Kid’s College – Seongbuk: Dongseon-dong, Seoul

Listen — you are probably Googling this school because you are interested in working here and want to find out more about the place.

I’m telling you right now, with no exaggeration whatsoever, under no circumstances should you work for this company. Off the top of my head, I can think of 5 former employees who are still owed money from the “Director”, Hye-Jin Kim, and being owed money that you will probably never see is the LEAST of your potential worries.

Where shall we begin? First off, if you are offered a job here, you may notice some interesting wording during the contract. I urge you to look a little further into this instead of writing it off as simply being lost in translation. If you look closely, you can see that some parts were written by an actual professional (who, of course, no longer works there), and that some parts are added in by the neurotic, borderline schizophrenic “Director”, Hye-jin. She has edited the contract to cover basically every negative experience she has had in the past with homosexuals, free spirited individuals, those who don’t like tyranny, and basically anybody who stands up for themselves whatsoever. A large portion of the contract reads something like “If you piss me off or stand up for yourself, you’re going to get fired”.

Shady contract aside, I’m not sure what the current situation is right now, but you might want to ask who you are replacing. If you are in Korea, you should be able to meet the person — obviously a good company would hire a replacement before the old employee leaves. They may tell you that the person “just quit”, but I would be skeptical of this. Many are fired or quit out of disgust.

This company is one of the best examples of Nepotism you can find. Hye-Jin’s mother and father used to run the business end of the company, priming it for Hye-jin to take over. After a falling out, they left it in her hands, and the company has been falling apart ever since, only because of the hard work of her Korean co-teachers. Hye-jin will never be able to accept that she is simply not management material, and not a leader in the slightest. In a slightly less governed society, she would have a mutiny on her hands within a week or two. Nobody will ever follow her; she does not know how to lead, let alone run a profitable business. See: Teachers not getting paid their full paychecks/severance.

I could literally write pages about this workplace. You will be yelled at for no reason during the day. You will be told to do A LOT of extra work that you didn’t sign for in your contract. You will not get your full paychecks on time. They will try to screw you at the end of your contract, if you make it that far. You could cut the tension in the teachers room with a piece of paper. It is not a healthy work environment for anybody who respects their own integrity.

I’m not writing this to badmouth the company. If Mrs. Han or an actual reasonable human being ran the company, it would be great. The kids are great, the employees are generally good people. But Hye-Jin-Kim is one of the most impossible people I have ever dealt with in my life.

Good luck.