Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Riker]

Last year I was in frenzy to apply for medical school, until my mother became ill with terminal cancer. I cared for her from day one until she passed away 3 months later. RIP Mom. Now this has left me unemployed and with 0 dollars in my savings. I can't find any work here. I have decided to go to Korea to work and study for my MCAT for 1 year. My paper work should finally be done in about 3-4 weeks ( FBI CBC, Apostille, and so on).


So, my real question is, how hard would it be to pay off a student loan of 8,000 dollars and have enough money to live at the same time? Also, does anybody know a good place to work?

[creeper1]

[quote="Riker"] I have decided to go to Korea to work and study for my MCAT for 1 year. My paper work should finally be done in about 3-4 weeks ( FBI CBC, Apostille, and so on).

quote]

I don't know what a MCAT is. Contracts here are for one year. Savings potential is easily a thousand dollars a month. You also get 2 thousand more when you leave (severance).

Start up costs are only your documents apostilization etc. Flights in and out paid for by employer.

Welcome aboard and hope you get over your mothers death.

[Riker]

Creeper1, thank you. I saw many ads where the plane ticket is bought up front. Assuming this, how much would I need as a minimum to survive until my first paycheck?

[tanklor1]

[Riker]

Before I moved in with my dad, I was living on a 40 dollars a week food budget. Yea, I was that poor. I was living on eggs, rice, bread, and water for a bit.


Is there anything you can do Legally for extra cash there?

[Ramen]

[Riker]

Man, your not kidding. Watching what happened to my mother, and my financial situation has given me a profound lesson. I appreciate all the small things in life.


Fortunately I've never had an interest in drugs or alcohol. I think that helped me greatly in dealing with my depression. I was really close to my mother. I'm also glad to be back with my dad. My mom and dad were married close to 40 years.


Never take anything for granted. My mother was perfectly healthy and a nonsmoker and diagnosed with Lung cancer. She passed away 3 months after her first symptoms.

Thanks for hanging out with me guys. Sorry to be bummer.

[ttompatz]

[Riker]

Yea, not having an exit plan is scary to me. I guess if things get desperate I could have my dad wire money.

I'm currently looking for any work. Even a minimum wage job will get me about 1000 dollars by the time I leave.

Thanks for all the advice guys. I don't know what I would do without this community. Thanks you guys. Its amazing how nice the esl community is compared to the cut-throat, top of class at all costs pre-med crowd.

[RedKristin]

[Riker]

By after school lessons, you mean overtime? or private lessons?

I am really hoping to find a job with lots of overtime, as I've read private tutoring is a illegal.

[ttompatz]

[ESL Milk "Everyday]

Sorry about your mother, Riker.

If you hurry, you might be able to catch a public school job... they're almost always better than hagwons. If you want, I can put you in touch with the recruiters who helped me... they were really good, and there were a lot of people who hadn't worked in Korea before at my orientation... just PM me.

[Riker]

Thanks for the suggestions.

The only problem is I am still waiting for my FBI check. It was received on December 1st, so its been about 6 weeks

Should I apply even though I am still waiting for that?


( ESL MILK - I tried to PM but it says I don't have 25 posts yet ! )

[jrwhite82]

Wow, sorry about your mother. That is really sad. I will pray for you and your family. My condolences.

Korea can be a great place for a fresh start on life. You will need at least 500,000W probably to survive your first month. But like Tom said you won't have a way to get home if you really need to. But I mean, you have a credit card right? Visa works here if you really need it in a pinch.

At 8000 in students loans you should be making payments of what, aroud $200 a month worst case scenario? That will not be bad at all. What you'll want to do is probably the first month, send just enough to cover the payment and the wire fee. And keep the rest of your first month payment as a backup reserve here in Korea. Then send back a bigger chunk to your home bank account to cover the paymetns for a logner time. That way you won't have to keep paying those wire fees so often. You should EASILY be able to pay off your whole loan in a year here. Especially with your experience living frugually.

The one thing I hope you are aware of if that you can feel very isolated here. There really isn't much of a support network for you when you first get here because you won't know anyone to lean on when you experience culture shock or as you continue through your grief process. It could be really stressful. So you will want to mentally prepare yourself for it before you get here.

Best of luck.