Samsung said Tuesday that thousands of high school and junior college graduates have applied and now work on-site through a hiring system that eliminated educational requirements over the past five years. After SK hynix announced "degree-blind hiring" the previous day, Samsung emphasized that it had already implemented such a policy more than 30 years ago and rooted it in its personnel system.
According to Samsung, major affiliates including Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) have operated "open recruitment" that removed educational restrictions from open hiring processes since 1995.
When Samsung introduced open recruitment in 1995, it took the then-unconventional step of excluding education, nationality, gender, age, and connections from its eligibility requirements. The aim was to assess applicants' capabilities and potential rather than their schools or backgrounds in the hiring process. This system continues to this day, and the number of high school and junior college graduates who applied to Samsung's open hiring process over the past five years is known to reach thousands.
The results of 30 years of open recruitment are also appearing across Samsung's major business sites. A, who belongs to Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, works in a department related to digital twins, considered central to the manufacturing paradigm shift including the construction of semiconductor artificial intelligence (AI) factories. B, who belongs to Samsung Electronics' Device eXperience (DX) division, is responsible for strengthening smartphone technology competitiveness in the development office of the Mobile eXperience (MX) business unit. C, who belongs to Samsung Display, works in the PA team of the small and medium-sized business unit. This organization is the core department that developed the industry's first foldable display, and is also where Samsung Display President Lee Chung once served as team leader. At major affiliates including Samsung SDS, Samsung C&T, and Samsung Heavy Industries, employees who joined through open recruitment are active in various fields.
In the business community, Samsung's open recruitment is regarded as a representative case of personnel innovation that rooted the principle of "ability over academic background" in Korean corporate culture. SK hynix's recent announcement of its policy to abolish educational restrictions is also interpreted as a case showing that this ability-focused hiring trend is spreading across the industry.
Since its founding, Samsung has continuously improved its personnel system based on the "people first" management philosophy. After introducing Korea's first open recruitment system for new employees in 1957, it has continued the system for 70 years this year, contributing to job creation for young people. Except for highly unusual situations such as the foreign exchange crisis, Samsung did not suspend open recruitment even during major economic crises such as the 1970s oil shock and the 2000s financial crisis.
Currently, Samsung is the only one among the four major groups that maintains a regular open recruitment system. Open recruitment conducted in the first and second halves of each year carries significant meaning in that it provides young people with predictable employment opportunities.
Before abolishing educational restrictions, Samsung led Korea's open recruitment culture in 1993 by establishing open recruitment for female college-graduate new employees. It also continued to innovate its hiring system, including developing its own Global Samsung Aptitude Test (GSAT) to systematically evaluate personality and job aptitude. Subsequently, major companies including Doosan, Hyundai Motor, LG, and Lotte joined a similar trend by introducing their own aptitude test tools.
Personnel systems after hiring are also changing toward an ability-focused approach. Samsung is creating an environment where employees can demonstrate their capabilities and grow through spreading a horizontal organizational culture via rank consolidation, abolishing tenure limits by rank, and improving evaluation systems.
A business community official said, "Hiring that values skill and potential over academic background is directly connected to corporate competitiveness," adding, "Samsung's maintenance of open recruitment for 30 years shows that a change in the way talent is secured can lead to actual results, not just a one-time slogan."
