Hola amigos!

Long time no talk. Ex-waygook here from Ireland looking to come back to Korea but wondering has anyone had luck with jobs other than teaching?

I've done this already and would like to work in something new for a year out under the working visa and maybe longer.

Office work? Have you heard of any waygooks that have that setup? I remember hearing of this before - and was actually offered one through a friend before moving away. I've been working in an office for the last 4 years and would love the chance to do this in ktown. Obviously the bigger the city the better.

Anyways thought I'd check as this was the de facto hub of info I used back in the day.

Any suggestions /links would be very welcome, thanks.

If nothing else I can always try being a token foreigner on those soaps 

WF

You will teach at a hagwon, you will like it, and most of all, you WILL teach the kiddos to say "Top of the morning, to ya."

So it will be.

It's "top o' the mornin, to ya" ya thick huair!

Me ancestors were Irish Catholic ye old punk!  Top o' the mornin' to ye!!! 

Well, actual I'm not pure blooded.  Irish, Scottish, French, English, French, German, and some very slight native American 2 or 3 hundred years back.  (And my Irish Catholic great grandfather jumped to Protestantism.  But, you always identify with your family name, so there's that.)

As someone who has done E-7 (office) jobs before, it's not worth the hassle most of the time...unless you're a direct hire from abroad with an expat package in the field of engineering/finance/law/high level post graduate research...or you're really high level in your field. I'm sure you've done your research on all the hoops one will have to jump through to qualify for an E-7, along with all the hoops a potential employer would also have to jump through.

Regular "office work" will net you about 2.5-3.5 mil per month with no housing or the usual flight allowance E-2s get. I made more money doing ESL and a few side jobs, which ESL allowed me to do. Once you're in the office, you'll be stuck there for at least 9 hours every day.

Here are two of the sites I remember:

https://www.peoplenjob.com/#!

http://seoulprofessionals.com/

Yeah, I'd only do for 4 or 5 million won a month.  With renewal allowance, housing, multiple school, rural allowance, etc, my pay is already in the upper range you mentioned.  Though I do have endless deskwarming, it's nothing like that.  Though I do realize until recently most esl jobs didn't pay as much as mine did.  Though it seems some hakwon offers are finally going up.  EPIK in cities and some hakwons are still low pay (plus SMOE doesn't give renewal allowance). 

If my housing, overtime, renewal pay, multiple school, housing, 1 plus salary are thrown in together, this year it would average me earning more than 3.6 a month.  But some years are lower due to less overtime.  I guess 3.2 something without housing.  Of course actual monthly pay less but I get the overtime payment in two installments and the renewal amount once a year.  But, an office job for less pay or a hakwon for less pay, not worth it.  But the same pay or more in central Seoul, a hakwon might catch my attention.  Still with inflation, I am noticing it slightly.  I do want to see wages go up for my compatriots and they should be fighting for them to go up or vote with their feet and leave.  2.1 in 2022 is unacceptable.  Upper 2's is a start though pay should be in the 3's and mine for quite experienced should be over 4 which it was several years back with inflation factored in when I first became a 1 plus.  (But the exchange rate is down for most countries lately.  So, that is a pay cut too if you have to send money home.) 

Anyways, an office job for me would have to be 4.5 mil and higher in exchange for the extra work and hassle.  If my current job ended which you never know year to year.  Last year, teachers and schools were annoying.  This year, they seem not so bad and a bit more relaxed.  If my job ended and I were getting 2.1 or even 2.4 or 2.5 mil offers, I'd be gone.  An office job with lots of work for 2.5 to 3.5 per month total and no bonuses?  Nope, not going to happen.  I still think pay should go up for everyone by at least a few hundred thousand in EPIK and that or more in the hakwons. 

Anyways, folks will do what folks will do. 

Just in case anybody cares, if you have kids in Korea, and you're a foreigner, International schools will basically compete to admit you: in order to qualify as an international school, a certain percentage of the school's enrollment must be foreign.
     Because of this, it's quite possible to get some serious scholarships (depending on the number of foreign students that are currently enrolled): I have several acquaintances who have about 95% of there kid's tuition paid through scholarships (thinghs like transportation, books, uniforms etc are usually not covered).

But yeah, there are some very sweet non-teaching jobs out there!
My first year in Korea, I knew a fellow who was an engineer who had basically a palace in downtown Daegu. Up on like the 30th floor, tonnes of pyongage, beautiful apartment with all the latest high tech gadgets etc etc. Of course, he worked like 10 hours a day, and was only in Korea for 2 years, so his mansion in the sky was literally next to empty. He had a mattress to sleep on, a tv, an xbox, a sweet karaoke set-up, and some basic furniture that a uni student would be ashamed of. Great guy though: lost touch when he left Korea, but I'm absolutely sure he's done very well for himself since.