Wow That Was Fast

Well, this whole process went real quick. Don't get me wrong, I started my job search back in February and this is now September, but the actual submitting my resume to the recruiter to being offered a job was fast. I sent my resume on July 3, 2008 and the first offer was made on July 31, so under a month of emails, phone interviews, and negotiations and I have a job offer from overseas.

Nothing was real difficult about any of this. I had to refine my resume (eg. make it look like I know what I'm doing), send in a photo, and write an easy essay from several broad topics (mine was on the U.N.). The first interview from the recruiter was more to pump me up (the recruiter only gets paid when I sign on the dotted line), so that put me on the private school, Korea track in the teach English overseas race. An actual recruiter from CDI contacted me after the Aclipse headhunter forwarded my resume, picture, essay, and recommendation to them.

Here is where the real fun begins. Aclipse staffers were located in New York or San Fransisco, so it was an easy timezone conversion. The CDI recruiter, however, is in Korea, so we are now playing 16-hours-ahead-of-me phone-tag with the possibility of international calling rates. I knew when I was being contacted by them because it was past dinner time and the caller ID displayed UNAVAILABLE. What glee did I have knowing that someone, somewhere very far away thought I was qualified for whatever they wanted me to do and were willing to pay for it! The recruiter was nice and informative and helped to pump me up some more and work out the best offer. Now is as good a time as ever to let everyone know (I didn't at the time) that in 2007 there were 30,000 openings for foreign English teachers in Korea with one 17,000 applicants, so this processes shouldn't be that stressful.

So after working all that out, here I am. I really couldn't believe how easy the process was, but the speed definitely impressed me as well. From the offer on was a definite crunch as well, the visa process, but that too was even quick.

Let's Get the Party Started

Okay, I know I have been lacking, but here goes. I'm kicking it in South Korea for a year as a foreign English teacher because I was poor with nothing better to do (guess which was a deciding factor). I'm working for CDI Holdings through the recruiter Aclipse. CDI seems to have their stuff together with hierarchy, course outlines, multiple branches, and future expansion plans; all the things that many other hagwons (private English learning schools) seem to be missing. As far as this blog goes, I want to try and answer as many questions as one would have about living/teaching in Korea so I don't have to respond to as many individual inquiry as possible.

So lets start a list:
- Hiring process
- Work visa
- Renegociating
- Lost luggage
- The people
- The locations
- The fun

Lets see where this goes and let me know if there is anything else you want to know: cck@oddidea.com