Navigating a highly competitive labor market: understanding job search experiences of white-collar workers in South Korea

The human resource management practices of South Korean companies are well documented in the literature. However, how these practices influence the experience of job searching in the South Korean labor market remains less explored. This chapter studies the job-seeking experience in South Korea through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with new graduates and seasoned white-collar jobseekers. It highlights the unique features of the job search process, shaped by South Korea's institutional and cultural context and organizations’ hiring practices. Furthermore, it contrasts these features with those documented in the extant job search literature, which predominantly focuses on Western contexts.