Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Nuala McMenamin]

Hi,

Myself and my fiance are hoping to teach in Korea from October this year. I would appreciate any advice you could give us applying as a couple. We have sent our C.V.s to around 20 recruitment companies and only one has responded. We don't need to work together we would be happy to live together and commute to different schools.

We don't have a formal teaching qualification. My Fiance is a trainer for a large global company and I am currently a Graphic designer but I do a lot of youth work. I have been told that all you need is a degree. is this the case?

Any help or advice you could give would be greatly appreciated

Thank you:)

[Troglodyte]

You are correct. All you need is a degree. It has to be at least a 3 year degree. Two year associate degrees aren't accepted. The university has to be in an English speaking country (Korea only acknowledges that 7 such countries exist - USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Aus, NZ, SA) and you yourself have to be from an English speaking country.

I would recommend that you do NOT work at the same school. It's better if one of you gets a job that includes accommodation and tells the employer that a spouse or whatever is going to be staying for most of the time, possibly looking for a job. Don't give too many details. The other person should ask for a job that provides housing allowance. This way you can earn a little bit extra money.

If something happens at one of the schools (e.g. the school closes, the boss is a jerk, etc.) and one of you loses your job, at least you won't both be hit with unemployment at the same time.

You don't even need to find the jobs through the same recruiter. In any case, you should be using as many recruiters as you can find. They aren't working for you. You're just a meal ticket and most can't be trusted to help you out.

If you're flexible, I would also add the following suggestion. One of you should come over first. e.g. You come over first and your job provides accommodation. Your fiance tells recruiters that he wants a job in the city that you're working in. If there's an offer, you can go check out the school in person to see if it's good. You can also see how far it really is from where you're living. When it's time to send in documents, your fiance can send them to you and you can go with the school to drop them off at immigration. That way you can be sure that the school doesn't put it off for a week or two. It will probably mean up to a month apart but there are advantages to doing it this way.

[ttompatz]

[JustinC]

I mostly agree with Troglodyte but would add don't discount both working in the same school and don't discount any part of the country. As a couple you're adding a layer of inflexibility to recruiters who are already under pressure to fill places quickly and might be inundated by many applicants (might, I don't know). Be flexible but don't let a recruiter push you into decisions you are (or your fiance is) not comfortable with. Do a bit of research on the school/s before you sign the contracts.

As you're wanting to be in the same area I'd divide the process in two, your fiance deals with half and you the other half. Arguments about where you're going to go will hinder the process and you really won't be completely sure what it'll be like until you're out here. Plus where ever you go you'll have each other to depend on. Most likely you'll be offered placements in a rural area as it can get really isolating for singles. The other person can look hard into what documents you both need and also into Korean culture. Get those documents quickly as it's a time-consuming process and once you have them you'll be put ahead of the thousands of single, possibly experienced applicants who don't have their paperwork intact.

Also, to give yourselves a greater head start, you could make individual videos introducing yourselves - there are good examples on YouTube. A recruiter or school who hasn't heard your voices may be wary about hiring someone from Norn Iron

[busanliving]

Consider of you work in seperate places the odds are the accommodation you will get will be a tiny one room which doesn't make great living conditions for a couple.

[wishfullthinkng]

my honest advice would not to go to a new country to teach with your significant other. i've heard nothing but bad stories and outcomes from the ones that do come here. granted there might be good stories and people more often talk about the bad than the good, but even without any stories i think it's an awful idea.

[jasonXkeller]

OP. You can PM me if you like. My wife and I have taught in Prague, Czech Republic together at different schools. I can not speak for you, but we were our only friends for quite some time. Unlike the aforementioned horror stories, it strengthened our relationship.

As it turned out, she disliked her job and wanted to return home early, which was a serious trial for us. After returning home and some solid time to reflect, aside from CR being a tough nut to crack, we are back in the saddle with a better mindset and some safeguards to prevent some of the problems from the first-go-round.

We recently accepted a couples job in Daegu, but don't leave until the 24th of this month. I'm happy to help however I can. As stated before, do you have your criminal background check? After some no-replies from recruiters, I started posting "Couple: All Documents Ready. Available Immediately." in the subject line of e-mails to recruiters. This helped with the responses. Remember, the recruiter works for the school and themselves. They will tell you every school is great. Do your research, talk to a current foreign teacher or two before you sign anything.

[SamuelRyberg]

My wife and I got positions with EPIK no issue. The problem for you would be the timeline... schools start in September on Korea, not October (you can get late starts, though) and the paperwork really should have been started awhile back for EPIK. We put in our applications the DAY they opened... April 1st, I believe it was. The issue, I would assume, would be that you are NOT married. We have been told Korea looks down on non-married couples and we were told even married we might not get the positions. But we did, and without any issue.

My advice would be, get married, and start the paperwork for a Spring EPIK intake. The streamlined process EPIK has outweighs a lot of the issues in hagwons for first-timer, I would say. Others can correct if that doesn't seem right.

[blahness]

There are new rules for EPIK.. you can only apply a joint application if you are married. Before you could apply if you weren't married and they would place you in the same area... and you could maybe possibly sneak and live with each other.. one person can get an allowance from their school.

For me and my boyfriend, we applied for the joint application but our schools got a mix-up and thought we were married. So we were lucky enough to get housed together. However, this is rare... once my coteacher found out we weren't married, she immediately asked if I wanted to move or wanted my own bed lol. But my advice for you if you want EPIK, is to apply early. Right when applications come out. And also, get married. It's hard to be housed together in Korea if you aren't married. It's not impossible but it's not easy either.