{"id":103,"date":"2026-06-29T19:44:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/a-blog.enko.kr\/?p=103"},"modified":"2026-06-29T19:44:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T10:44:52","slug":"my-summer-2025-internship-with-enkostay-from-maryland-to-seoul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stay.enko.kr\/blog\/my-summer-2025-internship-with-enkostay-from-maryland-to-seoul\/","title":{"rendered":"My Summer 2025 Internship With Enkostay: From Maryland to Seoul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From Maryland to Seoul, my 2025 Enkostay internship journey was about growth, culture, marketing, and finding home abroad<\/p>\n\n\n

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Coming from Prince George\u2019s County, Maryland<\/strong>, both personally and professionally, life couldn\u2019t be more different from what I experienced in Seoul. Back home, it often felt hostile, isolated and fast paced, and I\u2019ll admit, I was nervous I wouldn\u2019t be able to adjust in Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I came here with two goals: <\/strong>to strengthen my marketing skills and to reconnect with parts of my culture that felt lost growing up. What I found was a huge culture change, but also a surprising number of common aspects that reminded me how connected people really are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in Maryland, people tend to stick to themselves while keeping distance from one another, and often it feels like everyone shows up with an attitude. In Korea, I saw that life doesn\u2019t have to be like that. I also noticed that personal space is very limited (not in a bad way, just something I wasn\u2019t used to). Being welcomed fully by my Enkostay family<\/strong>, I felt like I was finally at home, even in a place thousands of miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Enkostay Family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I saw how hard my bosses worked, both on the clock and off the clock, staying late hours to tackle everything they needed to accomplish. This was inspiring, but it also showed me just how serious this industry can be. Here, I felt like everyone was working as part of a well-oiled machine<\/strong>, each person focused on a common goal, giving their best in their areas of strength while relying on others to support their weaker spots while taking notes and learning along the way. At first, it was a little strange to walk into a room and hear nothing but the occasional whisper and the steady clicking of keyboards. But when lunch break came around, the smiles and conversations filled the air, and I began to see the balance they had built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took me a couple of weeks to adjust to this workflow and lifestyle. I was used to working non-stop, pushing through without breaks, but here I actually had to be told: \u201cOnce you clock out, go enjoy Korea.\u201d<\/em> That shift taught me the value of balance and intentional rest. I picked up a lot from my bosses along the way, and I\u2019ll proudly call them my mentors now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>What I Worked On<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

During my internship, I had the chance to dive into multiple projects that gave me both practical marketing experience<\/strong> and a deeper understanding of how to connect with an international audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, SEO practices were just concepts I had studied in school (shout out Towson University), but I had never truly applied them in a real-world setting. Diving straight into blog creation and customer experience at Enkostay, I quickly learned the do\u2019s and don\u2019ts of optimization. From refining URLs to adding alt text on photos, and everything in between, I experienced firsthand how small details can significantly impact click rates and views. Beyond the technical side, I was deeply involved in creating blogs from scratch, brainstorming topics, structuring posts for readability, and tailoring content to our target audience of international students and digital nomads. Using our dashboard and CTR tools, we tracked performance and identified the highest-searched terms and topics foreigners were looking for, which allowed us to strategically build content around their needs. By researching and embedding the right keywords, I helped ensure each blog aligned with what people were actually searching for, which boosted our visibility and drew in new traffic. This approach not only improved our search rankings but also positioned Enkostay as a trusted source of information, driving higher engagement and more inquiries from potential guests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main focus of my role, however, was supporting the Enkomatch system<\/strong>, where I interacted directly with potential guests and created personalized listings of accommodations for them to view before booking. At first, like with any new experience, I was nervous. But within a couple of weeks, I found myself developing a flow that lead to me reformatting key elements, finding clearer, and more appealing ways to present information in hopes of boosting booking rates. It was incredibly rewarding to know that my efforts could directly influence a guest\u2019s decision-making process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After proving my abilities in room matching and blog creation, I dove into content creation<\/strong>, where I assisted in producing posts for our social media pages. Learning under my coworker Mike, I picked up best practices, filming techniques, and the proper ways to format content for each platform we used. With Mike and through the content he created, we explored different caf\u00e9 shots, sunsets, and exhibits to fun entertaining lighthearted posts and especially booking-focused videos, where we were able to lower installment costs by nearly 75%. This hands-on guidance helped me see that good content isn\u2019t just about what you say, but how you present it to fit the space it lives in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That work eventually led me to running and formatting our Reddit community: r\/EkostayAdvice<\/strong>, and let me tell you, this was a brain twister. Reddit isn\u2019t like Instagram or TikTok, where visuals and short captions can do the heavy lifting. Instead, it required a completely different strategy: authenticity, casual but engaging writing, and a deep understanding of how communities interact. I had to adjust my style of communication to feel personal yet informative, and it taught me a lot about what really<\/em> makes content resonate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond content and customer interaction, I was also trusted with app and website testing<\/strong>, identifying weaknesses, and suggesting areas for improvement. One of the highlights for me was even getting the chance to design my own experiments<\/strong> for potential future changes, an opportunity that gave me a sense of ownership and responsibility beyond a typical intern role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every project pushed me to grow. I wasn\u2019t just learning marketing in theory anymore, I was living it, experimenting with it, and seeing the results play out in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Lessons on Housing in Korea<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Even though I didn\u2019t personally book through Enkostay, being on the inside gave me a clear view of the unique challenges foreigners face<\/strong> when finding housing in Korea:<\/p>\n\n\n\n