November 21, 2024

• 

Chris Heo, business lead for KLiK (KLiK)

As Korea’s foreign workforce nears the 1 million mark, JobKorea, the nation’s leading online recruitment platform, has launched the spinoff KLiK, or Kickstart Life in Korea, to bring quality jobs and community to foreign national job seekers.

Chris Heo, a 33-year-old Canadian national who leads the KLiK team, said that the platform’s birth was largely inspired by his own experiences and challenges as a foreign national living in Korea.

“I’ve struggled with complex administrative procedures myself and a lack of accessible job information or headhunters, so I have a good understanding of how foreign job seekers feel,” Heo told The Korea Herald in a recent interview at his office in southern Seoul.

JobKorea, founded in 1996, is the nation’s top job search platform and is largely focused on full-time positions. Its sister brand Albamon, launched in 2004, specializes in part-time and temporary roles. KLiK aims to combine the synergies of both well-established platforms, an outcome of hard work since Hong Kong-based Affinity Equity Partners acquired JobKorea in 2021.

Since its launch in July, KLiK has seen robust growth with over 61,000 job postings, the largest among such platforms here. It has attracted users with distinctive features, including multilingual support in 28 languages and a “Lounge” community as well as advanced search capabilities.

“We’ve integrated the two platforms' expertise to build a specialized service for foreign job seekers, covering both part-time and full-time opportunities,” Heo said. “What also sets us apart from others is a dedicated tab that highlights whether different visas are sponsored by recruiting firms. Such details help address realistic challenges for foreigners entering the job market, and ultimately attract more employers.”

KLiK’s user base largely comprises international students in their final year of university and young professionals, with some 69 percent in their 20s. The top five nationalities are India, China, Pakistan, the Philippines and Uzbekistan, and popular job categories include global marketing and sales, translation and business planning.

To further enhance its services, KLiK has formed strategic partnerships with diverse companies. These include employment solutions provider Hire Diversity, which offers administrative support for visas, and SEEK, one of the world’s top three job platforms headquartered in Australia, opening avenues for global expansion.

Heo envisions KLiK evolving beyond a job search platform, aiming to become a comprehensive support system for foreigners building their careers and lives in Korea.

“We’re planning to introduce services that support various aspects of expatriate life, from housing to purchasing used cars,” he shared. Additionally, the platform plans to leverage AI technology to improve job matching, with a proprietary AI solution set to launch alongside an app service next year.

KLiK is also fostering a sense of community among expatriates. The platform recently hosted KLiK Happy Hour, a networking event that brought together 80 young professionals from over 40 countries. “We aim to create a win-win situation, connecting more talented people with the right opportunities,” Heo said, adding that they plan to organize more industry-specific events next year, focusing on fields like IT, marketing and global sales.

Heo also advocated for policy reforms to make better use of foreign national talent in the country. “With the (post-graduate job seeking rate for students) only at around 8 percent, we need more flexible policies to expand the industries and job roles available to them,” he emphasized, adding that increasing resources and opportunities for international students is equally essential.

By Kim Hae-yeon (hykim@heraldcorp.com)