Friday, January 6, 2012

Another blogger's take on Getting that Uni Job in Korea

This article from Ted's Tefl Newbie.  And actually, you should check out the rest of his site too, it's generally pretty good stuff.  However, there are a few points from his article that I don't really entirely agree with.

He says to find a good list of schools (but doesn't link to one!) and then just apply to them all.  This can be extremely tedious, expensive and time-consuming, especially if done from outside of Korea.  And it's not particularly effective, if my own experience is any indication.  A much better bet would be to cruise the Korean Job Boards on ESL Cafe during prime-time hiring season (Nov/Dec +May/June) and apply to any and all uni ads that you see (usually 3-5/day during that period).

He does make the point that it's very difficult to get a uni job without a face-face meeting, or an introduction of some sort.  I agree entirely.  Probably 95% of people get their uni jobs in Korea through in-person interviews.  The other 5% are just lucky.  And a lot (maybe 50%?!) get their job through a friend, or friend of a friend.  I guess it's kind of like anywhere in the world: networks and  connections really do matter.

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