Among undisclosed qualifications at companies, age was most often cited at 44.8 percent (multiple responses were possible). 33 was the average age limit for men imposed by firms, whereas it was 31 for women. (image: KobizMedia/ Korea Bizwire)
SEOUL, Aug. 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Job applications can be stressful, especially in Korea where resume screening is often followed by an in-house personality and aptitude test, and one, two, or sometimes even three interviews. Those that keep failing the rigorous process of job hiring, however, can be left wondering whether there might be certain qualifications that applicants are not made aware of.
This has been proven true in a recent survey by SaramIn, an online job search and recruitment platform, and many of these secret qualifications were found to be less than ethical.
In the SaramIn survey of 576 companies in Korea, 40.3 percent replied that they do in fact have undisclosed criteria when looking for new recruits. Among respondents, 47.6 percent were large corporations, 40.1 percent were small and medium-sized companies (usually companies with less than 300 employees), and 38.6 percent were midsize businesses (those larger than small and mid-sized companies).
Among undisclosed qualifications at companies, age was most often cited at 44.8 percent (multiple responses were possible). 33 was the average age limit for men imposed by firms, whereas it was 31 for women.
Second in rank was gender (31.9 percent), with companies typically maintaining a male to female ratio of 67 – 33.
Other qualifications not revealed to applicants included place of residence (29.3 percent), college major (25 percent), certificates and licenses (23.3 percent), marital status (18.5 percent), educational background (15.9 percent), internship or job experience (15.9 percent), military service status (13.8 percent), and religion (7.3 percent).
What was most significant on the survey, however, was that 89.2 percent of the companies said they had rejected candidates because they did not fit their confidential standards.
As to why the companies did not disclose these standards despite their use of them, 44.4 percent said because “they are not absolute standards” (multiple responses were possible).
The answer was followed by “feel no particular need to reveal the information” (31.6 percent), “because they are conditions prohibited by law” (26.7 percent), “because they are internal eligibility standards” (22.4 percent), “concerns about receiving less applicants upon revealing them” (10.8 percent), and “concerns of generating a negative image of the company” (9.1 percent).
By Joseph Shin (jss539@koreabizwire.com)
