Work In Korea as a Foreigner – Foreigners Jobs in South Korea!
In this article we will share to you informations about work in Korea as a foreginers – Foreigner jobs available in south korea. If you are hoping for opportunity to work in Korea then this is for you.
While it was the norm that most foreigners start out as a students, both international or exchange students, yet the number of those who came to work in korea is steadily increasing over the past few years.
Work in Korea as English Teacher
English teacher is the most in demand and easiest way to get a job in korea for foreigners. If you are native in English, then it is gonna be easy for you to get a job as an English teacher in south korea.
How to get jobs in Korea as a foreigner
If you are not came from a native english speaking country, then you can also apply for another jobs in korea. It might not be as easy as English teacher, but it is still possible for you. Here’s some things you might need to get a job in South Korea.
F - visa
The best way to get a non-teaching job as a foreigner in South Korea is by having an F- Visa. This will help your company and yourself to work in korea as they don’t need to provide you with a sponsored visa. However you can only get this F visa by marry with korean or stay in a korea for quiet a while.
Graduate from a Korean University
The other best way to get a job in south korea is by graduate from korean university. By doing this, company will favor you more than others because you’ve demonstrate you’re able to adapt and immerse yourself with both korean culture and korean language.
Fluent in korean language
If you are able to speak korean language fluently and you have a special ability or skills that korean company need such as doctor, pilot, IT / Web developer or another skills in tech industry, then this will help you a lot. Many Korean company are willing to sponsored those with special skills and especially if you are able to communicate in korean language.
Get a Job in a company that have Branch in Korea
This one is a good, safe and better way to get a job in korea, because you will first start off showing yourself worthy of the job you’re doing. Then you can just learn korean language and ask your boss to migrate you to their branch in Korea. It will be safe both for you and for your company.
Where to find jobs in Korea for foreigners?
Here’s some place where you find your dream job, apply for the position and company you wish to work for.
Job Fair
Korea hosts a job fair for foreigners annually. There’s two type of fairs you can apply for based on your identity, as a foreign residents, or international students.
Craiglist
Craigslist – This is a hit or miss type of job portal. However, the job advertisements are usually in English and the employees sought after are definitely foreigners. It may not be where you find your dream job, but it’s likely the least intimidating site to start with.
Saramin and JobKorea
Saramin and JobKorea – Now, these two sites are entirely in Korean so they may be rather terrifying to navigate through at first. However, they are also main job portals for Koreans themselves to find a job, and there are plenty of jobs from different fields posted where they are looking for foreign language speakers.
PeopleNJob
PeopleNJob – It is said to be the best job portal to find a job in South Korea for foreigners. It looks overwhelming at first glance, but you’ll be relieved to know that there is also an ample amount of jobs on there posted in English.
LinkedIn – Unlike the other portals listed here, this is the main place where you can find all the big foreign companies looking for employees in their Korean branches. Companies are posting job ads all the time and you can get notifications right on your phone, too!
Newspapers
Eventhough this might be more vintage compare to the online application, yet south korean jobs are still published in newspapers.
You can find it through the newspaper’s online website or physical newspaper. You can check on The Korea Herald, The Korea Times and The Seoul Times.
Work culture in korea
Working culture in korea might be a challenge if you are unwilling to do long hour work and strict competition with another fellow workmates. Korea has one of the highest average work weeks and overtime hours in the world.
The standard is really high and so you need to go beyond your average capacity in order to keep your job. This is really good that each employee get used to do their best in their work life.
Hoesik 회식
Eventhough the competition and the standard for employee is high in korean company, yet they try to help the employee to keep relax and free from pressure by doing Hoesik.
Hoesik 회식 is a gathering of members of an organization that eat and drink together after working hours, provided by company. This hoesik 회식 culture is useful for creating harmony among members as this creates bridge to know one another other than in a proffesional settings.
Work ethics in south korea
In Korea, professional and personal life are one and the same, it is not a separate issues. While it is true that many people think that ‘time is money’, in Korea as mentioned above, it can be a little bit different.
We might expect to get more as we work more (hours), however, this might not be true in korea. Many of korean employee work more than the written contract and not get more money for the extra hours they put in. Eventhough there’s a law stating that employee can only work for 40 hours a week, yet many people still work overtime.
The Most In-Demand Jobs in Korea (Non-English Teaching)
| Profession | Annual Salary |
| Software Engineer | 78 million won |
| Architect | 37 million won |
| Marketing Manager | 63 million won |
| Product Manager | 72 million won |
| Web Developer | 51 million won |
| UX Designer | 55 million won |
| Teacher | 54 milllion won |
High paying jobs in South Korea for Foreigners
| Profession | Annual Salary |
| Maritime Pilot | 126 million won |
| Surgeon | 110 million won |
| Dental Surgeon | 107 million won |
| Airplane Pilot | 104.7 million won |
| Physician | 95 milllion won |
Working in South Korea
The easiest and safest way to get a job in South Korea by applying for college or academy in South Korea first. Once you got accepted into one of Korea university or academy, then you can get Student Visa (D-2) and you can extend it every 1 year.
After you’re graduated from Korean university, you can change the visa into job seeker visa (D-10) which you can extend every 6 month with maximum 4 times. Then you can change your visa to (E-7), this visa can be extended every 1 year.
Since you want to settled in South korea, after you stay in a job for 1 year with E-7 Visa, you can move on to Visa (F-2) which is temporary residence visa and extend it every 5 years.
However, to get F-2 Visa, you need to get at least 80 points (points depends on salary, korean language skills, education), and work by E-7 Visa for at least 1 year. If you want to get a permanent residence visa F-5, then you can change your F-2 visa after 5 years.
