Korean Job Discussion Forums

[wonkavite62]

I was surprised that YBM answered my job application! As expected they require me to do more stuff. But what is it like to actually work for those men in blacksuits in the Adult Division? Is it a normal hagwon schedule?
I personally am happy to teach adults. But I have qualms about split shifts, although the job ad doesn't mention them.
What kind of deal does the school offer teachers/ Saturday work?

What is it like to work for YBM in Seoul? Outside Seoul in Daegu?
I would like to find out from people who have worked with YBM recently or who are still with them now.

Thank you for your information.

[Otherside]

I worked for YBM Premier in Seoul.

Teaching Adults is great, most of them are motivated, and it's nice to be able to have real conversations with your students. There were a few asshole adjossi's but I'd say I liked at least 80% of the students.

It will almost certainly be split-shifts. I can't emphasize how bad they are. Usually the schedule has a block from 6:30am-11ish and again from 6pm-10pm. So while you'll only be teaching 6 classes a day on average, you never have more than 8 hours off work. Some teachers are pretty productive during the empty time in the day, but most (like myself) wind up doing nothing. I was always tired, and felt drained.

Saturday work is compulsory for the first 3 months. You can choose whether to teach morning or afternoon block (4 hours each). The pay rate is/was 25k per hour (so 100k per block). After the 3 month mark, Saturday work is completely optional, though they're always looking for teachers to work Saturdays.

Vacation time isn't special. Each month (session) has 20 working days, so in any month with over 20 working days, you get the excess off (pre-determined in the Calender). This works out to about 10 days off per year. (The contract says 10, and if for some reason, you get less than 10 days off, they'll pay you for the extra day or 2). However, this means it's impossible to have a real holiday, the best you'll probably get is a 4 day weekend (maybe 5, if Chuseok/Seollal falls nicely). However, you are (I'm not sure if it's still the case now) able to take 1 month off unpaid. Obviously this needs to be cleared well in advance, and the peak months are off limits. This is a pretty big hit financially (no salary nor housing allowance for that month).

At my branch, we only dealt with the Academic Supervisor (Westerner). Management was professional, and the school definitely follows the contract. There will be no nasty surprises. Overall, there was pretty good camaraderie among the teachers.

Overall, if you can get over the split-shifts, it's a pretty decent place to work. Right now, in a PS, I earn a lot more, work a lot less and have much longer vacations, however I still look back at my time at YBM with fond memories and if I had the opportunity to work there again (under better terms!) I'd like to do so.

[Zyzyfer]

I was in ELS a few years ago. For the most part, my experience is similar to Otherside's. Generally the only way to get out of a split shift is to pay your dues at the Jongno or Gagnam locations.

I actually enjoyed the teaching. Adult students are generally more motivated. And the job itself was good for a while. But there were a lot of behind-the-scenes moves going on at the time and the place where I worked was going downhill from the perspectives of many teachers. The only thing I care to point out publicly is that the pre-made lesson plans for classes are strongly expected to be followed more or less to the letter. Those lesson plans aren't necessarily always bad, but we were not given any wiggle room with them.