Korean Job Discussion Forums

jsauchuk · Joined: 02 Aug 2007

Hi,

My wife and I are currently teaching in Mokpo City. Our contract is finished in the end of Novemeber and we are looking to come back to Korea in the new year.

My wife wants to continue working as an ESL teacher while I want to try to enter the I.T. industry. So far I'm having a hard time finding job boards that are non ESL.

If anyone knows of such sites or has any advice, it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jason

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Bachelor of CS here, though I couldn't possibly ever go back to that. But there is very little chance unless you speak really, really good Korean. To be honest, why hire you when they can just hire an IT specialist (in whatever you specialize in) who is Korean and a lot cheaper, without the baggage of a foreigner? The chances are small, I had friends who looked into it. Do you have any skills that set you apart from the massive amount of IT grads Korea is pumping out? I know I am being a little harsh, but I feel I don't want to get any hopes up.

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Tony_Balony · Joined: 12 Apr 2007

You being in the elite should know what the market wants. You being in the elite can hire others to do the work and guide your vison. Oh.... you don't have a vision... you are another passive worker looking for work.

You are now staring in the abyss.

diablo3 · Joined: 11 Sep 2004

You have hope to find IT related work.
There are many strategies to find IT work in Korea, I just hope you never left it too late. Preparation must be early enough to change over or you may have to continue as a teacher for a while.

Some things you can do are:
1) network with Koreans. This is the easiest way to find work.
2) prepare your resume. Obvious.
3) learn to read enough Korean to view Korean websites. See the market and even learn how to make applications. Koreans appreciate foreigners learning Korean.
4) get a reference or two from your previous IT companies you worked in. Build yourself a case that you will change over quickly.
5) be a part of the Korean culture. Koreans tend not to hire foreigners outside the ESL industry if they cannot follow the norms of Koreans.
6) look for vacancies in conglomerates.
Here are some points.

Good luck

jsauchuk · Joined: 02 Aug 2007

Thanks dialbo. Its a good start at least

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

Not to throw cold water on your plan, but you also have to be able to prove the company cannot find a Korean citizen who can do the job you are applying for. It's much the same back home.

tobyod · Joined: 06 Nov 2005

If you can augment your IT skills with Sales and Marketing then you have a chance!

P.S. If you can speak some Korean and have an open mind about drinking a lot of alcohol, long office hours, bi-monthly business trips, more drinking, wearing short sleeve button shirts, even more drinking, eat every lunch and dinner with your team members, football (up to date info on Park Ji-Seung will earn lot's of brownie points), of course more drinking, going to mandatory "Work Shops" (you get to drink until 7AM with your boss and then see him/her do a presentation at 9 AM) and last but not least killing your liver at least two or three times a week!

Good Luck!!!

PeteJB · Joined: 06 Jul 2007

If you can afford it, take a 1.5 year (Level 1-6) Korean course, it'll only be a few hours per day and if it's long term commitments your looking for in Korea, this will boost your possibilities. Even though it won't give you a degree, first impressions are important in Korea.

Slaps · Joined: 22 Jun 2007 Location: Sitting on top of the world

If you are fluent in Korean then there are plenty of jobs at Google's offices in Seoul.

Have a butchers at monster.com as they are always advertised on there.

FistFace · Posted: Fri Aug 10, 2007 6:07 am Post subject:

Some good links to try. The crappy thing is that most of the good non-teaching jobs will automatically toss your resume if you are a teacher on an E-2. They have no interest in waiting for you to end a contract. They want F-2 types, and others who have a non E-2 visa.

I'm on a mailing list for this place. They want you to pay for contact info, but you can usually find the same add with the rest of the information for free if you copy/paste the ad with google:

http://www.federaljobsearch.com/job.asp?cid=3396436&tid=16383043&no=2110767

Doing the cut/paste thing got me this:

http://federalgovernmentjobs.us/jobs/Marketing-Manager-978309.html

The other great site for non-teaching jobs is this, and they have IT jobs up the ying-yang:

http://jobs.seoul.go.kr/

jsauchuk · Joined: 02 Aug 2007

Thanks FistFace. Wondering, do all of the federaljobsearch jobs require a US citizenship? I'm a Canadian.

Thanks for your help.

FistFace · Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2007 5:27 am Post subject:

I don't think they do. Not sure, really.

Drew345 · Joined: 24 May 2005

I have been trying to register for that :

http://jobs.seoul.go.kr/

site for over an hour now. I get all the way through the registration form (address, phone, birthday etc.) but then the "submit" button never works. It's like it is not really a button, just a picture that does nothing.

This is an interesting site. Can anyone else try and register and see if you can get through the registration?

It might be because the second line of the address always says "unidefined". I try putting English here and Korean here, but always it goes back to "undefined". It is not listed as a required field, so maybe doesn't matter. Did you get anything other than "undefined" in the second line of the address?

I can't see the job specifics without registering; is that right?

Thanks, Drew

newton kabiddles · Joined: 31 Mar 2007