Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jtwilliams]

hi
i'm an american, and i would love to be in korea. but are there any jobs there for foreigners except for teaching english? and does anyone know where to go to look for these jobs?

[sulperman]

Are you qualified to do something else?

[jtwilliams]

hi,
yes, i'm qualified, but it's just a matter of finding where jobs are posted. do you know where i can look?

[dongjak]

what else are you qualified to do?

[Donkey Beer]

Some jobs include: "entertainer" / dancer, kebab man, bouncer, bartender, recruiter, blogger or factory worker.

The only one of these jobs you might get a visa for would be factory worker.

[ttompatz]

[decolyon]

If you marry a Korean and can speak Korean, you can have just about any job you want (or are qualified to get.)

But if you're not married and you don't speak Korean, teaching is pretty much it.

Canadians and other Europeans can come here on work holiday visa's and wait tables and stuff like that. Yanks don't have work holiday visas with Korea yet.

There are some people here on "entertainer" visas doing modeling and acting gigs. These are really hard to get though and you usually have to look like, well, a model. Even then, it's a pretty complicated setup. You have to get a new visa for every gig you get. Meaning, you can't just be here on an entertainer visa. The company that hired you for the skit or shoot has to sponsor your visa. Your agency can't sponsor your visa, although I have heard they're trying to change that law. So the models and actors I know make half a dozen trips to Osaka a year or more getting new visas every time they find work.

Given the time and costs associated with this work, you don't earn any money from the gig. Your agency takes whatever payment you might get. Instead, they pay you a monthly salary and sometimes cover your rent. The more work you bring in, the higher the salary and the nicer the apartment. I've known some Brazilian guys that share a little one room and barely get 1.8MKW a month, because they get maybe 3 or 4 jobs a year. ON the opposite end, there are some Russian girls that live in their own Lotte Castle apartment pulling 5MKW or more a month.

Of course it isn't supposed to be broadcast, but I've heard of some agencies encouraging their talent to marry one of the girls or guys at the agency. This let's them get on an F2 visa and thus is much cheaper to maintain the model while they're here.

[decolyon]

Oh, and of course there's the Army. Enlist on active duty and say you like Asia and you'll probably get stationed here for a year or two.

[giraffe]

Ummm I have a few friends who ended up getting jobs in Game studios in Seoul. Few other people i know work in animation studios. They had no korean abilities at all.

Korea's like any other country, IF a company wants/needs you they can just Sponsor you.. Not impossible..... Not common either unless you're a factory worker or an ESL teacher which are probably the most common work type visas they hand out.

Or if you're married to a korean and you could freelance for a company outside of korea. Which is what ill be doing when I move to korea. I'll be living there but working for companies in the USA or UK....