Samsung gives cold shoulder to humanities majors

Young people who majored in natural sciences have a better chance of getting a job at Samsung Group than those who studied humanities.

This is becoming obvious as Korea’s largest conglomerate announces the result of its open recruitment for the second half.

According to media reports, the chaebol is expected to hire some 4,500 new recruits through an open recruitment process that started in September. Some of Samsung’s 25 major affiliates have been announcing their job-winners since last Friday.

Samsung Group doesn’t officially announce the proportion of natural science or humanities majors it has hired. The group has only revealed that at least 30 percent of selected applicants would be women, 35 percent will have graduated from universities outside of Seoul (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology and Pohang University of Science and Technology are not in subject to this rule), and 5 percent will be from low-income families.

The proportion of science and humanities graduates differs by the subsidiary and what it does, but sources said that successful candidates in the second half mostly studied subjects related to natural science.

Industry insiders said that about 85 percent of Samsung Electronics’ new recruits majored in natural sciences. The flagship company of Samsung Group offered jobs by dividing groups into R&D, facilities, technology, sales and marketing, management support and design.

In addition, natural science and engineering majors reportedly accounted for 80 to 90 percent of total recruitment in Samsung’s electronics affiliates like Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDI and Samsung Techwin. It was a similar proportion in Samsung Heavy Industries and Samsung Engineering, as well as chemical business affiliates like Samsung General Chemicals and Samsung Fine Chemicals.

Natural science graduates also triumphed in construction affiliates. In Cheil Industries’ resort and construction division, about 70 percent of job-winners are reportedly natural science majors. Samsung C&T’s construction division also recruited more natural science graduates, but humanities majors were favored for its trading division, according to company officials.

While a majority of Samsung affiliates’ jobs were taken by natural science graduates, about six Samsung companies preferred humanities or social sciences majors. According to industry sources, about 80 to 90 percent of new recruits to Hotel Shilla were humanities majors.

For Samsung’s financial affiliates - Samsung Life Insurance, Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, and Samsung Securities - most new recruits majored in business or economics.

A recent survey of juniors and seniors in college by the Presidential Committee on Young Generation showed that 57.8 percent of humanities majors said they were concerned about getting a job after graduation, compared to 39.4 percent of natural science majors.

BY JOO KYUNG-DON [kjoo@joongang.co.kr]