Case Study: South Korea for Overseas Job Seekers

By Zen Parry

This is the time of year when South Korean universities are finishing up decisions on filling their numerous fall vacancies.

Why all the openings? Because somebody else left. Indeed, lots of people just left. But there is a larger story behind this cycle, as there often is when Westerners are recruited into foreign institutions.

Although the details of that larger story may be different in each country, the "job hunter beware" sign should be the same.

Applying for a position in Korea can appear similar to any other hiring process, with applicants submitting their résumés, cover letters, publications records, and other documentation. Korean institutions follow similar accreditation standards as American universities, so they balance doctoral hires with applicants who have lesser qualifications. But that is about as far as the similarities extend.

The first signs of divergence between appearance and reality may emerge at the interview. What nobody tells job applicants is that if their panel is primarily made up of Koreans, then the criteria for hiring are radically different from those of a similar panel of foreign professionals. In the Korean culture, there is strong emphasis on "harmonization" and less emphasis on qualifications. In many Western cultures, the emphasis is on developing unique personality traits and professional skills, and being confident in one's opinions. The Koreans will be looking to see if an applicant is likely to harmonize within their system, while the foreigners on a panel will be wondering if the person could actually do the job. But the twain shall never meet, as usually the foreigners will not be asked their opinions about the interview.

Another tip on getting through the interview stage: Don't talk about change!

Foreigners are not being hired to bring in change. In many instances, their role is to add window dressing to a program to demonstrate a commitment to internationalization, which is a domestic game of one-upmanship in Korea rather than a true national policy. Foreigners who are native English speakers have value and will usually teach in English, but they are not being hired to save the Koreans. Their job is to continue more of the same, with a good accent and a nice suit.

Proof of this will come at the second faculty meeting. The first one will usually include newcomers, if they have been invited. After that, their lack of fluent Korean will be viewed as a burden, so the meetings will happen without them. That can be a gift.

Many times the bait of tenure is dangled in front of a foreign hire. Numerous professors have been promised tenure only to have the rules mysteriously change right before the decision was supposed to be made. Although about 5,000 foreign academics are employed by Korean higher education, very few of them have tenure. If tenure is part of their package, applicants should clarify the process for achieving it, and then be prepared for some bait-and-switch.

Understanding the context around hiring a professor, Korean or non-Korean, might help a job-seeker's decision. Two thirds of Korean academics are hired as part-time faculty, generally because it is cheaper for the university than to bring faculty on board full-time and give tenure. (Sound familiar?) Foreign professors are hired as "full-time," which is part of their visa status, but that full-time status does not guarantee a lengthy career of teaching and research. There are two standards at play.

In fact, being hired full-time is a mechanism that allows full-timers to work in the country, and also be terminated without notice if their teaching evaluations do not hit the right score. The code word for being fired is "non-renewed." Sometimes that message is delivered without any conversation. Having to tell someone he or she is not being renewed is stressful to Koreans, and such confrontation is not part of "harmonizing," so they prefer using e-mail.

To understand the future of the Korean job market, applicants should know that Korean higher education is at a crossroads. Frequent reports discuss the population's low fertility rate and the unsustainable boom in new universities. Over the next two decades the forecast is that many of these newer institutions will be forced to consolidate, merge, or shut down because of falling enrollments. Also, the cost of education in Korea has increased sharply over the last 15 years, and many Koreans believe that for about the same cost they can get a higher-quality education abroad. The net result: Korea is realizing that its "bell jar of education success" is running out of air.

Korea is hiring. There is no mistake about that. In 2009, the country began its World Class University program, which had the key goal of importing high-quality scholars. If you have your Nobel Prize medal framed and ready to travel, go straight to the front of the interview line. This project is hiring foreign professors at a rate almost three times higher than in previous years so that sponsoring universities can qualify for government money for broader World Class University projects.

Anyone who gets a job offer should consider other key issues that will not be talked about at the contract signing: the quality of housing and the quality of academic professional life in general.

Strict Korean rules determine the size of housing. And many people are moved, without notice, in their first year of joining a university. One colleague I know has been moved every six months in his two-year contract, with each move a downgrade.

The Korean system for allocating housing is designed on the Korean social order, but the results do not usually match the lifestyle expectations of foreigners. Families are heavily favored over single people. A foreigner married to a Korean national with a young child hits a sort of trifecta, making for both better housing and an easy hire. Less paperwork is required because such foreigners usually have a residency card, are thought to be already "culturally sensitized," and are considered less likely to leave unsatisfactory situations because they have their families in tow.

As for expectations about professional satisfaction: If job seekers are looking for a teaching gig and a lifestyle that lets them save money to pay off their student loans, then Korea is a decent place to be. Academic salaries for foreigners usually roughly match those of the United States. (That puts them at twice the pay rate of most Koreans, leading to resentment.) But if foreigners are looking to continue the academic aspirations they had prior to arriving in Korea, then those expectations might need some adjustment.

Foreigners do leave on short notice. Some have a choice, some don't. But job seekers really can find a position one or two months before the semester starts. It is how someone feels after the first term ends that determines the rest of the contract. Half full or half empty? Sometimes you have to let the glass stand still and let the contents settle, to see if it is drinkable.

Zen Parry, of Australian origin, lectures on entrepreneurship in South Korea.