Looking to ease your mind when arriving in Korea?  Wondering how you would go about setting up a bank account and phone contract on your own?  Well, the Korvia pre-orientation package has you covered!

Casting my mind back to the start of my EPIK journey, I remember reading multiple forums, researching many recruiting agencies, watching countless YouTube videos.  During this research, a common theme kept on coming back to me, Korvia Consulting.

So, like many of you reading this, I sent an email to Korvia and was so glad I did.  Ever since the first communication I felt a sense of reassurance and comfort.  The whole application process was made so smooth and handled extremely professionally by everyone at Korvia.

It was, and still is in many ways, a surreal moment when I received the message to say I had been accepted on the EPIK program.  The whole thing became very real, very quickly!  Now, when it comes to organising myself and getting things in check, I’m not too bad.  However, this was the first time I’d ever planned to move abroad and thought to myself, ‘Let’s just make this as easy as possible.’  That being the case, it was a no brainer to sign up to the Korvia pre-orientation.  To have Korvia handle major items such as setting up a bank account and a pre-paid sim plan, made so much sense.

All things considered with the pre-orientation package; cost, assistance with setting up a bank account and pre-paid sim plan, accommodation, meeting fellow Korvia recruits and meeting the Korvia staff, the package is absolutely great.

On the day of the pre-orientation I arrived about 40 minutes early to the venue.  I thought I’d make sure I knew where the venue was and that I was in the right place!  To my surprise, I saw 3 to 4 other people, who were obviously not Korean, and overheard them talking about Korvia, so I went over and said hi.  They had only just met each other as well and were very welcoming to me.  We all walked around for approximately 30 minutes and then made our way back to the pre-orientation venue.

The pre-orientation was brilliant for so many reasons.  The welcome we got from the Korvia recruiters was great.  To meet those who you have been emailing for so long was a really nice moment.

We were given a welcome bag along with a few snacks, which was more than welcome!  When everyone arrived to the venue, the event ran to schedule, with a few extra speakers to detail their Korvia and EPIK experience, which was very fun and extremely insightful.

After the event we had the chance to speak more with the Korvia team and socialise with those who we had met during the event.  The event seemed to go by extremely fast.  But looking back, to have made friends on that day, both the staff and fellow recruits, to have the assurance of a bank account set up and to know I had a Korean number for 3 months, it was invaluable.

The last part of the package was the arranged transportation to the EPIK orientation venue.  Again, as I had come to expect from Korvia, the whole organisation for the transport was superb.  Everyone was clearly informed of the time and location to meet, ensuring that everything ran to schedule.  We arrived at the EPIK orientation with plenty of time to spare and that was it, the end of the pre-orientation!  It was over far too quickly but I was so thankful for all the help we had been provided with.

Korvia made it clear that if we still required further assistance, they would be more than willing to answer our emails.  And for this I am still continually grateful for, as until you arrive here, you never know what daft questions you are going to have!  Unfortunately, the Korvia reunion party was cancelled due to the Corona Virus, however, this is completely out of anyone’s control and just so happens to be occurring during the time we arrived.  But I mention the party as it was something that would no doubt be a great experience and I’m looking forward to the next planned Korvia party, which I believe is in September!

All in all, if I was to be in the same situation again, I would not hesitate to sign up to the Korvia pre-orientation event.  It made the whole arrival process so easy and it was so nice to meet the Korvia team.

I hope this ‘review’ is of use to you reading this and wish you all the best with your EPIK journey!

Rob