Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stephent89]

First time poster here and a complete newbie to the entire realm of ESL teaching. I'm planning on going through a recruiter since this is my first time applying for a teaching job overseas in Korea and stumbled across this little bit of information on my recruiter's (Footprints) page.


"First things first, decide if we are right for you. If you want to be a Footprints teacher or you want representation from us don't waste our time by applying elsewhere at the same time. Give us an opportunity to work for you. Our time is incredibly valuable and because we don't charge you for our services its really important to us that you don't waste our time"

Is this true?

Can I really only apply to one recruiter at a time? I really don't want to put all my eggs in one basket and hopefully I can get some veteran's advice on the matter.

Thanks in advance guys!

[koreatimes]

[Gorf]

It only matter for public school. Everything else, use as many recruiters as possible. Footprints is just trying to get gullible people to use them and only them as if it's a regulation. Hint: it isn't.

[Jotun_Symph]

"First things first, decide if we are right for you. If you want to be a Footprints teacher or you want representation from us don't waste our time by applying elsewhere at the same time. Give us an opportunity to work for you. Our time is incredibly valuable and because we don't charge you for our services its really important to us that you don't waste our time"

Screw these guys, of course they don't charge YOU, because YOU are not their client, the schools are. They are just middlemen and should be treated as such. Most of them get paid after you have stayed at the job for over 3 months. Use as many recuiters as neccessary to acheive your goal, and be don't be afraid to be ruthless and fickle with them; you won't hurt any feelings, trust me. This is YOUR life for the next year, not theirs, remember that.

[ElephantJumper]

Footprints have sent me about 3 emails in 2 months, none of them with job offers. Good luck if you decide to work only with them. I would advise applying to as many recruiters as possible.

[ses1985]

Footprints did the same thing to me! Throughout my whole paperwork and documents process told me to just stick with them. Now that I have everything lined up and ready to go, they don't have any jobs that are even remotely close to what I was looking for! Now the resume is being sent to every recruiter under the sun.. cross your fingers!

[melee]

meh...this is how I feel about footprints. After a month and doing everything they needed (video etc) they have not even got me an interview for anything. As stated by previous posts above, use as many recruiters as you need to get your goal done.

[ElephantJumper]

I think the biggest cheek from them was when they emailed me asking if I was still interested because I hadn't spoken to them in a while. Seriously, sent me no job offers at all then asked if I was still interested (I said yes, I'd been working with other recruiters since) then proceeded to not send me any job offers.

[DeLaRed]

[Jack_Sarang]

Footprints is garbage. They are a bunch of assholes out of Vancouver whose only goal is to sucker newbie teachers into the absolute worst jobs Korea has to offer.

They routinely offer positions at Wonderland, ECC/YBM and other complete trash holes that anyone with an ounce of knowledge would never work at.

Any recruiter who is NOT primarily based in Korea is just targeting no-clue newbies who are willing to accept any job anywhere in Korea.

That's why people on this board never hear back from them, because unless you're willing to accept the first POS offer they have, its not worth their time.


Apply to every recruiter you possibly can. They get paid if they place you. If they don't like the fact you applied with someone else? *beep* them, because that's someone else will be happy to get paid to place you.

[jeremysums]

Use as many as possible cause I think recruiters make money when you get placed.

[jvalmer]

I've heard bad things about Footprints, they are pretty slow to responed to emails.

[jeremysums]

That's really straight forward of them to say that.

[koreatimes]

If we all use many recruiters, then it leaves no one for these "1 recruiter" groups to recruit or hire. They only have an influence if there are people actually obeying the tyrants. Once we stop listening, their reign is over.

[amck]

Hey OP,

I applied to Footprints in August and had an interview with them straight away. They told me I should be gone by the end of Sept as I had all my docs ready. I didn't apply to any other recruiters and, 2/3 more emails, I never heard from Footprints again. Apply to as many as you can!