[K-Women Talk] We Hire Those Who Use AI Well

"Writing those old self-introductions filling just 600 characters seems easy in retrospect." The recent announcement by SK hynix that it would eliminate age and education requirements, as well as self-introduction essays, from its recruitment process for the second half of the year has drawn widespread praise. However, job seekers themselves have expressed frustration. This is because, in place of the 600-character questions about teamwork and challenge experiences, applicants must now submit 2,000 characters on ‘semiconductor expertise’ and ‘AI utilization skills.’ For job seekers, the ‘2,000-character requirement’ is daunting. It is a length difficult to fill without dense, relevant experience.

SK hynix will also hold an ‘AI Hackathon Competition’ in the fourth quarter this year, offering top participants a direct pass to interviews. Applicants will face AI-driven challenges to solve real-world problems. Anyone who thought, “Aren’t hackathons exclusive to software companies?” might be puzzled. Why would a semiconductor company like SK hynix place such emphasis on AI competence? The reason is that, as Jensen Huang proclaimed—“The era of general-purpose AI has arrived”—the pace of AI development has exceeded all expectations, resulting in a widening productivity gap between those who excel at using AI and those who do not.

In the past, a unicorn startup valued at 1 trillion won (approximately KRW 1 trillion) required at least a 10-person founding team. Now, it is possible for a single individual, and there is a growing number of solo entrepreneurs launching businesses with AI ‘teammates.’ One founder commented, “All you need is ten MacBooks and the business runs,” assigning roles like PM, development, marketing, legal, and research to different AI team members. Problems are posed, the AIs discuss, and together they deliver results. If one person adept at using AI can accomplish the work of 10 or 100, companies have little choice but to take AI expertise very seriously.

The same trend spreads across other companies as well. Hyundai Motor Company’s job posting for product strategy roles earlier this year included a preference for candidates “capable of producing tangible results using AI.” COSMAX too highlighted “proficiency in AI utilization” as a preferred qualification and added a prompt in its self-introduction asking about experiences where AI was leveraged to enhance efficiency. There is now an uncountable number of companies emphasizing AI skills in their recruitment ads.

This raises the question: How can job seekers quickly develop the kind of AI skills companies want? Here is a suggestion—tackle this very problem with AI’s help. The author’s own AI, cleverly enough, recommends: “Don’t start by studying, start by doing.” Take something you are currently working on—be it Excel, PowerPoint, or content creation—and complete the task alongside AI from start to finish. This way, you can concretely measure the time saved and how much your productivity has improved, information that you can then include in your work statement. But here’s the thing: almost all job seekers are already doing this. According to posts shared by SK hynix applicants in online communities, many describe highly specialized and job-relevant AI projects, like ‘establishing an anomaly prediction system for memory wafer yield using machine learning.’

The author recommends ‘team projects’ as a way to simultaneously improve teamwork and AI utilization skills. As most work in a company is done collaboratively, team project experience is valued much more highly than solo activities. It is even better if you are aiming for a prize in a competition. One extra tip: when forming a team, try to include someone who specializes in equipment or materials. This will allow you to better understand the challenges companies face and help define focused, relevant project topics.

Lee Suk-Eun, Publisher of ‘The Skeleton of Employment’

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