Oneday Korea

Placement organization

Name of organization: Oneday Korea
Town/city: Seoul
Country: Zuid-Korea
Website: https://www.onedaykorea.com/

Student

Name of student: Roos Verschore

Specialist area: Tourism Management (NL)
Placement period: 2019-2020

Information about placement organization

Type of organization: Tour Operator/Travel agency
Organization’s activities: Oneday Korea sells private tours, city tours, groups tours and other small services like airport pick-ups or sim cards.
Target group of the organization: Families, seniors, millennials
Company culture: The company culture is similar to a Korean working culture, meaning outside the office quite informal and inside the office formal. I think you can say it is very hierarchical, although everyone can suggest own ideas, there is a clear order with boss and employees.
Number of employees: 10
Dress code: casual
Did the organization meet the agreements you made beforehand? Not all due to the coronavirus COVID-19

Information about your placement

In which department(s) are you working?

Marketing department, sometimes ICT

Brief description of your daily activities: I conducted analyses on the website and products, SWOT-analyses and competitive analyses. I checked English written content and helped with translating ICT articles for the chatbot. When the coronavirus started to have its impact on the company, I worked on making scripts for the chatbot about coronavirus COVID-19.
Brief description of your company assignment: Set up marketing strategies to increase conversion rate.
Comment briefly on your supervision by the organization: My supervisor would always help me whenever I needed help, same applied for the other colleagues. Feedback was really hard to get. Every two/three days I showed my work and my supervisor would give me new assignments or feedback.

Requirements for students on placement

What kind of personal skills are required for this placement? Adaptable, independent, sociable, initiative
Additional company requirements for this placement? Notion, writing skills in case of writing blogs
English: Intermediate
Spanish:
French:
German:
Italian:
Other languages: Korean would be beneficial

The trip

Mode of transport to reach your destination: Airplane and bus

Accommodation

How did you arrange your accommodation? Airbnb
How did you go to work every day? Public Transport

Visa / work permit / vaccinations

Do you need a visa? H-1 Working Holiday
Do you need a work permit? No
How did you arrange the necessary documents: The ambassy arranged it with the right documents
How much time did it take to arrange the necessary documents? 2 months
Did you need certain vaccinations? Yes
How long in advance? 6 months

Language course

Did you take a language course before you started your placement? No
Would you recommend to have a language course prior to this placement? Yes, basic Korean will help a lot

The costs in euros

Travelling expenses (e.g. return ticket): € 600
Accommodation (monthly): € 350
Local transport (monthly): € 70
General costs of living (monthly): € 400
Costs of visa: € 190
Costs of work permit: € 0
What did the company pay for/to you? The company paid financial compensation of 400 euros per month and lunch.

Culture

How did you prepare for the country’s culture?
I read experiences from other people.
Did the culture of the country influence your performance during the placement in any way? Yes, in the beginning I needed to get used to the Korean work ethos and communication is different.

Future students on placement

Future students are free to contact me for further information: Yes
My e-mail address: roosverschore@hotmail.com

Other information

Recommendations on what to do and what not to do: Give yourself time to get adjusted to the way of working and to get to know your colleagues. Learn some Korean maybe and about the culture.
Leisure possibilities in the city/surroundings of where the placement took place: A lot of things can be seen in Seoul, I would recommend the Yeouido park as a nice place to hangout. Also, to find accommodation, around Sinchon/Hongdae is popular and more foreigners. From here it is around 15 minutes to Oneday Korea.

Media

Youtube link Youtube placement video link