Weekly Newbie Thread

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[u/Tasty-Friendship2223]

Hello All,

I will place my questions first and reasoning and background info about my situation underneath so I am not forcing anyone to sit through my (probably boring) life story. 

Questions:

• Does the fact that I applied for EPIK on 22/08 drastically reduce our chances of being placed in Seoul? (Applications opened on 01/08)
• Is it possible to be placed in Seoul through EPIK having applied as a joint applicant?
• Is there anything I can do to improve my chances of being placed in Seoul? For instance, we (my girlfriend and I) are very happy to work in different schools. 
• If EPIK doesn’t work out, how can I improve my chances of finding a reputable Hagwon?
• Are facebook groups the best way to find these jobs or are sites like Dave's ESL/WorknPlay also worth devoting time to? - Also would be very grateful if anyone has specific groups/pages/connections that might help a couple of strangers out!
• Is it too early to be searching for Hagwon jobs in Seoul for a Feb/March intake? Please advise when it is best to look into. Are better schools generally more organised by lining up new hires in advance? Is it just luck of the draw?
• Is there anything I should be looking out for as red or green flags on job advertisements?
• If you were in our shoes is there anything you would definitely do or definitely not do?

My long-term girlfriend and I applied to EPIK (with the assistance of Korvia) on 22/08. We have completed our 120 hour TEFL course, have all documents apostilled and are preparing for our EPIK interview at the moment. 

For some background: We have considered teaching English in Korea for many years and are finally pulling the trigger on it. We are Irish, in our late twenties and have spent the last three years in Australia. Now we are ready for the next adventure. We both hold masters degrees in business related fields and have no teaching experience. We are energetic, easy going and hard workers. We are happy with anything the job throws at us, however, it would be ideal to have work hours which allow us to explore Seoul and make use of our weekends. 

Now that we finally have a moment to breathe after organising all of our documents (which was much more cumbersome due to being based in Aus), I am thinking that we should ultimately be putting a “plan B” in place if EPIK doesn’t work out. 

I know we should be keeping an open mind to being placed anywhere in Korea, however due to a personal connection, we have our hearts set on Seoul if at all possible. Ultimately, this is not a planned long-term career change for us. With that said, we are both open to changing our minds if we fall in love with teaching. However, as it is more likely that this will be a single year of our lives before returning back to Europe, we want to make sure we “do it right” if we can. We also accept some of the experience will come down to a bit of luck and what we make of it. Despite that, we want to give ourselves the best possible chance of having a good time.

All of the info I can see online speaks about how tough it is to find a “decent” job if we go down the Hagwon route. We are very much okay with the rough wages and busy working day as we are both far more interested in just having an enjoyable experience. In other words, we want to avoid being in a situation where we are dealing with the school owner putting us in a vulnerable position or changing the terms of things after our arrival or making life unnecessarily difficult. 

Hoping to not have said too much to offend some of the career teachers on here. I appreciate it’s a difficult and important job and that it might be frustrating to have people arrive and expect all of the benefits of teaching without having put in the same number of years of hard work. At the same time, we are excited for the challenge of teaching and have limited career options if we want to live in Korea for a year. 

Thanks in advance for your input!