Hello! 

As always, here are my updates: 

This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel outside of Seoul with my internship program! We went to a city called Jeonju, which is known for its very traditional architecture, cuisine, and rich history. I departed from Seoul on a bus on Friday night after a full day of work and then we started our official touring on Saturday and Sunday. It’s monsoon season, so Saturday was very rainy, but we visited a handful of significant sites. First, we traveled to the Jeondong Catholic Cathedral, which is a symbol of the start of Catholic missionary work in this part of Korea. Then, we went to a traditional Korean paper museum (also known as hanji), where we learned about the history and versatility of this material and had the opportunity to make a sheet of paper ourselves as a souvenir. Finally, we visited the Jeonju Hanok Village which is one of the most famous locations in Jeonju. Hanok is the word for traditional Korean house, so the architecture was beautiful and we visited Gyeonggijeon Shrine and the museums within it with our tour guide for more historical information. My friend and I decided to find dinner closer to our hotel during free time and found a coin karaoke spot to sing for a couple hours to wrap up our night! Sunday was another day of seeing more historical architecture such as the Omokdae Pavilion and Jeonju Hyanggyo. Jeonju Hyanggyo was particularly interesting to see because it is an old Confusion school and very well preserved. The whole trip was informative and it was nice to see how well the architecture has been protected and honored. Even though the day was very sunny and humid, we did some hiking to see these locations and then ended our time in Jeonju with lunch and a long bus ride home. 

It was nice to travel outside of Seoul for a weekend! Other than that, this week of work has been very typical. 

In South Korea, “success” in a professional sense seems to be defined by a few key things. One is your educational background—graduating from South Korea’s top universities is something that makes job applicants stand out in the business world here, and proves to be a very high achievement in a society that highly values education and grades in their younger years. It is also notoriously difficult to get a job here post-graduation, especially at very good and renowned companies. Job titles and the reputation of the company is very important in Korean business society, because high status is hard to achieve. Overarchingly, I believe that success here is important to look at while within the role—Korean business workers often stay late working long hours, having a lot of professional integrity and dedication. Since this country is also highly group-oriented, success could also be defined as being able to integrate themselves in the company culture while navigating the company hierarchy appropriately. However, I think that with the younger generations, the definition of success is shifting—people are starting to value work-life balance and more creative careers and opportunities. Also, international work experience is becoming more and more popular, which is an aspect I see and work on directly through this internship. 

Within my internship, these traditional “success” markers are not very prominent. My job is very small and my supervisor doesn’t enforce a strict or uncomfortable hierarchy within the office. So, success in this job is all about the little wins. To be an effective employee, I make sure to stay on time with scheduled English calls with our clients, giving meaningful and helpful feedback for their upcoming interviews. I am successful when one of our clients does pass their interviews and can start their international work experiences with our assistance. Even before then, a successful employee in this role is someone who was proactive and able to reach out to different job opportunities to coordinate those interviews between the company and our clients. 

I think that, because this job is still more creative and free from very strict rules and guidelines, this is similar to what a successful employee would look like in the U.S.. But in a general sense, South Korea has a more collectivist culture and places emphasis on seniority, harmony within the group, and avoiding confrontation. Respecting the hierarchy is important in any company, but it is deeply ingrained in the culture here, and serves as a means for long-term commitment and dedication to the company as a “successful” employee. In the U.S., the work culture is a lot more individualistic and seems to emphasize self-expression and personal drive. I think that it is more common to see people being more proactive for personal development and success by taking the initiative in their roles, as well as utilizing direct communication and self-promotion to be successful. 

This was my last full week as an intern and I’m sad to almost be done, but one more post is on the way!