‘Spotting All Things K’: Behind the Scenes of a CJ Recruiter’s U.S. Trip

A recruiter experiences the breadth of CJ Group’s businesses, including KCON, OLIVE YOUNG, TOUS les JOURS and CJ Logistics, while connecting with local students in Los Angeles KCON LA was buzzing with K-pop fans from around the world. Amid the crowds enjoying the performances and exploring K-food and K-beauty was Lee Hye-kyung, who oversees CJ’s entry-level employee recruitment program. Lee spent the trip discussing career opportunities with local students and visiting CJ’s businesses in the U.S., from OLIVE YOUNG and TOUS les JOURS to a CJ Logistics center, before making her way to KCON LA. She captured the journey in a vlog, bringing viewers along for a firsthand look at CJ’s presence on the ground in the U.S. With CJ’s recruitment for the second half of 2026 now in full swing, CJ Newsroom caught up with Lee to hear stories from her trip that didn’t make it into the vlog. ✈️ You had a packed itinerary, from KCON to CJ’s local business sites. Can you tell us more about your trip? During my trip to Los Angeles, I connected with local students through recruitment activities and helped organize a program that brings together CJ employees from around the world. I also attended the final presentations by CJ America interns, which capped off their summer internships. At a CJ Career Session, I introduced CJ’s businesses and recruitment process while sharing practical advice on resumes and interview preparation. Visiting CJ’s local business sites was another important part of the trip. It was valuable for me not only as a recruiter, but also as an opportunity to deepen my own understanding of CJ. Experiencing firsthand the businesses I had previously only talked about with candidates gave me new stories and insights to share with them.  You also joined CJ after completing an internship in Korea. Watching the interns at CJ America give their final presentations must have brought back some memories of your own internship days. CJ America interns pose for a group photo after their summer internship final presentations. Yes, I also completed a four-week internship in Korea and gave my final presentation during the last week. Watching the four CJ America interns present after completing their eight-week program brought back the nerves I felt back then. Just a few years ago, I was also an applicant waiting to hear the results. An internship is also a valuable opportunity for candidates to get to know the company, and for me, that experience became my first step toward a career at CJ. It was meaningful to see other interns embarking on their own journeys at CJ, just as I had a few years ago. I hope the interns who took part in this program are also able to gain a clearer sense of their future career paths. Of everything you experienced on the trip, what stayed with you most as a recruiter? What stayed with me most was seeing students stay behind to ask questions even after the CJ Career Session had ended. They were curious about everything from Korean workplace culture and the recruitment process to building a global career. Many of them opened up about their personal career concerns. Perhaps because of that, I found myself wanting to give them more specific and practical answers in response to their questions. As our conversations deepened, my own goal became clearer too: to help turn people’s interest in K-culture and CJ brands into an opportunity to imagine a future for themselves at CJ. This trip also brought together CJ colleagues from around the world. What was that like? CJ employees participating in the Global Vision Sharing program take a group photo outside TOUS les JOURS La Habra. Colleagues from across the U.S., Europe and Southeast Asia came together for the “Global Vision Sharing” program. We visited OLIVE YOUNG, a CJ Logistics center and TOUS les JOURS, and even played a game at Target to find bibigo products. Even as colleagues within CJ Group, we don’t often get the chance to experience each other’s work firsthand. Over dinner, we shared our experiences and stories about discovering new ways to connect our work with other CJ affiliates. That was when I truly experienced the spirit of “ONE CJ.” What was it like visiting OLIVE YOUNG in the U.S. with your colleagues? It must have felt different from visiting the stores in Korea. What stood out most was seeing a long line of customers outside the OLIVE YOUNG Pasadena store. It was the only store on the street with a line when I visited. Seeing a brand that had always felt so familiar to me in Korea draw that kind of interest in the U.S. made me realize just how much attention it was receiving locally.  I also remember the employees greeting customers in Korean over a megaphone about every 15 minutes: “Annyeonghaseyo! Welcome to OLIVE YOUNG!” It was a simple yet memorable way to introduce customers to K-beauty while highlighting OLIVE YOUNG’s Korean roots.  🛒 I heard that whenever you travel abroad, you make a point of looking for bibigo at local grocery stores. I started my career at CJ CheilJedang, so I’ve always had a special attachment to its products. Whenever I travel abroad, looking for bibigo at local grocery stores has become something of a habit. This time, I was especially excited to come across the Chicken & Cilantro Mini Wontons I had previously only seen in internal company materials. At Costco, I watched a customer pick up an entire box of bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice (bibigo Rice) and put it straight into their cart, right in front of me. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t capture it for the vlog, but I was genuinely moved. Until then, I had only read about our products’ success in the U.S. in company reports. Seeing a local customer choose one of our products made that success feel real.  At the CJ Logistics center, I saw tall racks filled with bibigo Rice and other CJ products. These were products made by CJ CheilJedang and delivered to customers through CJ Logistics. Seeing that connection myself made it immediately clear how the two affiliates come together behind the scenes. KCON LA was the highlight of the trip. How did it feel different from KCON JAPAN last year? Last year, I went to KCON JAPAN after being selected through a drawing for “K-Culture Voyage,” one of CJ’s employee benefits programs, which provides selected employees with event tickets and partial airfare support. This year, I came to KCON LA to help run the program. Last year, I was part of the team running the program, but this year, I helped the team behind the scenes, which made the experience even more special. At KCON, the K-food and K-beauty I had seen throughout the trip came together with K-pop to connect with fans from diverse cultural backgrounds and nationalities. It was genuinely moving to see American consumers enjoying brands and experiences that had always been so familiar to me in Korea. 🎥 And that inspired you to make your first vlog. Can you tell us other stories that didn’t make it on camera? At first, being in front of the camera felt a little unfamiliar. But I wanted candidates to see for themselves the different CJ businesses I was experiencing firsthand in the U.S. I usually talk about these businesses at recruitment sessions, so being able to bring them to life through video made creating the vlog a meaningful challenge. There was another memorable moment on the flight home. Bibimbap was served as the in-flight meal, and it came with bibigo Rice and Gochujang Sauce. After spending the trip looking for our products across the U.S., I spotted them again in my meal on the flight home. I couldn’t help but smile. It really felt like I encountered CJ right until the very last moment of the trip. Bibimbap served on the flight back to Korea, featuring bibigo Cooked Sticky White Rice and Gochujang Sauce Recruitment for the second half of the year is now in full swing. As a recruiter returning from this trip, what is the one thing you most want candidates to know? I want to give candidates a more tangible sense of CJ’s global businesses. After seeing U.S. customers choose our products, visiting the logistics sites that help bring those products to consumers and meeting colleagues working in different countries, the businesses I had talked about with candidates felt much more vivid and real to me as well. As CJ continues to expand its global businesses, I believe this growth will create new experiences and career opportunities for our employees. My goal is to help candidates see those possibilities and imagine where they could put their own strengths to work. CJ’s open recruitment for the second half of 2026 began on September 16. I hope candidates will start by exploring the roles that interest them while also thinking about the experiences they want to gain and how they want to grow across CJ’s diverse businesses. I hope this vlog and the stories from my trip help bring that future into clearer focus. I look forward to seeing everyone’s ONLYONE Moment begin at CJ. Mini Interview | I Went to KCON as a Student. Now I Work at CJ. Baik Ju-eun, CJ America HRM Team One of the interns whose final presentation Lee watched was June Baik, who went on to join CJ America after completing the eight-week CJ America Summer Internship. On September 8, she officially joined the HRM Team. We spoke with CJ’s newest team member about how it feels to officially begin her career at CJ. You went from attending KCON as a college student to becoming a CJ employee. What inspired you to apply? While I was attending college in Los Angeles, I saw friends from different cultural backgrounds enjoying Korean content, from dramas and music to food. Going to KCON LA with them made me want to pursue work that involved creating experiences like these. As graduation approached, I attended a Global Connect Program information session at UCLA, began to see CJ as the company where I wanted to start my career, and decided to apply.  What was the biggest change you saw in yourself over the eight-week internship? Before the internship, I had a lot of concerns about whether I would be able to find my footing in the professional world. But taking a project from start to finish and presenting the results to CJ America executives gave me greater confidence in what I was capable of. The biggest change was realizing that even when facing a new challenge, I can learn as I go and keep growing. What do you hope to do at CJ going forward? For someone in the U.S., K-pop might be music that brings back childhood memories, while bibigo Mandu might remind them of the home-cooked meals their mom used to make. I want to help CJ’s content and brands become part of everyday life in that same way for people around the world. As I get started, I want to take responsibility for the role I’ve been given and bring the perspectives I’ve developed in both Korea and the U.S. to my work. ✨ “Start your ONLYONE Moment”