Waygookin or 외국인 in Korean means "other country people" or "foreigner"
And that's what I'll be when I head to South Korea next month for a year of teaching English in the Gangwon-do region of South Korea.
After 13 years in the Architecture profession, I joined the growing ranks of people 'between opportunities' this January. While having a job would have been nice, I saw my first stint of living on unemployment checks as an opportunity in itself; an opportunity to recover from burnout, have time to be healthy, exercise, cook, maintain friendships and focus on important things in life. While the last 6 months has been everything I've hoped for in this regard, the reality of having to find new work has always been there. During this time, I kept my eyes peeled for bearable architecture jobs (slim pickings), while nurturing a backup 'plan B': the option of teaching English in South Korea. I met some folks on a trek in Nepal last December, and they had good things to say about their experience teaching English in Korea.
After the only architecture-related interviews I scored were for a project manager position at a parking garage design company, and a waterproofing consultancy firm, my 'plan B' started looking more like a pretty attractive 'plan A'. Admittedly, sending hail-mary emailed resumes to AIASF and Craigslist postings is NOT the right way to find an architecture job these days... I honestly just don't have the juice to attend mixers, events, and schmooze and network right now in a market already saturated with unemployed architects.
To complicate matters, the additional 6 month unemployment extension I was relying on for a more focused, serious job search was compressed to 6 weeks when I found out in June that the federal stimulus money earmarked for unemployment extensions had dried up.
After the only architecture-related interviews I scored were for a project manager position at a parking garage design company, and a waterproofing consultancy firm, my 'plan B' started looking more like a pretty attractive 'plan A'. Admittedly, sending hail-mary emailed resumes to AIASF and Craigslist postings is NOT the right way to find an architecture job these days... I honestly just don't have the juice to attend mixers, events, and schmooze and network right now in a market already saturated with unemployed architects.
To complicate matters, the additional 6 month unemployment extension I was relying on for a more focused, serious job search was compressed to 6 weeks when I found out in June that the federal stimulus money earmarked for unemployment extensions had dried up.
At this point, I had the following options:
- Find work in Architecture- FAST
- Ramp up my search for an ESL teaching job in Korea
- Roll the dice and hope that congress passes an extension to unemployment benefits
- Move in with the parents
- forage for berries and knife-hunt wild boar
- live off food stamps and homeless shelters
While options 5 and 6 would have made for good blog entries, and option 4 would have made my parents happy, I had to hit options 1 and 2 hard, while hoping that 3 would break through after the Republicans shut their trap about deficit spending.
Almost immediately after finishing an elaborate website, and committing to find some of my own residential projects, I got an email from my recruiter with a job offer for a 1-year ESL teaching contract in South Korea.
With no commitments, no roots, no girlfriend to leave behind (although I can't bring my cat Louis to Korea), no prospects for employment, and a thirst for adventure, I am heading down a new path, open to the new possibilities that await and comforted by the life I have waiting upon my return.
