The Hows of Interning in Korea

I am a GKS recipient from the Philippines, currently working at a fintech company under an F-2 Residence Visa. I want to share my journey of landing my first internship in Korea, but keep in mind that everyone’s path may differ depending on their major or circumstances. This is just my story! While pursuing my master’s degree in Communications, I was already thinking ahead about finding a job in Korea. Given my situation, I could only work during semester breaks, and to be honest, my Korean skills weren’t that great (still a work in progress!). I asked my Korean friends for advice, and they said gaining work experience would make it easier to get a job later and can improve my Korean skills. But the big question was: how could I, as a foreigner, land an internship in Korea? Before winter break, a Korean friend asked if I’d be interested in interning as a global marketing intern at a Korean foodtech startup. Marketing wasn’t my field of expertise, but I did have experience posting sponsored product and travel reviews on Instagram—which turned out to be a good starting point! I got interviewed for the position and was hired as their first and only foreigner. How I Prepared Before anything else, I informed my professor about my plans to work during the winter break, and since I wasn’t writing my thesis yet, he gave me a go signal. I also consulted my university’s International Students Services to make sure I had the right documents for the immigration process. Here’s what I needed: 1. Passport 2. Alien Registration Card (ARC) 3. Application Form (통합신청서) from the Immigration website 4. Part-Time Work Confirmation Form (시간제취업양식) - signed by the GKS Officer-in-Charge in my University 5. Copy of my contract (provided by the company) 6. Copy of the company’s business permit 7. Transcript of records or attendance list 8. Valid TOPIK certificate (TOPIK 4 for graduate students) TIP: Double-check all details on your documents to avoid delays. Submitting My Work Permit Application You can submit the documents either online or offline. For my internship, I went for online submission, which took about three weeks. For a later part-time job, I opted for online submission which needed an online reservation at the hikorea website and received the permit on the same day (in a few minutes). Finding Opportunities In my case, I was fortunate to have a Korean friend who introduced me to this opportunity. But what if you don’t have that connection? That’s where platforms like Klik come in. They specialize in helping foreigners like us find part-time or full-time jobs in Korea and even host networking events to expand your connections. If you’re looking to kick-start your career in Korea, don’t hesitate to explore resources like Klik. You never know where your next opportunity might come.