[Kyung Hee University's Campus Town Startups 2025] Prime Career, a Virtual Work Experience Platform for University Students

Min Kim, CEO of Prime Career

Providing on-the-job experience training, reflecting the way real companies work
Aiming to be the go-to platform for job seekers to explore their dream jobs before they get hired

(from left to right) Min Kim, Hyung Rak Kim

Prime Career is an edutech startup that provides virtual work experiences designed and delivered by industry practitioners. By completing self-paced modules that simulate work undertaken during a traditional internship or graduate program, it helps students to develop their skills and gain real understanding of work in practice. The company was founded in April 2024 by CEO Min Kim (23) and Hyung Rak Kim (26).

Prime Career currently helps students get a preview of more than 30 different careers, including service planning (PM), strategy consultant, marketing, product development, game design, and more. All content is designed to give students real-world understanding and insight into the workplace by working directly with current employees from large organizations and startups. With the job market getting more competitive, companies are demanding a certain level of business understanding from new hires. So we're presenting a means to address these needs.

"Prime Career is a company that helps college students get online experience of what they will be doing once they get a job. As society increasingly values work experience and wants "interns for interns," and "new hires like veterans," we are providing a service for students who are struggling to get their first work experience. We're helping them get a chance to experience the career they want to have."

Prime Career has clearly defined its target customer base as students to provide its services. "From the initial launch, all of our services were designed and offered to college students to help them gain pre-employment experience, but we had to make a decision internally about where to focus our efforts, as the purchase rate from current employees was higher than our expectations. Eventually, we decided to focus more on college students, a customer base that we felt was a better fit for the purpose of our service. We're focusing on giving students a more realistic hands-on experience rather than creating a premium program by focusing on training for incumbents."

As for the company's competitive advantage, CEO Kim said that there aren't many similar services in the market. "Until now, most work experience services are either video-based training or small-scale, like job bootcamps, and only for a limited period of time. Prime Career enables you to experience a wide range of careers at any time and place, with a focus on hands-on, real-world experience rather than one-sided training. This allows you to get real hands-on experience at a lower cost. I believe this is a more efficient service for the most students who want to gain a deeper understanding of their desired job and experience at least part of the actual work process. Recently, we've also seen a lot of use from current employees who are looking to change jobs or change careers. In addition to college students, we're seeing a lot of demand from an unexpected market."

Prime Career's current focus is on content viral marketing. "We've been using performance marketing, but I increasingly think it's important to have a branding that shows our own colors. Rather than just focusing on showing the curriculum, we are now trying to show the direction that Prime Career is pursuing."

"We want to become a must-visit platform for students to learn more about the jobs they want to pursue," said CEO Kim about his plans.

"In the short term, we will focus on increasing the number of work experience programs so that students can experience a wider variety of duties. We currently have about 30 programs, and we've launched programs in finance, marketing, strategy, planning, design, development, and more. We'll also work on enhancing our programs so that they're not just about practical experience, but also about the pros and cons of each job, considerations, and tips for getting a job."

In the long term, the company plans to expand its B2B services to universities and public institutions. "We conducted a customized employment and career program for Kyung Hee University and its students. However, we are gradually expanding our business to the B2B side, as it is in line with the purpose of our service and there is demand from students and institutions."

Founded: April 2024
Key business areas: Virtual work experience program, intern mentoring services
Achievements: Admitted to the 2025 Youth Entrepreneurship Academy. Achieved monthly sales of KRW 15 million. Launched 30+ virtual work experience programs. Graduated with honors from the preparatory entrepreneurship package of Seoul National University of Science and Technology. Selected as a tenant company by Kyung Hee University Campus Town. Won a prize in the final round of the 2023 Challenge K-Startup's Preliminary Startup League. Won the grand prize at the Alliance Student's Venture Forum (AASVF) hosted by the Korea Economic Daily.

reporter jinho lee
jinho2323@hankyung.com