Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bejarano-korea]

Hello all!

I have read a lot of threads on here and of course like any forum
there is a lot of contradictory advice and views about working in
Korea.

I have read that any newbie (which is what I am, I will be graduating
in the Summer of 2007) should be getting 2.4 million won a month. But
every job advertisment I have read is 1.8 million to 2.2 million won tops!
Is that a really low wage for teaching in South Korea? Or is that
the going rate at the moment.

I have tried to look (even using a search engine) about people recruit
agency and found little. Does anyone have any experience of them?

Also Busan/Pusan... It's by the beach and that sounds good to me! whats your personal opinion of it?

I have read many a thread on here and will continue to do so. So the above may be anwsered a million and one times so please forgive me
but if you would like to anwser any of my questions, my appreciative
thanks in advance!

[dalpengi]

As a starting salary 2.2 is the best most people do (it�s usually between 1.8 and 2.0) unless you have friends working in Korea that can introduce you directly to a decent school (and that is assuming they have progressed far enough up the food chain themselves to be at a good school).

If you are being hired via some agency listed here it can be very much hit and miss. Some schools you see advertised on Dave�s are decent, even good, and you will enjoy your time there while quite few will turn out to be bad or even nightmarish. Do yourself a favour and post the names of the schools you are negotiating with (or have offeres from) here so that people who might have experienced working at those places can offer you the best advice.

Yeah, Busan has a beach and it�s not too bad � just don�t expect doing too much swimming in the sea. It�s too cold for most of the year and when the weather is good enough, half of Busan (pop. 4 mil.) will be on that strip.

I have spent quite a lot of time in that city and I think the positives do outweigh the negatives.

Good luck.

[Homer]

Been in Busan since 1997......

I love it here but some prefer Seoul.

It has beaches and great hangouts. Plenty of hiking areas and a smaller city feel to it compared to Seoul.

The beaches are nice (not haiwai of course!) but can get crowded.

It hes fewer foreigners than Seoul but a very interesting weaguk community nonetheless.

[bejarano-korea]

[waltjocketty]

if you want 2.4 or more, check out CDI. I work for them and love it. It is a real job, though, so some people on this board love to hate on it, because they are here simply for a vacation. I don't know what you're looking for, but if you are intelligent and articulate, CDI will offer you 2.4 or better for your first year. Their starting offer is 2.0, and you have to interview and write an essay before they will tell you how much they are willing to offer.

That said, if you want 2.4 and don't want to work hard, you can always take a lower paying job and plan on teaching privates. Or, if you have cash in hand, come here and get yourself a cheap place for a few weeks and look around for jobs. Finding a great job is much easier once you arrive in Korea.

Also, some CDIs are not as good as others. If you want specifics, PM me.

[bejarano-korea]

[dalpengi]

There are a few places where Brits match or even outnumber Americans. This is from my personal experiences so don�t take this as a rule but it seemed to me that the Brits outnumbered (or at least matched) the Americans in the provincial to middle-sized locations.

However, no matter where I went, the Canadians (who are of course also North Americans) outnumbered everyone.

Can�t help you with YBM as I know next to nothing about them, but hopefully someone else will be able to share their experiences with them.

If the agency called Duff is Changwon based (taking an educated guess here) then I think you will be in good hands.

Also, I think waltjocketty provided quite a few decent tips if you after a well paid position to start with.

[dalpengi]

One more thing: with with a BA (Hons) Linguistics & TEFL degree you are more qualified than 80% of the �teachers� I met in Korea.

Not to say that people who have B.Sc. or B.Com. next to their name can�t teach (a lot of them teach very well) but with your qualifications you can�t go wrong as far as finding a job is concerned.

One or two words of warning though: don�t expect to apply your knowledge of language acquisition here. A lot of the local educational authorities dictate repetition, repetition, repletion as the best method for learning a new language. If you do end up at a school that will utilise your talents and educational background then consider yourself lucky (or if you end up at a school that gives you a free hand).

All the best!

[bejarano-korea]

Cheers Dalpengi,

I'm looking forward to my time in Korea, I don't ask for a lot. Just that I get my wages on time and no monkey business off some daft DoS.
I will take a lower rate if I can get peace of mind knowing I will get my wages on time and that the school won't try and get rid of me on the 11th month to save themselves paying my end of contract bonus.

I on the other hand. Will work hard and be on time and generally be a decent employee. But reading the horror stories on some of the threads here does make you think twice but I'm still going ahead.

Duff are an Australian firm and think they are in Changwon. I have heard a lot of good things about them so naturally I handed them my resume.

Anyway, thank you for your insight. It has been very helpful.

[kat2]

Busan is really great. I really recommend it. A lot of comforts, but not the giant metropolis that Seoul is. Check pusanweb.com for more info.

[Cerriowen]

My first job was in Busan.

You will start out at about 2.0 to 2.2, depending on the area, and what your degree is in.

Busan *is* by the ocean, BUT keep in mind that their beaches aren't like western beaches. The "sand" is more like small sharp rocks. The only nice areas are packed with people. I absolutely LOVE the ocean... and only went a couple of times there because it was so unpleasant.

The area of Busan that I was in stunk, all the time. On hot days I would avoid breathing. The drains were open in the street, with trash everywhere. The people treated me like I was an alien. Hardly anyone spoke english, and a lot of them were hostile.

You're going to run in to a really "unique" croud of westerners down there (IMHO). I avoided them because most of them were just really weird.

That being said, the cost of living is much lower there.

I now live just outside of Seoul. It's beautiful here, and the air is great. I am getting a "real" korean experience, but when I cant handle it and need a dose of western life Im only 20-30 minutes from a taste of western culture.

[dalpengi]

I guess a lot of this is due to personal taste (and perhaps some good/bad luck given one�s personal experiences).

The Busan ex-pat community is sizable and I wouldn�t label most of them as weird. Some certainly are but to be honest that can be said of pretty much every corner of South Korea. Quite a few of us do come across as weird, different or unique. That�s not necessarily a bad thing � most normal people I know back home wouldn�t survive here (mostly due to the difficulty of getting decent mince pies).

The Seoul/ Gyeonggi-do crowd is as �weird� as the Busan one (% wise) in my opinion but addmitedly its easier to get to know people that may share your interests (but that�s not necessarly guarnteed). I agree with you that it�s easier to find a dose of western life in Seoul. However, the communities around here are tighter which is generally a good thing (though it may not necessarily be so if for one reason or another you feel excluded).

As for the stench, heaps of places in Seoul/ Gyeonggi have the same problem in summer. It is a big (and not so big) city issue in most of Korea.

[bejarano-korea]

I'm doing a Linguistics - TEFL degree and in my final
year. Pusan is only a cosmetic choice based on little knowledge as I
have yet to go out to Korea, reasons up till now as it is south and
by the sea. But any big metropolis which is pleasant to live
in would do to be honest.

Though as a northern Englishman of Welsh/Peruvian stock from Wigan, I'm as normal as one can be with my background but I'm sure I will
have my 'weird behaviour' days! Some places can turn the most sane
people round the twist and my uneducated guess that Korea could be one of those places!

[Feloria]

Well, I've lived in Busan for three weeks now and I like it a lot. The downtown areas are fantastic, and the people have all been nice to me so far. I make 2.0, but the cost of living is so unbelievably low- it's far more than I need.

[bixlerscott]

I am on my way to Changwon for 2.0 mil per month starting in 2 weeks. The typical going rate for a typical (I know, none of em' are typical)hagwons is 2.0 mil a month (very very high pay for Asia and quite decent for a college grad in USA) and even those hagwons in upper class areas also pay around 1.9 to 2.1 mil per month. I understand Changwon, the planned modern city, is quite affluent, but I do not expect them to shell out more money than industry standard(2.0m), just better quality of living and working conditions than many other hagwons as I would expect that standards will be higher than in most schools around Korea due to higher objective based performance expectations from wealthy educated parents.

Watch out for those hagwon job offers of 2.3, 2.4, or higher, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Unless your experienced, got business degree, and going to teach ESP to corporate business people like in LG or Samseoeng or just individual business executives, then you will get 2.4 to 3.0 mil or more. This is what I will be gunning for after one or two years of hagwon teaching as I do have the business degree and knowledge of business terminology and the desire to be up super early in the mornings all the way until super late at night to get a professional career going on...

Regardless of where your at, Have a lovely Merry Christmas everyone,