Landing your first internship as an international student in Korea
International students are eager to land opportunities to intern at Korean companies or nongovernmental organizations while here studying at Korean universities, but many do not know where to begin.
The easiest way would be to search for job postings on each university’s office of international affairs websites or on popular job searching apps like LinkedIn, Wanted or Saramin, but internship opportunities may be hard to come by for non-Koreans staying in the country on student visas.
International student visas, officially known as either a study abroad D-2 or D-4 visa, limit the scope of available internships. Most internships offer full-time hours, and while Korean students can take a leave of absence to intern, the study abroad visa requires international students to be enrolled at school for the entirety of their stay. If they take a leave, their visa is annulled, leaving them with a month before they have to leave the country.
Even for jobs open to student visa holders, international students are often rejected due to language barriers, unfeasible work hours or employers’ preferences.
A student reporter of the Korea JoongAng Daily reached out to some international students to share their internship experiences and some of the challenges they faced along the way.
Case 1: “My visa has been the biggest barrier to getting an internship.”
A student visa (D-2 visa) restricts students’ scope of activities, limiting them in their search. Addie Gerszberg, a 22-year-old student from the United States at Yonsei University, started looking for internships back in 2019. As an international studies major, Gerszberg looked for opportunities at nongovernmental organizations and multinational companies but could not find promising prospects.
“Finding an internship has been very difficult. As an international student, I am unable to even apply to most internship programs,” Gerszberg said. “Lots of companies require an F-series visa status, [and as a D-2 visa holder] my situation has made me ineligible for any work related to my major.”
Student visas limit job seeking and work hours, unlike the F-visa series. The F-visa types are family and residency visas but are only available to foreigners who have been here three years or more on a working visa (E-series).
For Gerszberg, language and cultural barriers are not an issue. She has lived in Korea for four years and achieved a level 5 in the Test of Proficiency in Korean (Topik). Rather, it has been hard to find companies willing to accommodate international students and fill out the paperwork.
To find opportunities, Gerszberg focused on choices offered by her university, “While I never entirely stopped looking for internships, within my school I was able to work as a teacher’s assistant.”
Case 2: “The internship process here seems to be secretive.”
For some students, like 19-year-old Qirrat Ahmad, the internship culture in Korea is a mystery. Ahmad is a Yonsei University sophomore studying Life Science and Biotechnology and started looking for internships as soon as she entered college.
“‘Do not wait until your second year, do not wait until your fourth year’ — that is the advice I most often hear from my seniors,” said Ahmad, “I have been told to have a good grade point average, to be proactive, and reach out to professors, but even as I followed that advice, the responses have not been that positive.”
Ahmad was amply prepared to enter the world of internships. She participated in the distinguished Lumière Research Scholar program during her freshman year.
“I partnered with a Ph.D. student from a prestigious university and produced a research paper of high caliber,” explained Ahmad. “Most undergraduates do not write research papers, but despite all the extra-steps, I have not gotten a single opportunity. It is really disappointing.”
Ahmad’s experience has left her wondering if there are unspoken requirements she is unaware of, preventing her from getting an internship in Korea.
Case 3: “If I had never struck a conversation with my classmate, I would have never gotten the opportunity.”
Some students like Anusha Shanishetti, a 22-year-old recent economics graduate from Yonsei University, have found that compared to countless hours on the internet, building and relying on their network has been more fruitful in their search.
“During my search, a classmate from a few semesters back contacted me about an opportunity for an economics Indian student offered at her company,” Shanishetti explained.
“I had not found anything yet through the school’s resources. Getting my internship was a stroke of luck since they were specifically looking for an Indian student.” Her recruitment process only consisted of a few email exchanges before she landed the opportunity.
“When I started looking for internships, I assumed I would apply and get rejected, not that I would lack places to apply to in the first place,” Shanishetti said.
Unfortunately, she had to leave her internship earlier than anticipated, Shanishetti explained. “I started working during the holidays, but as classes started and I joined clubs, it became too difficult to balance everything. I managed to work a few weeks into the semester, but only due to online pre-recorded lectures — with offline class, I would not have been able to do it.”
Case 4: “So far, I have gotten three different internships.”
While opportunities are elusive, students like Marcel, a 23-year-old Indonesian senior student at Seoul National University, seem to have figured out the process.
“Each process was different. I got my first internship quite traditionally, finding the application through my university’s website. My second one was an opportunity within my school,” said Marcel.
For his third internship, the company contacted him directly as they were looking for an Indonesian student.
"It happened that the chance fell right on my lap,” he said.
“For my search, I have mostly used different university’s office of international affairs websites — Seoul National University’s and others. So far, I have applied to everything I could qualify, around 8 to 10 opportunities,” he said.
Marcel limits his search to internships that look for international applicants. “Despite being fluent in Korean, I have found out that companies will prefer working with Korean students, regardless of our qualifications,” said Marcel.
While Marcel attributes much of his success to his Korean level, he advises students to keep in touch with their office of international affairs. “There are not that many internships, but you just have to keep applying. It is not impossible, and you never truly know what they are looking for.”
Case 5: “Balancing a full set of courses and 25 weekly work hours has been difficult.”
Vanessa, a 22-year-old university senior from Vietnam, is currently balancing her last college semester with her internship.
“I started at my company last year, and I think I will stay with them after graduation too,” said Vanessa. “As of now, it is quite stressful. I have less time to study, and I have less time to work. It is a weird balance to find.”
For Vanessa, the academic advisors were of great help.
“My friend referred me to the internship after being told by our academic advisor, who the company had reached out to first,” she said.
Vanessa’s application process was standard, “It took quite long. I first had to submit a CV, then I had to sit through an exam, then an interview,” she said, “I lucked out with this opportunity since they were looking for students with a Vietnamese background — I realized that you have to look for opportunities that target you specifically.”
While international students’ experiences are varied, a few tips can prove helpful in the search.
“International students are in a special situation,” said Kim Mi-hyun, an academic advisor at Yonsei University. “They do not have the direct family support Korean students tend to have.”
Internships are opportunities for international students to help support themselves financially while improving their position in their field of study.However, living more independently, international students ought to carefully evaluate whether they will be able to find a good work-study balance.
“I have seen cases where international students received too many academic warnings after taking on a new internship, and as a result, had to transfer out of the university,” Kim said.
Kim added that “without having a working level of Korean, finding opportunities proves to be very difficult,” as a standard internship application process follows a written application, an interview and sometimes an exam.
In addition to language, students will confront cultural barriers.
“The internship environment in Korea is very different from the rest of the world and tends to be difficult to navigate at first,” said Kim, “In Korea, it is uncommon for college students to intern compared to other parts of the world, so that plays into their difficulty.”
Lee Seung-kook, chief product officer at content publishing company Publy, who was recently involved in recruiting international students as interns, emphasized that the most important value they look for when hiring international students is their communication skills.
“We needed interns that are actually from countries that we are planning to start business in,” Lee said. “While most of the hiring process was similar to when we were hiring Korean employees, we looked for people with skills to communicate with reason. One shouldn’t be insistent on some issues just because, for example, ‘this is how things work in Vietnam.’ We want people who are able to communicate giving enough context and at the same time understanding [the culture in Korea].”
When looking for opportunities, Jang Yoon-jung, an academic advisor at Yonsei University, explains that the key is to broaden one’s search, “as research is most important, I encourage students to look beyond their own university’s resources.”
Popular websites like Wanted or Saramin provide opportunities, but students should be careful to respect immigration guidelines.
Students with Topik level scores can work up to 25 weekly hours during the semester, and those without can work up to 10 hours. International students must also obtain part-time work permission when a remuneration opportunity is available. To get the permit, they must fill out a contract with their prospective employer and submit it along with other documentation to their university’s office of international affairs, followed by the immigration office. To avoid any issues with immigration laws, Kim recommends students reach out to their administration as they sign their contracts.
“Frankly speaking, international students have far fewer opportunities than Korean students,” Kim said. “Employers usually shy away from international students due to language, cultural or visa barriers. But I have found that students with a good student network, good time management, and good language ability have an easier time finding internships.”
On the bright side, Korean companies and organizations are increasingly looking for foreign talent as they seek to go global and interest on Korean content and products grows internationally, fueled by hit Korean content like “Squid Game” and artists like BTS.
“While we have been holding job fairs for international students in partnership with the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency once every year, we are planning on expanding that event to twice a year,” said Kim Ji-yang, education supervisor at the National Institute for International Education.
BY STUDENT REPORTER LAURA SENIOR PRIMO [kjd.kcampus@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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