Jobseekers buy and sell ‘success vibes’

This month, major conglomerates, including Samsung, SK, LG, Hyundai Motor, and POSCO, have started recruiting for the year’s second half. Amid the soaring consumer prices, job seekers faced with open recruitment season buy and sell used books or business suits for interviews. As items for job interviews or finding jobs are not used frequently, it is deemed a waste of money to buy brand-new goods for job seekers who are usually not well off.

Jobseekers also eye on the “success vibes” in the online used market. In major used product sales platforms such as Carrot Market and Junggonara, there are many sales postings of interview business suits and shoes “certifying” success in job seeking.

The desperate young jobseekers sometimes sell the community accounts of specific universities to obtain “high-quality” job information regarding interview reviews and job-seeking study groups of the top-ranking university communities. The university communities prohibit the trading of accounts; however, such accounts are traded between 30,000 and 50,000 won in used market platforms and KakaoTalk open chat rooms.

“One of the life tactics of the MZ generation who consider price efficiency and practicality important is used market transactions,” Professor Lee Eun-hui of Consumer Studies explained. “Particularly for the job seekers who cannot afford everything, transaction of items, which are not often used such as interview business suits, will become even more active than before.”


yeah@donga.com