Korean Job Discussion Forums

TheRaininspain · Joined: 03 Sep 2013 Location: California

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum. It's nice to meet you all.

I am applying to EPIK, and I also meet basic qualifications for some Uni positions with my masters (non-English / non-ESL degree) & some volunteer teaching/tutoring experience in Korea as well as a little ESL (Science) tutoring & teaching two semesters as a TA, et al.
No TESOL cert/no official English teaching in Korea yet. I'm a US-born and educated dude (and not Korean-American), but I speak a fair amount of Korean (just below conversational level). I was an exchange student in Daegu for a year and lived again in Korea for a year of grant-funded research. I've never much applied for jobs in Korea before now, but I am hearing that it is a lot easier to find a good position, and possibly a Uni position if I'm physically there for interviews, etc. I assume this applies for hagwon jobs as well, especially in finding a "good" one.

My wife can get an F-4, so I can get an F-3 visa; though a tourist visa may suffice time-wise, it seems it could be that I wouldn't need to leave Korea to add E-2 status to an F-3 (?). So I was considering heading over well before the public school year starts to try to find something (and maybe even be there for my EPIK interview if there is one).

In some ways, this seems fine, but I basically give up the normal contract-included airfare to Korea, right? So might it actually be worth it?

I plan to have all the documents in hand when I arrive.

young_clinton · Joined: 09 Sep 2009

Either way you have to have the necessary documents for employment in hand or else no job offers. This includes Apostilled FBI or national CBC, Apostilled notarized copy of diploma. You also should have hard copies of written references.

If you are in Korea you can see the school for yourself and get info from the teachers before you commit yourself, but you have to have the money to stay in South Korea. If you get one from your home country they may pay for the airfare and you don't spend any money waiting in Korea. I believe Hogwans are more likely to hire you if you are in the country.