Hey everyone!
Soooo if you didn’t see in my last post, I announced that I will be moving to Changwon, South Korea. Moving abroad is a long and tedious process. I know you could easily google it and find out for yourself but I think for my readers, friends, and family it might be more fun to hear my experience with it all: the good, the bad, and the horrifyingly hysterical. I’m gonna do sort of a Q&A format with myself for this one. This post will be split into 2 parts. The first part (this part) will be everything up to me getting the job and the second will be everything after.
Q: First things first, how did I choose Korea?
A: Originally, I really wanted to move to Europe. I thought a lot about Spain since I wanted to practice my Spanish or Portugal since I had already been and loved it. Ultimately, I decided that these choices weren’t for me for a few reasons.
Reason #1: MONEY
Salary and benefits aren’t that great in Europe or at least in those two areas. Most teachers just breakeven which is great. You get to travel around for a year and don’t lose any money. For me personally, I was looking for more than that and I knew I could get it elsewhere. After researching countries in Asia, I decided Korea had the best benefits including: paid airfare, paid studio apartment, good monthly salary, severance, pension, and low cost of living. This would help me to pay of my student loan debt while still living abroad and having extra money to travel around. SOLD.
Reason #2: EXPERIENCE
To be frank, everyone goes to Europe. It is beautiful and amazing and I hope to explore it in much more depth one day. But this was my one real chance to do something crazy and completely out of my element. I wanted an experience that many people don’t get to have so I started searching countries that seemed a little more “extreme” for lack of a better word.
Also, my grandparents worked in the military and lived in South Korea for many years. I had always been fascinated by their stories and their positive experience. They really embraced the culture, learned the language, and loved every second of it so Korea came into my mind quickly once I started thinking of Asia as an option.
Once I decided on Korea, the 3rd reason came into play.
Reason #3: RESEARCH
I did a shit ton of research. Like soooo much research. And by research I mean I locked myself in my room for one month and watched every vlog I could find of people who were/are teachers in Korea. THANK YOU INTERNET. I found so many cool ladies who were living in Korea doing their thing, living their best lives. It inspired me so much that I ultimately decided on Korea before then entering the next phase which was researching specific cities to see which ones seemed like a good fit. This phase was exhausting and tiring. I didn’t go to the gym for weeks. My eyes were glued to my computer screen. I wanted to be so sure of everything.
Here are two Youtubers whose videos I found the most useful:
Melody on the Move
Jessica Moy
I found few cities I was interested in and then went on to the next step!
Q: So, after you decided on Korea and a city, what did you do?
A: There are two general ways you can go about working abroad in Korea.
- EPIK PROGRAM: EPIK stands for English Program in Korea. This is the public school teaching system for expats. I will spoil the surprise: I did not go this route (so my knowledge is limited). From what I understand, this is the safer route because it is more regulated by the government, but they also pay less and you seem to have less control of where you end up. I believe you tell them your top location choices and you don’t find out where you are placed until you are actually in Korea for your 10 day orientation.
- Hagwon: The alternate option (my choice) was a private school. The process here is different. Most people go through a recruiter. I looked online at Dave’s ESL Cafe and responded to multiple listings there where I was then matched with recruiters. I am working with JAKS and have had a positive experience so far.
Q: What is the process of working with a recruiter like?
A: Okay, here is goes. Long list of steps to follow.
Step 1: Initial Interview + Documents
You will have an initial interview with a recruiter. They will ask you about your work experience and your resume. Note: You do not need experience teaching to work in Korea. You just need a BA degree in any field. They will also ask where you want to work and if you have your documents prepared.
WELCOME TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF PREPARING DOCUMENTS! CAN YOU FEEL THE FAKE EXCITEMENT IN MY TYPED OUT WORDS?
PRO TIP: As soon as you decide what country you want to work in, begin preparing your documents.
I decided last minute and in the peak of hiring season, so I had to act fast (which was costly). The two main things you need to have are your:
FBI Background Check & BA degree
The FBI check was the easier of the two. I got a live scan with an FBI Channeler, which I recommend. You usually go to get the live scan and then have to send it to the FBI, which takes weeks, but doing it with the Channeler allowed me to have my results immediately. Once you have your results, you have to send them to be apostilled. I paid 50 something dollars to have my apostille expedited because it can usually take around 6 weeks if not. So basically don’t do this last minute, if you don’t want to spend extra money to make it happen fast.
Then you have to get your degree notarized and apostilled as well! Woo hoo! There went another 60 something dollars of my hard earned cash. Since I had just graduated, I didn’t even have my physical copy of my degree yet. It took about 4 weeks after graduation to come in the mail so the whole process has been rushed.
I can not reiterate enough to start the process as early as possible.
Step 2: More Interviews
Your recruiter will match you up with private schools based on the area you wish you work in and then you will interview with the director at the school. They will offer you the job. The best advice I received was: Don’t feel forced to take the first one. There are so many jobs and so many schools waiting for you.
My first interview was great so I was instantly called to take it. I probably would have until they told me the person I would have been replacing decided they wanted to keep their job after all.
So, it was back to the diving board.
The next interview I had was AWFUL. They couldn’t Skype with me because their computer was broken and they asked me approximately 3 questions.
‘What’s your work experience?”
“Have you ever been to Korea?”
“Are you Asian because your last name is Lee?”
Oh, and a fourth question “Do you have any questions for us?”
Which I did, lots of them.
“What does the daily schedule look like?”
“What kind of breaks will I have?”
“Will I have prep time?”
etc.
The lady couldn’t answer any of the questions because she was new. Fine. Then she asked the director of the school who refused to answer my questions and told me to ask my recruiter (who doesn’t work for the school). She told me “She hoped she would see me in Korea,” and that was that. It’s was a HARD no (hard meaning BIG) from me.
But minutes later I had another interview with a different school that was great and ta-da I have a job in Korea!
TAKE YOUR TIME.
PRO-TIP: MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ASK
CAN I TALK WITH SOMEONE WHO IS A TEACHER AT THE SCHOOL!?
They will give you a point of contact and you can ask them the real stuff you want to know and get a real not sugar coated answer. One of my coworkers stayed on the phone with me for nearly an hour as I asked her tons of questions and I still message her now with any questions that come up. LIFESAVER.
Okay that’s it for now! If you read this far please leave a comment or a like on this post, I want to thank you! I hope I explained thoroughly and entertainingly. Like I mentioned before, I will be releasing a part 2 to this post once I finish all of the steps for my visa!
Peace & Love,
Anna
- Anna Goes Adventuring - 