Korean Job Discussion Forums

mindmetoo · Joined: 02 Feb 2004

Yesterday, my Korean friend went for a job interview. She came away depressed about her future (and it just wasn't because of the miserly pay they offered for the long hours they demanded). Three interviewers and each one of them went out of their way to make negative comments. It parallels another Korean female friend that applied for a job and the interviewer kept going on about how old she looked. (Oddly, my first friend, after being dressed down six ways to sunday and told how unsuitable she was, they called her in for a one day "trial job session". Do a day of work without pay.)

Anyone heard any stories similar?

laogaiguk · Joined: 06 Dec 2005 Location: somewhere in Korea

Mashimaro · Joined: 31 Jan 2003 Location: location, location

wonder if they'd be so rude to a foreigner
almost makes me wanna apply for a job I don't even want,
and if they tell me I look old or some crap, tell them get fornicated

Hater Depot · Joined: 29 Mar 2005

For some reason Korean bosses and managers often seem to consider insults to be motivating. Yeah, nothing makes you really want to get out of bed at 5:30 in the morning like the possibility of your boss saying "Wow, you didn't forget class" instead of "Hello". Rolling Eyes

Beej · Joined: 05 Mar 2005 Location: Eungam Loop

Common questions in Korean job interviews:

Why are you not married?
What is your father's job?
How much is your family worth?

I have also had korean friends pay 10-20 thousand won for the privilege of being interviewed.

Homer · Guest

My wife (korean) has similar experiences interviewing at some point. She just kept looking and found a job that she is happy with. Her current employer is a cool guy. He allowed her all the time she needed for the birth and after it. My wife stayed home with our son for almost a year before she started working again. She began witgh a few days a week and is not full time. She lost no seniority and suffered no negative effects at work.

She did however have to go through a fair number of interviews to find a job she liked with conditions she could accept.

JongnoGuru · Joined: 25 May 2004 Location: peeing on your doorstep

mithridates · Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 4:25 am Post subject:

I once helped out a company do their yearly interviews over a period of three days (I evaluated their English and Japanese language ability). Note that the company is based in Japan with an office here so the style may have been different. Things they asked were:
Please give a short self-introduction.
Do you read the economy section of the paper much? If yes, then they asked what today's stock market was at, or how much the exchange rate is. Surprised a lot of people.
Do you smoke or drink? They don't allow smoking at the company and require employees to quit.
What do you feel about being asked to work overtime?
Tell me what you know about our company. (More specific questions about the industry afterwards)
Why didn't you go to the army? (for the guy that got an exemption)
What does this word mean? 아전인수 or some other four-character compound.
Lots of random questions that were meant to evaluate them in a number of ways. Afterwards I would talk to them in English and/or Japanese and score that, and another guy was there to evaluate their Chinese. It was pretty fun, and they were great guys. Not one insult during the whole three days.