Toyota FAQ in Job Interview

By Kang Seung-woo

Staff Reporter

All Toyota wants to do these days is put its recent recall fiasco behind it. But for those who are preparing for job interviews, it is important to have an answer regarding the Toyota failure ready because is one of the most frequently asked about topics.

Saramin, a local online job recruiter, conducted a survey on the top issues among 248 people in charge of personnel matters and they selected the Japanese auto manufacturer's collapse as the most relevant matter, standing at 39.1 percent, it announced Tuesday.

The sinking of the naval ship Cheonan placed second with 31.5 percent, followed by the smartphone boom (29.4), the popularity of micro-blogging sites (23.4), the dispute over the four-river restoration project (22.2), Lee Kun-hee's return to the helm of Samsung (16.9), the trial of former Prime Minister Han Myung-sook (12.5), the June 2 local elections (10.1) and the eruption of the Iceland volcano (10.1).

The auto manufacturing giant Toyota concealed defects in its vehicles, which led to many fatalities and only later, acknowledged the shortcomings and recalled numerous vehicles. They are currently dealing with the aftermath of multiple lawsuits.

The recruiter said that interviewers are likely to ask questions relating the incident to possible crisis management for the company.

On March 26, 2010, the Navy ship Cheonan was split in two and sank after a non-contact external explosion in the West Sea.

After the 21-year-old ship was salvaged, military authorities were slammed for their sluggish handling of the situation.

Results from the survey showed that employers are likely to ask applicants how they would look into the causes and manage similar scenarios.

Multi-purpose cellular phones, such as the iPhone and Android-based phones, and micro-blogging sites like Twitter have emerged as contentious social issues themselves.

Also of note is President Lee Myung-bak's four-river project which has drawn much criticism from environmentalists, religious groups and parts of the government.