Korean Job Discussion Forums

PittGirl07 · Joined: 05 Oct 2010 Location: Seoul, Republic of Korea

Hi all. My friend got a job offer at a university in Seoul for about 2.75 mil won per month. He is excited but I was thinking he should ask for more instead of taking the first offer. I do know that the pay is between 30 and 37 mil won per year and the offer was 33 mil per year. I told him to ask for 3mil won a month. Do you think that is reasonable? How would he even go about phrasing his request? He doesn't live in Korea, he would be coming from the US and I haven't had the chance to negotiate pay yet so I have no advice based on experience. Any help is appreciated!

Ramen · Joined: 15 Apr 2008

tell them he or she has blue eyes and blond hair and extremely attracive.
Razz

Skippy · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Daejeon

They can always try but I would be not surprised with a NEXT applicant!. Unless your friend has something special about them. Has a master in a relevant field, can speak Korean, has years of Korean ESL experience or University teaching,or even as previous commenter - good looking.

Also your friend is not here in Korea. That makes them more difficult to deal with - negotiate or deal with paperwork. The more difficult the more you might just lose out.

Unless the job is a lock careful rocking the boat.

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 4:37 am Post subject:

OP, that demand unless it is backed up by something (extra qualifcations, experience...) will land your friend in the "Thank you but we decided to go with someone else" pile.

Especially is your friend is applying from abroad for a University position that is located in Seoul.

Good luck anyway.

PittGirl07 · Joined: 05 Oct 2010 Location: Seoul, Republic of Korea

Okay. Maybe I'll just tell him to ask in general if there is room for negotiation as opposed to requesting a specific amount. He does have a masters and a tesol cert but only about a year of part-time experience....I am actually shocked he got it. Does 2.7mil won a month sound good though to those of you who are familiar with university jobs?

PatrickGHBusan · Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 5:04 am Post subject:

The offer he got is pretty decent as far as salary is concerned.

Then again you gave us nothing on the offer beyond pay!

How many hours per week?
Is it a housing or non housing contract?
Vacation time?
University position or Unigwon position?

Now your friend has a MA but in what field? If it is non-Education/ESL related then it is not all that much of a bonus.

a year of part time experience means next to nothing.

Bascially your friend may have gotten lucky here. He has next to no leverage so discussing extra pay now is pretty risky and may simply prod the hiring committee on moving on with another applicant.

If your friend is willing to accept that risk and is prepared to move on to another position if he gets rejected then go for it!

Basics of contractual negociations with a teaching insitution in Korea: know the market (it is competitive in many areas), know your worth in said market and make sure that if you want to make demands you have the necessary leverage otherwise it will simply blow up in your face as the institution does have a budget for teacher salaries.

As someone who was on a hiring committee for a korean university for a few years I can tell you that if your friend with what I see as his employment profile (no real experience, a MA that may be unrelated and being abroad) came back with a salary demand as a committee odds are we would have politely moved on to the next qualified candidate. Believe me there are many waiting for this job.

Again, best of luck.

thegadfly · Joined: 01 Feb 2003

Just about everywhere I have worked, an attempt at "negotiating" prior to the first year ends with a call of "next applicant."

In my own experience, I have taken the first offer when I am a new teacher (if the basic terms were not up to par, I would not have even applied, let alone gone through with an interview). The second year, however, I have used the previous year's accomplishments and performance to support my bid for a more significant raise than the typical second year contract...and I have always gotten it. Of course, I am talking about hakwons, not universities or public schools...and I think both of those are LESS likely to negotiate....

PittGirl07 · Joined: 05 Oct 2010 Location: Seoul, Republic of Korea

He found out that the rate was fixed but he's okay with it. His degree is in linguistics and tesol and the contract terms, I think are good. 15 hours teaching, 20 weeks paid vacation, housing included. No airfare. He thinks he is going to go ahead and take it. Thinking about it now, it doesn't seem bad for a first full-time gig. What is a unigwon?

Hugo85 · Joined: 27 Aug 2010

Sounds like a pretty good deal.

Ramen · Joined: 15 Apr 2008

PittGirl07 · Joined: 05 Oct 2010 Location: Seoul, Republic of Korea

Oh okay. No, it's not a unigwan. I told him he better take it if he wants it and he responded with an acceptance so hopefully it will be good.

Not to hijack but I am gonna ask a question for myself....I was looking at schools in Seoul. How much do utilities tend to run? How much are landlines? I sit easy to just get a prepaid sim and do they have decent rates? I'd be mostly texting. Are incoming calls free on cell phones there?

Skippy · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Daejeon

Utilities can be all over the board. Some places can be very nice and reasonable while others will be expensive. You will here tales of woe of somebodies winter gas bill be hundreds of thousands of won (hundreds of dollars) while somebody else used twice as much gas and paid under a hundred thousand. Or the same with electricity and air conditioning. No real hard and fast tules but overall most bills can be under a 50,000 won. I think it depends upon how old the place is, how big it is and the location like in City versus town or older area versus newer area.

Just be aware that if a school places you in an officetel you will have more utilities costs. The nicer it is or in a better place the more maintenance and building fees will be. (you will what question this later asking why you are paying hundred thousand won for still dirty hallways). Some people have been really surprised by these costs and YES you have to pay they school does not pay it is NOT rent.

Most handphone/cellphones do not use SIMs. You can get prepaid handphones aka card phones (you buy time). Plus Korea has a different network (CDMA) then the states(GSM). As to cellphones and calls. I am pretty sure you call you pay. So incoming will likely be not your cost.

Just be aware that once you get here it might be a week or two before you get your hands on a phone. You will likely have to get your ARC (resident card) first before any place will sell you a phone or set you up.

Please look a bit more on the site to get an idea of details and read some stories. Yes the search on this board is a bit sucky please. Try searcheslcafe.com for searching this place little bit better.

SeoulNate · Joined: 04 Jun 2010 Location: Hyehwa

What Skippy said is correct:

In the four places I have lived in Seoul, the costs have ranged from 100,000 a month for total bills (maintenance, electricity, water and gas) to over 300,000.

Location, quality of the building and newness will all play a role in how much the utilities can cost. The problem is, if the school is looking for the apartment for you, that you will not know how much your bills will be until you go to pay them for the first month.

Skippy was correct in his claim about cellphones as well. You pay only for outgoing calls and texts. Cell phone plans are much cheaper than they are back home as well.