Korean companies ask applicants how much alcohol they can handle, physical features

By Kim Bo-eun

Some job applicants are understandably uncomfortable about having to answer unrelated personal questions asked by perspective employers, including some leading firms.

Although some of them have dropped requirements for job seekers to provide photos and specify their weight and height, firms still demand that they reveal their parents’ jobs and property, as well as physical features.

Cho Hye-rin, 26, remembers filling in such private information for a number of companies. Hyundai Heavy Industries was one of them.

“If you don’t fill it in, your resume cannot be submitted, so you have no choice,” she said.

That is because many companies run online application systems that detect blanks.

Kim Chae-young, 28, said BGF Retail also sticks to the old practice.

“First, I thought they needed it for employees’ uniforms, but still they wouldn’t need to ask before I was hired,” she said.

The company also demanded to know how much alcohol job seekers can drink on an application form.

“I thought it was absurd, but I did write in ‘two bottles of soju’ ― which is more than I can drink ― because obviously the company doesn’t want people who can’t drink,” Kim said.

Sometimes applicants can choose not to fill in the information at their own peril.

Another job-seeker, 26, who declined to be named, said she was required to reveal whether her family owns or rents their home. She was applying for a job at a college in both cases.

“I chose to hand it in without filling in the section, because it was simply absurd,” she said.

“But I did so knowing that I would be putting myself at a disadvantage by leaving it blank.”