This is a collection of examples of what you need to include in your personal statement, including examples of your school experience, part-time jobs, and internships. Use these examples to help you express yourself effectively in your personal statement.
Taking ownership and working a part-time job
When I entered college, I started working part-time because I thought I was an adult and needed to take responsibility for my finances. Part-time jobs were a way to earn money, but they were also a way to gain social experience and learn to be more adaptable. As I started earning money, I realized my father’s words, “It’s not easy to earn other people’s money.” I wanted to be the best at whatever I did, so I took ownership and worked hard, even though I was only working part-time. My proactive and proactive work attitude shone through wherever I worked. My part-time job taught me the importance of people management. I realized that an organization can be successful when it has a lot of people who share the same goals as the organization. During my part-time job, I saw a lot of people who were just working to pass the time, and they didn’t enjoy their work. I thought that if they knew the goals of the organization and wanted to be part of it, they would enjoy their work more. Through my work at LIFE, I learned how motivated and enthusiastic people can be when they share a common goal with the organization, and I was able to develop my organizational and personnel management skills to bring out the passion of employees.
Valuable social experience through part-time work
When I was in junior high and high school, I loved to socialize with my friends. I liked to play sports and run around with my friends at school, and when I went home, it would take me 30 minutes to an hour or two to walk home, but when I was with my friends, I didn’t realize how fast the time went by. Also, whenever a friend had a difficult situation, I was always there to help them, always with a positive face. I studied hard on my own, but with my parents’ full support, I was able to enter the university I am in now, and after entering the university, I felt embarrassed to be dependent on my parents and thought that I should be independent, so I also worked part-time. Of course, I lived in a dormitory for a year at first, but I wanted to save money by living in a dormitory that I could enter as long as I studied, but I wanted to have my own pocket money. My parents always told me that I shouldn’t worry about tuition or other money, but I didn’t accept money because I thought that if I didn’t manage myself, I wouldn’t be able to manage my life. As for part-time jobs, I worked in a freezer in the middle of winter and did a lot of day labor jobs in the beginning. Then, in my fourth year, I moved out on my own with the money I had saved to live a more professionally free life. I worked night jobs and weekend jobs, and I gained valuable social experiences.
Growing up through various part-time jobs and clubs
Because of my family’s poor financial situation, I had to work various part-time jobs, which I thought was a hardship at the time, but now I think it was a really good experience for me, because it taught me how to deal with people. I met various people through my night job at a convenience store, and I was able to meet and educate various children through my tutoring and cram school jobs. I also had the opportunity to mingle with mothers while doing hard work, such as inventory work and factory work, and it was a valuable opportunity to hear what they care about and want to add to their children’s education and what kind of teachers they want. In addition to my part-time job, I was actively involved in various activities through the child welfare center’s volunteer club and theater club. My most memorable experience was when we combined both clubs and went to the welfare center to put on a play. It was a great experience to act and have fun with the children, and through that experience, I realized that it would be more effective to reach out to children by utilizing various media.
Ability to perform research projects and experience life in a life science and technology organization
When I entered college, I worked part-time at convenience stores and other places during my vacations. I didn’t have to worry about paying for school, and I didn’t have any difficulties with living expenses, but I started working part-time to overcome the narrow-minded relationships I had in middle and high school. Of course, it was during this time that I developed the habit of observing people. As I got higher in my grades, I went to my professors and asked for a favor and interned at a company. It was a short period of time, but it gave me a taste of social life, and I also got to see vivisection, mainly by helping to draw blood for weight enhancement on beagles. It wasn’t a lot of experience, but it helped me to develop independence and the strength to keep working hard to achieve my goals.
In graduate school, I studied the mechanisms of environmental pollutant-induced cell death in rabbit chondrocytes and rat cerebellar granule neurons, and then joined the Department of Brain Diseases, where I discovered the SUMO protein, a factor that induces the production of amyloid beta, one of the causes of dementia, and studied that SUMO protein binds to BACE protein to promote the production of amyloid beta. I am confident in cell culture because I was mainly in charge of culturing cells and conducting in vitro experiments. In addition, I acquired the ability to carry out research projects by planning and conducting experiments according to research tasks and experienced life science techniques and laboratory organization.
I like to socialize with new people
I enjoy getting to know new people. When I was in high school, the unfamiliar environment and new school made me feel scared and nervous, but on the other hand, I was excited to meet new friends and new people. I can’t say that the time when I had to leave my parents and take care of everything on my own was not difficult, but I was able to get through it with the help and emotional support of many friends, and I think that the early independence and new environment made me make many people I am grateful to.
Since I was living alone a lot, I naturally got a part-time job. I was a sales assistant at an electronics store, and although I was trying to make money, I saw it as a way to meet new people, and I made sure to say hello at least one more time, make eye contact, and treat each customer as if I were meeting a friend. As a result, I was recognized by the store, and I was paid more than my coworkers, and I think that my friendliness was felt by customers at other stores, and it inspired me to do the same in my other jobs.
Living a life of self-discovery
When I was in college, I worked a lot of part-time jobs to fund my trip to Prague. I worked at a construction site delivering bricks, which was an experience that made me realize how important it is to build relationships with the people you work with. It was a tough job that made me sick on my first day, but I think it was the encouragement and reliance on each other that kept me going. It made me realize that if we work as a team, we can overcome anything.
I worked in transportation at a courier company. I was tasked with the mission of delivering goods to customers quickly and accurately. I believe that the commitment to safety and keeping our promises to our customers will serve me well in my work at your company.
During my final semester of my senior year, I interned in distribution, where I worked as a country of origin assistant, which was a great way to learn about the details of the distribution process. I was able to study the specifics of country of origin labeling in detail and promote it to businesses and companies. I also had the opportunity to explain the differences between local and imported agricultural products in educational programs for businesses and companies as well as the general public.
Gaining real-world experience through internships
When I entered university, I was selected as a merit scholar and received a full scholarship for two years. I took a variety of computer-related courses in the Department of Information Processing. I decided that I was better suited for a career in general rather than a career in computers or computing, such as programming languages, hardware, and networks. The more knowledge you have about computers, the better, and it’s a field that has nothing to lose, so I was eager to study in my major, but I also started computerized accounting in my spare time.
In particular, I participated in a computerized accounting program organized by the school’s Industry-Academia Cooperation Center during the summer vacation, where I received four weeks of training and prepared to obtain a certificate. In order to master the The Zone program, I stayed until the computer lab closed after class to practice, and I always came 30 minutes early to practice the program before class started.
Since there is industry-academia cooperation related to my major, I had the opportunity to train as an intern at a company for one month. I interned at ○○ Co. It was an IT company, but the tasks I was responsible for were mainly documentation using Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. I was assigned to the general affairs department and worked on documents requested by employees, which gave me first-hand experience with the company’s financial statements and how Excel and PowerPoint are used in the workplace. In addition, since I knew how to use The Zone program, I was assigned to enter data in the workplace, which was a valuable opportunity to learn accounting.
I worked various part-time jobs while attending university and gained office experience as an intern
I worked a variety of part-time jobs during college because I think it’s fun to work and there’s a lot of satisfaction in earning money from your work. I also learned a lot from working part-time. I enjoyed working at a theater because you have to treat customers with sensitivity, and when there are a lot of women, it’s sometimes harder to treat female employees well than it is to treat customers. I learned how to get along well with many female employees and how to speak nicely and not offend them to resolve conflicts between them. I also had a short-term office job at a station where I was able to become quite familiar with writing documents and using Excel. I also worked in busy stores such as fast food restaurants and coffee shops, where I learned how to handle tasks according to their importance and how to work collaboratively.
I also learned about the overall flow of work through my internship. I interned for a year at a small business focused on online marketing, and that experience taught me a lot about how things work in general, answering phones, greeting people, having meetings, making PPTs, getting contracts, managing documents in the office, and getting organized.
Part-time jobs and internships
My work experience is very small, but I will write it down anyway. Rather than working as an office worker, I used my friendly personality to work as a tutor, a cram school teacher, or a cafe or restaurant server. I experienced people through my work, and most importantly, I realized the saying “a word is worth a thousand debts”. I realized that even the same words or the same request can be pleasant and good depending on how you say them, and I think that made me think a lot about how to be more pleasant and considerate when talking and sharing opinions with people. I met people and met a lot of good seniors at that time, which gave me a good understanding of how to treat people.
My internship experience was at a company that is in the education business. It is a company that develops content by creating and planning books and connecting with study papers companies, and while working there, I learned about how the entire content company works, and what I noticed was the synergy of people who do what they are good at. When I saw the people in the company, I thought, “Greeting is really important,” and I thought that I would like to be a person who sees the right timing of people and coordinates it rather than a person who does planning. That is why I applied to your company.
Experiencing the world through internships
In my senior year, I had the opportunity to intern at a department store for one month thanks to an MOU between my university and a major department store. My major was business administration, so I was assigned to the human resources department to provide office support. The first day I put on a suit and went to work, I was very excited and nervous, but I also felt a sense of responsibility that I didn’t know what I would do when I graduated from college.
During my internship, I was in charge of organizing, storing, and sending documents related to HR-related materials. I have a know-how of organizing, so I organized everything that I thought was inefficient while performing my duties.
I followed the standards and principles of document storage and made suggestions to the team leader. Although it was only a short work experience of one month, I was able to experience the atmosphere of a general company, and it was an opportunity to gain confidence and shake off my fear of social life by doing real work.
Dreaming of the world beyond my major
In university, I majored in public administration, which I chose because it is the most stable job for women, and I wanted to work in the social welfare field and support facilities for the socially disadvantaged.
I worked hard at school and maintained top grades, but after hearing from friends who had studied abroad that they had gained a broader perspective on the world, I wanted to experience life abroad myself. I decided to apply for an exchange program in Germany, which was very competitive. I wasn’t expecting much as the program is very competitive, but I was lucky enough to be selected and spent a year in Germany.
Having never traveled alone before, except for family vacations, it was a big adventure to be away from my family for a year, but the excitement of being in an unfamiliar environment was more exciting than the fear of being in an unfamiliar environment. I had only learned basic German as a second language in high school, so I focused my efforts on learning German and English before I left. Despite my lack of language skills and the fact that I never slept more than five hours a night for a year, my time as an exchange student in Germany was an experience I never regretted. Not only did I make German friends, but I also made friends from Egypt, Australia, and other countries around the world, which exposed me to different cultures and made me realize that I wanted to work globally. This inspired me to enroll in a flight attendant training school after I returned home and start preparing to become a flight attendant.
Understanding society and people
As a sociology major, I studied various theories and methodologies that can explain changes from macro societal changes to micro changes, such as changes in interpersonal relationships, and gained a general and specialized knowledge of all areas of society, including prospects for future society, changes in the information society, science and society, human interaction, the social meaning of sports, gender and family, multiculturalism, and popular culture.
As a discipline that establishes theories and hypotheses through insights into social conflicts and social phenomena, tries to explain them through sociological analysis methods and methodologies, and learns the ability to interpret the data derived from the analysis, my perspective of understanding society has been broadened and diversified.
Last winter break, I participated in the Mindfulness College Camp because I wanted to take time to reflect on myself. It was a valuable time to reflect on myself, solve problems that bothered me, and cultivate self-control.
Gaining experience with my passion for video and photography
It was a time when I enjoyed various encounters with children who were interested in photography and film and wanted to capture a part of the world through their own eyes. Each of them had their own distinct intentions or goals to capture time, to give it permanence, to make it something that doesn’t stagnate or come back. At home, I was the one who worried my parents because they said, “If you pay too much attention to such things, you won’t be able to use them,” but when I met people in my circle who had similar hobbies and tastes, I wasn’t special or weird at all, I was just another person in the group who could communicate with everyone.
Even though we all actively focus on filming or taking pictures, there is a spectrum of goals and what we want to achieve, and I saw people’s work that had different flavors even though they were taking pictures of similar things, and I thought that I wanted to be someone who could leave a strong sense of individuality like that. Even if I don’t express my intentions or symbols in words, following the images that emanate from the screen can lead me to a destination where my subject consciousness shines clearly. I embarked on an endeavor to communicate with the people who looked at me through a language other than the words expressed in my voice, and I spent my adolescent years taking careful steps toward a goal that would make me grow, even if it was immature and clumsy. It was hard to be frustrated at times when my intentions were not fully expressed or when I was faced with the reality of not being able to communicate with people, but it was also exciting and exhilarating.
Gaining experience as a tourism English major
As a tourism English major at my university, I worked hard to improve my English and language skills. Although I was confident of my English skills, I realized that I had difficulty introducing tourist destinations to foreigners, which made me work harder to improve my English. While I was learning English, I also learned Chinese, because I knew that China was a big market for tourism as well as English. I also participated in a volunteer program organized by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism to introduce tourist spots to foreigners in areas where there are many foreigners. I thought it was a good way to utilize my skills, so I eagerly participated. I felt like a diplomat as I introduced Korea to foreigners and felt proud of myself. I researched and studied the material with all my heart, hoping that I could make the image of Korea better.
In my sophomore year, I also went backpacking with my friends because I wanted to learn about other countries’ tourism resources. I think it was a great opportunity to learn how they introduce their tourist destinations and what they merchandise. I will use the knowledge I gained from these experiences to my advantage when I join your company.
Falling in love with marketing methodology
I was introduced to marketing methodology while majoring in business administration. It was a “new world” for me, and I became a huge fan of my professor, who seemed to be able to penetrate the human mind. I was hooked and fell in love with the subject like I was in love with my boyfriend. But it wasn’t all fun and games. Sometimes I would take out my frustrations on the books. Sometimes, after I’d rant and rave for a while, marketing would sneak up on me and give me the key to the answer. I’ve had this love affair for quite some time, and before I knew it, I had earned a PhD. If I was in love with perfume as a child, I think I was in love with marketing as a college student, which led to marriage. So I wrote a thesis analyzing cosmetics marketing in my doctoral program. I analyzed the consumption status and psychology of men and women in their early 30s, and compared it to the current situation to see what kind of marketing methods could be used to meet this demand, and thought about what new methods could be used. During the process of writing my thesis, I helped out at the advertising and marketing research center where my professor was the director, and I was able to hear from practitioners. I think my academic life has been full of passion, and I hope that it will be put to good use.
I have continued to develop my computer skills
Being interested in computers, I was eager to learn about them, and by the time I was in middle school, I was already proficient enough to have obtained a number of computer-related certifications. After learning computers, my interest shifted to how computers worked, and I even tried to disassemble them. After my first computer disassembly, I gained the courage to start disassembling household appliances, because I was always curious about how they worked. I started to understand the technical parts of the appliances by reading the manuals over and over again and looking up information about them on the computer. Through this experience, I realized the importance of principles. I realized that once I understood the principle, I could apply it, and the deeper I understood the principle, the wider the scope of the application. With this interest in mechanics, I went to a vocational high school because it was more practical and hands-on, which appealed to me. In junior high school, my teachers and parents encouraged me to go to a liberal arts high school and major in college, but I thought it would be more efficient to learn faster if I was going to major in something. After several months of persuasion, I was able to get my parents and teachers to agree. This was the first time my parents, who had always been supportive of my choices, had ever objected, which made me feel even more responsible for my choices. After entering a vocational high school and studying my field of study, I realized that I knew only a small part of it and strived to expand the depth of my knowledge. I was so dedicated to my chosen field that I never missed the top of my class until I graduated, and my boss promised me a job after graduation because he saw how hard I worked during my internship in my third year.
I majored in communications because I love interacting with people
I majored in communications because I love interacting with people, and it was a great way for me to start a new career. As a communications major, I began to think more deeply about building relationships through media rather than face-to-face. This naturally led me to the field of marketing, and I don’t think I’ve ever been as passionate about an academic subject as I was then. As I learned about marketing, I realized that it was something I could do very well because I love people. Introducing a product to consumers and convincing them of its benefits was fascinating to me. This fascination carried over to academics, and I got straight A’s in all my business courses. My passion for marketing led me to double major in communications and business administration. Although I had to double major, I never felt like it was hard work, and I think it was because I enjoyed my studies. Psychology is another area that I found very interesting. Marketing is deeply connected to psychology, so I didn’t have much trouble understanding it. Psychology also helped me understand communications in depth. It made me realize that all disciplines are connected. The more I learned about different disciplines, the more I realized that by relating them, I could gain a deeper understanding. This was the basis of my interest in and mastery of various disciplines. The convergence of disciplines allowed me to be more theoretically robust, and I believe that this theoretical robustness is what drives me to perform well in the real world. I used to question, “Who can be excited about studying?” because I didn’t believe in the phrase “studying is a hobby or fun,” but now that I have experienced the joy of studying, it’s no longer a question. It’s the truth. Experience has taught me that you do your best work when you’re excited about the challenge. I will challenge everything I do with interest and enthusiasm.
From interests to talents: figuring out what you’re good at
Your interests and talents will influence your career choices as you progress through your school years. My interest in operating programs through computers, which came at a time when I was still curious about new things, and the fact that my teacher told me that these new media technologies would change people’s lives in the future, made me think that I should specialize in this field. I was eager to define my own career path and run with it, so I decided to go to the real world, where I added expertise through computer and accounting certifications to my resume. Thanks to my excellent grades, I successfully transferred to the University’s secretarial department, where I worked hard for two years to broaden my options by experiencing university studies. After transferring, I went to ○○ for a year as an exchange student. It was the most special period of my life and the happiest time of my life. For the first time, I had to leave my parents and do everything on my own, and although I studied English hard during the preparation period, the language barrier I encountered in the country was still a challenge. However, I think I grew up thanks to meeting friends from all over the world, sharing my woes and desperation through my studies, improving my English skills day by day, experiencing various cultures around the world that I couldn’t experience in Korea, and the freedom I felt in the local area. I was able to obtain the TESOL Ⅳ certificate, which I think is even more meaningful because it proves that I have worked hard to prepare for my career, not just for the experience.
Experiencing various activities as an English major
I have a “good is good” mentality, so I often lost money because I was not good at saying no to requests or saying no to things I shouldn’t do. I can organize my personal affairs when I’m tired and overwhelmed, but work or organization is a different matter, so I shared my shortcomings with my team leader and asked for help from the team in case of ambiguity, so that I could say no to things I shouldn’t do and do things I shouldn’t do without much trouble. In the process, I also learned from my team leader how to say no in a professional manner without offending others, and after a few times, I was able to organize my work in the same way.
As an English major, I have experienced various activities related to foreign languages since I was in school. I started editing the English newspaper on campus and became interested in English-speaking journalism in addition to literature and daily conversations, and the newspaper class gave me the opportunity to meet and interview people from various fields through this connection. As I conducted interviews, I became interested in society as a whole and realized that the world I had seen was not the whole world and that I was a frog in a well. The English newspaper class was also a great experience to be able to produce a newspaper in English, but the interviews were a big part of my life in that they gave me a lot of energy and inspiration for my future.
The company I joined upon graduation offered me a translation job in the overseas sales team, which was great at first because it was a small but solid mid-sized company and the overseas sales team had the kind of work I wanted to do. However, due to the structure of the team, I was in the business support part, so I didn’t have the opportunity to learn the actual process or see the business side of things, and I continued to translate contracts and work on emails for the rest of my career. Of course, the understanding of English contracts and business emails I gained during this time is still a great asset to me today. However, I’m a person who believes that speaking a foreign language is not the end in itself, but what I want to do with it, so I felt a little uncomfortable with simple translation work. In my next job, I worked in sales planning and performance management. I was introduced to the overall sales business, including customer/client management, new market development and discovery, and have been working as an overseas sales manager since .
Overseas experience, industrial management engineering skills, etc.
I was never the type of person to put myself out in front of others from a young age, so during my elementary and junior high school years, I quietly stuck to my studies, built friendships with my friends, and listened to my teachers. However, after I entered high school and gained a certain level of trust, I became visible even when I didn’t want to be. I was recognized by my teachers and gained a good reputation among my peers, which led me to become a student council officer and student body president, and in the process, I found myself having to work hard for what I had to do and for others, and I did my best. I went to university and majored in industrial management engineering to follow the same path as my father. My father always set an example for me and was a person who did his best inside and outside, so I decided to major in this field, and while studying industrial engineering, which is my major, I came to think that it is a field that can contribute to society through technology that helps companies to produce efficiently. In order to make the best of the technology, I learned the technology of industrial management through SCM, which manages information, logistics, and human resources of companies, HCI, which learned the usability of products, and consulting, which learned how to manage efficient production of companies. And I didn’t want to be a narrow-minded person, so I used the money I earned from my part-time job to go backpacking in Korea and abroad, mainly in Asia, such as Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, but seeing different cultures in the same background made me think a lot about myself and my future.
