So! Let's begin with how we actually managed to get our jobs to become English instructors in South Korea.

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For teaching English in Korea, many people have to go through recruiters. These recruiters are paid through commissions, which they receive from schools after they are able to get someone to sign a contract with said schools. When recruiters are able to place someone in a school, often a private school, then the school pays them a "recruiting fee" to the individual recruiter. Recruiting companies usually hire many different recruiters, who then work with individual applicants.

We aren't sure of the general amount of money per commission, but we have heard of it running from around $50 to $100, though some are likely to receive higher commissions depending on the school. In some contracts that private schools provide, if the instructor leaves early or breaks contract, they will have to pay the school back this recruiting fee as well as many other expenses, such as the inbound flight ticket to Korea if the school paid for it. For this post, we're going to concentrate on recruiters and talk about the ones that we used.

Here is the entire list of recruiters that we have applied to:

+ Aclipse (ChungDahm Institute only)
+ Adventure Teaching
+ Reach to Teach
+ Star Teacher
Global Recruiting (reached Cal through KakaoTalk)
+ Teach ESL Korea
+ Avalon
+ Korvia
+ Korean Horizons (Public Schools only)
+ HiKorea
+ Great Big Scary World
+ ILoveESL
+ Job in Korea
+ AppleTree

Here are the ones that actually got back to us:

+ Aclipse (ChungDahm Institute only)
+ Adventure Teaching
+ Reach to Teach
+ Star Teacher
Global Recruiting (reached Cal through KakaoTalk)
+ Teach ESL Korea
+ Korean Horizons (Public Schools only)

These were the ones that we were in somewhat regular contact with and provided us with updates and interview offers.

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Cal:
I often used + ESLROK +, + Seoul Craigslist + , and + ESLCafe + to directly apply to jobs. Not many got back to me, but they also usually asked for a photo to be included in the application.

CDI is known for accepting people regardless of what they look like (they're the ones who are most likely willing to accept those who have East Asia features who are not Korean), and the East and Southeast Asians that I knew working as English instructors in Incheon/Seoul mainly worked for CDI, regardless of which recruiter they applied through.

While all three of us applied to several recruiters at the same time and we were all accepted, I never really got offers or responses back after a while (Reach to Teach, Star Teacher). I would wager that they wanted to put more time and effort into people they think would actually get jobs/schools would like to see more. Some stopped email correspondence with me while communicating regularly with the other two so I had to rely more heavily on applying directly to schools with my TEFL/TEYL and saying that I had all of my documents ready. It's pretty understandable since they get commission money for the people they place and if they don't think I'd be placed easily, or at all, then they would move on to the ones they think do have the capacity. Of course, this made for a lot of frustration on my end, and a lot more work.

I found my job through the + ESL Cafe's Korean Job Board +, and later found out that it was not a full-time opportunity, but instead a part-time one masquerading as a full-time one. This is pretty usual for hagwons, as they are able to wiggle their way out of paying for half of the health insurance and pension that they would have to provide if they are hiring full-time employees. There are a lot more things to worry about as a part-time English instructor/independent contractor on an E2 visa, but we'll get to that part later on.

Of course, these are mainly for private schools. If you want to teach at public schools in South Korea, you are most likely going to want to get a TEFL certificate, and with in-class hours, which usually translates to teaching ESL hours. In previous years, in-class hours were not a necessary component, but they are starting to matter a lot now. This means that if you are getting a TEFL, you are going to have to get one in person. No more of those online classes/TEFL-certifications! Getting in-class hours will also mean that your TEFL will be more expensive than the online TEFLs, which you can get for less than $50.

There are several different public school programs that you can apply to depending on your qualifications:

• - TaLK (Teach and Learn in Korea) - Click here to explore the TaLK site! 
• - EPIK (English Program in Korea) - Click here to explore the EPIK site! 

• SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education) - Uses EPIK to hire teachers. 

• GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea) - Also uses EPIK to hire teachers. 

• - GOE (Gyeongnam Office of Education) - I worked with the + Korean Horizons + recruiting company to apply to this. They also do other areas, including EPIK, but at the time, I was too late to apply to EPIK for the fall semester. 

The Korvia's recruiting website is pretty helpful in explaining the differences and qualifications necessary to apply to the different programs.

For the public schools, if you are rejected by recruiting programs, you can definitely apply on your own directly to the programs! I believe that EPIK encourages people to apply directly, as well does TaLK because you have to create a TaLK account first in order to submit an application.

Start early kiddos!