Getting a Job

Now that you have a recruiter working for you, your job search becomes much easier. In my case, my recruiter gave us several options to pick from and gave us time to look at them. Like anything you do in this process, the most important part is to do your research.

Where can you do this research you may ask? Finding out about a place that doesn't even use the same language as we do is not an easy task. Wikipedia can provide some insight to some cities in Korea, so that might be your first task (some recruiters may even allow you to pick from any region of the country). Lonely Planet and other travel books can be helpful - though I did find the libraries in Victoria only had older versions of the Lonely Planet book and not the various other series of Travel books. Simple search engines can also provide some results, but most of them won't search through Korean sites unless you make your searches super specific. Looking for a particular school online can be fairly easy, though often if a school has a website a recruiter will give it to you for you to check out (even though they are mostly in Korean - or whatever your browser determines the characters are, usually "???" - I found that pictures of students and other teachers can be very telling). There are also several sites out there that "blacklist" certain schools. Don't believe everything you read, but don't ignore it either. If you have concerns, make sure you ask. If you're curious make sure you ask. Just ask a lot of questions, ok?

You will likely also have to make a decision between public and private schools. I will assume that if you've gotten this far you've likely run into one of the many resources on the internet that talks about the differences. Your recruiter will probably give you information on that as well, so I figure there is no point in repeating it here.

If you like a school then your recruiter will contact them with your info and the process is pretty simple from there: set up an interview if they like you, do the interview, the school decides and then you have to decide if you want to work at the school.

As everyone should tell you at this point, don't immediately answer. Take your time to consider the terms of the contract. Read it over. Get your friends and parents to read it over (maybe someone who has a law degree too). Do more research just to make sure. The most important thing though, is to get an email address of someone who has worked at the school or someone who is working there. Ask them questions, but if the school can provide someone who says good things about the school then that is definitely a good sign. If you can make multiple contacts with this person (not just through the email - often teachers in Korea have facebook) then that just assures you that the person actually exists (though I doubt a school would go through all of that trouble just to get someone to Korea to give them a raw deal).

Once you have made your decision, then you should make sure the school finds out (probably through your recruiter). There is still more work to be done, however, before you step in front of your class the first time.

If you have any questions about the process up to this point, please don't hesitate to ask.

Big news is coming soon to this site, so stay tuned!

So you want to go to Korea...

As I said before I want this to be helpful to anyone who might want to go to Korea in the future. So I will begin with some helpful hints to get you started on your way.

Some of you may have your heart set on going to Korea, some may have it as an option and other readers (probably most of you) are just trying to figure out how I got to where I am. The first thing I would suggest to you if you want to go to teach English in Korea is to find a recruiter (or two or three) to help you with your search. There is NEVER any cost to get a recruiter so I would stop talking to anyone who asks for money. Recruiters make their money from the schools in Korea that are looking for English teachers.

I'm not going to say who to go with (I will tell you who I am working with and who has impressed me), but I will give you some tips:

1) Shop around. Find as many recruiters as possible. Generally all of the ones I have contacted are friendly and helpful. Even if you don't use a recruiter, talking to them can give you information that other recruiters don't mention.

2) Ask questions. I've seen it on many recruiter websites so this might be redundant, but if you want to know something, ask. If you're going to committ to moving halfway around the world for a whole year you want to be sure of what you're going to deal with (that being said, nothing is predictable and new experiences can be good for us all - even if they are scary as heck). A good recruiter will be as helpful as possible (I've gotten some pretty long replies - which I find helpful).

3) Talk to other people. If you can get in contact with other people who are doing the same thing, it can be helpful. They can suggest good agencies (and steer you away from bad ones). Facebook could be helpful in this regard if you use it.

4) Take your time. Plan your trip farther in advance. You don't want to be scrambling for a recruiter to place you somewhere in two or three months from now. This is not something you want to rush.

Picking a recruiter can be a fun and exciting way to get the process going. As always with big decisions like this (and I'll stress this later), do your research. Check things that you are unsure of and don't always take one persons word for things.

Two recruiters that I have been impressed with are Canadian Connection (based out of Toronto) and Russell Recruiting (based out of Vancouver). without having committed to either agency they were very helpful. I would recommend at least talking to them or looking into them if you want to go.

If you have any questions about recruiting or looking for recruiters, do not hesitate to ask them on this blog.

Stay tuned for some bigger news about my Korea trip coming in the next few days, accompianed by some new helpful hints.