IBM leads ranks as preferred foreign employer

A survey of job applicants shows that IBM Korea Inc. is the foreign firm most preferred for employment. According to the poll by Joblink Co., an online employment agency, the second most popular multinational firm is Hewlett-Packard Co. In the survey, based on 7,528 job applicants educated beyond a bachelor degree, 13.6 percent of the respondents said they would like to be hired by IBM Korea. Hewlett Packard was preferred by 12.3 percent. Sony Korea Corp. placed third, with 9.4 percent of respondents indicating a preference for the Japanese firm. Intel Korea Ltd. was fourth, and Microsoft Korea took the fifth position. Almost one third of job seekers in the survey, 30.8 percent, said they placed the highest importance on meritocracy and what they saw as quick promotion at foreign firms. About 1,900 of the job hunters said that the relatively higher wage and benefits for workers led them to apply for jobs at multinational firms. Foreign companies’ business environment, which is regarded as better than that of Korean firms, was ranked as the second most important reason for selecting a foreign company, as cited by 20.4 percent of the employment applicants. About 22 percent said that they would like to work in the field of marketing, public relations or business management, followed by Internet and computers, with 19.4 percent. “Male job seekers voiced a higher preference for jobs in the field of Internet and information technology, whereas women applicants said they were drawn to positions in public relations or management consulting,” an official at Joblink said. “These foreign companies recruit people whenever they need personnel, so prospective workers who are interested in working for a foreign employer should be well informed of the criteria they used to bring aboard new workers,” said the chief executive of Joblink, Han Hyun-sook. by Kim Chang-gyu