Foreigners' job fair receives many complaints

Foreign applicants wait for interviews during a job fair at the Seoul Trade Exhibition & Convention in southern Seoul, Thursday. / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Seoul City Hall hosted its first job fair for foreign residents Thursday but many of them struggled to get a sense of what the event offered.

“My biggest concern about this job fair is that I don’t know what jobs are available here,” Kenneth Eke, 28, told The Korea Times. “Even the names of the companies are mostly written in Korean.”

Among LG Electronics, Woori Bank and 62 companies participating in the event, only three ― AJP Production, Molly Manners and Wego ― provided their information in English in their brochures. The information was not available in any other language.

Genevieve Kung, a job-seeker from Singapore, can read Korean. But she still believes information about the companies and positions they offer should be provided in other languages.

“This is a serious matter,” she said. “I would like to know about companies as much as possible before I sign up for anything. Having knowledge is also important for interviews.”

In fact, many participants spent time sitting, trying to understand what was in the brochures.

Jun Jae-sun from Seoul Global Center said the brochures were made by the companies.

“But for those who have difficulty understanding Korean, we deployed 20 to 30 interpreters from 12 countries,” Jun said. “But we will definitely solve the problem for next year’s job fair.”

It was the city government’s first job fair for its 400,000 foreign residents. Jun said it will be an annual event for an increasing number of foreigners who want to work in Korea.

“We have received requests from foreigners for a job fair. And we felt it would be good to host it for what is increasingly becoming a global country,” he said.

Despite the brochure issue and “a lack of information online about the event,” many foreigners said they appreciated the opportunity.

“I believe this is a great opportunity both for employers and job-seekers,” Wiley Stephan, 38, from France, said. “It is well-organized. But I just thought it is too education-oriented. Also, I expected more global companies would be here.”

The event was expected to draw 3,000 people and, according to a press release, 340 would be hired on the spot. However, fewer foreigners may land jobs, according to an organizer.

“We will be able to know how many people actually got jobs through this opportunity after collecting surveys from the companies, but it seems unlikely to reach that number,” Michelle Kang, an official from Seoul Global Center, said.

In addition to interview opportunities, there were places where foreigners could take free identification photos, learn how to make a Korean-style resume and talk about visa issues. In addition, job consultants gave lectures ― in Korean ― about “job strategies” to “help” the participants to map out their career plans.

“Next year will be better,” Jun said.