Teaching Content Classes instead of Conversation at Korean Universities

Teaching Journalism at a Korean University

A reader question:

"I have several graduate degrees (Master's degrees in Journalism, Counseling Psychology and a PhD in Health Education and Promotion.) My first passion is teaching journalism. Do you think it's possible I could teach any of these courses at the university level or do you think my only option is ESL?"

My answer:

You are certainly well-qualified to teach something besides ESL at a Korean Uni and I'm sure you would do a fabulous job of it. However, the big problem will be finding this job because they are extremely rare and the people that have jobs teaching something besides ESL generally hold onto them for year, after year, after year. And once they do decide to let it go, it's often filled from the "inside," that is someone already working at that uni or a friend of a friend of some kind. These kind of jobs are almost never advertised, from my perusing of places like ESL Cafe.

(Join the Facebook group: Foreign Teachers in Korean Universities)

In addition, you are in Canada now and most of the places that are offering these kinds of jobs will probably want an in-person interview, although you might luck out and get a Skype interview. That said, check out The Chronicle of Higher Education and see what you can find. You might just find yourself at the right place at the right time. Another strategy would be to come to Korea and take any university job that you can get, network with all the right people during that year and make a move up in the world a year or two later.

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Doctorate Degree in Law-Uni Job in Korea from Overseas?

This is a question from a person who read my book, How to Get a University Job in South Korea: The English Teaching Job of Your Dreams, found it helpful and left a 5-star review (as an aside, if you've read the book and liked it, please leave a review on Amazon. It really helps the book's search rankings). Anyway, onwards to the question:

"I am currently working as an attorney in the US.  I have a Juris Doctor degree and a BA in English.  In both college and law school, I did some tutoring and mentoring.  My fiancee is also an attorney, and has a similar background with respect to sporadic teaching.  I know from your book that having a master's degree is helpful, but am wondering if having a doctorate-level degree might help make up for the fact that we are not in Korea presently/at the time of application and don't have experience teaching in Korea.  We are very committed to teaching in Korea and of course would be willing to come to Korea for in-person interviews, but as we are both working as attorneys currently, we don't have the complete flexibility to move to Korea before landing a position."

My Answer: 

While I appreciate the fact that you want to have a change of pace and a bit of adventure, I'm not sure teaching ESL in Korea is the best route for people with such good job prospects back home, such as you and your fiance.

Teaching ESL, and especially in Korea is basically a dead-end with no real chance for advancement into decent "career" kinds of jobs that give you more than a one or two year contract unless you make it happen for yourself such as getting into publishing or through Internet ventures. I myself am leaving mostly for this very reason. I've made it to the top of the Korean ESL world and there's nowhere to go but sideways or down, which is a pretty grim and demoralizing prospect for someone who is only 35 years old.

Korean Uni Interviews via Skype

If you must come to Korea, it really is very difficult to get a university job from abroad. I estimate less than 3% of Korean universities are willing to do Skype interviews.  Sure, having a PhD might help you get a foot in the door, but it also might be a bit of a red-flag because hiring committees will wonder why you would ever want to teach in Korea and you will probably have to spend a good bit of the interview process explaining this. They are used to people with Masters degree in things such as English, TESOL, humanities or arts.

Frugal Living and Early Retirement

Not to be too presumptuous and offer advice that wasn't asked for, but have you thought about just working hard for a few years in America, living extremely frugally, getting yourself set up with investments and then "retiring" and traveling and doing whatever adventures you want to do?  One of my biggest regrets in life is that I didn't study something more useful in university and set myself up for a situation like that. 

Check out these websites for some inspiration:

Freedom Through Passive Income (it's mine!)

My Money Mustache

Early Retirement Extreme

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