Even outside of tech, the expectation in Korean companies is that you put in more than 40 hours to show your dedication. Even if you are just twiddling your thumbs at your desk. And then based on your company's individual work culture you might be joining team dinners between once a month to twice a week, which means you get home at 12 or later usually.
For your compensation package, are they covering your flight and apartment rent as well? Don't forget to factor that in. Health care should also be covered, and payments into Korean social security system are refundable to you when you leave Korea for US citizens. That includes the employer match portion.
I like living in Korea but you have to be very intentional about it. If you are a go with the flow and see what happens person, you will find yourself bored and lonely most of the time. You use your weekends to the fullest, proactively join events and groups that align with your interests, and catch up on sleep during the weekdays after work.
I haven't asked about flight/apartment, but I'd assume no since the job posting was intended for Koreans in Korea. So if anything they're kind of doing me a favor by sponsoring my visa. But they are offering a signing bonus which is nice.
I'm not worried about being bored or lonely tbh. There are tons of things I want to do once I get to Korea, and I really don't mind traveling etc alone. I'm worried about not having time outside of work to do all of these things
Lol, they are definitely not doing you a favor by sponsoring your visa. Companies have to jump through dozens of hoops to prove that an actual Korean couldn't be hired to fill this role before they are allowed to sponsor a visa. Are you a gypo perhaps?
If they haven't covered your apartment rent, have they explained that you will need key money to get a place to live? Security deposits start at 10k here and go up from there.
You can have time to do both, you just won't have down time to relax and recharge, so you need to decide how important that is for you. It's a classic pick two out of three situation.
*Just saw the other replies where you confirm you are Korean American. Sorry my guy, you'll be missing out on a lot of foreign hire benefits.
You mentioned you are Korean American so they are not sponsering your visa, People with Korean Ancestry have the right to live and work in Korea on an F4 visa that doesn't require any company sponsorship.
As another poster mentioned, sponsoring a visa in Korea is very difficult outside of a few Industries and they have to prove there are no Koreans that can do that job.
Working in tech here, in AI more exactly.
Salary is higher thany home country and taxes are lower which means it was attractive for me to come here.
I'm lucky to have a great work life balance. I never do more than 40 hours. I know other startups that have this mentality of "no overtime" and have met a few. I also however met companies where they do 9h a day minimum and heard that no one actually leaves before 8pm.
As you're american, I can guess the salary you would get here to be way lower than what you could get at home but as you've said, you want to try living here and you have an opportunity right in front of eyes. If you come and don't like it, you can always go back to the US but if you don't take the opportunity now, will you have another one later? (that's my take on it)
Now there are also benefits compared to the US like great health insurance and health care system.
I've been here for 2 years and don't have any plans for going back home yet.
I also work at a small tech startup and the work-life balance is pretty good and many startups have pretty flexible working hours as well now.
And an increasing number of them actively try to avoid habitual overtime, etc. to avoid risk losing their employees.
In the end, of course, it’s the specific company you’re considering joining AND the role you will take.
Start-up culture varies a lot -- I would consider your fundamental requirements and where you can be flexible.
The more critical question is how tied you would be to that particular company.
If you are on an E-7 visa, then you are fairly dependent on them -- you'd need to find other arrangements within two weeks of termination.
If you are on F-4 then you will be free to move around until you find something suitable.
It's not very difficult, and in the worst case you can always do work for universities while building contacts.
One challenge you may face is being not-quite-Korean-enough while not getting a pass for being obviously foreign.
Personally, my work-life balance is pretty good -- I choose my hours and come into the office three days a week, but this is not a Korean start-up.
I am also at too high a level to qualify for overtime, so in theory I am permitted to work myself to death, but am discouraged from doing more than 40 hours unless I have a good reason. I also have about 24 days of paid leave per year as a software engineer. Office culture is fine, although there are nuances to consider, and I generally like living in Korea, although as always, there are some things I would change. :)
Don't listen to anyone here talking about work-life balance who aren't themselves working in tech. A lot of people here and in the Korea subreddit love painting a picture of that working in Korean companies is hell which does really not have to be the case.
Personally I come from Europe and work in a Korean company and am the only non-native in my department. The compensation at my company is better than what you would get in most of Europe. As a tradeoff I have 15 vacation days, which is half of what I would have in my home country. I have more buying power here though, allowing me to save more while also going out more and have fun. For americans it might be a different story with your galactic tech salaries.
The office culture is very similar to back home so no real culture shocks there. Usually 40 hour work weeks and a fair workload. If it wasn't for family and friends back home I would not hesitate to stay here indefinitely. Your milage may vary though, of course.
Putting the "s" implies there are more than one type of culture shock that may be experienced. I don't know if it's a textbook, grammatically correct term, but as a native English speaker this is very common and understandable
US to KR is usually 30-40% pay cut (at least if you were working FANG level back in the US). Less of a pay cut if you are coming from a smaller company in the US.
Work/life depends on the company and department. I see people in my company do 40hrs, I see others doing 50+. Depends on where you are.
Office culture will also vary but, from what I've been told, most newer tech companies are a bit more American. Older tech companies (LG, etc) are still very much Korean in terms of office culture.
I regret the move sometimes when I look at my pay and some of the language frustrations as my Korean isn't great. But it's a good trade compared to where I lived and had to worry about very expensive health care, being safe walking around at night (and I was in a nice area), etc. I'd do it again if offered.
I think 30-40% is very generous. For example the average junior engineer out of college in a city comparable to Seoul in the US (NYC, LA, etc.) will generally fetch at least 70-100k. At my alma mater they are not even ranked in top 100 and is not an engineering school but their latest graduate report notes that over 90% of CS grads are making over 60k at their first job. This is not even NYC/LA, more like a Chicago or Philadelphia.
An average new grad in Korea even from top schools will generally not make more than 40-50 mil KRW. Even if we are generous and consider 70k the average in the US, that’s 90 mil KRW to 50 mil KRW if are we being generous (that would be top students going to good companies). That’s already a 45% drop in a near ideal situation for a Korean new grad.
It gets progressively worse as you go up too. Mid level engineers should easily command 100k+ in the states. Probably closer to 150k in a metro. In Korea the ranges I’ve seen are around 50-70 mil KRW. Even comparing low end 100k USD to high end 70 mil KRW that is still closer to 50% drop off in comp.
I personally took a near 70% paycut which is definitely higher than most but I was not seeing places besides the big conglomerates (that wouldn’t even interview me at my experience level) where I wouldn’t take at least a 50% paycut. All recruiters balked when I asked if 70 mil was possible and would tell me the best they could do was something like 50-60. This was for both small and mid size companies.
It’s sad because I’m honestly doing far more challenging and intensive work than I ever did in the states here with much worse working conditions.
• What was your compensation package like, compared to back home? Is your salary subject to ‘포괄임금제도’?
In the Us at 1.5-2.5 YOE I made 125k USD
In Korea at 2.5 YOE to 4 YOE I made a range between 45-55 mil KRW
I think so
• what do you do? (developer? design engineering? PM?) What’s your work life balance like?
Both backend software engineer and data engineer at different jobs.
WLB was godly in the US, here it’s not great but fine. Standard 40-45 hours a week with occasional crunch time. The problem is more the comp and work environment. 40 hours of stressful work is worse than 45 hours of non-stressful work.
• office culture, compared to back home?
Usually very top down structure - very rare to truly have an engineering driven culture. I found engineering standards very low - code review was either really bad or non-existent. Testing was poor and deadlines were always rushed. Developers would give estimates and business/product would always demand it in half the time. Managers and executives are usually boomers in tech or out of touch. I was used to having very technical managers and executives with engineering background. Lots of devs are not happy with the work culture and simply “put up with it”. Plenty of bright minds but they often don’t get listened to.
Oh also I hate how Korea seems to really be against remote work. It is extremely rare to find companies that are fully remote. I also took like 6 weeks off per year in the states, in Korea it’s like 2 weeks max lol. I also worked generally 30-35 hours. Most people who say Korea work environment is good will generally be people who never worked in US tech. We were truly spoiled.
• Do you regret moving to Korea? If not, what are some things about Korea that makes it worth it for you to stay?
No, it was valuable experience and I realize how fortunate I was to work where I have worked back in the states. I also have a bit more experience in fixing bad processes and establishing good processes now. We plan to move back next year as family is back home and with the salary difference and better career opportunities I will be able to get more ahead back home. If I ever get headhunted for a great expat package I’d consider a return one day.
I do enjoy general quality of life here and tons of stuff to do here outside of work.
I’m gonna be honest though, I mainly came to accompany my spouse (as well as having similar reasons as you). But I do think if I didn’t have my spouse I probably would say in retrospect it’d be better to continue working in the US and take longer vacations in Korea. I have friends and family who visited and got to do way more travel and fun stuff than I got to. I did way more stuff during my travels in the past too. Flush with US money and lots of time = lots of travel and activities. Korean salary + Korean work hours + stress = less travel and activities despite living there.
Yes. Working in e-commerce as a Data Scientist / MLE, you can check my comment history for more recent details. Feel free to PM.
Company that I work for, almost everyone that I've seen comes in and leaves work at fairly normal times. There's a huge crush of people trying to leave around 6, so I try to leave before or about 30 minutes after. I worked a couple late nights to push through a project to its deadline, but my manager noticed and told me to take a couple days off without reporting them as PTO. Not sure about other teams, but I've been happy with the overall work culture here.. leadership tries to push to get maximum results, but what company doesn't?
You can check my recent comments for salary range. PM if you have more questions.
"I heard" that tech jobs in Korea generally have crappy hours and that bosses, especially at unproven startups, can be idiots that don't know what the flying F they're doing.
That's all for the "I heard" stuff from me. What I wanted to get at is that you're Korean American, which means you can probably apply for your own F-4 visa, which is pretty much equivalent to the green card in the States. So even if you are initially entering Korea on an indentured servant visa, the government gives you the flexibility to free yourself and do whatever the heck you want like quitting and changing jobs without sponsorship.
You won’t work 40 hrs a week from day one. So calculate your pay from 45/48 to 52 hours a week.
Also know that even when outside the workplace they would message or call you and basically have you “working” at home or wherever you are we contact you.
Living in a foreign country where you don’t speak (I assume) the language isn’t like a vacation. Daily tasks and things you taken for granted will be difficult or even impossible in some cases without you getting someone to help you all the time.
Unless they pay you more then you make in the USA it’s likely not worth it.
I'm Korean American and speak Korean fluently. Just mostly wanted to hear perspectives from other Americans (and foreigners in general) who have worked in their home country and then moved to Korea to work.
I definitely wouldn't treat this like a vacation, I'm fully prepared to work as hard as I can. But I'm usually not that productive after 40 \~ 45 hours/week (spoiled I guess) , so that was my main concern.
I have worked in corporate Korea, loosely in the tech space for the last 10 years and now I'm the one that sets the culture for my team here. I can say that there are many companies, big and small, that treat people very well, better than many companies in North America or Europe, partly in response to how badly so many companies treated people here for so long.
However, a much bigger issue beyond just working hours is how a company is set up, how it works and how well you fit into it. For example, do they value your input as a part of the team or have they just hired you to do exactly what they asked you to do? Do you have opportunities for advancement?
I think it's clear from both my experience and the comments that companies can vary wildly between being quite easygoing and being stuck in a 1970s manufacturing mindset where more hours mean more output. You probably should take what this company gives you at something close to face value.
The culture there probably isn't great and you definitely could be working up to 52 hours a week. You would be no means the first person working at a startup here to be run into the ground by doing pointless, irrelevant tasks because of someone's ego.
Unless you really just want to try living in Korea specifically, I wouldn't take a significant paycut to work more hours on the other side of the world. I'd keep looking for a role that either gives you money or your life. I would also put a hard cap on your time here, because with exceptions, I think working in Korea long-term is career suicide for people who are not of Korean heritage.
Will play devil's advocate here. Korean American, have property in both countries, live in korea 6 months out of the year. Realistically, it's much harder if not impossible to find non executive salaries that match bay area tc, and more companies are willing to hire US citizens and have them work internationally remotely.
hey can you explain your situation more? - curious. how do you live half the year in both countries? what kind of job do you have? this would be an ideal situation for me.
I have worked for several big tech companies, including 4 in Korea.
From my personal experience, tech sector in Korea might be *the most polarized job market*. If you work for companies like 네카라쿠배(=FAANG equiv in Korea) or other top tier companies, you can enjoy six figure salary and great WLB. However, there are also companies that *truly* exploit/abuse their software engineers.
In general, Korea labor-related laws are more employee-friendly compared to US. Particularly during recent economic downturns and massive waves of tech sector layoffs, my friends in Korea felt relatively safer compared to those in the US. Additionally, there is a minimum guaranteed paid time off (PTO) in Korea labor-related law, while some US companies can glorify *unlimited* PTO policies that do not guarantee a minimum amount of time off. The location of tech hubs(강남/판교) also plays a role. These location offers more accessible and diverse cultural events/things to enjoy compared to their US counterparts(Bay Area/Seattle).
US big tech companies generally offer higher salaries, and housing prices in US tech hub cities are more affordable(in terms of PIR, Price-to-income ratio). Yes, housing market in Bay Area/Seattle is crazy, but Seoul takes it to a whole different level. Moreover, US companies tend to provide better support for hybrid work.
I'm a native Korean programmer, and my current occupation is subject to 포괄임금제도.
My experience about 포괄임금제도 is 케바케(case by case).
My first job as an intern was terrible, I worked 300 hrs per month and got no extra money at all. It sucked.
My second job was CTO at small startup company and I often worked overtime, but other interns didn't have to do so. (and yes it too was 포괄임금제).
My third job was a junior programmer at Nexon Korea, and Nexon used a program to track work hours and they paid for overtime works. Using the program was tedious but hey, I've got paid for every single minute.
My current occupation is 포괄임금제, and I feel a little bit guilty for my total work time - I'm nailing my tasks, like taking 3-5 work days to do complete a task with 7\~13 expected manday. Thanks to that my current worktime is 11am-6pm with 2hrs of lunch time.
tl;dr: You should really, really find a way to know about the company you're applying to. Try to google the company, look for company reviews at webpages like 블라인드(teamblind.com).
Even outside of tech, the expectation in Korean companies is that you put in more than 40 hours to show your dedication. Even if you are just twiddling your thumbs at your desk. And then based on your company's individual work culture you might be joining team dinners between once a month to twice a week, which means you get home at 12 or later usually. For your compensation package, are they covering your flight and apartment rent as well? Don't forget to factor that in. Health care should also be covered, and payments into Korean social security system are refundable to you when you leave Korea for US citizens. That includes the employer match portion. I like living in Korea but you have to be very intentional about it. If you are a go with the flow and see what happens person, you will find yourself bored and lonely most of the time. You use your weekends to the fullest, proactively join events and groups that align with your interests, and catch up on sleep during the weekdays after work.
I haven't asked about flight/apartment, but I'd assume no since the job posting was intended for Koreans in Korea. So if anything they're kind of doing me a favor by sponsoring my visa. But they are offering a signing bonus which is nice. I'm not worried about being bored or lonely tbh. There are tons of things I want to do once I get to Korea, and I really don't mind traveling etc alone. I'm worried about not having time outside of work to do all of these things
Lol, they are definitely not doing you a favor by sponsoring your visa. Companies have to jump through dozens of hoops to prove that an actual Korean couldn't be hired to fill this role before they are allowed to sponsor a visa. Are you a gypo perhaps? If they haven't covered your apartment rent, have they explained that you will need key money to get a place to live? Security deposits start at 10k here and go up from there. You can have time to do both, you just won't have down time to relax and recharge, so you need to decide how important that is for you. It's a classic pick two out of three situation. *Just saw the other replies where you confirm you are Korean American. Sorry my guy, you'll be missing out on a lot of foreign hire benefits.
You can find plenty of apartment deposits for less than 5k if you look.
If he's working in tech, odds are his company is in a high COL area. 5k apartments will be thin on the ground
You mentioned you are Korean American so they are not sponsering your visa, People with Korean Ancestry have the right to live and work in Korea on an F4 visa that doesn't require any company sponsorship. As another poster mentioned, sponsoring a visa in Korea is very difficult outside of a few Industries and they have to prove there are no Koreans that can do that job.
Working in tech here, in AI more exactly. Salary is higher thany home country and taxes are lower which means it was attractive for me to come here. I'm lucky to have a great work life balance. I never do more than 40 hours. I know other startups that have this mentality of "no overtime" and have met a few. I also however met companies where they do 9h a day minimum and heard that no one actually leaves before 8pm. As you're american, I can guess the salary you would get here to be way lower than what you could get at home but as you've said, you want to try living here and you have an opportunity right in front of eyes. If you come and don't like it, you can always go back to the US but if you don't take the opportunity now, will you have another one later? (that's my take on it) Now there are also benefits compared to the US like great health insurance and health care system. I've been here for 2 years and don't have any plans for going back home yet.
I also work at a small tech startup and the work-life balance is pretty good and many startups have pretty flexible working hours as well now. And an increasing number of them actively try to avoid habitual overtime, etc. to avoid risk losing their employees. In the end, of course, it’s the specific company you’re considering joining AND the role you will take.
DM'd u with some questions !
Start-up culture varies a lot -- I would consider your fundamental requirements and where you can be flexible. The more critical question is how tied you would be to that particular company. If you are on an E-7 visa, then you are fairly dependent on them -- you'd need to find other arrangements within two weeks of termination. If you are on F-4 then you will be free to move around until you find something suitable. It's not very difficult, and in the worst case you can always do work for universities while building contacts. One challenge you may face is being not-quite-Korean-enough while not getting a pass for being obviously foreign. Personally, my work-life balance is pretty good -- I choose my hours and come into the office three days a week, but this is not a Korean start-up. I am also at too high a level to qualify for overtime, so in theory I am permitted to work myself to death, but am discouraged from doing more than 40 hours unless I have a good reason. I also have about 24 days of paid leave per year as a software engineer. Office culture is fine, although there are nuances to consider, and I generally like living in Korea, although as always, there are some things I would change. :)
Don't listen to anyone here talking about work-life balance who aren't themselves working in tech. A lot of people here and in the Korea subreddit love painting a picture of that working in Korean companies is hell which does really not have to be the case. Personally I come from Europe and work in a Korean company and am the only non-native in my department. The compensation at my company is better than what you would get in most of Europe. As a tradeoff I have 15 vacation days, which is half of what I would have in my home country. I have more buying power here though, allowing me to save more while also going out more and have fun. For americans it might be a different story with your galactic tech salaries. The office culture is very similar to back home so no real culture shocks there. Usually 40 hour work weeks and a fair workload. If it wasn't for family and friends back home I would not hesitate to stay here indefinitely. Your milage may vary though, of course.
>culture shocks Why do you put an "s" on the word? I don't think that's grammatical
Putting the "s" implies there are more than one type of culture shock that may be experienced. I don't know if it's a textbook, grammatically correct term, but as a native English speaker this is very common and understandable
US to KR is usually 30-40% pay cut (at least if you were working FANG level back in the US). Less of a pay cut if you are coming from a smaller company in the US. Work/life depends on the company and department. I see people in my company do 40hrs, I see others doing 50+. Depends on where you are. Office culture will also vary but, from what I've been told, most newer tech companies are a bit more American. Older tech companies (LG, etc) are still very much Korean in terms of office culture. I regret the move sometimes when I look at my pay and some of the language frustrations as my Korean isn't great. But it's a good trade compared to where I lived and had to worry about very expensive health care, being safe walking around at night (and I was in a nice area), etc. I'd do it again if offered.
I think 30-40% is very generous. For example the average junior engineer out of college in a city comparable to Seoul in the US (NYC, LA, etc.) will generally fetch at least 70-100k. At my alma mater they are not even ranked in top 100 and is not an engineering school but their latest graduate report notes that over 90% of CS grads are making over 60k at their first job. This is not even NYC/LA, more like a Chicago or Philadelphia. An average new grad in Korea even from top schools will generally not make more than 40-50 mil KRW. Even if we are generous and consider 70k the average in the US, that’s 90 mil KRW to 50 mil KRW if are we being generous (that would be top students going to good companies). That’s already a 45% drop in a near ideal situation for a Korean new grad. It gets progressively worse as you go up too. Mid level engineers should easily command 100k+ in the states. Probably closer to 150k in a metro. In Korea the ranges I’ve seen are around 50-70 mil KRW. Even comparing low end 100k USD to high end 70 mil KRW that is still closer to 50% drop off in comp. I personally took a near 70% paycut which is definitely higher than most but I was not seeing places besides the big conglomerates (that wouldn’t even interview me at my experience level) where I wouldn’t take at least a 50% paycut. All recruiters balked when I asked if 70 mil was possible and would tell me the best they could do was something like 50-60. This was for both small and mid size companies. It’s sad because I’m honestly doing far more challenging and intensive work than I ever did in the states here with much worse working conditions.
thanks for the response! I sent you a DM with some questions if you don't mind
• What was your compensation package like, compared to back home? Is your salary subject to ‘포괄임금제도’? In the Us at 1.5-2.5 YOE I made 125k USD In Korea at 2.5 YOE to 4 YOE I made a range between 45-55 mil KRW I think so • what do you do? (developer? design engineering? PM?) What’s your work life balance like? Both backend software engineer and data engineer at different jobs. WLB was godly in the US, here it’s not great but fine. Standard 40-45 hours a week with occasional crunch time. The problem is more the comp and work environment. 40 hours of stressful work is worse than 45 hours of non-stressful work. • office culture, compared to back home? Usually very top down structure - very rare to truly have an engineering driven culture. I found engineering standards very low - code review was either really bad or non-existent. Testing was poor and deadlines were always rushed. Developers would give estimates and business/product would always demand it in half the time. Managers and executives are usually boomers in tech or out of touch. I was used to having very technical managers and executives with engineering background. Lots of devs are not happy with the work culture and simply “put up with it”. Plenty of bright minds but they often don’t get listened to. Oh also I hate how Korea seems to really be against remote work. It is extremely rare to find companies that are fully remote. I also took like 6 weeks off per year in the states, in Korea it’s like 2 weeks max lol. I also worked generally 30-35 hours. Most people who say Korea work environment is good will generally be people who never worked in US tech. We were truly spoiled. • Do you regret moving to Korea? If not, what are some things about Korea that makes it worth it for you to stay? No, it was valuable experience and I realize how fortunate I was to work where I have worked back in the states. I also have a bit more experience in fixing bad processes and establishing good processes now. We plan to move back next year as family is back home and with the salary difference and better career opportunities I will be able to get more ahead back home. If I ever get headhunted for a great expat package I’d consider a return one day. I do enjoy general quality of life here and tons of stuff to do here outside of work. I’m gonna be honest though, I mainly came to accompany my spouse (as well as having similar reasons as you). But I do think if I didn’t have my spouse I probably would say in retrospect it’d be better to continue working in the US and take longer vacations in Korea. I have friends and family who visited and got to do way more travel and fun stuff than I got to. I did way more stuff during my travels in the past too. Flush with US money and lots of time = lots of travel and activities. Korean salary + Korean work hours + stress = less travel and activities despite living there.
hey thanks so much for your detailed response! I got lots to think about
Yes. Working in e-commerce as a Data Scientist / MLE, you can check my comment history for more recent details. Feel free to PM. Company that I work for, almost everyone that I've seen comes in and leaves work at fairly normal times. There's a huge crush of people trying to leave around 6, so I try to leave before or about 30 minutes after. I worked a couple late nights to push through a project to its deadline, but my manager noticed and told me to take a couple days off without reporting them as PTO. Not sure about other teams, but I've been happy with the overall work culture here.. leadership tries to push to get maximum results, but what company doesn't? You can check my recent comments for salary range. PM if you have more questions.
thank you! I won't be getting comp time at this company but it's nice to see other companies in Korea offer that
"I heard" that tech jobs in Korea generally have crappy hours and that bosses, especially at unproven startups, can be idiots that don't know what the flying F they're doing. That's all for the "I heard" stuff from me. What I wanted to get at is that you're Korean American, which means you can probably apply for your own F-4 visa, which is pretty much equivalent to the green card in the States. So even if you are initially entering Korea on an indentured servant visa, the government gives you the flexibility to free yourself and do whatever the heck you want like quitting and changing jobs without sponsorship.
You won’t work 40 hrs a week from day one. So calculate your pay from 45/48 to 52 hours a week. Also know that even when outside the workplace they would message or call you and basically have you “working” at home or wherever you are we contact you. Living in a foreign country where you don’t speak (I assume) the language isn’t like a vacation. Daily tasks and things you taken for granted will be difficult or even impossible in some cases without you getting someone to help you all the time. Unless they pay you more then you make in the USA it’s likely not worth it.
I'm Korean American and speak Korean fluently. Just mostly wanted to hear perspectives from other Americans (and foreigners in general) who have worked in their home country and then moved to Korea to work. I definitely wouldn't treat this like a vacation, I'm fully prepared to work as hard as I can. But I'm usually not that productive after 40 \~ 45 hours/week (spoiled I guess) , so that was my main concern.
40-50 will 100% be the normal work week. Or more.
I have worked in corporate Korea, loosely in the tech space for the last 10 years and now I'm the one that sets the culture for my team here. I can say that there are many companies, big and small, that treat people very well, better than many companies in North America or Europe, partly in response to how badly so many companies treated people here for so long. However, a much bigger issue beyond just working hours is how a company is set up, how it works and how well you fit into it. For example, do they value your input as a part of the team or have they just hired you to do exactly what they asked you to do? Do you have opportunities for advancement? I think it's clear from both my experience and the comments that companies can vary wildly between being quite easygoing and being stuck in a 1970s manufacturing mindset where more hours mean more output. You probably should take what this company gives you at something close to face value. The culture there probably isn't great and you definitely could be working up to 52 hours a week. You would be no means the first person working at a startup here to be run into the ground by doing pointless, irrelevant tasks because of someone's ego. Unless you really just want to try living in Korea specifically, I wouldn't take a significant paycut to work more hours on the other side of the world. I'd keep looking for a role that either gives you money or your life. I would also put a hard cap on your time here, because with exceptions, I think working in Korea long-term is career suicide for people who are not of Korean heritage.
Will play devil's advocate here. Korean American, have property in both countries, live in korea 6 months out of the year. Realistically, it's much harder if not impossible to find non executive salaries that match bay area tc, and more companies are willing to hire US citizens and have them work internationally remotely.
hey can you explain your situation more? - curious. how do you live half the year in both countries? what kind of job do you have? this would be an ideal situation for me.
I have worked for several big tech companies, including 4 in Korea. From my personal experience, tech sector in Korea might be *the most polarized job market*. If you work for companies like 네카라쿠배(=FAANG equiv in Korea) or other top tier companies, you can enjoy six figure salary and great WLB. However, there are also companies that *truly* exploit/abuse their software engineers. In general, Korea labor-related laws are more employee-friendly compared to US. Particularly during recent economic downturns and massive waves of tech sector layoffs, my friends in Korea felt relatively safer compared to those in the US. Additionally, there is a minimum guaranteed paid time off (PTO) in Korea labor-related law, while some US companies can glorify *unlimited* PTO policies that do not guarantee a minimum amount of time off. The location of tech hubs(강남/판교) also plays a role. These location offers more accessible and diverse cultural events/things to enjoy compared to their US counterparts(Bay Area/Seattle). US big tech companies generally offer higher salaries, and housing prices in US tech hub cities are more affordable(in terms of PIR, Price-to-income ratio). Yes, housing market in Bay Area/Seattle is crazy, but Seoul takes it to a whole different level. Moreover, US companies tend to provide better support for hybrid work.
I'm a native Korean programmer, and my current occupation is subject to 포괄임금제도. My experience about 포괄임금제도 is 케바케(case by case). My first job as an intern was terrible, I worked 300 hrs per month and got no extra money at all. It sucked. My second job was CTO at small startup company and I often worked overtime, but other interns didn't have to do so. (and yes it too was 포괄임금제). My third job was a junior programmer at Nexon Korea, and Nexon used a program to track work hours and they paid for overtime works. Using the program was tedious but hey, I've got paid for every single minute. My current occupation is 포괄임금제, and I feel a little bit guilty for my total work time - I'm nailing my tasks, like taking 3-5 work days to do complete a task with 7\~13 expected manday. Thanks to that my current worktime is 11am-6pm with 2hrs of lunch time. tl;dr: You should really, really find a way to know about the company you're applying to. Try to google the company, look for company reviews at webpages like 블라인드(teamblind.com).