‘Difficulty in Getting Job’

“Do you know it is difficult for a highly educated women to get employment? ”

Ms. Kim Jeong-eun (31.female) who passed CPA in September is protesting everyday morning at Financial Supervisory Service, Youido, Seoul and Ministry of finance and economy in Gwacheon.

Her ‘war for job’ started as soon as she entered faculty of economics in famous A university in 1992. She studied language hard for job and managed grade since first year. She even went to Australia for one year to learn English, thinking ‘I should not be behind others.’

However, whenever she files application for job in fourth year, she fails. Conventional idea ‘woman has difficulty in getting job’ pressurized her.

Therefore, she entered K postgraduate school, management faculty in September 1997.

She thought that if she becomes professional, it would be better, despite her being a woman. However, IMF crisis struck Korea before she spent 5 months in graduate school. Employment got stuck up too. Wind of reformation blew and even men also found difficulty in getting job.

Seeing seniors who became tutors in 30s because they couldn’t get job even in minor company, she chose to appear for state examination, which was considered to be safe. She gave up graduate school that she studied for one year, summer of 1999, and challenged CPA test, which was considered to be a ‘sure job’. She passed it in September this year, however, her ‘war for job’ is still going on.

She has filed application to twenty accountancy corporations, but no company accepted her because of surpassing 1,000 successful applicants in CPA. She even filed application to 30 general companies, but she couldn’t pass even document test due to ‘woman above 30-years-old’.

She said, “Even tears has dried.”

Such employment difficulty faced by highly educated women doesn’t stop with Ms. Kim only.

Ms. Lee (26.female) who graduated from K university in February, 2000, made an effort for job such as learning language, getting certificate related to computer, internship, etc, however, she is still unemployed.

She said, “I have submitted more than 100 resumes, but not passed” and “I do not know how to get job really.”

Kim Tae-Hong, director of labor statistics research in Korean Women’s Development Institute, said, “highly educated who entered graduate school avoiding IMF crisis, are rushing for employment and bottlenecks regarding employment of highly educated people are becoming serious” and “especially, firms are reluctant to recruit old high educated woman.”

Sung-Kyu Kim kimsk@donga.com