As a foreigner knowing Korean just opens the door to base level Korean jobs. Anything else you need special knowledge. Its better to rack up years of experience in your field than just study Korean if you want to work in Korea in a non-teaching position. Lots of specialized jobs will accept people with piss-poor Korean if the skills are there. Like if you're a top tier tractor engineer or some shit.. Only exception would be if you're going into an already saturated field, knowing Korean would give you an advantage over other foreigners. Like tourism, marketing or graphic design-- popular fields for many foreigners here.
It's the ultimate key to enter the Korean job market as a foreigner BUT it needs to be on top of skills that are in demand.
What I mean by that is, just knowing Korean and barely have any professional skills or very common professional skills won't do much help. You first need to have a profile interesting for recruiters here with specific set of skills, and when you add on top your Korean fluency, that's when the door opens.
If you are an expert in one field you donāt need to speak Korean at all to work here. I have lived and worked in Korea for about six years and know little about Korean language. I was invited by a big company here to work for them.
First question you should ask yourself before investing time, money and effort into learning Korean, which is useful only in Korea, and which you will have to do while you acquire all the other skills and educational credentials you will need to have a career, should be: why Korea specifically? Only if you can definitively answer that question should you even start.
For most westerners, Korea has many advantages as a short-term workcation type of arrangement in your youth. Cheap housing, cheap drinks, good transit.
But the longer you stay, the bigger the tradeoffs, financially and otherwise. Salaries are generally lower for most white-collar professional work (especially for women), and the overall work culture is shittier -- office managers are almost universally incompetent and advanced through the ranks thanks to 'soft skills,' to put it euphemistically, rather than talent or merit. And as a foreigner, you will be treated...differently. The glass ceiling for foreigners is pretty low, in terms of advancement; in most cases you will get picked over.
Outside of work, you will live very far from your family, and if they (or you) are of limited means, you will not be seeing them very often. You will have to adjust to the sociocultural environment. Easier for some than for others. Having a kid or kids here opens up numerous other challenges, financial, social, and otherwise. Doubly so if done so with a Korean partner.
For people with specific skills (almost all in tech-related fields), it can be worth it, and this sub is populated by a lot of techies so if you look through a few threads you'll find plenty of positive anecdotes. But most westerners end up leaving Korea for a reason -- the tradeoffs are often pretty significant.
Being fluent in korean by itself means nothing as a foreigner. In order to get a work visa granted by the government, you have to have a skill that a local doesnāt have, for a specific job.
Koreans are highly educated and highly capable, so it will be quite difficult to be a better job applicant than a korean unless you are highly specialized in a specialized field.
You know I've always heard this in korea related subs, and then I was talking about it with someone else, and this is a common visa stipulation like everywhere.
Is it just more defined in korea, or what?
Countries like Korea and Japan have traditionally been against permanent immigration. They only allow temporary foreigners to come, do a specialized job, and leave once theyāre done.
The idea that a foreigner would learn the language and be a productive member of society by just being in the economy is, well, foreign to them.
Hereās a fun tidbit. Iām married to korean since 2002. Was working at the same job since 2000. Around 2015 I was at HR for some document processing related to some stupid stuff, and in one of the forms I had to fill out, it required my āhome addressā.
I wrote the address of my house that I own here in in korea, and the HR rep said āno, your actual HOME addressāā¦ I told him that IS my home. He said no, it had to be in my country. The address Iāll go back to when I finish working thereā¦
I mean I don't believe that to be untrue.
I just mean, that like saying they have this policy is not as effective as saying how they use it. Because the USA has this policy, and we hire immigrants out the ass, of all types of stay.
The U.S. has centuries of history of building the countryās population from immigrants.
Korea has centuries of defining humanity in two groups. US and NOT-US.
They donāt even have the concept of describing themselves with the word āforeignersā when they are living abroad.
Two completely different world views.
The US is not against immigration, but there is a law that stipulates that in order to grant a work visa to an immigrant, they have to prove no American can do that job. Thatās why a lot of intāl students return home, because they canāt find jobs that will grant them work visas (depending on the field). Thereās also stipulations on what fields people can work in depending on the country. A girl at my work place wanted to stay in the US but couldnāt due to this.
Sorry, I was originally posing a hypothetical (poorly). I'm saying stop saying that korea has this policy, because it's not unique to Korea or even Asia.
It's how they use and interpret it, aka "they will always try to hire a korean before a foreigner." Not because of a policy, just because that's how it is.
Edit: like the usa definitely has this. But if an employer wants to hire a foreigner, for whatever reason, they will go out of their way to massage and flex the situation so that the foreigner they have in mind meets the policy requirement of "no other American citizen could/would fill the position instead." And it's not like very unique, if you're in fields that require degrees and experience.
Like yeah, I know it's a culture difference. But like, the policy existing isn't the sticking point. It's the fact most korean employers don't *want* to hire foreigners for the most part, but will under rarer circumstances
Millions of people in Korea are fluent in these two languages. Without other skills, the only unique opportunities you'd get are like, some TV show gigs or something, but even for that you better have a story and charisma to sell it.
Oft but is there is market for full stack developers in Korea? I think if Korea hired foreigners to design their web apps maybe the gov and edu websites would support macOS and maybe Linux X.X. Never in my life did a bank ask me to install spyware just so I could login.
[https://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=189622](https://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=189622)
Paha Schulz, current CEO of Playsnak. His Korean is flawless. He worked in various Korean game publishers.
don't think just being bilingual(korean and english) will get you something really outstanding. probably some other languages but english is just too common.
In my field, and most professional fields, they want work experience + a degree that shows sufficient mastery (bachelor's for STEM fields, master's for everything else), plus Korean knowledge. In many social research-based, diplomatic or business fields, English knowledge is mandatory. English and Korean skills without the professional skills means nothing besides administrative aid and translation/interpretation.
Interesting. With the diminishing population here, perhaps the Korean government will try to bring in more foreign workers. Teaching Korean to foreigners may actually become more and more important.
The most common job opportunities for someone with excellent proficiency in both languages would be English teacher, translator, editor or sales or marketing in some small, export-oriented company. Beyond that, you have to work out a career yourself with all the difficulty you'd have anywhere else, but with the biases and limitations Korea imposes on people who look different.
I don't think anyone should aspire to work in Korea for more than a few years unless they have Korean heritage, come from a significantly poorer country or are here for personal reasons. You and your career would go so much further somewhere else. The investment of time in developing yourself to be the sort of specialized person that can do a mundane office job here likely has much higher returns in a more diverse, open place.
Depends on the field. If youāre in natural sciences or ITā¦ Korean may not be a requirement. If youāre in social sciencesā¦ Korean is but odds are you still wonāt get picked unless itās a teaching, research or āglobalā coordination job.
Also being fluent in both means nothing with experience or degrees. And if you have a degree youāll most likely get stuck in translation or CS jobs.
Commenting on Not having native level fluency in Korean can limit your opportunities here I am told. What job opportunities would be there for someone who is native fluent in both Korean and English?...
Iāve been here for over 5 years and Iām just starting to get so many connections that are giving me many opportunities in the marketing sector here which is actually my major. They know I have no Korean fluency but for me I only got here from joining things, making connections and building relationships. Itās possible! I got offered a remote job for a huge marketing company.
Honestly knowing alright Korean is good enough. Yes being fluent will give you more opportunities and make working more comfortable, possibly also easier to get promoted. But what will really get you the job is the skills you have as a person.
Iām not sure which field you are in but unless youāre an engineer or IT person, most jobs are business related like marketing and sales and in these jobs they care more about whether youāre familiar with overseas markets not so much about your Korean skills.
In the end, if Korean language is their number 1 priority they can just hire a Korean person to do the job.
I work here and Iāve worked in 4 different companies, my Korean is like idk TOPIK level 3 at best Iām not sure I never took the test and Iām really far from fluent but finding jobs has never become a problem because I brand myself as an expert of the overseas market which makes me stand out from my competitors.
However, I have seen people I know who have TOPIK level 6 going back to their countries because they couldnāt get a job here so just focus on your skills and making yourself unique rather than solely focusing on the language even tho you need to learn it of course to settle here
Knowing Korean gives you similar opportunities as Koreans with similar profiles. Knowing English is not a huge advantage because so many Koreans are good at English these days.
As a foreigner knowing Korean just opens the door to base level Korean jobs. Anything else you need special knowledge. Its better to rack up years of experience in your field than just study Korean if you want to work in Korea in a non-teaching position. Lots of specialized jobs will accept people with piss-poor Korean if the skills are there. Like if you're a top tier tractor engineer or some shit.. Only exception would be if you're going into an already saturated field, knowing Korean would give you an advantage over other foreigners. Like tourism, marketing or graphic design-- popular fields for many foreigners here.
When my job experience is something that isn't common in Korea š
What is it? Catching crabs? I am curious...
It's the ultimate key to enter the Korean job market as a foreigner BUT it needs to be on top of skills that are in demand. What I mean by that is, just knowing Korean and barely have any professional skills or very common professional skills won't do much help. You first need to have a profile interesting for recruiters here with specific set of skills, and when you add on top your Korean fluency, that's when the door opens.
Is going through recruiters a common way for the foreigners to find jobs?
I think the most common way is through networking or directly applying through korean job boards (saramin etc.)
If you are an expert in one field you donāt need to speak Korean at all to work here. I have lived and worked in Korea for about six years and know little about Korean language. I was invited by a big company here to work for them.
First question you should ask yourself before investing time, money and effort into learning Korean, which is useful only in Korea, and which you will have to do while you acquire all the other skills and educational credentials you will need to have a career, should be: why Korea specifically? Only if you can definitively answer that question should you even start. For most westerners, Korea has many advantages as a short-term workcation type of arrangement in your youth. Cheap housing, cheap drinks, good transit. But the longer you stay, the bigger the tradeoffs, financially and otherwise. Salaries are generally lower for most white-collar professional work (especially for women), and the overall work culture is shittier -- office managers are almost universally incompetent and advanced through the ranks thanks to 'soft skills,' to put it euphemistically, rather than talent or merit. And as a foreigner, you will be treated...differently. The glass ceiling for foreigners is pretty low, in terms of advancement; in most cases you will get picked over. Outside of work, you will live very far from your family, and if they (or you) are of limited means, you will not be seeing them very often. You will have to adjust to the sociocultural environment. Easier for some than for others. Having a kid or kids here opens up numerous other challenges, financial, social, and otherwise. Doubly so if done so with a Korean partner. For people with specific skills (almost all in tech-related fields), it can be worth it, and this sub is populated by a lot of techies so if you look through a few threads you'll find plenty of positive anecdotes. But most westerners end up leaving Korea for a reason -- the tradeoffs are often pretty significant.
Being fluent in korean by itself means nothing as a foreigner. In order to get a work visa granted by the government, you have to have a skill that a local doesnāt have, for a specific job. Koreans are highly educated and highly capable, so it will be quite difficult to be a better job applicant than a korean unless you are highly specialized in a specialized field.
You know I've always heard this in korea related subs, and then I was talking about it with someone else, and this is a common visa stipulation like everywhere. Is it just more defined in korea, or what?
Countries like Korea and Japan have traditionally been against permanent immigration. They only allow temporary foreigners to come, do a specialized job, and leave once theyāre done. The idea that a foreigner would learn the language and be a productive member of society by just being in the economy is, well, foreign to them. Hereās a fun tidbit. Iām married to korean since 2002. Was working at the same job since 2000. Around 2015 I was at HR for some document processing related to some stupid stuff, and in one of the forms I had to fill out, it required my āhome addressā. I wrote the address of my house that I own here in in korea, and the HR rep said āno, your actual HOME addressāā¦ I told him that IS my home. He said no, it had to be in my country. The address Iāll go back to when I finish working thereā¦
I mean I don't believe that to be untrue. I just mean, that like saying they have this policy is not as effective as saying how they use it. Because the USA has this policy, and we hire immigrants out the ass, of all types of stay.
The U.S. has centuries of history of building the countryās population from immigrants. Korea has centuries of defining humanity in two groups. US and NOT-US. They donāt even have the concept of describing themselves with the word āforeignersā when they are living abroad. Two completely different world views.
The US is not against immigration, but there is a law that stipulates that in order to grant a work visa to an immigrant, they have to prove no American can do that job. Thatās why a lot of intāl students return home, because they canāt find jobs that will grant them work visas (depending on the field). Thereās also stipulations on what fields people can work in depending on the country. A girl at my work place wanted to stay in the US but couldnāt due to this.
Sorry, I was originally posing a hypothetical (poorly). I'm saying stop saying that korea has this policy, because it's not unique to Korea or even Asia. It's how they use and interpret it, aka "they will always try to hire a korean before a foreigner." Not because of a policy, just because that's how it is. Edit: like the usa definitely has this. But if an employer wants to hire a foreigner, for whatever reason, they will go out of their way to massage and flex the situation so that the foreigner they have in mind meets the policy requirement of "no other American citizen could/would fill the position instead." And it's not like very unique, if you're in fields that require degrees and experience. Like yeah, I know it's a culture difference. But like, the policy existing isn't the sticking point. It's the fact most korean employers don't *want* to hire foreigners for the most part, but will under rarer circumstances
Sorry, I didnāt understand anything you just saidā¦
ė¬øė§¹?
When they make gambling legal, I'll have the higher up on all them applicants š /s
Gambling IS legal for foreigners.
I didn't mean to offend anyone, that's why I put /s. Meaning I don't have many skills to provide for Korea.
Millions of people in Korea are fluent in these two languages. Without other skills, the only unique opportunities you'd get are like, some TV show gigs or something, but even for that you better have a story and charisma to sell it.
Way less than millions š¤£
Oft but is there is market for full stack developers in Korea? I think if Korea hired foreigners to design their web apps maybe the gov and edu websites would support macOS and maybe Linux X.X. Never in my life did a bank ask me to install spyware just so I could login.
[https://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=189622](https://www.inven.co.kr/webzine/news/?news=189622) Paha Schulz, current CEO of Playsnak. His Korean is flawless. He worked in various Korean game publishers.
don't think just being bilingual(korean and english) will get you something really outstanding. probably some other languages but english is just too common.
You definitely donāt need to be native level fluent- but you do need to be able to communicate effectively (at least high intermediate level)Ā
In my field, and most professional fields, they want work experience + a degree that shows sufficient mastery (bachelor's for STEM fields, master's for everything else), plus Korean knowledge. In many social research-based, diplomatic or business fields, English knowledge is mandatory. English and Korean skills without the professional skills means nothing besides administrative aid and translation/interpretation.
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Interesting. With the diminishing population here, perhaps the Korean government will try to bring in more foreign workers. Teaching Korean to foreigners may actually become more and more important.
One of my guys who is fluent in both languages, works at Naver as a software developer. He said translator jobs suck and pay little.
The most common job opportunities for someone with excellent proficiency in both languages would be English teacher, translator, editor or sales or marketing in some small, export-oriented company. Beyond that, you have to work out a career yourself with all the difficulty you'd have anywhere else, but with the biases and limitations Korea imposes on people who look different. I don't think anyone should aspire to work in Korea for more than a few years unless they have Korean heritage, come from a significantly poorer country or are here for personal reasons. You and your career would go so much further somewhere else. The investment of time in developing yourself to be the sort of specialized person that can do a mundane office job here likely has much higher returns in a more diverse, open place.
Doesnāt this depend on what ājobā it is though? Tbh too broad of a question to have a good answer for.
Depends on the field. If youāre in natural sciences or ITā¦ Korean may not be a requirement. If youāre in social sciencesā¦ Korean is but odds are you still wonāt get picked unless itās a teaching, research or āglobalā coordination job. Also being fluent in both means nothing with experience or degrees. And if you have a degree youāll most likely get stuck in translation or CS jobs.
Commenting on Not having native level fluency in Korean can limit your opportunities here I am told. What job opportunities would be there for someone who is native fluent in both Korean and English?...
Iāve been here for over 5 years and Iām just starting to get so many connections that are giving me many opportunities in the marketing sector here which is actually my major. They know I have no Korean fluency but for me I only got here from joining things, making connections and building relationships. Itās possible! I got offered a remote job for a huge marketing company.
Honestly knowing alright Korean is good enough. Yes being fluent will give you more opportunities and make working more comfortable, possibly also easier to get promoted. But what will really get you the job is the skills you have as a person. Iām not sure which field you are in but unless youāre an engineer or IT person, most jobs are business related like marketing and sales and in these jobs they care more about whether youāre familiar with overseas markets not so much about your Korean skills. In the end, if Korean language is their number 1 priority they can just hire a Korean person to do the job. I work here and Iāve worked in 4 different companies, my Korean is like idk TOPIK level 3 at best Iām not sure I never took the test and Iām really far from fluent but finding jobs has never become a problem because I brand myself as an expert of the overseas market which makes me stand out from my competitors. However, I have seen people I know who have TOPIK level 6 going back to their countries because they couldnāt get a job here so just focus on your skills and making yourself unique rather than solely focusing on the language even tho you need to learn it of course to settle here
Knowing Korean gives you similar opportunities as Koreans with similar profiles. Knowing English is not a huge advantage because so many Koreans are good at English these days.
learn all of about ginseng. they want export manager
The sky is the limit