How Do I Go About the Job Search?

"Research is what I do when I don't know what to do." - Wernher Von Braun

Start Shopping!

First Contact - Contact the school directly and get more information. In fact, contact several schools! Talk to the teachers that work at the school, the more the better. If possible, try to get in contact with teachers who worked there previously. Any school that will not provide you with teacher contacts is likely trying to hide something - move on. Ask lots of questions; the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask.

This is probably the most important piece of advice you will find on these pages - ignore it at your peril!

Take your time! - Again, this is extremely important: DON'T let yourself get pressured into accepting something too soon - and as soon as you start contacting schools, the pressure will start. Be tough and don't cave in too quickly. (It took me 3 months before I found the right job; during that time I received many emails and phone calls, and I rejected many offers, but I know I made the right choice.)

Too many people take the first offer that comes along. Either they're worried that they might not get another offer, or they just get too excited about the coming adventure and want to get going ASAP. Too often, they just end up regretting it later. Remember, the demand for teachers is greater than the supply. You're in the driver's seat.

Read Carefully! - Have the school(s) send you a copies of their contracts. Read them carefully. Take notes and compare. Note the language - does it sound amateurish or sufficiently professional? Have others you know read the contracts with you, they may see something you missed.

Severance Pay: - Virtually all ads will offer a "year-end bonus" of some sort. Sounds generous, doesn't it? However, this is Korean law - ALL employees (Korean and foreign) are entitled to one month's bonus salary (i.e. the average of monthly salaries for the year) for each year of employ. For example, if you work for Hagwon X for two years, you are entitled to 2 months worth of extra pay at the end of your contract (if you didn't already take your first year's bonus at the end of your first year, that is). Make sense? Well, at this point all you really need to know is not to get huckstered by an employer who offers you, say, 2.0 million won/month plus a 1.6 million won end-of-contract "bonus" - Korean labour law says that you would be owed 2.0.

(Having said this, I will have more to say about contracts and workplace relationships a little later...)

What About Recruiters?

Recruiting agencies generally tend to have a bad reputation, although there have been some good things mentioned from time to time about one or two agencies on on the various Korean ESL forums. I know that there are honest, hard-working recruiters out there who do a good job; however, and this is must my opinion, I would personally recommend that you avoid going through a recruiter; take the initiative to do your own research, to learn as much as possible and take responsibility for your own fate. Lots of people have used recruiters and have had no problems, but lots of other people have been duped and misled by disreputable agencies. Ultimately, of course, it's your choice to make.

Should I Go Big or Go Small?

A word about the big chain schools - most operate on a franchise basis, but the local director usually has all the power and there often isn't a great deal of accountability to the mother company. In some instances, though, teachers who have had problems at their local hagwons have contacted their respective "head office" and gotten the situations resolved, which may be an incentive for considering a larger company. In other situations, head office has done nothing.

Sometimes you'll hear horror stories about a particular school/chain in one city, but someone else working for the same mother company in a different city with a different director will have good things to say. That's why it is imperative to speak with or email the teachers who currently work (or worked) at the specific school you're interested in.

The smaller, independent hagwons also come with their own benefits and pitfalls. You will probably have more freedom in planning your lessons, but your resources may be limited. The director will be eager to keep the students in the classrooms and to bring more students in, so you may have some leverage when it comes to student discipline, asking your director to obtain more materials, etc. The director may recognize the need to keep you happy, and there are many stories of teachers being bought gifts and taken out to dinners and cultural events by their bosses just to show their appreciation. However, if you are the only foreign teacher at a school, it may be difficult for you to take holidays and/or sick days, since you will likely need to find someone to cover your classes for you.

Look, there really are no guarantees, and there certainly are exceptions. The larger chains may offer you a sense of security, knowing that there are resources and recourses above and beyond your local hagwon, but some of these "Mom and Pop" hagwons treat their staff very well, almost to the point of being "...like a family". If it were easy, I wouldn't be bothering with all these pages.

Man, Can't You Just Cut the Crap and Tell Me Where the Good Schools Are?

In a word, no. (D-OH!) I'm not doing this for money, after all, and I'm not about to blindly recommend my former hagwons here to all and sundry, and subsequently have them besieged with unsolicited applications from people I know nothing about. Sorry. They treated me well, and I don't want to cause them unnecessary problems.

But there really is no easy answer to that question, anyway. There are literally thousands of hagwons throughout Korea. One chain might have dozens of independent schools around the country, and each one will be operated by a different director in a different fashion. To make a blanket statement that Company X is "good to work for" is simply impossible. One chain, as a whole, might have a better reputation than some others, but it's highly likely that there will be weak links within that chain. The opposite is equally true. You must contact the teachers at the school. It's the best way to get information that you can rely on. No contact info = no deal.

Navigation