CDI structure

Back when I was considering a position with CDI, I spoke to two different recruiters. The first offered me a few positions outside Seoul, which SY didn’t like. We declined them.

After that, I saw an advertisement by the second recruiter for a CDI position within Seoul, so I contacted that person. It seemed strange that the recruiters would be working separately, but when I asked about it I didn’t really understand the answer. It didn’t seem important at the time, so I didn’t try to clarify.

When I notified the first recruiter that I had found a position that I liked, he offered me a position at a different place in Seoul. SY liked the second recruiter’s location better, so we went with that school.

I think I understand better now. CDI schools are classified into three groups: branches, “branchises,” and franchises.

Branches are corporate-owned and corporate-managed. The oldest and biggest ones are located in Kangnam – a famously wealthy area. Since they have a larger number of students at the higher levels, they generally recruit the best teachers.

(That’s why the first recruiter tried to get me into the other school – because of my MBA, that corporate school’s reputation would have benefited.)

Franchises are independently owned and managed. They meet CDI standards (or at least, are supposed to) and benefit from CDI’s reputation, but are generally smaller.

“Branchises” are a cross between the two. They are independently owned, but managed by the CDI corporation. This is often because their owners failed to adhere to CDI standards on their own, and had to be reorganized. I’m not sure if that’s the case with my school, but it is a branchise.

So, mystery solved. A lot of the internal communication errors between the schools and headquarters are caused by the fact they’re not really internal. The three types of schools compete for highly qualified teachers, and the non-corporate schools often chafe under the somewhat capricious rules forced on them by CDI HQ.

Hm. I’d bet these rules include “new teachers can only get training for one new class at a time.”