marketing specialist

office administrator

mover

marketing consultant

business development manager

KOTRA

I can shrink it down to only 10. I can list maybe tens of thousands.
1, No career advance - You will do same thing for rest of your live 
2. No insurance or 401K benefit - You can get private insurances and reimburse but the company will do everything to not reimburse you at all
3. They are lacking always on the performance so; the supervisor will ask you to manipulate the result and submit with your name signed
4. KOTRA is known for employee harassments by their managements in Korea. They are always the center of the problems and all the gossips. They have gone to national hearings many times for this and also panelized for that. 
5. KOTRA is an organization definitely wasting Korean taxpayers money. They are deployed to US and all they do is sightseeing and go out without working
6. They love to blame the local employees for the failure but the reality is that they have not done anything wrong. The local employees works really hard. If you are a local staff, you are responsible for everything
7. They are supposed to be the public servant but, managers abuse their powers to dictates which companies get services and which other companies does not which they are not entitled to judge that. Totally Illegal
8. They will ask the local staff to get the annual reviews from the Korean companies and demand the ratings will be 5 stars. If the Korean company does not give them what they want, the managers will give those companies disadvantages and they will have no problem doing that.
9. The Korean managers will come to the countries as a government dispatched servant and they will totally disregard the local laws. I will not surprised if any Kotra employees from Korea caught on DUI and get deported.
10. Korean managers expats will divide the local staff apart. They do not like people talking to each other without having the manager right in the middle. They cannot meet after work at all. I don’t know what they are trying to hide.
Also, they have a high turnover. The turnover rate of faster than any companies I worked for. Average stay of the employee maybe less than 8 months. And there is a reason why. Please don't do this.

Pros:

1. Descent work and life balance
- Overtime happens pretty often but not every day, depending on your job, but Korean client will call you even on the weekends
2. Extra holidays (3 days)
- 3 of the major Korean holidays are observed so you get extra days off on top of the US holidays.
3. Year end incentive
- big check 
4. Great work place if you are familiar with  Korean culture or speak Korean

Cons:
1. General manager and Director changes every 2-3 years.
- such a pain to get adjusted to different management. trust me they all have different rules and preferences.

2. Low salary
- No matter your work experience, the basic salary to start off is $3000. It increases by 1-3% annually.($100 if you are lucky). 

3. 10 PTOs, 5 sick days with no call-in 
- No matter how long you've worked here you only have 10 PTOs and 5 sick days which you need to bring a doctor's note every time. No personal days to run errands. You  have to use your PTOs for that.
- New director told employees to come to work in the morning of your sick day to get an approval from the director to make sure that you are really sick. Basically, you cannot call in sick. (Isn't this against the labor law? not sure but it's harsh enough)
-someone could only get 3 days off, including weekend, for deceased mother.

4. Absence of mid-management 
- There's a person who is supposedly doing mid managerial work for local employees but nothing is done by him
- If you have a complaint about your job then the mid-manager will tell you to go to the director not him.

5. No coworker happy hours
- no fun

Working here offers a relatively good work-life balance, which can be a positive aspect for those seeking stability. However, there are several structural limitations that make it difficult to feel fully motivated or impactful in the role.

One of the fundamental issues is the rigid organizational structure. For example, even if you successfully develop and attract a buyer relationship in one office, the account must often be transferred to another office if the buyer’s headquarters is located in that region. Situations like this can make individual efforts feel limited and discourage initiative.

Additionally, the work culture sometimes reflects characteristics often seen in traditional Korean organizations, where processes can feel bureaucratic and overly focused on reporting or “showing” results rather than creating meaningful outcomes.

While the workload itself may not be overwhelming, the overall environment can feel somewhat passive. Many employees appear to stay primarily because it is a public institution that offers stability, rather than out of strong motivation or enthusiasm for the work.

Overall, it can be a comfortable place in terms of work-life balance, but those looking for a dynamic, performance-driven environment may find it frustrating over time.

Not different as many other New York metro area companies, but once you start work and learn what really goes on in this place, it may give a thrill to some people, at least it did for me.

Helping mid-sized companies in Korea to settle in a certain country by outsourcing as much information as possible for them to view. KOTRA a Korean government facilitated company is expanded through out the world to help mid-sized and sometimes even large corporations with each countries internal and external business resources. Hardest part of the job maybe the part when the research cannot be finalized because even though the internet has much more information than we know, sometimes we had to run bare feet, but that also can be part of the most enjoyable.

Never lay off for unskilled employee, Heavy work for hard worker.
Job description never change util you quit
Korean employee - Korean culture, heavy work duty
Non Korean Employee - Best job forever
Poor management/great management rotate every 3-4 years

•Participated in various market analysis and research projects that is designed to identify business opportunities, evaluate competition, define market characteristics and assess customer preferences
•Reviewed legal contracts, media information, advertising and sales media, and market research data

day - Monday to Friday , 9am to 5pm

Each office is managed by Korean home office staff but dependent on the skills of local staff. Goals of the home office do necessarily coincide with home office staff political requirements to advance.

Served as the Marketing Manager Assistant and Interpreter. Collaborated in agile environment to cultivate KOTRA’s image and increased leads by 
200% through strategized business and matchmaking analytics.

Not much stress with good people. Easy-going people make great atmosphere. Since the HQ is located in Seoul, Korea, the time difference results in working an after hour.

Strong Korean culture, strong HQ. 
Pretty much nothing to learn. Low salaries and theres no chance to negotiate! The working atmosphere within ppl was somewhat cold and strict, and hierarchical. 

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Marketing specialist 2 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Office administrator 3 salaries reported	$48,333 per year
Mover 4 salaries reported	$55,000 per year
Marketing consultant 2 salaries reported	$47,500 per year
Business development manager 1 salary reported	$4,000 per month

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