Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Markrly]

I'm finding it difficult to land a job currently. Is it typically hard to find work from now until February. I know it is much easier to find a job that will start during the Spring semester in late February but, is it possible to find a good job that starts before February for a teacher not currently located within Korea? The offers I did get the contracts seemed pretty poor.

[modernseoul]

[Boffo97]

I'm having the same kind of troubles.

One recruiter mentioned to me that while this time of year is always slow, this is the slowest he's seen it.

Not sure if that's everyone's experience though. Dave's still has a lot of postings every day.

[World Traveler]

The Korean job market is flooded and getting continually worse as time goes by. When I first came to Korea in mid 2009, almost no one in the United States had even heard of teaching ESL in Korea (which is why supply wasn't meeting demand). Incidentally, 2009 is year English language hagwon student enrollment in Korea peaked (a verifiable fact), and in 2009, public school hiring was going strong. It's been all downhill since then (and there is no reason to believe the decline will suddenly reverse itself). The going rate for privates and part time jobs has dropped so much recently (especially in the past few months), so it's not surprising the recruiter said now is the slowest he has ever seen it. (Then again, he could be lying- as recruiters often do- to trick you into accepting a crap job).

[matthagwon]

[wanderkind]

So along these lines:

I understand there are two main hiring seasons during the year for public schools.

However, from personal experience, word of mouth, and reading on here, there is a small, but significant number of people each year who quit before their contract is finished.

This indicates to me that there is probably demand for teachers in public schools popping up throughout the year.

How are these vacancies filled?

[Nolos]

[World Traveler]

[ttompatz]

[na1489]

When I first applied to teach in Korea back in 2010/2011, it was unbelievably easy to find a decent position. It seemed like all I had to do was send my resume to a couple places and I was bombarded with offers for teaching contracts.

Three years later, I have MUCH more experience under my belt (in the ESL field) and I can't even seem to find a decent position to apply for.

I sent off a polished resume touting my years of experience in the field to a couple of different recruiters and one of them actually got back to me only to tell me that they were unable to proceed with my application. Haven't heard anything from the others.

Luckily I have a great teaching job in the States right now, so I'm in no rush but I'm worried that the plethora of teaching jobs in Korea, which there once seemed to be an unlimited supply of, is finally starting to dissipate.

I am attributing this to the following possible explanations:

1) Competition for teaching jobs in Korea has drastically increased thanks to the shitty economy

2) English language education as an industry in Korea is not doing well (or at least English language hakwons aren't) OR Korea has decided it no longer needs to waste money on hiring native speaking teachers

3) Bad time of the year to be looking for jobs

4) A combination of the above

Someone please tell me I'm crazy and that things aren't really as bad as they seem in comparison to the "golden years" of 2010-2011....

[Ranman]

[Popocatepetl]

[young_clinton]

[World Traveler]

[Ranman]