South Korea fights academic pedigree hiring bias that ‘turns everyone into losers’
Hiring practices have traditionally been centred around which school a candidate attended, with higher-paying jobs going to elite alumni
It has been just over a month since Lee Hyun-jun* was discharged from his mandatory military service, but the 22-year-old college student already feels he has hit an invisible wall regarding his future.
“Whenever I search for jobs, internships or fellowship programmes on online platforms, they always ask for the name of your university,” Lee told This Week in Asia.
For the education major, who attends a university in the southwestern city of Gwangju, the remarks hit uncomfortably close to home.
“I thought that I would finally be able to live a life I wanted based on my skills and efforts, but I realised that society just gave you a rank that you had to wear longer than your time in the military.”
