Brand Confucian

Money Today reports ‘public official’ as the #1 employment choice for job seekers in Korea. This according to a survey of 1,153 job seekers conducted by online education and employment portal Eduwill. The group collectively favored employment by the government as a public servant at 20.1 percent of all respondents.

 Other prospective occupations fared as follows:

Public Servant (공무원) 20.1%

Regular office worker (일반사무직) 17.6%

Skilled professional (기술직) 10.8%

Finance professional (금융직) 8.9%

Educational professional/teacher (교육직, 교사 교직원) 7.5%

Marketing/Advertizing  (마케팅,홍보직) 7.3%

Sales, including business start-ups, (창엄을 포함한 영업직) 5.4%

Interestingly (although not surprisingly) respondents differed by sex, reinforcing deeply held cultural gender norms.

Men

Public Servant (공무원) 22.7%

Skilled professional (기술직) 16.1%

Regular office worker (일반사무직) 14.2%

Women

Regular office worker (일반사무직) 22.9%

Public Servant (공무원) 16.3%

Educational professional/teacher (교육직, 교사 교직원) 11.3%

Although not mentioned in the report, I would venture to guess that the gender split also applied to the marketing category as it has been my experience that marketing is predominately considered a ‘soft science’ in Korea so to speak, and women make up a larger portion of the marketing and advertizing work force (though not at the executive level, but that’s another story)

Reasons for field choice fell into the following broad categories:

Job Security 36.7%

Salary Level 20.6%

Job Satisfaction 17.1%

Career Prospects 13.8%

Even though MB has harped on the ‘smaller government’ string and has, to a certain extent, cut government bureaucracy down (though I wouldn’t yet say ‘to size’), It seems that sentiment is that that government positions are at least more solid than positions in the corporate sector. I suppose this is understanding considering the current economic situation, but frankly, once you get hired into corporate Korea, it becomes damned hard for your employer to get rid of you.

Biggest perceived obstacles to attaining career goals were:

Lacking foreign language skills 35.7%

Lack of prestigious academic affiliation 20.6%

I’d have to agree with the foreign language skills obstacle. In this global marketplace, communication with foreign companies, employees, and governments is more important than ever. Academic affiliation is important too, but sadly, in Korea, it tends to be less based on academic (and later professional) merit, and more on a perpetual system of academic cronyism.

What I see in these numbers is tremendous opportunity for students of business in Korea. Only the gutsiest students with the strongest constitutions seem to be going the corporate route. Sure, we are still likely to see millions of the incompetent flock to the government sector (and this sincerely means headaches for everyone), but sifting out that chaff leaves more cream for the business sector. If only more of them were looking seriously at global companies instead of all-mighty Samsung…

And women are representing in this cadre nicely. Looking at these numbers, I can’t help but garner a slightly brighter glimmer of hope for sex equality in Korea.