Amazing Internship Programme in Seoul
I was sponsored by Durham University to participate in CRCC’s Seoul Programme for a month, it was by far one of the best experiences of my life. Seoul is a vibrant city with an outstanding reputation and investment in computer science and I could not recommend CRCC Asia’s programmes enough.
I worked for a company which was developing educational coding platform designed for foreigners in Korea to gain valuable programming skills to aide them in getting a job in Korea, as Project Manager I was given a lot of responsibility for oversight of the platform and ensuring it was simple and accurate. My responsibilities included reviewing educational courses in JavaScript, Java, HTML, CSS, Python, and C#; I was also able to table platform improvements and acted as a point of reference for the western market.
The programme wasn’t exclusively me working however, CRCC held lots of events for us to get to know others on the programme (including a visit to Lotte World, which is like Korean Disneyland!), there was a lot of support too including weekly support sessions (though I never needed them it was reassuring to know it was there if I needed it). The accommodation was very clean, safe, and generally pleasant - it had all the facilities you’d need including a communal kitchen (plus a microwave and fridge in your room), laundry, and a social space which is where I ended up making friends with others on the 2 month programme, some of whom I’m still in contact with, and we went out to explore what Seoul had to offer, I made lots of amazing memories with them and I certainly ended up becoming far more social having been pushed out of my comfort zone and having to adapt to a very different culture both in the workplace and in general society.
There was plenty of time for me to explore Seoul on my own too, I was able to visit various districts of the city including Gangnam as well as Seoul Tower and the Botanical Gardens to name a few - I even got to go on a tour of the DMZ - all around an amazing experience to remember and one that also aides in my career, it looks great on a CV!
I highly recommend CRCC’s programmes, go for it and you won’t regret it! At no point did I feel homesick either, there was always something to do and everyone on the programme was so friendly, there were people from my uni there too but I ended up spending more time with people on the programme from America and even my coworkers who would take me to lunch.
Most unfamiliar thing I ate:
I ate so many new foods in Korea and all of it was amazing, seafood pancakes and buckwheat noodles were what I enjoyed most and was unfamiliar, but I also went to a restaurant with friends and they served chicken feet! A bit too gristly for my liking but it was certainly unfamiliar.
Pros:
- Amazing food.
- Great for advancing your career.
- Networking opportunities.
- Cultural agility, something employers greatly value in the globalised world we live in.
- Lots of support from CRCC if you have any issues, including issues with your placement company (though I never did).
- Great community.
- Exploration and amazing for personal development.
- Seoul is very affordable, I ended up eating out for pretty much every meal!
Cons:
- My uni only sponsored me for one month, I wish I could’ve had more time!
- Last minute my initial company backed out with no warning, but CRCC quickly reassigned me with the company I mentioned above.
Really I have no complaints about my time in Seoul, CRCC were amazing all around and I made a lot of great memories and I hope I can go back one day!






