I've been thinking and researching about teaching abroad since my senior year in College (2013). I knew about teaching abroad through Fulbright. There was an event held at my college called Fulbright Gateway Orientation. I really didn't know about Fulbright, so I was curious and did some homework. I found out that my college was one of the 10 hosts across the United States by the Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. There is more information about it here: Centenary College. It's basically an event for Foreign Graduate students who were studying in the United States for there Masters or Ph.D. My college was welcoming them to the United States.
After doing some intense research I came across the Fulbright U.S. Student Program. I thought the program was great and decided to apply for it. I would have to say it is a very competitive program. I submitted my application and essays two months earlier before the due date. I had rewrote my essay three times because I was a geek and paranoid. There was also many other components to the application which I have also submitted. The submission due date was around October or November 2013 and the waiting process begins. I had to wait until March 2014 for a response if I was accepted or not. duh...duhh.... Unfortunately, I was not accepted. I did not take NO for an answer.
I did some more research about teaching abroad and came across Korvia. I have read and heard great reviews about this company. I have applied through their website and receive a quick response. My recruiter was Sara. She was a great. She had told me about the requirements that was needed. I kept her updated with my progress, but never seem to get a response back until a month or 2 later. It happened over and over again. I was becoming very impatience.
Here I go again, researching other recruiting companies. I came across Korean Horizon. There service was phenomenal! The response of the email took only a day. Alistair Wery was my recruiter. He was awesome! He went above and beyond. I have cancelled Korvia at this point. Switching to Korean Horizon was the best thing. I have updated my progress with Alistair and he responded the next day. I have felt relieved. I have interviewed for Seoul and Busan. They are highly competitive. I was denied for both position. I have no teaching experience and that was one of the main reasons. I was so discourage at this time and decided to give up. I sent a really long message to Alistair and told him that I was going to get some teaching experience in the States first. Alistair told me not to give up and he said I would get the next one. I went through an interview again and ironically enough I was hired. I was ECSTATIC at this time. I was so happy I finally got a job offer.
This was my crazy experience...Let me know how your experience went.. I would love to hear about it!
