · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

TJ · Joined: 10 Mar 2003

It's a fact of life that some Koreans couldn't organise a booze up in a brewery. But I guess that applies to other countries as well.

Hagwan managers seem to be particularly bad in this regard. However, there are people in all walks of life who simply can't plan ahead.

On the other hand, there are also Korean managers who will ask you 6 months in advance if you intend to sign on for another year. This happened to me and all I could say was "probably".

I had another Korean prospective employer who procrastinated and kept me waiting for 3 months and still didn't come up with a contract which I could sign. When I got fed up and signed with another employer the first employer was angry with me and accused me of letting him and his students down.

As other people have said, planning is not a big thing here.

paul · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Taiwan

A few of the larger chains will hire every three months. I witnessed this at YBM-Sisa when I worked there last year.

Every few months, the director would have new people coming through his office and he told me that he puts out the call regardless. Most of the time he is bang on the money and he'll need to fill a position, if not full time then at least he'll fit the person in until something full-time comes up.

However, that's at the larger schools with big staffs and high turnovers. These are the schools that almost always have an ad on Dave's ESL board or in the English newspapers.