For best results, try and coordinate your application with one of the following hiring periods.
Great teaching opportunities in South Korea are available throughout the year. There are 2 primary hiring periods annually (referred to as the Spring and Fall hiring sessions) and 2 secondary hiring periods (referred to as the Summer and Winter hiring sessions). These 4 hiring periods are when the lion’s share of schools and programs hire new Western teaching staff from abroad.
Employment opportunities in the private school sector, known as hagwons in Korea, are available throughout the year, although the largest number of jobs become available at the beginning of the first and second semester – February and August respectively. May and November, the mid-way points of each semester, are also big hiring periods.
Why do private school hire all year long? Lots of private schools hire 5-10 (some hire 20+) new foreign teachers annually. It would be difficult for them to fill all the positions if they only hired during the start of the semester.
Worth noting: If you coordinate your application for jobs that commence during the peak hiring periods (Feb or Aug) you will have a much greater chance of landing a job in your top location preference. Generally speaking, positions are more competitive during the non-peak hiring periods because job counts are substantially lower while application rates remain relatively high. As a result candidates may need to be more ‘flexible’ with their preferences, such as student age groups, working locations, etc., during the off season. Regardless of when you apply, the Gone2Korea team will obviously do our best to accommodate as many of your requests as possible.
Submitting your application 4-5 months prior to your desired departure/starting date is ideal, but 3-4 months is usually sufficient. This gives all parties (you, us, the school and Korean Immigration) adequate time to address your concerns, secure your documents, complete the visa procedures and arrange your airfare without stringent deadlines.
We also have the capacity to accommodate ASAP placement requests when such positions are available. Assuming you have the required documents at your disposal then it’s sometimes possible to have new teachers in Korea within 3 weeks of their application submission date.
Almost all public schools in Korea hire their new teaching staff at the start of each semester, March 1st and September 1st (commonly referred to as the spring and fall hiring sessions). The main public school program (EPIK) begins accepting new applicants from recruiters 8-9 months before the start of each semester; therefore, if you’re interested in starting in March you can start the application process as early as June of the previous calendar year. Likewise, if you want to start in September you can apply as early as January of the same calendar year.
Jobs in this sector are allocated to successful candidates on a first-come, first serve basis (mostly). Because of this policy people who begin the application procedures early have a better chance of receiving a job offer from a school in one of their preferred working areas (a specific city or province) in South Korea.
Note: Although contracts commence at the start of each semester, new teachers must arrive 7 – 10 days early in order to complete the training and orientation period. Therefore you can expect to depart in mid February (for the spring hiring session) or mid August (for the fall hiring session).
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Gone2Korea is your connection to full-time teaching jobs in South Korea. Western graduates, primarily from the US, Canada, UK, and Australia, use our services to secure jobs with trusted Korean schools, and schools use our services to find and hire enthusiastic teachers from the West.
Worth noting: We’re not a job ‘sourcing’ agency or recruiter that finds new schools on the fly. On the contrary, we work with a select group of schools and programs that we know and trust.
In addition to helping you land a job, we’ll also be helping you with your work visa, departure, arrival, and offering support for the entirety of your contracted term.
Prior teaching experience and related degrees are NOT prerequisites for teaching in Korea. Here’s what you’ll need in order to qualify.
Korean schools and programs offer western English teachers highly competitive benefits packages which includes:
