MEET
chat_icon

Gap Year Program: Placement at World-Changing Social Enterprises, Seoul

#Proactive attitude and solidified values #Knowledge of the overall product development process #Sense of achievement and responsibility for the outcomes

  •  

     

     

    Thanks to the company''s emphasis on an individual''s capabilities, I was given opportunities that interns at other companies don''t receive and was able to learn the overall process of product development,, how to communicate with client staff, I enjoyed the hands-on process of learning, by experience, how to act when going out to source product materials and auxiliary supplies.

     

    - Gap year placement program at a world-changing social enterprise

     

     

    This organization, which began from the perspective that jobs can serve as something that gives hope, believes that good companies are strong companies,, and it was a company that reached out to people who genuinely needed help to create a better society. They generated positive social synergy by offering job-creation opportunities to homeless individuals who had a strong will to become self-supporting,, not merely a company that produces products and delivers them to consumers, but person-to-person, i.e., they were realizing a people-centered company. Not a place that works passively only for the company''s material growth, but one that places great importance on an individual''s potential for growth a happy lifeIt was a company that sought to pursue .

     

    At the start of the internship, I wrote several proposals related to the product. While working on various ideas about how to use the product more effectively to achieve greater advertising impact, last year, I began work to devise ways to make the product that won the Seoul City contest more accessible to the general public,, and I started working in product development, leveraging my major in design.

     

    Around the mid and late stages, I invested more effort in development work, While doing development work, I even went to Dongdaemun to shop around to decide on the product''s materials, colors, etc.. And because the characteristics of the existing product and the production process were different, I worked with experts in that field, but the product progressed differently than expected, so the work I was doing ultimately did not achieve satisfactory results.. However, I proceeded with developing another product that was being developed in a different direction and took it as far as the stage of finalizing the composition..

     

    I applied for the internship with the expectation of how proactive I could be. Thanks to the company''s characteristic of valuing an individual''s capabilities, I was given opportunities not offered to interns at other companies and was able to learn the overall process of product development,, how to communicate with client staff, I enjoyed the hands-on process of learning how to act when going out to source materials and accessories, such as a product''s materials and components..

     

    Whether to force myself into a job for a financially comfortable life or me—to honor the value of ''me'' and seek work I can enjoy—I feel I came to an answer about that.. Amid the older generation''s preference for large corporations, I felt that my own values must be firmly established in order to overcome that.. 8The weeks helped me develop the judgment to determine what kind of life would produce more positive effects for me over the long term,, and I think it was an experience that provided the driving force to pursue the life direction I choose in the future without regret..

     

    When I was going to intern at a social enterprise, People around me reacted, "What could you, an environmental design major, possibly learn by going there?", Most people responded that it would be better to do work that could become a career in your field of study.. Also, only internships at large corporations would be...specs would be helpful for the future, and there were opinions not to waste time on anything else.. But I couldn''t understand why university students of this era would themselves...intern = slaves who work hard for little pay saying working machines while comparing them to that, yet frantically and meaninglessly submitting applications to companies to build up the internship ''spec''.. So the path I chose was experienceat a social enterprise..

     

    I believed the ideology of social enterprises — which prioritize an individual''s value and regard that person''s growth potential as a core value — could help realize the value of a happy life.. The sense of accomplishment when my results were realized at the company was indescribable,, I also learned that the value of taking responsibility for the results is very important.. And even tasks that seemed unrelated to my major, I could learn something there that would help me grow through their own strengths and weaknesses
    It was a valuable experience that made me feel I could learn those things..

     

     

     

Why This Project

What makes this project special

Take just one brave step.
GapYear will take care of the rest.