By I signed a contract with SMOE – the Seoul school board – a week or so ago. Between now and then, my time has been taken up with incredible headaches caused by my graduate school program and the school. It’s a long story and resolved and I blogged about it at my site…
The news today is that I’ve been offered a contract at a university as well. Now, I (and my wife) have to decide which offer to take, and it is not a clear-cut decision.
There are a couple of unknowns that could make the big difference.
Location
The SMOE job is obviously in Seoul.
I’m not sure about the university. It isn’t at one of the two top schools in Korea, but it is at a known, respected school in Seoul — but – it has a branch in another city about an hour and a half from Seoul.
(I also noticed Yonsei Wonju campus has a job opening – next March – and they are already advertising for it…which is odd)…
If the univ. job is in the sister city, it will make my decision easier. I’ll most likely take the SMOE job so I will have an easier time doing work with NK-related NGOs.
School
The problem with SMOE is – they won’t tell me what school or even level I’ll be teaching at until after I arrive and go through orientation. I mentioned this before: from the interview, it seemed they will probably put me in a high school – which matches my MA degree and US teaching experience —– but I will not know until late…
If they give me an elementary school, I’d likely back out, regroup, and start over job hunting – this time in country.
With the university, I know the age I’ll be teaching, but not subject. Someone at Dave’s said the job was for a new TOIEC program. I think I’d rather have my teeth drilled…
Teaching high school will not be a walk in the park — it isn’t in the US and that is my career field — but it ain’t TOIEC either…but I don’t know if the person at Dave’s has a clue or not…
Another person at Dave’s said he knew someone working at the school and that their classes had been seating 50+ students per class…that would also not be terribly enjoyable – even though high schools have 32-38 (or about the same as a large American high school).
Money
Then there is the money…and here is where the university job picks up steam:
SMOE has me at the 2nd tier level at 2.6 mil per month with free, individual housing.
The university is at 3.3 with no housing but a 0.5 monthly housing allowance.
The way I figure it – if I add 0.5 + about .25 a month (key money value) to the SMOE job, it rises to 3.35 vs. 3.55 for the univ. (3.8 – .25 key money value per month).
My Wife
My wife is one of those people more along the lines of Chickenhead’s comment last update in which thinking all this out seems like too big a headache or sign of advanced worrying. — For me, it is like putting one foot in front of the other —- it’s just routine by now…
But, the point is, my wife isn’t much help making the decision…
She’s set on SMOE mainly because that offer came in first and she’d rather not spend the time weighing all the variables…
And since my wife has the biggest say in controlling the money in the family (otherwise we’d have none day-to-day), I’d have to talk her out of key money if I go the university route instead of SMOE - as she’d prefer…
Conclusion
I sent an email immediately after I got the email offering the job at the univ. I asked them what campus the job was for and what is the typical housing arrangement for people already on the job.
Hopefully, I’ll hear back from them by the end of Monday at the latest, because SMOE should be coming through with the Visa paperwork and number soon, and that will be the point of no return…
…but at least this type of problem is a good one to have — picking between better choices, not having to create them…
3:30 am on August 1st, 2009 1
I assume since it’s university work you’d have something around 15 hours per week, right? With SMOE about 30, right?
Reply
4:16 am on August 1st, 2009 2
I believe so. 18 for the university and regular day for public school – both with some teaching duties during breaks – with the public school’s being English camps…..and I’d assume the public school is with a co-teacher and university is solo…
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 4:34 am
The public schools is 4 to 5 classes a day – listed as 20-22 hours a day.
Reply
5:17 am on August 1st, 2009 3
Oh Great. We get to hear more whinings about how bad Korean peoples are. Why not make another web site to tell the whole world how evil and dirty Koreans are.
Koreans are evil but you don’t mind taking their money.
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 7:12 am
blah blah blah…
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 7:35 am
Tom, go back to your mad cow protest blog. Employment options do not degrade the Korean people, you do.
Reply
9:45 am on August 1st, 2009 4
A lot of people might think it’s a bit dishonest to sign a contract when you plan to break it. I guess you’re assuming no one at SMOE who gives a hoot reads your blog. Or the university. You might find yourself without any job if you advertise too widely that you sign job contracts without any strong plans to honor them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for taking care of no. 1, and I don’t owe any prospective employer anything except doing the job I agree to do for an agreed-upon amount of money. But I would do my shopping before I accepted a position, not after.
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 10:16 am
That’s not the norm in the ESL market in Korea.
The norm we might consider in the US or elsewhere isn’t the same for the ESL industry in Korea where they are hiring a lot of overseas people in a process that takes up a considerable amount of time. It makes no sense for a job seeker to shop for one position at a time.
It’s not unusual for a prospective employee to find a better position during the process and back out. It’s also not too unusual to hear about schools backing out at the last minute on a client even after the contract is signed.
As I noted in the post, the point of no return for the ESL industry in Korea isn’t the signing of the contract but the processing of the Visa. Once they have gone through immigration to get your Visa number and you’ve taken it to the local consulate and gotten the Visa stamp issued — then you are locked in.
The school could still drop you since you aren’t in country, but you can’t change without them releasing you from the Visa.
The system has been that way for a long time.
All these public school jobs and the system to recruit for them is newer to me, but from reading SMOE’s description of the job and application process, they have had their fair share of people backing out even after getting the visa and arriving in Korea.
SMOE states that if you refuse a job placement, they can void your visa and set it so you can’t get a position with them again.
Which means they’re not telling people what they will teach ahead of time has resulted in enough cancellations at the last minute to create such a warning. It also means that they have had people balk at a school and reluctantly agreed to find them a different position.
From a few things I’ve read at Dave’s from people who’ve worked for SMOE and the other regional school boards, they recommend you stick to your guns — even on things like the free housing that is provided if it isn’t up to your standards. (On that one, since it’s free, I pretty much believe you stick with what they give you unless the rats in the place are the size of small dogs…)
So, I wouldn’t feel the least bit guilty if I took another job before getting my visa.
I’d feel somewhat guilty if I backed out after arriving in Korea. I’d have to do some heavy thinking.
But, I’m a high school teacher. Not elementary school. SMOE and these other places hire many, many people without teaching experience or a degree in English much less TESOL.
If I were one of those inexperienced BAs, I’d just be happy to have the chance to work and live abroad. But I think I offer SMOE enough to warrant being somewhat picky on the level I want to teach.
It makes little sense to put someone trained and experienced with high school in an elementary school or an elementary school teacher into a high school…
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 11:15 am
Here is a recent example I read yesterday at Dave’s:
http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=162254
The person signed a contract with EPIK but without his knowledge the contract was shifted to SMOE and then SMOE dumped him without the option of going back with EPIK.
I also saw another post at Dave’s that said 100 teachers who went through EPIK were shifted to SMOE.
I don’t know the details of the EPIK program — specifically – whether or not they allow you to specify a province or other area designation you prefer to teach in — but since it is for the whole country, being shifted to Seoul specifically is not a terribly big deal, but it is still disconcerting to have that happen after you’ve signed the contract —
— but this is the ESL industry we’re talking about…
And if EPIK does allow you to specify a region you want to live in, and you are familiar with Korea and had a specific region in mind, and especially if you have in-laws in country you’ll be visiting periodically, being shifted from – say – Busan to Seoul would be a very big deal…
…perhaps it wouldn’t be such a big deal with the average ESL instructor coming in, because they haven’t been to Korea before and are not as focused on specifics as veterans tend to be.
Reply
8:27 pm on August 1st, 2009 5
If you’re interested in NGO work then the university gig would certainly free up your time. Depending on the university (i’ve seen no mention of the name) it is possible to have them front the key money up to 100 million but you pay the interest on it…basically you would be paying 400,000 won for rent every month.
SMOE, my friend, now working at my university, worked for them for a year and a half. For the most part the experience was positive but it was a real time sucker because of all the other duties that were piled on. He was basically working from 9 to 9.
TOEIC is not that bad, I just finished teaching TOEIC writing. If you like teaching writing then it can be rewarding.
ANyhoo, to me it would be a no brainer. I’d take the uni gig.
Good luck!
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 9:35 pm
Thanks…
I’m going into the SMOE gig with mostly the mentality I would going into an American high school like where I’ve worked. It usually isn’t a 9 to 5 job. It is a career.
Which is why I have made living inside Seoul and not nearby the highest priority: weekends might be the only blocks of time I can devote consistently to the NGO effort, and I don’t want to waste 2+ hours in round trip travel time getting there.
I think either way I choose is going to be about equal. And the decision will be made soon. The SMOE visa should come through in the near future. And if I don’t hear back from the univ. by the end of Tuesday, I’ll probably just decline the position so they can locate someone else sooner rather than later since they start in September as well.
Reply
August 1st, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I didn’t think about the writing part…
In fact, in the interview, they did ask me about my experience teaching freshman composition as a TA in graduate school in the US. They also asked me if I was familiar with the difference in writing style between Korea and the US.
I had actual done some research reading in the early to mid-1990s on that for a paper I did in that graduate school mentioned above. A couple of students focused on Korea, and it was interesting.
Every once in awhile, in the English versions of the Korean newspapers, you’ll see an editorial written that matches exactly the kind of development I read about in those studies…
Reply