Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bacasper]

I have a telephone interview coming up in a few days for a university in what I hope will be my first Korean job.

Can anyone tell me what to expect, or what kinds of question sthey might ask? I'm guessing that it will be a little more meaty than some hogwan interview where they just want to make sure you are alive and coherent.

Thanks for any insights.

[Bibbitybop]

You are getting a uni job and not in the country yet? Congrats to you.

You don't know how to handle a teaching interview? Treat is as an interview in you home country: Be prepared to talk about your accomplishments, strengths, desires, education and a few weaknesses.

Is this uni job, or a hogwan job at a uni?

[Jisoni]

I just had a couple of interviews via the telephone. The one thing that threw me a bit off was the fact that I had to interview at 4 AM in both cases due to the time difference.

I was given one job offer for a great position with 23 weeks of vacation, so yes, it is possible to get a good university job when you are not in the country.

They asked me the typical questions...what are your strengths and weakenesses? how do you tailor your classes to korean students? have you worked with korean university students and in what capacity?

Oh, the other tough thing is that they do the interviews over speaker phone so that it is difficult to hear what people are asking you. Also, you can't hear them when you are speaking and vice versa (kind of like a walkie talkie)

best of luck!

[Unposter]

How did you get 23 weeks of vacation? The semester is either 15 or 16 weeks long with 16 being the norm. Assuming your uni actually runs 15 week semesters, that is still 22 weeks maximum of vacation.

[Jisoni]

They probably include holidays and spring or fall breaks. I'm not sure as I haven't counted the actual weeks on the academic calendar; I'm just going by the advertisement.

[PRagic]

Hmmm. That sounds like SNU. Be sure to talk to some of the people currently there before you make your move.

[oldfatfarang]

Congratulations on your interview. However, K universities usually interview/hire teachers already in Korea. Reasons being: cheaper, less culture shock, some language skills etc. So if you're being hired from abroad, i.e.,a more expensive recruit, then I agree with PRAGIC - you'd better speak to some current teachers.

If it's SNU, please note that they are always advertising for teachers (hint).

[TECO]

[Homer]

[Hotpants]

I saw Wonkwang in Iksan advertising 5 months vacation, too. This was in a previous ad, but a later ad didn't appear to offer such generous vacation. Are you going to be teaching kids classes? If so, it might not be much better fare than a hagwon. Good idea to try and talk to existing teachers. If it's a 'real' uni, the teachers should have their own email accounts found on the uni website - perhaps you can contact them inexpensively by email.

[Jisoni]

yes, the job is a real university job. i already have my assignment for the courses i'm teaching (4 college classes).

i'm curious about snu, yonsei, ewha, etc. which schools are considered the good ones to work for?

I think someone just told me snu has 40 teachers --maybe the reason they always are advertising.