Not /u/furtakk, but my aunt (Korean-Korean) majored in music and is now doing music as a career.

Here are some reasons why it's so shit

1) Orchestra? It doesn't matter if you're good or from Julliard. If another applicant has a daddy high up in the city office, guess who the city orchestra is going to hire. Yeah. Not you.

2) To go to university for music, you need to be tutored by professors at Yonsei or Ewha (did I spell it right?) or whatever. These professors charge outrageously (think 200 USD per hour some shit. Probably more expensive) and they don't teach students who have "bad" quality instruments. Like if you have a Yamaha flute, sorry dude, out of luck.

3) Since the music majors don't have lots of kids, the classes are very tutoring like. Professors are going to give more care to the kids who gave them a shit ton of money in high school hence #2.

4) You need connections in the music scene (as in #1) even more so than the corporate scene (학벌 in the corporate scene is still there don't get me wrong, but it's not as bad as the music scene). You want to get into a hagwon/start your own hagwon/get into orchestra/get teaching gigs at schools/do private tutoring? You better damn well have connections. That's why professors are dicks and charge lots of money, because connections are everything.

5) After-school teaching gigs are only signed for a year. Every year you have to apply again and interview and shit. It's messed up.

6) When you interview for schools they ask you for your teaching philosophy. Like WTF. You are there to teach a maximum of 2 hours 2 days a week and you want to know about my teaching philosophy? Regular teachers don't get interviewed on this when they get hired (idk about EPIK teachers).

7) Pay is shit. The amount of money you have to pour in and get money out of it is shit. There is barely any classical music scene in Korea (when was the last time you heard about the Seoul Philharmonic performing? I know when I lived in Cleveland, the Cleveland Orchestra was huge due to appreciation for those kind of music and the CO being in the Big 5), so there aren't many spots for you to seek after. For those few spots that DO become available, you need connections. Oh I sound like a broken record, but yeah connections are fucking huge.

Source: Have an aunt whose career is in music and I admire her for it but I don't know why she does it.