Dear Korean,
I've currently been unemployed in NYC for the past 8 months, and was wondering if there were any jobsites or groups I can join within the KA community to get my foot in the door. I graduated from UCSD with a sociology degree then went on to Parsons in NYC, for fashion studies. I graduated at the worst economic times and I'm just so worn out but randomly sending out my resume online and not getting any responses. I'm also tired of eating ramen everyday. I was just thinking that since there are so many Korean American professionals in NYC, that maybe this type of networking events exists, and I have no knowledge of it. So, can you find out if there are any such networking events or organizations that I can join?
Joanne K.
Dear Joanne,
The Korean knows for certain that for the Korean's profession, there is an active Korean American community that holds monthly dinners, email distributions, and so on. But unfortunately, the Korean is not a fashion designer.
Readers, do you know of any Korean American trade groups?
Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.
Check the websites for the Korean and/or Asian-American students associations at larger (big name) universities. Some have jobs sections, and I've seen Korean companies such as Samsung and LG recruit through them, at least for positions in Korea.
ReplyDeleteHere's a craigslist ad for an entry level designer who's capable of speaking korean (job is in NJ but I'm assuming NYC area)
ReplyDeletehttp://newjersey.craigslist.org/med/1637330824.html
go to http://www.heykorean.com
ReplyDeleteThis is a portal site for Koreans abroad in America. There is a job board there as well (구인구직). If you go to the top right there's an "English" button to see the website in English.
It's very active (at least where I'm from, NYC), and there's always a few jobs up there. Lucky for you, since so many Koreans are in the fashion industry, there are tons of places to apply to in that industry. More specifically the textile industry.
If you speak Korean, this will help a lot. A lot a lot. But it's not necessarily a deal breaker. Broken Korean is good enough to get you a job as well.
My dad puts up advertisments up there, my mom has only gotten work from there the past few years. So it's mostly for the Korean immigrant community. But also a few friends of mine who are 2nd generation Korean (born in America) have gotten jobs from there as well, even with limited Korean ability.
Hope it helps ;)
Thanks! I've been on craigslist and heykorean for the past few months (as well as every fashion/ mainstream job sites). Just from my experience, replying to online posts doesn't have much of a success rate. In the rare times I actually interview, they tell me they've received around 100 resumes a day. Just a reflection of the tough economic times I guess. I just thought networking events and such would be a better option! :) Thanks for the feedback!
ReplyDeleteHi LA JO NY,
ReplyDeleteI used to do a bit of HR. Maybe I can offer a bit of humble advice.
If you have resume that's linked to a website with your portoflio up, that's always a great start.
An even better way to get someone's attention is to make yourself stand out even more.
Here's a few things that caught my attention while doing HR for my company:
- I used to work at a podcast. So the applicant that caught our eye (and eventually the job) recorded a self-introduction of herself.
- People that took the effort to fax in their resume's, rather than e-mail always had a few extra points.
- One applicant threw in a YouTube video introducing himself, which again, was very much welcome.
- The applicants that new about our company, and wrote about it in their introduction e-mail always showed that they had interest.
Hmm.. that's a few of the easy ones I can think of right now.
My mom works in the Textile industry in NYC, so if you're in a similar field, maybe she can hook you up with a few phone numbers to try. feel free to contact me :)
Good luck!
Keith Kim
kim.keith@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/kkim16
It's not specifically Korean, but you may want to check out the National Association of Asian American Professionals (NAAAP) at naaap.org. Local chapters have job listings.
ReplyDelete