Its quite some time since I've updated this blog. I can come with a multitude of reasons, but honestly deep down I know its due to sheer laziness. Sorry for that (as if you are waiting with baited breath he he).
Some of the most common concerns I had were in the below areas -
Anyway, its close to three months since I entered this beautiful place and I thought of writing a bit about it here. Usually we get enough information about Indian Engineers in US/UK or any other English speaking countries. But information about Indian Engineers in Korea is hard to come by on WWW. So, hopefully, this will give some insight into aspiring Engineers who're looking to take up employment here. I'll give the information in parts. In this post, I'll address some concerns I had before coming here (these are very common, and most people would've them too).
For the uninitiated, I recently took up job as an Engineer at one of the most prominent companies of S.Korea (no cookies for guessing ;) ) in Suwon City , S.Korea. I had lot of apprehensions initially about accepting the job offer and life in general, at a country where, finding someone who speaks English, is equivalent to finding someone who likes Tees Maar Khan in India. Sorry for the bad punchline, I'm not so good with analogies !
Some of the most common concerns I had were in the below areas - - Food
- Working long hours
- Harsh climate
- Language Barrier
- Cost of Living
Let me address them one by one.
1. Food - Food is not an issue so far, mainly because we had brought most of our Indian groceries with us here. So I get to eat delicious Indian food daily. And my wife seems to have found an otherwise previously undiscovered love for cooking delicious dishes deep inside her, which works greatly to my advantage. Add to that, my office has a good, well stocked, Indian Cafeteria, which offers decent Indian vegetarian meals. There are some pizza places, where one can order vegetarian pizzas as well. You have a couple of Indian restaurants as well in Suwon where you can find vegetarian food. But as a whole, being a veggie, one is at a disadvantage here. Some of the vegetables like green beans are very very hard to find, Indian stores are few and far , and even if you do come across the few Indian stores, Indian Rice cost like $22 for 5kgs ! So, if you are an Indian veggie, life maybe a bit tough, if you don't have enough groceries with you and your company doesn't provide Indian food. You might find it tough to socialize with your Korean colleagues as well, as, being a veggie, you will always stick out like a sore thumb in office parties and lunch/dinner treats.
2. Working Long Hours - This seems to be a common misconception outside of Korea. Yes, hours are long only if you make them to be. So far, nobody at my office has told me to stay back and work for extra hours. In fact,it has been quite the opposite, I'm encouraged to work smart and not slog. But this might vary across companies. But, in general, from what I've noticed, Koreans are hardworking people. They don't mind staying long hours in office, and they are pleased if you stay back too.
3. Harsh climate - Coming from the air conditioned weather of Bangalore, the weather here in S.Korea does seem harsh at times. The cold can go as bad as -16 , literally forcing you to stay indoors. But nothing , a couple of hot pakoras with warm coffee and a thick sweater and blanket can't solve. If you are having trouble with harsh winters, this might be an issue for you. I've heard the summers can be nasty too, yet to experience it, so no comments yet !
4. Language Barrier - Well this is indeed a huge problem. So much that, sometimes I fear it can potentially cause social isolation and induce loneliness. There are some Indian families around in the city of Suwon, but the knowledge of local language is needed the most, especially when you go out to shop or roam around, where, a trivial task like asking for that grocery you want, or checking out directions can be a huge hassle. In office, not knowing the language can put you in a great disadvantage compared to your peers. You develop a frustrating sense of dependency on your co-workers for even insignificant stuff like getting your computer repaired, paying your bills (At least the first few times) etc. Meetings and most of the technical training happen in native Korean, and you miss out on them as well. So, unless you are prepared to spend time and efforts to learn Korean, you might want to re-think about a long term career here. I've started to train myself on Korean with some information available on web, planning to attend some classes shortly as well.
5. Cost of Living - Yes, S.Korea is expensive compared to India or China and almost as costly as US in some aspects. Renting an apartment is very expensive, so are vegetables and other groceries. Same goes for clothes and other household items. But, I received a fully furnished apartment as part of my job offer from my Employer due to which I'm relatively at a safer side. Kid's education is another thing to look out for. Monthly fees can cost you upwards of $500 in an English school for simple Kindergarten education (excluding initial deposit, travel/books/uniform and other such miscellaneous expenses). I've not checked for primary schools, but my guess would be that it would be much more. Medical Expenses, cost a lot too from what I heard, but there's a medical program from govt., which is kind of mandatory (I assume), which covers most of the regular ailments. The premium for that is quite less, so unless you are illness-prone, you should be able to get along. To sum it up, without the benefits of housing, accepting a job in S.Korea, especially for people from India , can be daunting since the cost of living here is very high compared back home.
So that's a brief summary based on my 3 months of living here. I'll try to update the blog more regularly whenever I get free time. Catch you later :)
