Discovering your place beyond borders 3

Knocking on opportunities: Park Sun-jung at Glipsa Global Group

“If you are considering doing something, bring it out to action and gain more experience,” said Park Sunjung, an Ewha alumna working at Glispa Global Group, a global mobile marketing company based in Berlin, Germany. “Challenge yourself while you still have the time and strength.” These bold words of advice came naturally from Park’s lively experience working overseas. Ewha Voice flew to Berlin to meet Park, visit Glipsa, and hear more about her story. It has only been four years since Park graduated from Ewha, yet she was already nearly an expert in working at foreign companies; before coming to Berlin, Park also worked in a consulting firm based in Cordoba, Spain. Prior to working overseas, Park revealed that she had only ever given a vague thought with regards to working outside of Korea. “I have always loved meeting new people and foreigners and learning different languages, so I engaged in many related extracurricular activities when I was a student,” Park remembered. “However, I only thought of working overseas vaguely at best.” Eventually, after studying half a year in Barcelona as an exchange student, Park’s desire to study or work in Europe grew stronger. After graduating, Park worked at Opera Global Business, a Spanish consulting firm that had just opened its Korean branch for a year until she was relocated to the company’s headquarters in Cordoba. Though after working in Spain for a while and completing her master’s degree in International Business at the University of Cordoba, Park desired to move on to somewhere new. Park chose Berlin because it was a young and international city full of opportunities, especially for foreigners. Berlin was also a city flourishing with tech startups, including Glispa Global Group. Though Glipsa did not have any open recruitments at the time, Park contacted the company herself. “I called the company’s HR team and asked them if they needed any Koreans for their business,” Park said. “And I’ve been working at Glipsa ever since.” Glipsa Global Group is a mobile ad tech company that “partners with global advertisers, app developers, and publishers, enabling them to reach their user acquisition and monetization goals.” The company included the word “global” in their name for a reason; from the reception center to the interiors of the widely open offices, everybody was speaking in English. Park introduced some of her coworkers, many of whom were from different parts of the world such as France, Spain, and China. She explained that the large number of foreigners reflected the characteristics of Berlin itself. “One of the biggest reasons I moved to Berlin was its diversity,” Park said. “Communication was not a problem for me because not only are Germans generally good at English, but many foreigners reside in this city, and so even a great number of my coworkers cannot speak German.” Park currently works as an account manager in Glipsa. According to Park, an account manager deals with clients, expanding deals and managing them. “I initially worked in business development, but the company soon needed a person who could manage Korean clients,” Park explained. “I was the first Korean to be hired by this company, so I took charge of not only Korean clients, but also clients from Japan, Southeast Asia, and other Asian countries. For now, I’m focusing mostly on Korean clients again because the number of Korean clients and advertisers for shopping apps, game apps and banking apps is increasing.” Though Glispa is now nearly the size of a small and medium company, its atmosphere still retains the characteristics of a start-up; not just that there are young workers, but each person holds a great part of responsibility. According to Park, being proactive is crucial for every sailor on board. “Speaking up is very important in foreign companies,” Park emphasized. “In Korea, it is difficult to say exactly what you mean unless you are in an acceptable position. But in companies overseas, if you do not speak up or express your opinion, other people might think you do not know much or are too timid. I thought that I was doing well during our frequent meetings, but my manager kept pushing me to speak up and engage even more. I think their standards for proactivity are way higher than those in Korea.” When asked about what students can do to prepare for overseas employment, Park explained that being an expert in Korea and knowing another Asian language can be helpful. “Even if you try to work outside of Korea, experience working in Korea first,” Park explained. “Wherever you go, Europe or America, you will probably be assigned to work related to Korea. Also, if you are up to studying another language, learning another Asian language would also be advantageous. Whether you are in or out of Korea, knowing another language is a great asset.” She also added that gaining much experience, whether as an intern or the initiator of a project or business would impress employers because such background could really show who you are and what you are capable of doing. “Doing internships in smaller companies such as startups rather than big corporate firms can be a valuable experience,” Park advised. “Starting a project or business that you have interest for could be even better. Foreign companies especially think highly of what you have accomplished.” Park concluded with some more words of advice to students to challenge themselves. “There are many people who only dream of doing something but never try, and they are very discontent,” Park said. “However, if you think of doing something, get involved and try to gain more experience. Just as I called Glispa’s HR team first, actively knocking on different doors might open the way to new opportunities.”

Reporters: Kim Jee-min, Lee Tae-hee