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‘Knowing employer more important than adding lines to your resume’

‘Knowing employer more important than adding lines to your resume’

Posted December. 12, 2013 06:40,   

한국어

Only the sound of audience members taking notes of speakers was heard at the site of “Youth’s Employment Success Concert,” which was held at the Teachers Pension building in Yeouido, Seoul on Wednesday. More than 200 young jobseekers were seen glued to the speakers throughout the two-hour event. The event was hosted jointly by Dong-A Ilbo Youth Dream Center, and the Center for Large and Small Business Cooperation under the Federation of Korean Industries.

Youth’s Employment Success Concert was organized to help young jobseekers who are having hard time landing decent jobs. To help jobseekers gain answers to their questions ranging from career selection, to drafting of self-introduction letters, and to interview skills, the event brought together employment counseling experts, college graduates who recently landed jobs at conglomerates and state-run firms, and HR staff from conglomerates.

“Before seeking a job, you have to figure out your own interest and aptitude, and the world of vocations first,” said Lee Min-yeong, director of the Value Line Communication Strategy Institute, who gave a lecture on customized career development plan. “You should realize that there are many more jobs, rather than blindly seeking opportunities in conglomerates such as Samsung or LG.”

Speakers gave a flurry of advice as well. “In many job applications, applicants quote contents from company websites, news reports, and remarks by the company president,” said Pyo Hyeong-jong, head of the Korea Career Development Institute. “It is difficult to land job if you naively think ‘I will have to land job.” Metaphorically comparing job application to a company to the process of purchasing a smartphone, Pyo advised that “Please apply for a job after adequately learning about a company that you seek to apply through various channels such as the Internet, books and people.”

Older graduates who landed jobs also gave a slew of advice, saying, “Please don’t be obsessed with adding lines to your resumes.” Jeong Seok-yeong, who recently landed a job at GS-Caltex Oil, said the key to his successful employment was longue studying the company with keen interest, and even disclosed his own GPA and Test of English for International Communication score. “I never took overseas language training nor had any internship experience, but I prepared for my employment by meticulously memorizing names of HR staff I met at job fairs and remembering their advice, and met with college alumni who are working with GS-Caltex to seek their advice.”

HR officers from Samsung Electronics and LG Chem also organized events to explain the vision of human resources that their firms seek to recruit. The nine members of the Youth Employment Mentoring Squad, which is run jointly by the Youth Dream Center and the Federation of Korean Industries, conducted one-on-one career counseling sessions with more than 30 jobseekers.

“Youth unemployment is emerging as the most serious social problem than ever before,” said Yang Geum-seung, director of the Center for Large and Small Business Cooperation. “We anticipate the event will help change the reality wherein jobseekers only chase after job opportunities at conglomerates and are obsessed with adding lines to their resumes.”