A lot of young people take the civil service examination in Korea as such Korea is called the republic of civil servants. According to JOBKOREA and Albamon, more than half of the youth in Korea prepare for the civil service examination, with 47.5 percent of college students, 58.7 percent of job seekers, and 51.1 percent of those in their twenties taking the exam. Even 30.3 percent of office workers also said that they would take the civil service exam in 2020. In addition, the National Statistical Office said, “The local civil service examination, which took place in May last year, was delayed to June this year because of COVID-19, but the number of people who prepare for the exam increased instead of decreasing that of unemployed people seeking jobs.” Then, why do many people want to take the civil service exam instead of getting any creative job? According to an article, the biggest reason was stability of employment. It is because people have fear of dismissal, and it is difficult to find full-time work. Youth are also in an extreme situation wherein young people are concentrated in limited availability of positions like entering big companies, where the threshold for employment is high. In addition, people were taking the civil service examination as their last chance, without any other alternative but to choose non-regular jobs. There were also many other reasons like a fair opportunity and impartial treatment. These conditions make many people choose the job of civil servant. Then, what do KU students think about being a civil servant? I interviewed three KU students to listen to their thoughts.
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Lee Da-kyeong, a Sophomore from the Department of English Education
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Park Jae-woo, a Sophomore from the Department of Mathematics Education
“I intend to become a civil servant because it is a stable occupation. When I have to get a job right away, I can easily take the test without any requirements like age, academic ability, or career. In addition, the retirement age for civil servants is 60 years old, so I can work steadily until my retirement. For these reasons, I will choose this job. I think people choose civil servant as their occupation due to fair opportunity, which means only people who get a good score can pass the exam. What is more people can work as long as they want and there is little opportunity to be fired compared to other jobs. However, there are many social problems like wasting of manpower and finance as most young men choose the same occupation. To resolve this, there should be urgent and educational programs that can replace civil servant positions and help.”
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Yoo Hee-mang, a Junior from the Department of Nursing
“I have not thought about taking the civil service exam because students in my major are mainly hired to hospitals. I also do not want to have a job that makes my everyday experience similar and monotonous for a long time. In the case of emergency such as a nature disaster, civil servants have policies that may require all workers to support the emergency response efforts regardless of their kind of their department. Furthermore, the atmosphere of workplace is conservative and strict as this job has a hierarchical system, so it is difficult to work in a free air. Nevertheless, the reasons why people take the civil service examination are civil servants are the stable occupation, and work-life balance is well kept. For these reasons, many young men are eager to be civil servants. Other jobs should have a stable retirement age and keep work-life balance well to make young people choose various jobs. Then, many young people will try to choose a variety of kinds of occupations.”