Korean Job Discussion Forums

Whitey SK · Joined: 02 Feb 2007 Location: hunting for bulgogi

Is a suit and tie necessary for the resume photos you send out?

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

I'd put a serious suit-and-tie passport photo at the top and a friendly smile smart-casual snapshot of you with some kids at the bottom. Try to look well groomed, clean shaven, and as Aryan as possible.

Zark · Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 4:31 pm Post subject:

Suit and tie - it is just a game - so play it and play it well. I like YBS's suggestion for a more casual shot too.

ChuckECheese · Joined: 20 Jul 2006

a casual shot worked for me.

gsxr750r · Joined: 29 Jan 2007

Suit, suit, suit... and a nice tie.

Actually, a blazer is fine. They only get from your nipples up, anyway, so you don't even need to wear the suit pants to the photo shop. I wore jeans.

Get 'em done at any Fuji or Kodak store in Korea. They all shoot them in about 5 to 10 mins. You'll have them developed and done in an hour four about 12,000 won or so. You'll get something like 10 passport-sized copies for that, and they look great.

According to my girlfriend, all Korean employers expect to see such photos as a part of the resume (for non-teaching jobs). Not including such a photo, or inserting a casual shot with your arm slung around some drunk friend, is tantamount to stupidity.

And I always wear a suit to the interview.

I play the game to win.

hubba bubba · Joined: 24 Oct 2006

What YBS said.

You might also consider some blue contacts and a blond hairpiece...

As a sidenote, I've always wanted to go to an interview, be offered a job, then respond with:

Oh, I'm sorry, you are too fat and ugly to be my boss. Also, I want to work for someone with brown hair, not black. Oh, and I think you are a little bit Japanese. I didn't know that in the phone interview. I'm sorry, but I'm going to keep looking.

Laughing

ChuckECheese · Joined: 20 Jul 2006

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Hyeon Een · Joined: 24 Jun 2005

For my first job in Korea I was in a rush and had no decent photos right that second so I sent one with me and a blacked out girlfried. I was really in a hurry and just wanted to see if I would get any job offers. I had a plan to produce a 'proper' photo a day or two later if things didn't work out. Anyway I got about 12,000 job offers and accepted one. So I didn't get around to upgrading my photo.

A year later I was much more serious about things and submitted a nice photo of me in a suit, with my resume mentioning my experience etc. I got about 4 job offers.. but they were all 'quality' jobs. I took a decent job.

For my last application I obviously went with a good photo, emphasised my experience and so on. My job offers were few and far between. However the ones I were offered were mostly great.

It seems that as your personal qualities increase, the number of job offers decrease. However you get offered the good jobs rather than the sh!tty jobs.

Someone once said dress for the job you want, not the job you have. That was a wise person.