International students face linguistic exclusion, limited options, lack of support when finding jobs in Korea

Korea has opened up borders to more foreigners to work and study in its companies and schools. Korean universities have benefitted from the influx of international students, which led to globalization numbers reaching an all-time high.

Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies' Career Development Center website offers services in English. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Korea has opened up borders to more foreigners to work and study in its companies and schools. Korean universities have benefitted from the influx of international students, which led to globalization numbers reaching an all-time high.

According to the data released by the Ministry of Education in December, there were 166,869 international students enrolled at Korean universities and colleges as of April 1 last year, marking an increase of 10 percent from a year earlier and exceeding pre-pandemic levels. The number is the highest recorded since 1998 when the data was first compiled.

The universities with the most international students were Hanyang University, with 6,999 international students, Kyung Hee University (KHU), with 6,912 and Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU), with 6,676. Yonsei University came in fourth place with 5,248 at its Seoul campus and 678 at its campus in Songdo, Incheon. These four universities alone attracted more than 26,000 international students.

Although some of these students hope to work in Korea someday, they face barriers, ranging from language, religion and the lack of information.

To transition from a student to a salary-earning worker efficiently, students can get assistance from an organization they can trust in a country far from home.

The Korea JoongAng Daily sat down for an interview with three international students to hear their stories of job-searching experiences in Korea.

Malaysian student Anis Fadleen poses for a photo in front of a track field at Kyung Hee University. [ANIS FADLEEN]

Language barrier in the Korean job market

Anis Fadleen, a Malaysian student majoring in applied chemistry at KHU, initially came to Korea hoping to work at a company in Suwon, Gyeonggi, where many technology firms like Samsung have their factories stationed.

"In Suwon, not every company is foreigner friendly. So when I ask for more information about a job, they don't reply to my emails or messages," Fadleen said. "There were also a few situations in which I was asked to open my hijab if I wanted to work."

Because of the linguistic and cultural hardships she faced while job searching in Korea, she has no choice but to plan to go back to Malaysia to join a business firm there. Unfortunately, to her dismay, her university has a career center open for all university students but only for those who speak Korean fluently. The center provides many mock interview opportunities or seminars. However, the announcements are solely in Korean, and the programs are all held in Korean, thus less accessible to international students like Fadleen.

Fadleen said the center needs to provide language-related help for international students, noting the language barrier is the biggest obstacle for her to find career opportunities in Korea. She said even a method of translation would be helpful.

"I would like the career development center to provide any type of information that is related to the international students' field and if possible, translated into English also," she said. "If a whole program cannot be installed, I would honestly be satisfied with simply being provided a helper to guide my way through the barriers of the Korean job market."

She added she didn't think to utilize the career center because she is "not sure of the programs offered by the faculty and mostly because the programs are only open for Korean students."

Sungkyunkwan University’s Career Development Center website is only offered in Korean. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

No specific career development center dedicated to international students

Surprisingly, despite the large number of international students in Korea, there are not many university career centers that are specially catered to provide information specific to these students' needs, especially at the undergraduate level.

SKKU does not have a specific career center dedicated to international undergraduate students. Although SKKU's Career Development Center offers a wide range of services and resources to support students in their career development, like personalized career counseling sessions, assisting students in exploring career paths and setting goals, they are all in Korean.

These services are not provided in English, and when trying to navigate through the center's website, while the initial home page is translated into English, pages for specific programs are only available in Korean. KHU's career center website is similar in this regard.

KHU's career center said it had not received any request to create a separate platform for international students, adding, "Most international at our university hope to go back to their home country after graduation."

"There is room for change ... if students make individual requests," it said.

The center also said that the university is trying its best to accommodate every student's needs.

International students need career resources not only for jobs in Korea but also overseas, as they face not only language barriers but also a lack of network overseas.

Alland Dharmawan, an Indonesian second-year graduate student at the Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) at Yonsei University, believes he has benefitted from the GSIS's guidance and resources.

"Due to my limited proficiency in Korean, I occasionally encounter challenges in finding job opportunities," he said.

"I had the opportunity to attend one of their events where I listened to other fellow international students who had completed an internship program in the previous semester. Hearing their experiences was both insightful and helpful."

Yonsei University's GSIS displays a better case of career aid catered for international students. GSIS understands the significance of accessing job opportunities, both within Korea and internationally. To support international students in their job search endeavors, the school offers access to exclusive job postings and recruitment events tailored to their unique needs.

GSIS's commitment to providing international students with career assistance includes career counseling, networking opportunities, internship programs, job postings, resume and interview preparation, alums support and skill-building workshops that collectively empower international students in their career development.

Indonesian graduate student Alland Dharmawan, left, poses for a photo with friends at Yonsei University. [ALLAND DHARMAWAN]

Limited job options for international students

"I see my Korean friends with similar capabilities able to work in the sectors that they wish to work in the future. Although it is part-time, they are getting second-hand experience and are networking with the people that can be helpful to them in the future."

Yuki Tadao, an international student from Japan in her second semester at SKKU, wanted to find job opportunities during her time here. But the only jobs that she could find were not professional and required manual labor, which would not help her resume in the long run for her professional career. She said she would like more information on the internship opportunities at trading companies in Korea.

"Because I am Japanese, I would like to work in the trade sector for the trilateral relationship between China, Japan and Korea," she said. "I am aware that Korea has many trading companies, and that is why I initially came to Korea to study. But it has been very difficult to find job positions in that specific sector for me. If I use a private company for internationals to find internships or jobs there, it could probably be much faster and successful, but it can be very burdensome on my bank account."

Japanese student Yuki Tadao poses for a photo at Sungkyunkwan University. [YUKI TADAO]

BY STUDENT REPORTER RYU JI-HYO [kjd.kcampus@joongang.co.kr]