Wanted!

One of those days where you feel desired, admired, and friendfull (as opposed to friendless). I'm talking about the job search, of course, plus having a very enjoyable dinner with my friend Yuri (who-is-not-Russian-but-Korean).

I went to my interview at Hagwon No. 1 as planned, and it went smoothly; a man with the slight Scottish burr asked me a couple questions about how I'd handle certain classroom situations and then straight into the pay (about $16 an hour on the weekends, about $12 on the weekdays) and apologized for only having Saturday hours open for jobs right now.

Flushed with success, I thought, what the hell, I'll call the guy at Kaplan and see what he says. I'd made contact with this guy through an acquaintance in December, so I reminded him of it and when he said, "Oh yes! Right... well, I don't have your resume on hand right now --" I casually interrupted, "Well, as it turns out, I'm in the Gangnam area now and could drop off a copy at your office if you like." So we arranged to meet and within 10 minutes, I had my pick of Saturday hours teaching conversational English to adults at Hagwon No. 1, or a 4-hour-per-day gig starting in March teaching the SAT. Or both!

As I was in her 'hood, I dropped in on Yuri, who is in charge of educational content at Hagwon No. 2, to see if she might want to have dinner, and while I was there, mentioned that I'd been to Hagwon No. 1 and Kaplan, to which she suggested I drop off a resume at the 10th floor of her company. So I marched up and said to the receptionist (in Korean): "Er, I'm an English teacher? And, um, do you by any chance need English teachers?" After which a passing management type stopped and took a resume from me. Predictably, once he saw "Harvard Law School" on it, he said, "Why don't you come see Grace, who's in charge of the preliminary paperwork for employment?" Turns out that they need someone to do one-on-one tutorial-type work and occasional group conversation classes in their Youido office, which is closer to my Korean language school in Shinchon.

So between 3 pm and 6:30 pm today, I essentially got three job offers, and learned again that timing, a polished appearance, and that one-two punch of Yale and Harvard makes the employment road very, very smooth. I'm deeply appreciative of it.

However. With private tutoring (which is illegal), one can make twice what the hagwons are offering. Work less, earn more... hm.

And then there's the KF, which I feel like I'm leading on, as I basically said on Friday that I'd like to work there again, and basically received an offer to do just that. Except that I told my friend Lewis to apply for that position, and he's done so, and I'd feel like a big ol' tool if I took the job back. I said as much to the HR guy there, and he returned, "That's life." I responded, "Yes, but it's up to us to change that, and to act honorably. It starts from us."

Ah, choices, choices. Crushed by the weight of options (as usual), I think I'll go to bed and think about this tomorrow. Lovely to feel wanted, though.