[I] have been told by recruiters that they can't place me precisely because i am well qualified. Government schools have been sent an advisory to only employ inexperienced teachers in the bottom pay grade. Because they don't want to pay anyone in the top pay-bracket.
Experienced poster "sojusucks" replies in the following post:
Junior is right. SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK have sent out notice to schools that they should hire inexperienced teachers because of pliability and lower salaries. In case you didn't know it, SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK send out [memos] all of the time dealing with foreign teachers, and almost all of these memos deal with something negative for foreign teachers. They even send small books to schools and tell them how to "deal with foreign teachers" so that foreign teachers get the short end of the stick. You don't believe me? Ask your school about the "book" that they have for dealing with foreign teachers. Go ahead. You'll see. SMOE, EPIK, and GEPIK are not on your side.Being out of the country for six months and taking some time off from full-time blogging means I'm partially out of the loop regarding policies for NSETs---and angering a few recruiters and
It's been about 8 weeks since I started this process, and I've come up totally empty. Not one offer.
And another:
I was trying for roughly 7 months and I finally got a public school gig which starts in September.
And another:
I couldn't find a job in Korea, and I tried 4 or 5 recruiters.
Recruiter Number 1 Flat out told me if you don't have an English or education degree even if you have TEFL your probably S.O.L but you can go into their "pool" until the public school hiring in Sept/Oct for Epik February
Recruiter Number 2 wanted me to send them my original degree, glad I didn't send it because when I said I would send a notarized and Korean consulate stamped copy I never heard from them again.
Recruiter Number 3 I applied to a few public positions with them, but right at the end of the intake and I didn't get interviewed. After that I got an email from them saying I was being transferred to their private school job pool and "don't call us we'll call you"
Recruiter Number 4 Phoned me at 1am, which was fine, I was up. I told him my preference was a coastal location in the south of medium size. He sent me a contract and an application for a rural city of 10,000 right on the DMZ through GEPIK. With the standard line "Seoul is only 1 hour by train" According to most recruiters every part of Korea is only 1 hour by train to Seoul...
Recruiter Number 5 Never called me back.
And another, commenting on the EPIK payscale, on which Level 1 is the highest:
Seems that EPIK and some of the other education offices are not wanting any level 1 applicants who get their level 1 salary status by having just 2 years of teaching in Korea in Hagwons. They are only interested in hiring a level 1 person if they are a trained teacher or have overseas teaching experience or an English TESOL diploma etc.
Quite a few cities now only prepared to pay for hiring level 2 maximum now. I guess this means that many of the long termers in Korea who would be level 1 trying to get into a public school won't get in.
And another:
just be patient, after i got my CELTA it took me 4 months to find a job.
An interesting experiment would be for me to apply to a few recruiters and see what sort of response I get. It would work best if they didn't recognize my name but instead just looked at my experience in Korea, which includes a CELTA, three years in public schools and one in a hagwon. I know in 2005, after graduation and when I first contacted recruiters, I'd send out a few emails at night and wake up to several offers in the morning.
12 comments:
Yep, it's not what it used to be, I tell you h-wat... hence, time to move on to newer and better :)
What I don't get is why these people who're having so much trouble getting a job here keep trying? I mean, there are plenty of countries to do this in. There places which pay more if you happen to be qualified enough, or less if you're just out for some Asian-backwater adventure.
Sometimes we have to learn to play the job market like the stock market and just cut our losses before too long. ...Maybe Korea will pick up again after the English Teaching Robots fail hahaha
( http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/south-korea-gives-go-robot-english-teachers-classrooms )
I have quite a few friends I met teaching in the ROK that have moved on to Taiwan and even the Middle East. In Taiwan, they spend most of their off-time on the beach and in the Middle East, they're getting hazard pay salaries of up to $80,000 US a year.
Even with my ties to this country (Korean wife and family), we've been seriously thinking about a change, and with an F2, I don't have nearly as much trouble finding a job.
With AES and the media, South Korea is slowly regulating themselves out of a valuable commodity. One day it's going to turn on them and bite them in the ass. Much like their great computer hardware & fast internet, it's all pretty much useless if there's no decent software to keep it running. Being first place in one thing doesn't mean shit if you're last place in the glue that holds it all together.
I would never entertain the idea of teaching at a Korean PS (again), but the point is moot because I would never be hired by them in the first place: TESOL, BA in Educational Psych, 5 years of uni, 6 years of adult hagwons, plus another 3 years of uni and 8 years of high school back home.
I would love to submit my resume anyway, just to count the number of excuses they send me.
What if you changed your name on your application just enough to not be recognized? I can't believe you'd be on that mythical blacklist that's pandered about to keep us compliant.
It wouldn't surprise me to learn the recruiters are getting a bit of the shaft from the schools as well. Think about it - they're being given ever-increasing requirements by the schools; more of their recruits are being rejected for one reason ("too experienced") or another ("not a white girl"), and there's nothing they can do about it. You think they're going to complain to the schools? You think they can send that candidate to another school? They'll terminate that recruiters contract faster than you can say kimchi.
FWIW, the US has the same issue of not wanting to pay more for experienced teachers (or teachers with their Master's degrees). The reasons may be similar: decreased budgets, inexperienced teachers being more flexible / pliable / compliant to bend to the school's wishes, etc.
I can't believe you'd be on that mythical blacklist that's pandered about to keep us compliant
The IMMIGRATION blacklist is mythical, although they do place "black marks" in your record if you are deported to prevent your return to Korea for a certain time (5 year maximum, unless they've changed things), vut the RECRUITERS ASSOCIATION blacklist is not mythical. It does still exist and is still accessible on their website, although these days it is hidden, and you need an account with them to access it.
It used to be publicly-accessible until one teacher challenged her placement on it (for defamation reasons). They pulled her name from it, then soon after made the list private. It is still there, though, to be used by schools and recruiters, not by Immigration.
Blacklists exist, and one of the posts I hadn't had time to write these past couple months has been some recruiters' use of them.
I don't know if I'd be on one, my point was just that I think some recruiters would recognize my name and know what I'm trying to do. Instead of just blindly sending me several offers at once like they used to, they'd probably call me up and want to interview, and I'm not really interested in investing that much time in finding out how qualified I am to teach in Korea again.
These 80K teaching jobs in the ME are like unicorns - mythical. Maybe they exist, but the logic to prove they exist is that nobody can prove they don't exist. Those 80K jobs that may exist are for teachers with a certificate, and MA, also a CELTA, 10 years teaching, likely a faculty position, and compound living. Rather, the job pays 40K, and when you throw in the benefits, it works out to 80K if you have 4 kids because they factor those airfares into the salaries. Also, 80K is a flag for security too - hope you don't mind bomb sweeps, you wife in a veil, armed escorts, curfews, etc...
As for the low salaries, well that's economics. Small market pro sports teams do the same - buy the cheap inexperienced ones, sell them high when they develop. It is the same in the business world. Have you noticed, for example, the university postings lately? Less vacation, more hours, higher qualifications, less pay...They do this why? Because they can. That's life.
Really Tho...Why don't people just stop teaching English in Korea to increase the demand = thus, salaries and better conditions. Additionally, teachers could demand better working conditions, etc...
A good question, David. Unless hagwons start summarily executing NESTs there will always be a background level of supply. Guys who want to get it on with Korean women, for example. For some, money is not the end all. They're taking a mid career break.
No doubt, however, worse the pay and conditions get, worse the quality of candidates applying.
RE: David's comment
I think a lot of people in SK teaching stay for very short periods of time. I was at a SMOE training and the drop out rate mentioned was pretty astronomical nationally as well as for SMOE. In short, I don't think people are invested in it enough to organize around it in any serious way.
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