Korean Job Discussion Forums

[StellerX]

I have just been fortunate enough to receive two contracts from schools that I am interested in. This is the first time I have made it this far into the hiring process, so I am a little unsure what to expect. I am leaning towards one of the offers heavily, and have even signed and sent in the contract (with no amendments). The recruiter has said they sent the contract to the school, which I requested a copy of once it is signed.

I am just curious how binding this is on the school's part. Are there instances where a school will send out a contract, get it signed and then not proceed with the candidate for some trivial reason? I ask because I still have another school interested in me, who also sent a contract. I don't want to leave them hanging when I have already chosen the other school, but at the same time, I don't want to say anything to them for sure until I hear back from the school I am most interested in. Do these things fall apart often on the employer's end, or are they pretty good about everything once you sign and send the contract in?

Thanks for any replies, the help is appreciated.

[Sesame]

it should probably be 90% that they will take you on

[StellerX]

Sorry I should have clarified, I have signed the contract, which was then scanned and sent back to the recruiter. The recruiter has not asked for anything to be mailed at this point.

[Sesame]

[StellerX]

The recruiter had all of that on file in a scanned format, I have sent nothing physical as of yet. The contract doesn't begin until mid-December, but I could indeed be ready if needed at any time.

I am just curious if employers often back out of anything once they have actually sent a contract to a job applicant. In the past I had schools tell me they were going to send contract papers to my recruiter, only to hear days later they found an applicant inside Korea already so wouldn't be sending the contract after all. I am just hoping this sort of thing doesn't happen often once the contract has actually been sent and was looking for some insight from anyone who has been in a similar situation.

[Sesame]

[tob55]

Regardless of when you sign a contract, it is not binding until the date the contract is scheduled to begin. Yes, schools and recruiters can and will back out of contracts at their own discretion. When I arrived in Korea many years ago, I already had a signed contract with a public school in an area close to Seoul. Instead of going there, the recruiter on the day I arrived chose to take me to a pre-school hagwon two hours in the other direction of where I was supposed to be placed. I wasn't sure of what to expect, but something happened and I was doing hagwon work instead of public school work.

It happens a lot, but people don't want to scare potential employees off so they promise the moon and then do what they are going to do anyway, why? Because no contract is legally binding until its scheduled date of start. Also, having your passport or other information is not sufficient for getting your visa. You have to show it to the Consulate people yourself, so they can't say we will black list you or anything of the sort, why? Because until you actually have a visa to work in the place of employment, nothing binds you to any school or institution.

Hope this helps as a first reply to your question.

[StellerX]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate the info. As for your situation tob55, with being spirited away to another school, I am made sure both school addresses were included in the contracts so that I at least minimized the chance of that happening.

Sounds like I should play it safe though, and not decline the other contract just yet. How long do schools wait to get a signed contract back normally? This one has been sitting with me for 6 days now (took roughly 6 days to get email addresses from the other teachers there and then to get a reply, so I haven't dragged my feet, but it has been almost a week since it was sent to me).

Thanks!