[K-Women Talk] The Pitfalls of Engineering and Prestigious Universities

"This year, engineering graduates are actually facing an employment crisis." This is what I heard from an acquaintance who works as the head of a university career support office. While liberal arts students, prepared for the "narrow job market," start getting ready for employment from early years and lower their standards to take any available position, engineering students who relied solely on their academic background and GPA are now struggling with a job market that has become much tougher than before.

Statistics show that the employment rate for engineering majors at the top 15 universities has been declining every year. In 2023, it was 73.7%, and in 2024, it fell to 70.9%. As the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) began to take hold last year and this year, the stagnation in IT and software sectors is expected to bring the numbers down even further.

Why has it become difficult even for engineering students to find jobs? Firstly, although it may be an obvious answer, the trend of companies hiring on a rolling basis has raised the bar for fresh graduates. Rolling recruitment is a process where companies hire people who fit a very specific need, such as when there is a vacancy in a certain role or when setting up a new business division. Naturally, they tend to prefer candidates who already have experience in the relevant position, such as those with previous work experience or mid-level hires.

Secondly, there has been a rapid restructuring in industries over the past few years. Sectors such as petrochemicals and batteries are facing fierce competition with China, the information and communications and construction industries have stagnated, and the IT sector has lost its main stage to global big tech companies, leading to a significant reduction in hiring. However, graduates from related majors are still being produced according to previous demand levels, resulting in a mismatch between jobs and available talent.

Thirdly, there is a growing concentration of hiring in the semiconductor industry, which is the only sector currently expanding recruitment. Students from other majors, such as mechanical and chemical engineering, are also gaining work experience through practical training academies and company boot camps to enter the semiconductor field, resulting in extremely intense competition. This is comparable to the current concentration on semiconductor stocks in the stock market.

Given these circumstances, engineering students can no longer expect good results just by focusing on their coursework. The long-held employment formula that "science and engineering is about GPA, humanities is about experience" has completely collapsed. Engineering students now also need to narrow down their career paths and build targeted knowledge and experience for specific roles that companies are seeking, just like their liberal arts peers.

Not only has the premium associated with engineering degrees faded, but even the prestige of elite universities has lost its unique value. In fact, for graduates of elite universities with liberal arts majors, the reputation can sometimes work against them.

"When we post job openings these days, we see an increasing number of applicants from prestigious universities, which really shows how tough the job market is. However, many of them end up resigning after a short period, which is a concern for us." This is according to a human resources manager at a small but strong company. For companies, it is more important to hire people who will stay with them long-term than to select someone who simply looks excellent on paper. Based on experience, graduates from prestigious universities have not tended to stay for long.

Large corporations are not particularly generous toward these candidates either. In a previous article, I mentioned that among the 627 new hires at SK hynix in 2025, only four came from liberal arts backgrounds. In South Korea's manufacturing-based conglomerates, there is extremely limited room for liberal arts graduates. Ultimately, these candidates have to try for positions at mid-sized or small but strong companies, but even then, their academic pedigree can sometimes serve as a "negative premium."

For graduates from prestigious universities to succeed in landing jobs at mid-sized and small companies, they need to adopt additional strategies. They must convince employers of their commitment to stay with the company for a long time, and to prove this, they need to answer questions like "Why did you apply to our company?" with genuine passion and demonstrate that they have been preparing for this for a long time.

Lee Sukeun, Publisher of The Framework of Employment

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.