A lot of companies in Korea care more about whether you already have a visa than how good your Korean is. Even if you’ve got a high TOPIK score and interpreting experience, they’ll often choose someone who’s visa-ready just to avoid the extra hassle. That doesn’t mean your language skills don’t matter. They’re just not always the first thing companies focus on. It really comes down to whether your skills solve a problem for them. One thing that could help is targeting companies that already work with international clients or markets. Those tend to be more open to hiring foreigners, especially if you can show that your Korean and English combo makes you a stronger fit than a native speaker alone. If you’ve worked on anything where your language skills actually made an impact, like interpreting during meetings or translating business documents, definitely mention that in your applications. That kind of stuff is way more convincing than just saying you’re good at Korean. It’s definitely tougher without a visa, but if you can show how your skills directly match what the company needs, you’ve still got a shot. Just make sure the value is clear.

Honestly, Korean skills make a huge difference if you're job hunting here. When I first got to Korea, my Korean was kinda meh. I got rejected from a bunch of interviews because of it. I ended up working at hagwons and studying Korean on the side just to get by. If you’ve already got TOPIK level 5, that’s solid! 💪 Still, if you feel like you’re not quite where you wanna be, definitely check out language exchanges or local meetups. It’s way easier to find those now. There are tons of apps out there for stuff like that.