About

Hi, and welcome to Stellup Career Guide.

This blog is run by STELLUP, a company in Korea that offers job support and job training for foreigners who want to build a career here. We work with international professionals, foreign employees, and international students, and we build tools that help them settle into Korean workplaces a little faster.

We started this blog for a simple reason: a lot of what makes work in Korea feel hard isn't on any textbook page. It's the email that ends with "확인 부탁드립니다," the senior who says "한번 볼게요," or the interview that opens with "자기소개 해 주세요." Here we explain workplace Korean and Korean company culture in plain English, with real phrases you can use the same day, whether you already work in Korea or you're getting ready to be hired.

If you'd like to practice what you read, these are the services we make:

  • Hangling — a business Korean app with classes, expression drills, quizzes, and AI conversation and pronunciation practice.
  • MOCKEE — an AI mock interview for practicing Korean-language job interviews.
  • STELLUP — our company site, with more about our job support and training programs.

Thanks for reading. We hope it makes your workday in Korea a bit easier.

— STELLUP Team

Popular posts from this blog

How Do You Ask for a Confirm, Reply, or Review in Korean at Work?

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Have you ever finished a Korean work email, then paused on the last line, not quite sure you asked for the right thing? You typed something polite that ends in 부탁드립니다 . It looks fine. A day later you get a short “확인했습니다” when what you needed was a yes or no — or silence, because they thought you were just looping them in. Today we’ll untangle three closers that sound almost the same in English, so you can pick the one that matches what you actually need. The three that get mixed up Korean workplaces lean hard on these: 확인 부탁드립니다 — “please confirm / take a look” 회신 부탁드립니다 — “please reply” 검토 부탁드립니다 — “please review” They are not interchangeable. 확인 is for eyes. Did the file arrive? Is the date okay? Please look once so we’re aligned. You’re not asking for a long answer — you’re asking them to check. 회신 is for words back. A decision, a yes/no, something written you can act on. If you need them to answer, this is the one. 검토 is for judgment on a document — a deck, a contract, a prop...
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Graduating on a D-2 Visa: Should You Switch to D-10 or E-7?

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Graduation photos are done, friends are booking flights home, and someone finally asks what visa you’re moving to next. You realise the honest answer is still “I’ll figure it out after commencement.” That’s usually how the scramble starts. Today we’ll walk through the two routes the official guidance sketches for D-2 graduates, plus a few Korean terms that make the conversation with your school or immigration much smoother. Offer in hand, or still looking? One question decides your route: do you already have a signed employment contract? If you do , and the role fits an employment stay qualification — for example E-7 (Specific Activities) — you may be able to apply to change straight to that employment status, as long as you meet the rules for D-2 prospective graduates. The official guidance says a change to employment status (E-1 through E-7 as applicable) needs all three: legal stay on D-10 or D-2, a job field that matches that stay qualification and its requirements, and a signed em...
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Ssi vs Nim: How Do You Address Coworkers in Korean?

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Someone on your team calls you 민수 씨 , so on Monday you greet your lead the same way. The room goes just a little quiet. Or the opposite: you learned “님 = polite” in class, so you attach it to everyone, until a peer laughs and tells you it sounds a bit stiff. This isn’t a full 존댓말 lesson. Today we’ll look at one small choice — how you attach something to a person’s name — and why it quietly ranks the room. 직함+님 vs 이름+씨 직함+님 (job title + 님) is your safe default for anyone above you and for any client: 팀장님 , 과장님 , 부장님 , 대표님 . You can add a surname in front — 김 과장님 , 박 팀장님 — and it still works. Bosses, clients, external partners, people you mainly know by their role: 직함+님 is never the wrong call. 이름+씨 (given name + 씨) is peer politeness. It’s fine when your workplace already uses it among equals or toward juniors — if a same-rank colleague calls you 민수 씨, it’s usually okay to call them the same way back. The trap is going upward. Calling a manager by name+씨 because a peer did it to you ...
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