Samsung seeks talented entry-level employees through annual recruitment test

Samsung Group conducts the standardized test, so called GSAT, as part of the group’s open recruitment process to hire entry-level employees. [Photo provided by Samsung]

The Global Samsung Aptitude Test (GSAT), the standardized test required to join South Korea’s top Samsung Group, reflected the industry’s latest trends and issues this year as it asked applicants about chip-related terms and artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbot technologies.

Samsung Group conducted the standardized test as part of the group’s open recruitment process to hire entry-level employees last weekend. The GSAT is known to have asked applicants about semiconductors and related technologies, which is one of the conglomerate’s key businesses.

The two-hour test, featuring a 60-minute system check-up and a 60-minute main test, consisted of 50 questions, including 20 math questions and 30 reasoning and logic problems. Some of the questions were related to the group’s chip business, asking about vertical transport field effect transistors (VTFET), for example, a chip architecture used in the photolithography fabrication process, and non-planar or 3D fin field-effect (FinFET) transistors.

Other questions touched on subjects like AI and chatbots, which have gained global attention recently. Applicants assessed the difficulty of this year’s test to be average or similar to previous years.

Samsung Group has been conducting the GSAT online since the first half of 2020 after the breakout of Covid-19, allowing applicants to take the test at home on their own computers while being monitored remotely by supervisors.

Nineteen affiliates, including Samsung Electronics Co., Samsung Display Co., and Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., participated in the open recruitment process. GSAT test-takers this year had previously passed the document screening process and the general aptitude assessment. Only applicants who pass the GSAT go through to the next phase that includes interviews. The final stage is a medical checkup before employment in June.

Samsung Electronics, Samsung Biologics Co., and other Samsung Group affiliates are among the most sought-after employers for university graduates, resulting in tens of thousands of applicants taking the GSAT. Some applicants are known to even invest in test preparation or in online courses specifically for the GSAT.

Samsung Group headquarters in Seoul [Photo by Lee Chung-woo]

Samsung Group is the only major Korean conglomerate that still hires new employees through a group-wide open recruitment process since 1957. The group hires career beginners through the open recruitment process to offer young job seekers a level playing field and to provide stability and more predictability in the domestic jobs market, according to Samsung Group.

Rolling recruitment, which is used by other conglomerates, is believed to pose a high barrier to university graduates or to entry-level job seekers with less or no work experience.

Samsung Group unveiled a plan in May last year to hire 80,000 new employees by 2026, a 20 percent increase over the number compared to the group’s earlier number of new intakes.

The group has considered talent acquisition as a key to its future, particularly since October last year under the leadership of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee.

Talent is the driving force behind innovation and overcoming the recent semiconductor recession, Lee said during a presidential meeting in October. Lee told the executives that “regardless of gender or nationality,” highlighting talent and technology is the most important value.

Earlier in February, Samsung Electronics recruited new experienced staff on a large scale for its Device Solutions (DS) division, which handles semiconductors, and for the Device Experience (DX) division, which covers home appliances, and mobile and network businesses.

The company is also aggressively recruiting overseas talent, scouting talent from other companies, such as from Intel Corp., Nvidia Corp., General Electric Co., and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson.

Samsung Research, an R&D unit of Samsung Electronics, hired Kwon Jung-hyun, former engineer at Nvidia, as vice president and head of the robot intelligence team.