Getting a job in Korea never seemed particularly unusual to me when I first entered the job market.
As graduation approached, recruiting season began.
My friends and I checked job postings from major Korean companies like Samsung, Hyundai, and LG. We wrote countless application essays, waited for screening results, studied for aptitude tests, and prepared for multiple rounds of interviews.
To me, this was simply how getting a job in Korea worked.
Years later, I went to graduate school in the United States and entered the job market all over again.
That was when I realized something I had never really thought about before:
Even the way people get jobs reflects the culture of a country.
After experiencing recruitment in both Korea and the U.S., I began to notice just how different the two systems could be — starting from the very first step.
Getting a Job in Korea Often Started With 공채 (gong-chae)
One word is difficult to avoid when talking about traditional Korean recruitment:
공채 (gong-chae).
It is short for 공개채용 (gong-gae-chae-yong), which roughly means open recruitment.
For decades, many large Korean companies recruited large groups of new graduates during specific hiring seasons, traditionally in the first and second halves of the year.
When I was a university student, there was a very real sense of “recruiting season.”
At certain times of the year, almost everyone around me seemed to be applying for jobs at the same time.
One friend might apply to Samsung.
Another might apply to Hyundai Motor.
Someone else might submit applications to several large companies simultaneously.
Soon, our conversations began revolving around the same questions.
Which company had announced its screening results?
Who had an aptitude test this weekend?
Who had made it to the interview stage?
Looking back, job hunting itself seemed to move in seasons.
Why Do You Have to Take a Test to Get a Job?
One aspect of Korean corporate recruitment that may seem particularly unusual to foreigners is the written or aptitude test.
A well-known example is Samsung’s GSAT, or Global Samsung Aptitude Test.
Instead of simply submitting a resume and proceeding to an interview, applicants may have to pass a standardized assessment as part of the recruitment process.
The exact process varies by company, of course.
But when I was preparing for jobs in Korea, studying specifically for corporate aptitude tests was completely normal.
Bookstores sold different preparation books for different companies.
Job seekers bought practice books, learned common question types, and practiced solving problems under strict time limits.
You finish years of school and university entrance exams…
and then you find yourself studying for another test just to get a job.
At the time, I didn’t think much about it.
After going through the hiring process in the United States, however, I realized how interesting this system actually was.
Thousands of applicants preparing to take similar tests for a chance to join the same company.
It was one of the defining features of Korea’s large-scale recruitment culture.
Passing the Application Is Only the Beginning
Passing the initial screening doesn’t mean you’re anywhere close to getting the job.
Depending on the company and position, Korean corporate recruitment can involve several additional stages.
There may be an aptitude or competency assessment, followed by interviews focusing on the actual job and professional capabilities. Candidates may then face another interview involving senior managers or executives.
There isn’t one universal process followed by every Korean company, but a traditional large-company recruitment process might look something like this:
Application → Aptitude or Competency Test → Interview → Additional Interview → Final Offer
At every stage, more candidates disappear from the process.
From an applicant’s perspective, applying to just one major company can almost feel like a small project of its own.
Korean Application Essays Are Different Too
Another thing I remember clearly is the 자기소개서 (ja-gi-so-gae-seo), usually shortened to 자소서 (ja-so-seo).
It literally means something like a “self-introduction document,” although simply translating it as a cover letter doesn’t fully capture how it has traditionally been used in Korean recruitment.
Large companies often provide several specific questions that applicants must answer.
For example:
Why do you want to work for our company?
Tell us about a difficult goal you achieved.
Describe a conflict you experienced while working in a team.
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Applicants dig through their university years, internships, projects, clubs, military service, volunteer activities, and other experiences trying to find the perfect story for each question.
Eventually, you aren’t just preparing for a job.
You’re learning how to write a Korean corporate application essay.
Again, I assumed this was simply how job applications worked everywhere.
Then I moved to the United States.
Then I Had to Find a Job in the U.S.
Years later, I attended graduate school in the United States and entered the job market again.
One of the biggest differences I noticed was where the hiring process seemed to begin.
Traditional Korean recruitment often felt like:
“This company is hiring a new class of employees.”
You applied to the company, went through its recruitment process, and your specific career path within the organization could develop afterward.
My experience in the United States felt much closer to:
“This particular team needs someone to do this particular job.”
The job posting usually had a specific title.
The responsibilities were listed.
The required experience and skills were listed.
And from the beginning, I was evaluating whether my background matched that particular position.
That changed the question I asked myself.
In Korea, I often thought:
“Can I get into this company?”
In the U.S., I found myself asking:
“Does my experience fit this position?”
That may sound like a subtle difference.
For me, it wasn’t.
It changed the way I thought about my career.
In Korea, the Company Came First. In the U.S., the Position Did.
Of course, this isn’t an absolute rule.
Korean companies increasingly recruit for specific roles throughout the year, and job-based hiring has become much more important than it was in the past.
American companies also run campus recruiting programs and structured graduate programs.
Still, my personal experience of entering the job market in both countries felt noticeably different.
When I was first looking for work in Korea, which company I joined felt extremely important.
People might say:
“I work at Samsung.”
“I work at Hyundai.”
“I work at LG.”
The company name itself could become an important part of how someone described their career.
When I searched for work in the United States, I felt much more conscious of another question:
What exactly do I do?
The company still mattered, obviously.
But the position, responsibilities, and professional skills seemed to carry much more weight than I had previously realized.
That difference eventually affected the way I thought about my own career.
It Made Me Think About Expertise
There is nothing wrong with joining a stable company in Korea and building a long career there.
That was essentially how I began my own career.
But after working for a while, I started asking myself a question:
What will still belong to me when I leave the company?
I wanted to develop professional knowledge that could describe who I was without relying entirely on the name of the company on my business card.
That question eventually became one of the reasons I decided to pursue the US CPA.
Accounting gave me a professional foundation that I could continue developing beyond one company or one position.
That decision eventually led me to graduate school in the United States, followed by work at accounting firms in the U.S.
Looking back, I don’t think either the Korean or American hiring system is simply “better.”
Both have advantages and disadvantages.
But experiencing both made one thing much clearer to me:
The way we choose jobs can influence the way we think about our careers.
Korea’s Recruitment Culture Is Changing
The Korean job market I entered years ago is not exactly the same one that exists today.
Many companies have moved away from relying entirely on large, seasonal recruitment cycles and increasingly hire people for specific roles throughout the year.
The traditional distinction between joining a company and being hired for a particular job has therefore become less clear.
Still, the legacy of Korea’s 공채 culture remains visible.
Recruiting seasons.
Company-specific application essays.
Aptitude-test preparation books.
Job interview study groups.
And thousands of university students waiting for screening results at the same time.
For generations of Koreans who entered the workforce through this system, these were familiar parts of becoming a working adult.
Even Getting a Job Has a Culture
Before working in the United States, I never thought of Korea’s recruitment system as particularly “Korean.”
I simply assumed that this was how people got jobs.
It took leaving Korea and entering another job market for me to notice things I had previously taken for granted.
Mass recruitment.
Corporate aptitude tests.
Multiple rounds of interviews.
The importance of the company name.
And now, the gradual shift toward more position-specific hiring.
These are all part of understanding what working in Korea is actually like.
That’s why, through this Working in Korea Series, I want to write about more than office rules or business etiquette.
I want to look at the things I experienced while working in both Korea and the United States — from recruitment and corporate titles to company dinners, changing jobs, and the way people think about their careers.
What is it actually like to work in Korea?
It took working somewhere else for me to start asking that question.
