By Oh Young-jin
Staff Reporter

Next time your friends boast of their high salaries, don't be crestfallen because the chance is there may be more than rounding errors in their claims.

According to a survey of 2,480 office workers by saramin.co.kr, about 51 percent said they had exaggerated their annual salary at least once when talking to others. Asked why, about two thirds said pride, with not wanting to be looked down on, and feelings of embarrassment being the next two biggest reasons.

Here is another job-related statistic. When preparing for an interview, male applicants who wear makeup give a bad first impression to those interviewing them.

In a separate survey conducted by online recruitment site, jobkorea.co.kr, about 11 percent of 454 personnel supervisors that interviewed recruits, said they have interviewed male applicants who wore makeup. Although some of the applicants wore makeup in order to impress, six out of 10 interviewers said that they didn't have favorable impressions about those who wore it. However, roughly 12 percent said that they gave additional points to those who did.

More than half of the interviewers said that appearance played a key role in making a good impression.

In this age when appearances count, some male job applicants undergo plastic surgery or apply makeup to make them look better. As a matter of fact, there are some surveys showing some male workers do not just feel good about themselves, but also perform better after receiving appearance-enhancing treatment.

A jobkorea spokesman said that its survey found corporate personnel supervisors tend to be conservative, so being out of the ordinary often turned out to be a minus rather than a plus during an interview.

Meanwhile, another Web site, opensalary.co.kr, conducted a survey of 358 corporate employees, which found nearly half of them have cut down on their personal expenses, apparently reflecting the economic hard times. About 40 percent, however, said that they had raised their expenses.

Among those things being cut were entertainment and drinking expenses which accounted for roughly 45 percent of those surveyed, while nearly 15 percent cut down on shopping.

Transportation expenses and lunch money were two of the hardest expenses to reduce, the survey found.

foosdie@koreatimes.co.kr