For those in the know I had a job interview earlier in the week that I've been preparing for a little while. Before coming to Korea I had set two mental goals:
- Study the Korean language and culture trying to become as fluent as possible within a year's time
- Enter the workforce in Korea, working a professional job in Korea using my new-found Korean language skills
Sure some might be a little skeptical, but if all goals were set within easy reach would that be fun? I look at goal setting as a fine line between challenging myself -- by stretching myself beyond my normal means -- and sufficing my Ego as to not destroy my self-confidence. So with that said, it might seem a little ridiculous to some that I would want to try to work in Korea only after studying the language after a year, but in my books I look at it as an attainable goal.
With that said in my network of friends I casually let people know of my intentions to work here in Korea, with the hopes those in my network in-the-know of opportunities would pass along information and leads. A while back my hook got a bite, after sending over a resume and cover letter along with email exchanges over the potential opportunity and garnering interest from the employer, my friend and I managed to arrange an interview that occurred this past Monday.
I set myself to get ready for this interview by building-out a mental checklist of things that I needed to do. Aside from doing proper pre-research on the company, first appearances are everything. So first things first, when my friend Susan told me that she was coming to Korea for 1 week and asked if I needed anything from back home I seized the opportunity by asking her to bring over one of my favourite suits. Now I'm not one for brand names, but this DKNY suit that I bought a couple of months prior to leaving to Korea was just sitting in my closet back home, in a neglected state all by its lonesome. Although when you are required to wear suits, and/or shirt & ties on a daily basis it can get quite tiresome after a while as suits just start feeling like uncomfortable uniforms, when I bought this particular suit it fit like a glove -- nice and snug -- so I needed to rescue and wear it for my interview in Korea. And with that when Susan brought it over from Canada, I felt like I was being reunited with a lost love...(just kidding)
After getting my suit dry cleaned at $7 Cdn (door to door delivery service incl.), getting my shoes polished at $2.50 , and getting my hair trimmed at about $6 (incl. tip as there is no tip) I was pretty much good to go. Hence the transformation began....
Normally I walk around my hasook jib or school looking like:
My Vanilla Ice impression...maybe I'll go by the handle of Banana Ice. I feel like these two pictures are like night and day, but maybe that's just me. And managed to transform myself into business mode once again, getting my roommate to take a picture for evidence.
Notice the glasses for effect. Researches say that wearing glasses adds 20 IQ points to a person's appearance. Although that statement is BS, after being told by my students that I look more intellectual wearing glasses I chose to wear them for the interview for that reason and to add a couple of years to my appearance. (Thanks Sue for bringing me my suit, along with the other snacks and goods)So with my appearance taken care of and after a thorough review of the company's website along with a Q&A; with my friend, I was ready to take own this interview.
Seeing how my schedule was pretty considering that this week consisted of about 5 hours of final examinations spread out throughout the week, along with my teaching schedule luck had it that I didn't have to do much juggling to be able to go to the interview. The only thing I needed to do was to get someone to cover the first hour of one of my English classes allowing me to travel back to the hagwan in time for the remainder of the interview.
Anyone who has tried to give or follow directions in Korea knows that it can be a pretty difficult thing to do, the language factor isn't the biggest difficulty as most street signage in Korea is in English too. Most instructions include some sort of map of the area to get to a particular place, and along the streets of Shinchon on a Friday or Saturday night during the school year students use (green) duct tape, plastic twine, and signage to lead their fellow classmates/student club-mates to the event of the night. So with that said, after making a phone call and a few wrong turns into a few wrong buildings I managed to arrive to the meeting well on time.
One thing I did notice about Korean business style versus North American business style is the level of formality that service and wait staff pay attention to. I usually feel a slight sense of shock when Korean service and wait staff make a habit of approaching you in a full-service style to welcome you and to ask you if you need assistance after which they'll give you a polite deep bow. I've only once received that sort of attention in a small boutique hotel in Manhattan called "The Muse" where they did everything from prebook you by reading your luggage tags, addressing you by name, etc. It's funny what a nice suit and a clean haircut will do to your appearance, especially here in Korea, and with that experience I'm starting to realize why Koreans in general pays lot of time on their appearance trying to look their best at all times.
So when I walked into the office and was led to my seat in the meeting area, I made a mental note to walk in the room with a tall and straight posture, ensuring that every step that I took did not fumble, and that with every swing of my arms I oozed confidence in my stride. I walked into the room to see to be joined with the president and one of his local right-hand men, and based on some advice from my friend, shook their hands after they presented their hands to me first, and taking a seat after they took a seat. I was given a slightly chilled reception, in which a thin ice wall of formality was placed in between me and the interviewers. After a couple of more formal questions around my name, age, and how I found out about the company I managed to warm up the room by getting the interviewers with a few chuckles and a warm attitude quickly melting those barriers.
Age? Yes, that's right...In Korea it seems that a lot of civil rights that we take for granted back home are literally thrown out the window. When people apply for jobs pictures need to be affixed to an application along with your resume; it's okay to discrimintate people based on their sex, age, and nationality as many teaching positions specify females, or no gyopos, etc.; so it's no surprise that my age along with my marital status were one of the first things that I was asked. Marital status? Why would they want to know that? Well, I quickly found out.
I've become accustomed to hearing the questions, "Are you married?", "Do you have a girlfriend?", but some of the questions that I was asked were pretty new to me. Like..."You look like a very charming man Jacob. You have a movie-star like look (edit: I shit you not) and with your soft-low voice you must attract a lot of women. How is your dating life right now? Do you go out on a lot of dates?"
Internally I was thinking, "Why'd he ask me that question?", "What does that have to do with working for this company?", "Did he see my pictures online on my blog?", "What's going on?"
After quickly composing myself I let out a bellowing chuckle and mentioning that my dating life is healthy, giving them the time to respond with..."Oh, this question does have bearing on the job? You see our office that you are interviewing for is actually in quite a rural area where there aren't many single woman around. We think that you might get frustrated living in such an environment. What are your thoughts?"
"Well...", I thought. Fair enough...so I responded, "I understand that fact and although yes I am single and am looking for that special lady in my life, regardless of where I am in the world in always comes down to personalities and who you meet. And the fact that another large city is around, I don't think meeting eligible women would be too hard."
They asked me other questions about salary expectations citing that since the job is in a particular not well-paying industry that I should know that they cannot pay me that much. My response was that I understood the circumstances via our mutual acquaintance that introduced us and that my eyes if I wanted to good money I would either return straight to Canada or I would have chosen to accept the well paying full-time teaching job that I refused the week before (The recruiter from the hagwan interview that I went to about a month ago called me back a couple of weeks ago telling me that I could have the job if I wanted, but for various reasons I said 'No'). I let them know that my main goals (as described above) and that for that I was willing to take a major sacrifice in pay, as long as a dynamic opportunity was available,which provided future growth potential while also allowing me to garner International work experience. He seemed to like the answer as we moved on to some other questions.
I do have to say that was the most unique interview that I went through in my life. Aside from the questions about my dating life and age, I did get my first taste of Korean business. During the meeting the president had taken a couple of cellular phone calls. Rather than taking their own calls or doing or taking care of important business, the business men all junior to the president just sat around reading some brochures, asking me a few time-killing questions...and in general waiting for the president to finish his calls. Hrmmm...is it no wonder why Korean business men and women work ridiculous hours? I'm sure a lot gets done, as you can't just measure effectiveness of work simply by hours put in... But, I know that I for one would rather be sitting at home by 6-7pm having dinner, or at the gym, or simply just chilling out...rather than being in the office cooped up because I burned a few hours during the day waiting for others to get off the phone.
I'm sure that's just one of many things that I will learn about the Korean style of Business. And to help me out with my studies I bought a book called,
"Korean Business Etiquette" by Boye Lafayette De Mente to help me out.
Wish me luck.
