Reputable ESL Recruitment Firms in Korea

I thought I'd answer here instead of on the Thailand thread ;-)

When I was in the same position as you, the best advice I got was this:

All recruiters are basically the same, they are trying to get their commission by fixing you up with a job - ANY job. So they will tell you what they think you want to hear.

By all means allow the recruiter (or indeed, several recruiters) to find suitable positions for you, but then you must do your own homework and not believe everything they tell you about the job. You absolutely must get in contact with current and/or former foreign teachers at the school, to hear from them what the school and job are REALLY like.

Usually the school director or recruiter should be able to put you in touch with current and former foreign teachers .... if they are evasive about doing this then alarm bells should ring.

Good luck anyway - where in Korea are you hoping to go?

One thing that you should be aware of is that programs such as Epik are recruiting for public school teaching positions, and, in this part of asia at least, those jobs begin in March, which is why they have February start dates ( for orientation).

Other positions that begin anytime/anymonth are for private (after-school) academies, and the jobs are very different in some ways.

Public school teachers get much longer vacations (the plus side) but also have much bigger classes (the minus side, from my perspective).

I can't very well compare the two types of jobs as I have opted to stay with the private (hagwon) field, but it is a rather major decision that you should be aware of, and one that you can research before moving forward with your job search.

Cheers guys. Basically I've started liaising with a number of recruiters and am still in the early days because it's very back and forth every couple of days due to the time difference. I'm familiar with differences between the public/private routes alright and I'm still not 100% sure which I would prefer. I've been told that teacher treatment by the higher-ups can be a bit better in public schools but the thought of teaching large classes is a bit daunting and I also reckon discipline could be a bit harder to maintain in public schools a) because the classes are bigger, and b) because they're parents aren't dishing out coin to send them for extra classes so you can't rely on the parents to help ensure they behave.

As far as where I want to go Dominic, I'm not really that pushed. I understand it's competitive enough for Seoul and Busan so I'l probably settle for any half decent sized city that's within a couple of hours commute to Seoul so I can take off on weekends. It would however be a major plus if there was a bit of an expat scene around to keep from going crazy on my own.

It's very much a personal thing, but having been to both Seoul and Busan on a number of occasions I can honestly say I wouldn't want to live in either place. Happy enough to live in my "small" city of 500,000 people, and head to Busan (35 minutes away) or Seoul (4.5 hours away) at the weekend when need be.

Korea is small enough, and public transport unbelievably efficient and relatively cheap, so you can get anywhere very easily.

If you are not sure which way to go--public or private--then I'd suggest choosing the public route as they have much longer vacation periods.

Any mid-sized city in Korea will have expats (fellow teachers), but if you want real nightlife you will have to go to a big city.