Kiwi Young Leaders’ Seminars give members a chance to learn from people experienced in Korea in an interactive setting.

The focus of our seminars is on sharing practical knowledge and wisdom that people will use in the near future.

Next Seminar

October 28th: Kiwi Young Leaders Seminar – Starting a Business in Korea

What: Kiwi Young Leaders has organised a seminar exploring starting a business in Korea. Special thanks to the Seoul Global Business Center for their help.

The seminar will feature speakers and guests with experience in this area, who can answer questions and offer advice.

In addition, the seminar will cover the different options for starting a business in Korea, the initial actions required and visa issues involved.

Guests and speakers include:

Youngju Seo, business counselor from the Seoul Global Center.

Christie Lee, from Hana Tax.

Cody Hunter, fellow Kiwi and owner-operator of Studio X Fitness in Seoul. http://www.studio-x-fitness.com/index.htm

When: October 28th – Thursday 6.30-9.00

Where: New Zealand Embassy Seoul

Map: http://www.nzembassy.com/korea/about-the-embassy/contact-us

RSVP: kiwi.young.leaders@gmail.com

Cost: Free of charge for Kiwi Young Leaders members

Past Seminars

August 24th: Kiwi Young Leaders Job Opportunities Seminar

Held at the brand new offices of the New Zealand Embassy in Seoul, Kiwi Young Leaders organised three guest speakers to present on the issue of “Employment opportunities for people with experience living in Korea”.

We were also joined by some members of the MBA group from Auckland that consisted of New Zealand business professionals visiting Korea as part of their course. Some of them had been in hiring positions in New Zealand and were able to talk about their experiences and give advice from a firm based in New Zealand’s perspective.

The three speakers were:

Peter Thomas 
Financial Controller, ZESPRI International (Korea) Co., Ltd

Peter talked about the path that led him to Korea and about the hiring practices of Zespri based on his experience. Some brief notes of interest:

• Zespri is becoming more interested in Asia and their operations in New Zealand are interested in people with experience in Asia.
• Zespri internationally tends to hire locals and has only a handful of Kiwi expat employees and they are in quite high managerial positions attained through experience with the company. He mentioned this is similar in other large New Zealand international firms.

Lukas Beech
Consultant, McKinney Consulting Inc.

Lukas Beech works for McKinney Consulting, an executive search firm based in Korea. He offered advice on breaking into the Korean job market and some general advice on doing resumes in Korea.

• When applying for jobs in Korea don’t try to compete with Koreans based on academics (unless your academics are amazing). Focus on more practical things that you can offer.
• If you are a foreigner you have to ask yourself “why would a Korean company hire me over a local Korean?”. Therefore you need to offer something special and these days English speaking is not considered special outside of teaching it.

Graeme Solloway
New Zealand Trade Commissioner,
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise

Graeme was able to talk about his observations working for the New Zealand government but also his own personal work experience. He started off working as a geologist. He has had many different jobs throughout his career and has ended up as New Zealand Trade and Enterprise Trade Commissioner to Korea.

• He advised that your career path is never certain and be prepared to make a change.
• The New Zealand government typically hires local overseas staff except for a handful of people in key positions, similar to the situation with Zespri.
• The government is looking at Asia and people with experience in Asia are valued however policies on government spending are limiting the hiring organisations like New Zealand Trade and Enterprise can do.