It is hard to compare the nuances of US work culture with the culture abroad because I have had such limited exposure to both. Therefore, I will draw from the experiences of my peers, as well as my own.
When I hear from some of my fellow interns, in all honesty, I can say I got very lucky with my work assignment. I work in the tech industry, in a diverse and globally centered company. We leave when the clock strikes 5, we get breaks when we feel we need to, there doesn?t seem to be any crazy deadlines or pressure to work yourself to exhaustion, and if I needed to question why we were doing something I would without worry. It?s a relaxed environment, and I am not entirely sure how it stacks up to US offices.
However, I do have fellow interns that have quite different working conditions. They seem to face the more negative side of Korean work culture. I think it depends a bit on the industry, and of course the company itself, but there are expectations to stay late even if it is well past any reasonable time. There can be no objections or questions to higher ranking employees, and tons of work or literally no work at all. It seems that when there are Korean interns alongside American interns, the Korean interns are subjected to a lot more of these negative aspects. In comparison to my friends interning back in the States, I would say that a version of both of these experiences is represented. I don?t think that America is exempt from or has totally escaped a rat race mindset but there are a lot of flexible work environments/schedules these days.
It needs to be said that my very brief time in Korea is a microcosm of very limited aspects of Korea and Korean culture. There are still a million things left for me to learn, and this experience has really solidified my intention to work abroad in the future. It is quite a fulfilling moment to have everything you have been hoping and working for affirmed like this. For years and years, my heart was set on living and working abroad- even before I knew what I wanted that work to be. This has illuminated that in terms of my occupation, I have an incredible amount to learn. My mom told me that the first part of college is really about personal maturation and that now I am at the juncture where I get to really learn ?my craft?. I am positive that this next year is going to be a whirlwind, but my goal is to really practice digital marketing.
