We carried out the recruiting process for open positions at Papaya Story Co., a subsidiary company of the Gyeonggi Multicultural News (www.danews.kr) from June 1 to July 21. Papaya Story will launch its service in English. Chinese, Vietnamese, Russian, and Thai, total 5 languages by the end of August and provide the total information platform services for foreign residents.

Except the team leader for English who already joined, the total 61 people applied for the remaining 4 language positions, ranging from 37 Chinese, Vietnamese 15, Russian 7, Thai 2.

46 applicants were cut off for the 1st resume screening, 15 candidates were interviewed face to face for the 2nd round, and 4 final candidates were selected. We would like to share what we have experienced as interviewers during the recruiting process and hope this would help for those foreign residents who are looking for a better job.

the 1st round: resumescreening

The 1st round resume screening is the gateway for any job seekers have to pass through and it is to screen for what kinds of experiences and academic background. Candidates graduated from prestigious schools and worked for well-known companies certainly have some advantage for sure. However, more important aspects of the career are to have the job-related working knowledge and experiences. The responsibilities that team leaders will take are translation the most, counseling related service the next, and managing a bulletin board and membership the rest.

Therefore, applicants who have rich experience of translation passed the 1st round rather easily whilst those who graduated from nice schools and yet have neither studied nor worked in Korea did not make it.

For example, the applicant A did not have an experience with the local community such as Multicultural Family Support Center (MFSC) although she did translation works for a Korean company after graduating from primary to college in her mother country.

Most marriage immigrant women are educated at the MFSC and participate in the local service activities through the center whilst she did not thus pass the 1st round.

There might be an exception if she had rich work experiences in Korea but did not put any other in her resume.

On the other hand, in case of another applicant B, she has rich service and work experiences from language lecturer, tour guide, and employment counseling and yet did not have any formal education.

She should have stated why she did not have any formal education or did not put her educational records if she had them.

Another important tip for your resume and a letter of introduction Is not to make a typo there.

The applicant C typed ‘현대걸선’ for ‘현대건설’ which puzzled the interviewers for a while. The applicant D had an excellent academic records and work experiences and yet did not pass the 1st round as there were too many typos.

For example, she typed ‘격기도외국인인권지원센터’ for ‘경기도외국인인권지원센터’ and ‘극제민간자격협회’ for ‘국제민간자격협회’ in her resume.

There were many other typos in her letter of introduction as well, ‘유학하로’ for ‘유학하러, ‘책들 번역하고’ for ‘책들을 번역하고’, ‘저의가 쓰던’ for ‘저희가 쓰던’, and ‘나왔어서’ for ‘나와서’, to name a few.

Considering the fact that translation is the main responsibility of the position, such frequent typos could be a big problem.

Therefore, foreign residents who write their resume and a letter of introduction may need to consult with their Korean family members, Immigrants Community Service Center (ICSC) or MFSC for typo check before submitting the documents.

There was an exceptional case, however. The applicant E passed the 1st round because she passed the General Educational Development (GED) test for primary, junior high, and senior high school although she worked for an electronics company only and did neither have translation nor community service experiences.

The exception was made because the interviewers know well how difficult for a marriage immigrant woman to pass all the GED tests, which prove her handwork and efforts whilst this might not work for other companies.

On a side note, Chinese applicants might feel the screening was not fair as they had so many qualified candidates in terms of both academic and professional career, boasting graduation from prestigious schools, graduate degrees, and high TOIEC scores. 

Darren Kim