Korean Job Discussion Forums

[endofthewor1d]

forget for a moment that i've sort of already posted this, and that maybe someone who just quoted hitler might not be properly aligned to teach korean kids anyway. i've organized my thoughts now, and i feel the need to get them down on the forum in their entirety.

my hunt for a job in korea has not been going too well. in most situations, a lack of immediate response would not warrant this kind of alarm in me. but the market for teaching english in south korea, as i understood it, was all but entirely in the hands of the teachers. two years ago, i got this wild hair-up-my ass idea that i wanted to go teach english in japan. so i got on the internet, and started looking around. seemed like a bit of hassle to go to japan... they wanted some experience or relevant education, and to interveiw me and stuff like that... actually it was stuff that seemed reasonable then, but seems preposterous to me now, because then i started to come across these ads for jobs in korea. no experience? no education? no problem. come on over, here's a ticket. i could almost feel my recruiter's arms coming out of the computer screen trying to drag me through and into korea. that was then... fresh out of uni, never taught a thing in my life, certainly not qualified to do so in my home country, green as they come.
now, two years down the road. it would seem like i've got all the cards in my hand. i've lived and worked in korea for two years. i'm comfortable there, in my element. i know the ropes. what's more, kim jong il is ever present in the news these days with threats of nuclear war. surely that would scare away some of my competition. the time should be ripe for me to be issuing demands. i'm not too demanding though... all i want is to be located in seoul and not have split shifts.
so i devised a plan, something i thought was a clever strategy. i scanned a couple of decent photos of me with some of my students from last year, wrote up a brief resume containing all of the relevant information that i thought would be required, typed a quick letter introducing myself, and sent it as a bulk email to as many recruiters as i could find, thirty-two in all. the idea was, knowing that they had thirty-one competitors for the finder's fee they wanted for placing me, that they would all try to give me only their most tempting offers, and save their crappier jobs for the less informed.
i left that internet cafe feeling happy and confident. i was looking forward, much in the same way that a child goes to bed on the night of christmas eve, to coming back the next morning and sorting through all of my emails, weighing the pros and the cons of all of the wonderful offers i expected to be getting. i seriously believed that ten responses would have been on the low and somewhat dissappointing side.
well, let me tell you... i got an education the next morning on what true dissappointment could be. i had two responses. ouch.
the first was from a recruiter who seemed to have had his feelings hurt that i had included him in a bulk email with thirty-one of his competitors. okay, i understand it would be in poor taste to do that if i were addressing a potential employer. you're supposed to make each one feel as though you have a genuine interest in working for them specifically. but these weren't potential employers. these were recruiters, go betweens, middle men, people i might never actually even meet. i mean, was i supposed to give the impression of 'hey, i'm genuinely interested in being placed by you. oh yeah, the word is out about you, man. hack english teachers the world over are being swept away by the grace and skill-- dare i say, the finesse-- with which you collect those finder's fees'?
the other response was equally soul crushing. he told me that my resume was too short and unprofessional. rarely have i been so dumbfounded with despair. to be fair, someone unfamiliar with the hakwon industry might have found this to be a valid complaint. after all, 'resume' is rather a generous word for the drivel i hastily threw together in a croatian internet cafe. it was short, but it contained all of the vital information regarding me, my educational background, and my previous work experience in korea. anything else would have just been filler. as for unprofessional, this resume wasn't meant to make me the ceo of hyundai. this was just for being an english teacher in a hakwon, an industry notoriously committed to all manifestations of unprofessionalism. it was as if ronald mcdonald had looked me over with a cautious eye, and said that he wasn't sure that i had what it takes to be a part of his team.
i thought that, at the end of the day, all that a director wanted was a photograph to make sure that i was young, white, and not too offensibly ugly (i hope that's not the problem), and confirmation that i came from north america, so that when the children spoke englishy, they would sound like george bushy.
well things seem to have changed in the three months that i've been away. it's been about a week now, with no further responses. i'm quickly depleting what i had once thought to be an infinite well of optimism. if i can't find work in korea, what can i do? i used to think of korea as my eternal back up plan. whatever happens in life, whatever remote corner of the earth i travel to (korea itself being the one exception), i'll have no fear of being stranded there, because there will always be some dodgy hakwon director ready to send me a ticket back.
and recruiters... did i miss a meeting with the recruiters? where have the days gone that these bloodthirsty animals were pestering me every day, chipping away at my considerations that there might be a place on the earth outside of korea that i might want to spend the next year of my life, promising me the moon and the stars, a chance to live in an exciting and dynamic culture rich with history and wonder, preying on my ignorance with exagerations, misinformations, and flat out lies? that's all i really want at this point... to be lied to. is that so much to ask?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/korea/viewtopic.php?t=3840

Check it out dude.

[buddy bradley]

Der Glaube ist nicht der Aufgang, sondern das Ende allen wissens.

[Gollum]

Yeah, the treasure train seems to be empty these days. I once thought that Korea would be an "eternal backup plan", or whatever you said. Luckily, I got a decent job this time around.

Of the jobs out there one can find, there seems to be a lot of crap.

It's all due to the economy here. So many schools are closing.

And by the way... I have yet to find a school that wants their kids to sound like George Bush. He has a Southern accent.

[matthews_world]

[ohahakehte]

hm, in my view the situation in korea looks very mixed.

although ive never taught english in my life, i can understand when veterans in the forums say that the job market used to be much hotter than it is now.

weird thing is that although i have no experience, i landed a teaching job in seoul very quickly and will be starting in late october. the proof will be in the pudding, but it looks like a pretty decent deal for a rookie teacher. my inbox was also flooded by recruiters and schools wanting to hire me before i accepted the position i will be taking.

[just because]

I don't know if this is an urban myth but I've found hagwons especially want newbies over people that have been here a couple of years due to the fact that they are naive and are much easier to control because they are unaware of what to do or how to do it. If you really want a job just lie about your work experience here and say you,ve never been to Korea. Maybe that will work.

[Homer]

just because,

The tactic you mention would make for a nice little experiment but in the end it would be counter-productive for an experienced teacher.
If you have been here for a while and kept your eyes open, you know the job market and you can plan well ahead if you want to change jobs.
If you happen to lose your job, the same "keeping your eyes open" applies as you wil know whats out there.
Also, having experience opens up jobs not available to "newbies".