COVER STORY International students, Korean companies find fit at Hanyang University career fair

Until last year, Angelina Chrysanta Antolis, a 21-year-old Indonesian student at Hanyang University (HYU), did not have a specific plan for which companies she wanted to join in Korea and did not know what job positions were available.

That changed at last year's HYU Global Career Fair, where she met recruiters from various companies in person and discovered her dream career: a global marketer who plans advertising campaigns.

On Thursday, she returned to this year's fair with that goal in her sights.

“When you look for job information online, you can't ask questions directly, so you end up just guessing. But at a job fair like this, you get solid information about what companies are looking for,” Antolis told The Korea Times. “Even if I don't get hired right away, the company gets to know me and can reach out later if I'm a good fit.”

Launched in August last year, the HYU fair connects companies with international students looking for jobs here. It has gained attention quickly. The first edition saw 560 students join, followed by 1,021 at the second edition in March this year and 2,526 at Thursday's event. The number of participating companies has also grown, from 11 at the first edition to 26 at the second and 35 at the third.

“The fair is part of HYU's broader push to internationalize, an effort to guide international students from their studies through employment and eventual settlement in Korea,” said Kim Hyun-ju, director at the Office of International Admissions at the university.

That effort is visible in HYU's enrollment figures. The university has the largest number of international students of any four-year university in the country, with 7,079 studying across its Seoul campus and ERICA campus in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, as of August.

“Our commitment to internationalization goes back at least 30 years,” Kim said. “During that time, what we've consistently done is to bring in international students, give them a good education and help them grow into talented individuals.”

Such efforts by HYU are meaningful in that the number of international students in Korea reached 307,464 this year, up 21.3 percent from 2025, according to the Ministry of Education. A 2023 survey of 188,000 international students by the Ministry of Data and Statistics found that 63 percent hoped to remain in Korea after graduation.

Navena, 26, from India, is one of those hoping to stay in Korea after graduation. She returned to the fair this year after a useful experience last year.

“Last year, I learned about businesses and job fields I never knew existed,” she said. “Like a lot of international students, I only knew big conglomerates like Lotte, Hyundai and Samsung. It was great to discover such a variety of companies at the job fair.”

Navena, who wants to become a project manager, added that the fair also showed her exactly what companies want and how to prepare for those roles, details that are hard to find online.

The job fair's benefits run both ways, giving companies just as much reason to show up as the students they hope to hire.

Kim Min-a, a deputy manager at Hoban Construction, said it was the company's first participation in the fair, adding that more construction firms are moving to hire international students.

“The construction industry has not hired many foreigners who studied here. But after hearing from other companies that such people often work more actively than Korean staff, we decided to give it a try this year,” Kim said.

Lee Young-je, an associate at Hanpass, a mobile fintech platform that handles remittances abroad, said the fair widens the company's talent pool even without immediate hiring.

“With many business divisions, we share information across teams when needed. If someone seems like a strong candidate but our team can't hire right now, we sometimes recommend other divisions hire the person.”

What Lee values most at the job fair is the chance to meet candidates face to face.

“It lets us read their attitude much better, what mindset they bring to the job search and how they present themselves to the company. That's something we really value about this format,” Lee said.

Beyond the job fair, HYU has built a broader support system for international students called the HY All-Care System, offering company visits, guest lectures, job camps, counseling and internships to guide them.

“Support for international students needs to go beyond recruitment and academic help, extending into employment and settlement in Korea,” said Kim Han-sung, vice president for International Affairs at Hanyang University.

“We'll keep expanding opportunities for companies and international students to connect. Through the HY All-Care System, we'll also continue giving students the support they need to grow in Korean society and industry using their majors and global skills,” Kim added.