Finding jobs in Korea can be difficult for foreigners living in Korea. The coronavirus has not helped matters not just for foreigners living in Korea but all Koreans. South Korea’s unemployment rate (4.0%) hasn’t been this high since 2010. However, this number has been calculated in a conservative way as the Korean government still regards most non-regular workers (temporary/independent contractors/freelancers) as employed.
2023 newly elected President Yoon Suk Yeol plans to grow South Korea’s economy by relaxing corporate regulations while supporting entrepreneurship. He aims to shift the focus of South Korea’s economy towards the private sector to create more jobs and strengthen the middle class. However, the main cause of unemployment is that many businesses are shutting down due to government mandates. Many have already noticed a sharp decline in job postings on many Korean job platforms.
Thankfully, there are a number of Korean tech startups that help with finding a job in Korea. There are also startups in Korea that are focused on building skills to help people get hired in Korea.
Here are 10 startups in Korea that help with Finding Jobs in Korea
Wanted
A tech startup in Korea Wanted is great for finding jobs in Korea. It is Asia’s first referral-based job platform. Their site allows users to refer their friends and earn cash rewards if they are hired for at least 3 months. Furthermore, Wanted helps connect users to companies not just in Korea but also in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan. Therefore, Wanted is not just a web job portal but also has a mobile app. The amount of cash given is based on the seniority of the job position. In addition, Wanted works with over 3,000 businesses mostly related to tech. Many tech startups in Korea, as well as more established tech companies in Korea, use Wanted to hire tech talent.
Wanted makes money by charging companies a 7% cut of the candidate’s annual salary. If the candidate does not last the full three months then Wanted to refund 80% of the commission fee to the company. If you make a profile on Wanted you will receive personalized job recommendations. Furthermore applying for jobs in Korea is easy with their one-click application function. We recommend joining their MatchUp Service which will allow you to get invitations for interviews. It uses AI technology to match your resume with startups in Korea that closely match your skills. Many of the big Korean startups like Coupang, TOSS, NAVER, and others frequently list job postings on WANTED. In addition, the Wanted App is free to use and download.
Korea Professional
The Korea Professional Platform is a great place to find great companies and career opportunities in Korea. They offer a job board that is constantly updated with the latest non-teaching job openings. The KP Platform does the work of screening and analyzing the entire Korean job market and delivering the company’s information to you. They have the largest collection of information regarding global companies in Korea. In addition, they are creating a foreign community to communicate on a professional level in Korea. Job seekers, startup entrepreneurs, freelancers, employees, and even students can join the platform’s forum to learn, share, and connect.
Korea Professional is also in the process of creating a wide range of services for foreigners in Korea to support them with services such as legal advice and mentoring. In addition, Korea Professional plans to hold face-to-face networking events towards the end of 2021. This will give foreigners living in Korea a great opportunity to connect with local companies that are willing to work with English-speaking professionals.
Vast Email Contact List
One of the major benefits of Korea Professional is access to a direct mail address of HR or the management department for companies you might be interested in. All information is verified and in compliance with data privacy protection regulations. Foreigners looking for work in Korea need to use Korea Professional. Just go on their platform and find the company you would like to work for. Access their profile information and get the email or contact for their HR department. As you can see, this is not necessarily a job board. Korea Professional screens and tracks job offers in Korea in English. They provide you with the information to point you in the right direction.
1st Edition of the KP Employment Guide in Korea
Through the KP platform, you will be able to find hundreds of companies to contact and everything will be in English. However, KP also offers a paperback book that has some of the top companies recruiting foreigners in Korea. In addition, it offers insights from industry experts working in Korea. Those looking to enter the job market in Korea should give this Employment Guide in Korea a try.
Hirediveristy
Hirediveristy targets foreigners in South Korea looking to work for Korean companies. Job boards in Korea do not offer an engaging user experience for foreigners who do not understand Korean. Hirediversity was created by Sungkyungkwan University Graduate students to bridge the gap between Korean companies and qualified job seekers in Korea. While most come to Korea to teach English, Hirediveristy offers non-teaching jobs from Korean companies that want more diversity on their team. Positions on Hirediversity are sorted based on Korean fluency. Whatever stage a learner is, Hirediversity has positions available. With a growing foreign population in Korea, there is a hungry market for this service.
This is a great platform for international students seeking jobs in South Korea. They offer guidance in regards to not only finding jobs but also advice on visas and labor relations in Korea. They have already helped over 500 international students find jobs in Korean companies. In addition, they have carried out campaigns with over 200 Korean companies to hire international talent. Their aim is to simplify the process with IT technology and the data they collect.
Rocket Punch
Rocket Punch is Korea’s largest business network. Users can create their own profiles and meet experts from different fields, including developers, designers, and even investors. The site has over 45,000 companies and startups with new job postings uploaded daily. However, the key benefit is that Rocket Punch has a network of over 150,000 business professionals in Korea. Therefore it is a great place to find business-related information to grow your career. Job seekers can look for jobs related to corporations or startups. In addition, searches can be filtered by industries, skills, roles, and salary. It is one of the top platforms companies in Korea use to find qualified employees. Therefore it does not hurt to set up a profile on Rocket Punch to reach out to startups in Korea. There is a chance that a startup in Korea will contact you through Rocket Punch.
Aroundus
Tech startup in Korea Aroundus is a social job board/recruiting platform optimized for temporary workers and freelancers. The company kicked off its business in the media entertainment industry. Finding jobs in Korea can be difficult for those looking for part-time/temporary work. Freelancers and part-timers can easily create a profile on Aroundus to apply for jobs in Korea and receive job offers, interviews, and audition opportunities. The core benefit of Aroundus for job-seeking users is that users can effectively show off what they’re made of in creative ways beyond what text-oriented online profile pages of other services can deliver.
Recruiters can significantly save time and cost on screening applicants. In addition, they can proactively search for ideal talents just like how people search for online vendors that sell specific items customers want to buy on open eCommerce markets like Amazon or eBay through search results filtering and sorting features.
Unlike existing services, people can find your Aroundus profile by keyword search using talents and skills keywords such as “acting” or “singing”, or projects you have worked on such as a film, drama, TV show, and music. Furthermore, they can search by appearance keywords such as tall, long hair, and cute, so Aroundus can definitely help you maximize your online exposure in many ways.
Multimedia-rich Online Profiles
Its service provides a multimedia-rich online profile to allow viewers to instantly understand your talents & skills and your proficiency of each skill and supports social interaction features such as a project experience validation system and recommendation rating features that help you to appeal to yourself as either a prepared and skilled talent or proven talent. Therefore Aroundus helps you to grab attention from industry people which increases your chance of getting work opportunities. The other perk is that well-made profiles are featured in the “Highlights” section for a week with no charge or extra effort. Therefore, with a customized URL of your Aroundus online profile, similar to Instagram or LinkedIn, you can share your most up-to-date and accurate online profile with friends and industry people via messaging apps and emails.
Aroundus holds public auditions and recruiting events for different industries for jobseekers in Korea. For those looking for part-time or freelance jobs in Korea, especially in the media entertainment industries, or who want to apply to an online audition contest for a chance to win cash prizes, it would be worth taking the time to create your own profile on Aroundus.
JobPlanet
A tech startup in Korea JobPlanet is a Korean online platform that provides job-seekers with crowdsourced information about the strengths and weaknesses of companies, as well as job opportunities. Before finding jobs in Korea, one must do their research. Furthermore, Job Planet has a strong data analytics team (HR Labs) to gain more insight into corporate HR and to provide reliable information for job seekers in Korea. They constantly publish reports about corporate culture and employee benefits just to name a few.
Job Planet has more than 3 million monthly active users and has already received over 18 million in funding. Therefore, check out Job Planet to get data regarding employee satisfaction levels for corporate companies in Korea as well as turnover rates. Former and current executives and employees of Korean companies anonymously evaluate and post reviews on Job Planet.
Data on Top Foreign Companies to Work for in South Korea
JobPlanet has been able to gather data and reviews regarding companies in Korea with the best working conditions. The data was based on reviews and ratings by former and current employees from 2018. It is broken down into three segments. These three segments are CEO approval rating, employee work/life ratio, and corporate culture. Here are the results below.
Top 5 Rated CEOs in South Korea
- Won Jai-hyung, CEO of Tokyo Electron Korea
- Kim Young-sun, CEO of ASML Korea
- Yang Jung-yul, CEO of Kantar TNS
- Colin Clark, CEO of Subway Korea
- Oh Dong-wook, CEO of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Korea
Top 5 Corporations with the best company Culture
- ASML Korea
- Tokyo Electron Korea
- GM Korea
- Robert Bosch Korea
- Ikea Korea
Top 5 Companies with the Best Work/Life Ratio.
- GM Korea
- Robert Bosch Korea
- Ebay Korea
- ASML Korea
- Ikea Korea
Rezi
Rezi is a tech startup based in Korea that specializes in resume writing, cover letter writing, career consultations, and job solutions. Their platform helps job seekers create smarter resumes that are optimized to pass Application Tracking Systems. An applicant tracking system commonly referred to as ATS is a software application that enables the electronic handling of recruitment needs. Furthermore, ATS filters a candidate application automatically based on given criteria such as skills, past employment, experience, education, and keywords.
Before finding jobs in Korea, make sure your resume will pass ATS. Rezi has an experienced team of professional resume writers that will help create industry-specific resumes. In addition, users can make unlimited edits to their resumes once they order Rezi’s preferred service. Rezi also has a wide range of resume templates to choose from.
“I started Rezi to give job seekers a resource which makes it impossible to not create a perfect resume. We help Korean job seekers start their global careers by giving rigorously-researched, accurate, and convenient resume solutions, career consolations, and more. We see Rezi as a bridge between the job seeker and their global aspirations,” said CEO of Rezi, Jacob Jacquet.
Multicampus
Korean startup Multicampus focuses on HR and career-related education for Koreans. They are an affiliate of Samsung and they focus on education in the fields of IT and language. Multicampus is Korea’s largest educational service provider and is great for learning skills to help in finding jobs in Korea. In addition, they offer top-quality educational content to companies in Korea.
Multicampus’s Power by We workspace at WeWork
Powered by We a service that provides WeWork’s service strategies was created to target multinational companies and enterprises. The aim is to design, construct, and operate a client’s company’s workspace at WeWork. It is the fastest-growing business sector in WeWork. Six floors of the Seolleung WeWork building are dedicated to promoting collaboration with Multicampus.
“This contract will be an opportunity for Multicampus to introduce global level innovative space designs into education and it will raise next-generation talents’ level of satisfaction and efficiency of education. MultiCampus will build an education ecosystem leveraging the global network so that Korea’s talented people can grow further,” said CEO of Multicampus, Yeonho Yoo.
For their corporate customers, they focus on cross-consulting and collaboration on content production. For Koreans looking for career advancement in Korea or employee training. Visit Multicampus.
OPENKNOWL
OPENKNOWL is an online career management system for those working in the IT sector. They offer a wide selection of camps and mentoring programs that focus on IT service planning, web technology, and algorithm development. They offer a 2-week online job experience internship program. It allows you to experience the business practice by performing tasks presented by the company. Through the submitted corporate tasks, companies in Korea can get a better idea of potential employees. Furthermore, candidates can be certified by the executives for their competency.
Using Recruiters and Headhunters in South Korea
Many have probably tried using recruiters or headhunters in South Korea. One important thing to note is that for foreigners who can’t speak Korean, the number of jobs will be very limited. In fact, most of the recruiters and headhunters in Korea will not be fluent in Korean. In addition, many will ask for your resume in Korean. Foreigners looking to work in Korea who can’t speak Korean will need to target recruiters who can speak English and recruit for global companies or global-minded startups.
A Few Things to Know about Recruiters and Headhunters in South Korea
Most recruiters and headhunters in South Korea are paid on commission. This does not come out of your pay but rather would be an added expense for the company that hired you. The commission is around 20% of your base salary, so many will try their best to get the best offer possible. This is why it is not uncommon for recruiters in Korea to ask you to add additional information to your resume. It is important to take advantage of their suggestions because they know what it will take to get the job.
Many of the top companies in Korea like Coupang and Samsung have their own internal recruiting team that seeks out talent instead of hiring a staffing agency. Global companies like Netflix and Amazon also have their own recruiting team in Korea. Most of these companies will be looking for candidates that are fluent in both English and Korean.
For foreigners looking for positions that don’t require you to know the Korean language, target recruiters on LinkedIn that post in English. If they ask you to re-submit your resume in Korean even tho your Korean level is low, that is a bad sign. Clearly, they don’t understand what you are looking for. There are many global companies and global-minded startups in Korea that don’t require a high level of Korean. These are the companies you need to target and your recruiter needs to know these are the only ones you are open to.
