Korean CEOs Go Abroad to Recruit Top Talent

This is the seventh year that LG Chem CEO Kim Ban-seok has visited the United States in search of employees, holding another recruitment fair at a hotel in Teaneck, New Jersey, the company said yesterday.

“In order to become a global LG Chem, we need to spare no effort to secure bright young people abroad,” Kim said.

This year’s fair produced 40 recruits from top US universities for Kim to hire. Some hold doctorates in chemical engineering and will play key roles in developing the next generation of LG Chem technologies, the firm announced.

Kim has been holding recruiting fairs every year since 2006 in several US cities as well as one in Japan in 2010. They have attracted over 4,000 foreigners and overseas Koreans since the company began the practice in 2005. About 300 of those attendees have been hired by LG Chem.

The practice of recruiting overseas was started by Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee. Last summer Samsung held its annual job fair for employees with engineering and master’s of business administration degrees in Europe and the US.

Other chaebol (business groups) holding holding annual recruitment fairs in countries like the U.S., England, China, Japan and Australia include Doosan, Posco, Hanwha and SK. Over the years the companies have begun to compete against one another for top candidates.

Each fall Doosan Group Chairman Park Yong-man flies to New York to interview applicants.

Posco had been hiring a few employees each year in the US, England and China. This year it hired 10 recruits with expertise in resource development in Australia for the first time.

The practice of seeking talent overseas is nothing new. As competition becomes increasingly global, companies seeking to be industry leaders are forced to seek top talent from whichever countries produce them, according to Bae Seong-o, a researcher at Samsung Economic Research Institute.