Adventure Teaching is Great but They're not in Control of Everything

And nor should they be.

They do their jobs very well in terms of getting you well prepared to leave with a very well-laid out Visa process. They executed in helping me get here almost flawlessly. They can be a little delayed on getting back but that's understandable given the volume of things they have to deal with.

Getting a visa can have a lot of hiccups and they help you deal with them well.

They only thing I found less than necessary was going through the travel agency, who were not so responsive and didn't treat the last minute nature of getting a plane ticket after going through a big visa process urgently enough.

In terms of the school and Hakwon...well...that's another story. This, in my opinion is largely out of AT's specific control. There is A LOT that can make or break your experience. And just like with any job it all comes down to your "management" for lack of a better term.

In my case, I walked into an absolute circus. It was hands down the most stressful 2 weeks of starting a job in my life.

I could write at length as to why. In summery, I was the only native teacher here for 2 weeks and for the grand opening of a Hakwon literally the second I landed. None of this was AT's fault.

The training for the curriculum was also extremely rushed and confusing. Many of the teachers who came together agreed: there needed to have been more time getting settled here and for training.

Believe the rumors, Korea is an EXTREMELY last minute culture.

So all in all, AT did their jobs well.
Hakwons can be a crap shoot and for reasons that are cultural, or totally individual to that school and the people working there.
Public school contracts will always be better than Hakwons (in my and many peoples' opinions). The contracts for Hakwons are pretty intense in terms of "expected teaching hours".

Just know what you're getting into before you decide to do this.

That does't really have anything to do with AT in my opinion. It seems like they were pretty transparent about the whole thing minus a couple of details that may have been important. In my case the fact that my school was brand new, and that one of the original native teachers backed out (well...she didn't back out per se...that's a whole different story I won't get into) making me the only native teacher for the first week of opening and the first week of school which was easily the most stressful working condition I have ever endured.

So...

AT: 9/10
The Korean Side
Apartment: 9/10
Treatment: 9/10
The logistic of their Business: 6/10
Stress from grand opening: 4/10
Oddities I won't delve into: 5/10

Notes: You get sick? Suck it up. I got picked up before school, a shot in my a**, the quickest doctors appointment and pill prescription of my life and I was back in the classroom teaching ON TIME. There are not off days at my location, barring a SEVERE illness.

Also, AT didn't mention this and they need to. Air pollution. It's serious. Don't let anyone convince you it's not. The Korean staff my laugh it off. Utter stupidity to do so.
Get masks and purify your apartment air properly. Look for "Clean Air Ideas Korea" on Facebook for a smart expat community finding cheap ways to deal with this issue in South Korea.

Overall Average: Round up to 8