Despite the COVID-19 Cold Wave, Major Companies like Samsung and Hyundai Motor Actively Recruit Talent (Comprehensive)

[Asia Economy Reporters Changhwan Lee and Suyeon Woo] Despite the hiring market being hit hard by the aftermath of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), major companies such as Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Motor Company, and SK Group are accelerating efforts to recruit key talents to lead future promising businesses.

According to the automotive and aviation industries on the 6th, Hyundai Motor Group recently appointed J. Scott Drennan, Vice President of Innovation at Bell Textron, as Executive Director in charge of development for Hyundai Motor Group’s Urban Air Mobility (UAM) business division.

Executive Director Drennan has worked for over 25 years at Bell Textron, a U.S. helicopter manufacturer, leading the development of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft such as the V-22, AW609, and V-280 for commercial and military purposes as an engineer. In 2018, he also served as an aviation commissioner on the advisory board of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

It is known that the role of Jaewon Shin, Vice President in charge of Hyundai Motor Group’s UAM business division and a former NASA member, was instrumental in Drennan’s joining Hyundai Motor Group. Vice President Shin said through the company’s global website, "We expect Executive Director Drennan to lead development based on his extensive experience in VTOL and UAM fields."

Executive Director Drennan will be responsible for developing personal air vehicles (PAV) for urban air mobility alongside Vice President Shin. He expressed his aspirations, saying, "I am honored to contribute to Hyundai Motor Group’s future mobility vision," and "Through new UAM, I want to give back the precious time many people have lost in their daily lives due to traffic congestion."

Hyundai Motor Group is nurturing the UAM business as a core next-generation growth engine and is hastening bold global talent recruitment in related fields. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has contracted not only overseas but also the domestic hiring market, the group is steadily attracting UAM-related personnel both domestically and internationally.

According to aviation specialized media on the same day, Hyundai Motor Group is currently pursuing the recruitment of Michael Whitaker, former Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and Diana Marina Cooper, Vice President of Strategy from drone analytics startup PrecisionHawk. In addition, the group is recruiting experienced professionals in the UAM field domestically.

The recruitment areas include UAM airframe design and testing, UAM battery system development, control and avionics software and system reliability, UAM hybrid propulsion system development, and UAM load analysis, seeking experts in various aspects of UAM. Furthermore, Hyundai Motor is conducting new graduate and experienced hiring in 62 positions within its research and development headquarters, actively sourcing talent both domestically and abroad.

Samsung Electronics has also launched a large-scale experienced recruitment drive. It is recruiting experienced employees for 51 positions across 10 organizations within the DS (Device Solutions) division, which handles semiconductor business. Samsung Electronics typically conducts occasional experienced hiring by organization within the semiconductor division, but this year it is recruiting experienced professionals across the entire division. The number of planned hires is reportedly the largest ever. Last year, Samsung Electronics hired more than 2,000 people in the semiconductor division alone.

The reason Samsung Electronics is aggressively recruiting semiconductor experienced talent is the expected surge in semiconductor demand due to the development of new industries such as artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, 5G, the Internet of Things, and remote video conferencing. Samsung Electronics plans to invest 133 trillion won to become the world’s number one system semiconductor company by 2030. As large-scale investments are underway, it is also accelerating talent acquisition.

In particular, Samsung Electronics is focusing on developing future semiconductor technologies by recruiting world-class scholars. On the same day, Samsung Electronics also began recruiting new college graduates for the first half of the year. Samsung Electronics announced on the 6th that it posted recruitment notices online and will accept applications for the first half of the year until the 13th. After application submission, an offline test called the "Samsung Aptitude Test" (GSAT) will be held next month.

The aptitude test will be held in five domestic locations?Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Daejeon, and Gwangju?and two overseas locations?New Jersey and Los Angeles (LA) in the United States. Interviews are scheduled for May to June, and health checkups for June to July. Eligibility requires graduation or expected graduation before August, and recruitment fields include Consumer Electronics (CE), IT & Mobile (IM), and Semiconductor & Display (DS) divisions.

In August 2018, Samsung Electronics announced a policy to invest 180 trillion won over three years and directly hire 40,000 people to build a growth foundation for the future. Despite COVID-19, the scale of hiring this year is not expected to decrease.

Major companies such as SK, Lotte, and POSCO are also gradually resuming recruitment that was postponed due to COVID-19. SK Group is conducting first-half new college graduate recruitment until the 10th. Lotte and POSCO have also recently announced large-scale recruitment. Choo Kwang-ho, Director of Economic Policy at the Federation of Korean Industries, emphasized, "In an economic crisis, companies tend to significantly reduce new hiring initially due to employment rigidity," adding, "Active recruitment efforts by companies are necessary."