The Land of the Morning Calm may sound like a relaxing place. It’s not. But if you’re ambitious and have management experience, particularly in a technology industry, it may well be the Land of the Gold-Card Opportunity
More than 30,000 Americans live in this densely populated country of 48 million, according to the Association of Americans Resident Overseas. And while that doesn’t seem like a lot, South Korea is viewed as a hotbed of opportunity for U.S. expats. The economic conditions are ripe: Profits of Korea’s top 100 companies based on stock market value are expected to jump 37 percent to more than $53 billion in 2010, according to domestic financial data provider FnGuide. The unemployment rate, meantime, hovers just above 3 percent, making it hard for expanding firms to find good employees.
Mark Friedfeld, an MBA career adviser at University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, says companies of all sizes are on a constant talent search that reaches far beyond national borders. “They are looking for the best talent and don’t care where you are from,” he says.
Take Samsung, the country’s largest company. Kun-Hee Lee, former chairman at Samsung and head of Samsung Global Strategy Group, advertises his need on the front of the firm’s Web site, saying simply: “We need high-caliber foreigners who can reveal to us a fresh prospective on trends and the latest information.”
Sean Bornheimer
One aspiring businessman who answered that call was California native Sean Bornheimer, who graduated in May from Haas. Bornheimer went through a three-part application process with Samsung that culminated with an in-house interview in Seoul. He recently began as a manager and global strategist. “The world is diverse, so companies are looking to mimic this diversity in their organizations,” says Bornheimer, 30. “Individuals who can both add a unique perspective and manage across diverse cultures and organizations will be successful.”
The demand leads to good salaries. One in four expats in Asia earn more than $200,000 per year, according to the 2009 Expat Explorer Survey, commissioned by HSBC Bank International.
For those with technology and science backgrounds, salaries can be quite a bit higher, and the government will go to extra lengths to help get you there. South Korea offers a special visa to foreign technology workers that allows them to enter and leave the country freely for three years. This visa, dubbed the Gold Card System, is designed to combat a shortage of professionals to fill the country’s burgeoning tech and science sectors.
The system was launched in November 2000 to support recruitment of foreign high-tech professionals, and it was first used to recruit in the IT, e-commerce, and e-business sectors. In subsequent years, however, the Gold Card System has been expanded to include professionals working in eight high-tech areas: e-commerce (enterprise information system, e-business), new materials, transportation equipment, digital electronics, biotechnology, nanotechnology, environment and energy, and management of technology.
To qualify in these fields, you need to have a bachelor’s degree with at least one year of relevant work experience. If you have a master’s or higher, no experience is necessary — although it’s a plus if you speak English and know something about the culture and buying preferences in America, Korea’s biggest Western trading partner. But you can handle that.
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