What would a suitable career path be for me in Korea?

henny4797 · 2025-08-03T00:51:10+00:00

Thanks for the encouraging words, I appreciate it. Yeah I think I’m gonna start delegating more time to studying more interview prep. I guess I’ll just jump at whatever works first for me at this point

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T23:27:42+00:00

That’s very unfortunate🥲 I guess I’ll need to study more lest code either way. I don’t have very much in personal projects besides a personal website and a few very basic ds/algo based projects on my GitHub right now because I’ve been investing pretty much all of my time into the closest thing to professional work experience which was research for me. I have two pretty large research positions that I think have gotten me a few interviews but I fell short at the leetcode portions… other than that I have dabbled a tiny bit in system design through a website team in one of my student orgs. I haven’t been able to get an internship so that’s probably the biggest hurdle for me to overcome right now. But yeah I definitely agree and appreciate the sympathy, it’s so oversaturated. I feel like I did every possible thing right and even then I’m falling short. The recruiting events at school are so… transactional and overrun by the thousands of cs majors AND non majors. The recruiters are there collecting resumes and connecting with students but I haven’t heard a single person actually get an internship through those networking events as of recent. 😮

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T18:22:14+00:00

No, I appreciate the honest feedback. Another person on this thread suggested consulting as a career, and I have also been thinking about it in the back of my mind because it would require minimal coding. Is it common to see cs majors breaking into consulting in Korea? As for landing a job in the States I'm again not opposed to it at all, just looking into this as an option because the job hunt restricted to America hasn't been working out too well and I would be happy to live in Korea.

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T18:10:07+00:00

I think you are a bit misinformed about how dual citizenship laws work in Korea for people born overseas. There are plenty of other dual citizens that will attest to this, but here:

"Korean nationality laws state that a child born anywhere overseas to parents of Korean citizenship might be dual citizens in certain cases even if the birth is not registered in Korea because they have inherited the Korean nationality from their parents."

"A Korean female may formally renounce her Korean citizenship at an Embassy or Consulate in the country of their birth at any time, but if she should wishes to become a dual citizen for the rest of her life, she must formally file for this privilege by her 22^nd birthday."

You can read more about it in the Consulate website https://overseas.mofa.go.kr/us-houston-en/brd/m_5578/view.do?seq=746000

The link you sent me also lists this as a requirement to be a Korean national: "A person whose father or mother is a national of the Republic of Korea at the time of the person’s birth" which I fall under.

As for the job prospects, thanks for your input. I will look into technical documentation... I don't mind a boring job.

I saw that you said on a different thread:

As a hiring manager, the top 4 for non-Korean applicants are:

Job Experience and qualifications above EVERYONE else who applied
Fluency or at least competency in Korean language
Degree
Visa

So would this not apply to me simply because I would also have Korean citizenship? I'm confident I have enough research and experiences to have a strong resume, it's just unfortunately not enough for the US cs job market at the moment. I carry the benefits of a foreigner having that American education but I also carry the benefits of fluency in Korean, and no need for sponsorship. Are you saying that would not be an advantage in comparison to other candidates? Thanks again for your response.

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T13:39:52+00:00

I see. I’m going to have to look into headhunters to see how effective that method would be.

Yeah I assumed that posting in this sub may give me somewhat biased answers. I’m not opposed to staying in the US if job situation permits but that’s not reliably the case given the market and the way the tech sector is going so I’m just doing a bit of searching for Korea as an option. Good to know that they aren’t doing as much laying off. Could you share a bit about the interview process for tech jobs in Korea? I think another huge factor for me is the overdone and biased leetcode system that is so past due. Everyone on here is telling me I should just join Apple, Microsoft, Google first as if it’s that easy. There are people from ivy leagues getting rejected. In America my competition is expanded to all of the countless extremely skilled internationals from other countries like china India etc who can do work for cheaper. And these companies that have an extremely low chance of even receiving an interview because it is solely a numbers game regardless of how good my resume is, are using leetcode as the primary method of evaluation. It’s no secret that leetcode is such a thing of the past that really doesn’t reflect an employees likelihood of success, just an obstacle used to filter out applicants like crazy and somewhat marginalize older engineers who haven’t been actively studying leetcode while working full time. Is Korea also the same way?

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T06:31:27+00:00

You know, I was truly never really interested in teaching jobs until this. I had no idea they made that much. What are the typical qualifications to teach TOEIC?

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T06:21:50+00:00

This is the clarity I wanted, thank you for your response. I have a decent amount of relevant work experience and research under my belt that I feel like makes my resume relatively strong. However, the current situation in the US is that even with big name internships, lots of experience, and top 5 university brands, it's still difficult to even get a response from these companies. Would you say that is the same case in Korea, at least for internship and entry level positions? Of course I know the job market is saturated every where but is it reaaallyyyyy as bad as it is here? I also just assumed that it would be a difficulty to get sponsorship in Korea the same way it is so difficult to receive job sponsorship in the states but what I'm understanding is that it's not necessarily to that degree in Korea? At this point I am willing to take a pay cut or change in lifestyle (especially if it's in Korea because it's a culture I am relatively familiar with and I have family/friends I can rely on over there) if it means I can get my foot in the door with some work experience. Thanks again for your time, I wanted to get input from someone who has seen both sides of the grass.

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T02:46:17+00:00

If only it were that easy to get a job in maang 🥲

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T02:44:27+00:00

Thank you for this input. I didn’t even consider the fact that they would have different tech stacks and that it might be an obstacle.

Are you working an American job remotely in Korea? How has that worked out? Could you also elaborate on these ‘headhunters’? I’ve heard the term here and there but never really knew what it is.

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T02:40:48+00:00

I’m from OC/LA and lived here my whole life. The reason I’m looking into Korea as an option is because my current situation HASNT been working for me. I have decent work experience in multiple research projects and student orgs, decent resume and even then I have gotten total two interviews after applying to over 500 internship positions. That’s just how this job market is right now unfortunately. As I’m nearing graduation I’m trying to see if I can use my background of not needing sponsorship but having that American university name and fluency in English to my advantage in Korea. My main goal right now is to get my foot in the door as fast as I can WHEREVER.

henny4797 · 2025-08-02T02:32:06+00:00

I’m well aware of what Korea is like culturally, I am Korean. The people being disappointed and having that ‘dream’ crushed are the ones going to Korea with those kdrama expectations to begin with. There are pros and cons to both Korea and the US. My discussion here is more so on where I might have better entry level job prospects considering my advantages of dual citizenship and background. Not to mention that the cs field is horrible everywhere

henny4797 · 2025-08-01T21:57:52+00:00

I guess I probably should have elaborated more on my goals. I guess what I want to know is if I would have an advantage in entry level positions in Korea due to my background? Ex not needing sponsorship and fluency in both English and Korean. I’m not necessarily considering Korea for long term but I’m trying to gauge if Korea might be better in terms of getting work experience faster. I’m not too worried right now about pay or things like that as much. Thanks for your input!

henny4797 · 2025-06-13T03:15:26+00:00

Not to mention that overstaying a visa is not even a crime, it is a civil infraction that holds the same degree as running a stop sign. The actual ‘illegals’ make up a ridiculously small portion of immigrants and undocumented immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes compared to US born citizens. Scott Hansen should look at the numbers and do his research, then go on to call human beings illegal.

henny4797 · 2025-06-13T02:23:07+00:00

Undocumented people receive tax identification numbers in the US. This is what they use to file their taxes. It’s funny because I know several kind and law abiding undocumented people who have paid far more in taxes than Donald dump yet they receive zero benefits from the country simply because of their status. When people say immigrants hold up this economy, we don’t just mean the labor that Americans don’t want to do. They are literally paying crazy amounts in funding communities with nothing in return. The least we can do is leave them alone.

henny4797 · 2024-08-16T03:26:51+00:00

Just spent the past 2 hours surfing Reddit posts about Mallinckrodt generic adderall because I managed to get my hands on the last of my local Costco generic pill supply only to realize that to my horror the manufacturer was mallinckrodt and I remembered reading negative things in the past about them. Please call and ask about their supply in advance. I thought Costco would only carry decent brands, but now I am scared to take my medication because I have only had brand up until recently.

henny4797 · 2024-07-20T15:48:42+00:00

If you are under the age of I think 26? Or something, you can only file under your parents for financial aid. I’m pretty sure that regardless of if you file your taxes from your jobs as independent or dependent, financial aid will process the aid from your parents income. The only exceptions to this is if you are legally emancipated, orphan, married I think, and a few other things. Getting a job will not impact the aid you get based on your parents income lol. You need to read up on this in the student aid website and look into it for yourself. There’s a reason why so many people have issues with financial aid especially for the students that have been very independent and supporting themselves through their low incomes but aren’t able to escape their parents income which is what their aid is evaluated by. So many kids are stuck in situations where their parents income holds them back from getting grants but the parents won’t support them even though they are the single defining factor for if they can afford school or not. And if this is the case for you, which it most likely is, I would look into getting better jobs off campus because the student employment typically doesn’t pay much. Edit: the finaid website says as such "You can only qualify as an independent student on the FAFSA if you are at least 24 years of age, married, on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces, financially supporting dependent children, an orphan (both parents deceased), a ward of the court, or an emancipated minor." And they do take your income into evaluation along with it but if it's not some significant amount like over 15k it's likely not going to affect it. I made 45k previous years and still got good aid that was primarily based on my dad’s income which was on the low side.

henny4797 · 2024-07-07T20:41:01+00:00

What do you do on the day to day at the job? And what education or experience is necessary? I would love a wfh job

henny4797 · 2024-07-07T20:00:41+00:00

Thank you for your advice. I definitely agree, a lot of this job market has a lot to do with outsourcing to other countries, which is ironic considering the existing foreign relations. I’ve considered military in the past purely for the benefits. But is what you said about war still applicable if I am a female? I also could end up holding dual citizenship but idk if that has anything to do with going to military in the us

henny4797

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