Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Captain Corea]

A post in another thread got me thinking...

The person had mentioned that after two years of being here, their network of contacts back home had dried up and it'd be tough for them to get a job. I was surprised how quickly their network could dry up like that.

Another guy I know is moving back home after 15 years of being here... and his network is all but gone as well.

For me though, I've always kept in contact with friends and family back home, and things like Facebook make that all the easier. Heck, I'd almost have to go out of my way not keep in contact with people.

So, do you bother maintaining friendships and networks and such, or is it about cutting ties and moving on?

[Cerulean]

I absolutely have kept in touch with many people back home. For me, Korea wasn't about moving on.

[rumdiary]

Until you actually move back it's really hard to know just how strong your relationships are with the people back home. I tried very hard to keep close ties with my friends back home. I used Face book, Skype, made phone calls and sent emails, Christmas cards and gifts at holidays and birthdays.

But none of that can really make up for three years of missed bbqs, weddings, parties, births and holidays. I would say it was pretty easy to catch up with my family. Much harder with my friends. Most of my work ties were gone when I got back. People had switched jobs and positions and found new people use for freelance work. When I tried to network with my friends to find work many of them were reluctant. I couldn't really blame them since I had been gone so long and they had new friends who needed jobs.

If you think you can just show up back home and things will be the same you're kidding yourself.

[rumdiary]

[Weigookin74]

Um, facebook? Luckily for me, it went mainstream in 07 just as I was packing up and coming to Korea. When I started connecting and reconnecting with people, I've been here ever since.

[silkhighway]

You have to distinguish between family and friends, and professional contacts. In my case, family is family for all our faults and weaknesses. Friends come and go, but the core of my friends have remained from as far back as high school and university.

Professional contacts are another matter. People think hiring based on "who you know" is about nepotism -- sometimes it is -- but it's also about trust. Capitalizing on your professional contacts is usually about being in the right place at the right time. Simple example, you're supply-teaching and have a good relationship with some teachers. A principal of a school is trying to fill a position, someone namedrops your name, and you've at least got an interview. But if you're not there, some other teacher is.

[rumdiary]

[Gimbap Lover]

Nope. For people like me, as soon as I got on the plane, all those former "friends" were dead to me.

[Captain Corea]

[Draz]

I didn't have any contacts back home. My family is useless for that kind of thing. I know wherever I go, I will be completely on my own.

[earthquakez]

Nice to meet you Draz - meaning I understand you! I come from a family in a working class to poor section of London where I was the second to go to university (oldest sister was the first) and that's the only higher ed representation in my family!

That doesn't mean my family aren't intelligent because they've got lots of interests and knowledge that's on par with the people I went to university with who come from the Brit middle class (in the UK believe it or not doctors and lawyers call themselves middle class whereas in countries like NZ and Aus they're rightfully considered upper middle class up).

But they have zilch contacts for even a job as a pen pusher in an office or even some part time mundane work anywhere. I have two older siblings with good jobs but they're both married and their spouses while polite to us have always shown little to no interest in any real family type activities together. I'm sure it's because my Father and Mother, nice, well mannered, intelligent people with a lot of interests don't have have their financial resources and connections and can't do anything for them.

We were never poor but very ordinary. Many of the people I went to school with got mired into little to no ambition in life. I've always got jobs through my own graft as no doubt you have but it's getting tougher as I get older to contemplate moving back to the UK permanently. So much has changed since I first worked in my own country, and the timeframe is such that I've lost contact with university friends. When I moved to Asia net connections weren't taken for granted as they are now, were very expensive as were personal computers, and there definitely weren't social networking sites!

I did my best to keep up with friends but as I said things were different. As a man I have a lot of sympathy with the women who making working in Asia their career - I THINK you're a woman, yes? Women who don't get married to a native or don't get married at all and are self sufficient cop a lot of stick in Asia. Asians still generally think women who are not married are 'wrong' and East Asians certainly have to get out of that mentality.

There's also the financial side - there's a lot of rubbish written on the cafe at times by people slagging off posters who haven't got all these credentials although they've worked for a while in Asia. I think for women it's harder financially - in both Taiwan and Japan I found many men got the best jobs, although women have much more freedom working in Japan because of their visa rules, in Korea the E-2 is a legal leash.

Most of the great English teachers I met in Japan were women who had just gone ahead and done it - that is worked at virtually every kind of English teaching job you could, without certificates other than their uni degrees (some had more than one but not an MA or Phd). They were not in marital or long term relationships that gave them the financial security to take time off to study again and I take my Arsenal woolly hat off to them. But I think for them going home would be even tougher re lack of opportunities and contacts.

[morrisonhotel]

I keep in contact with friends, but not so much anyone else. I've never worked with anyone who works in the field I want to work in so it's pretty pointless keeping in contact with former work colleagues. I managed to make some connections in NGOs back home - I try and email them at least once a month to keep that connection.

[rumdiary]

[morrisonhotel]

[rumdiary]