Competition for Jobs at Banks Gets Tougher
By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter
For high salaries and job security, many highly-qualified jobseekers are applying for positions at banks. Nearly 10,000 people sent resumes to the Korea Exchange Bank (KEB), which plans to hire 70 rookies in the first half of this year.
``People seem to be attracted to the relatively high salary and our `open recruitment' system, which puts no condition on age or degree,'' said a spokesperson at the bank.
Despite the introduction of the open recruitment system, applicants to the bank are as highly-qualified as ever. Among the 9,746 people who sent resumes, 522 held doctoral or masters degrees. Twenty-nine applicants scored full marks in TOEIC, and 1,086 scored over 900 points.
Many of them held professional licenses. Fifteen people holding the Certified Public Accountant licenses applied to the bank, and 11 held tax accountant licenses. The number of applicants holding professional licenses totaled 129.
These licenses are hard to get, but even these licenses don't guarantee that the holder will get a job at the bank. ``Interviews matter the most. We run a blind interview, in which the interviewers have no background information on the interviewees. We see whether the applicant has passion,'' the spokesperson at KEB said.
Other banks are also seeing the resumes of highly-qualified candidates flood in. The Industrial Bank of Korea, which is scheduled to hire 250 new employees, received around 20,000 ― some 62 had professional licenses.
Woori Bank, which adopted the same open recruitment system as KEB, had some 14,800 people apply for 200 positions.
The growing popularity of banks reflects jobseekers' preference for stable jobs, which are getting scarcer.
Meanwhile, public enterprises, which have been also popular for their relatively high salaries and stability, are canceling their hiring schedule this year, faced with restructuring and privatization.
Around 60 to 70 public enterprises are expected to be privatized, and between 20 and 30 should see mergers.
The Korea Gas Corporation, which hired 70 employees last year, has put a freeze on new hires as it faces privatization. The Korea National Housing Corporation has not set up a recruitment schedule this year as it is expecting to be merged with the Korea Land Corporation.