Naver, Kakao, and Others Go All Out in Hiring
Salary Increases and Welfare Benefits Included
Remote Work Regardless of Location
As the Chuseok holiday passes and the second half of the year’s recruitment kicks into full gear, the war to attract talent in the IT industry, including Naver and Kakao, has reignited. The competition to recruit developers that began earlier this year appears to have entered "Round 2." IT companies are actively promoting various benefits such as salary increases and bonuses, with even company CEOs stepping forward to promote hiring.
Naver and Kakao Developer Recruitment Battle
According to the IT industry on the 23rd, Naver is one of the most proactive companies in hiring developers. Naver had already declared its intention to hire 900 developers this year. On the 17th, Naver announced it would recruit a three-digit number of new graduate developers for the second half of the year. The application period runs until the 29th. By August this year, Naver had already selected about 300 new graduate developers through open and occasional recruitment. Hwang Soon-bae, Naver’s head of HR, said, "Naver invests about 25% of its annual sales in research and development, securing proprietary technology in various fields such as search, commerce, advertising, content, and infrastructure, and expanding into the global market. We look forward to the interest and applications of talented individuals who will grow with the company while engaging with users worldwide."
Kakao has been conducting open recruitment for new graduate developers since the 19th of last month. The number of hires is in the triple digits, simultaneously conducted across seven companies: Kakao, Kakao Games, Kakao Mobility, Kakao Enterprise, Kakao Commerce, Kakao Pay, and Kakao Entertainment. Kakao maintains a ‘blind recruitment’ process that does not collect information such as education, major, age, or gender to select outstanding developers. Separately, Kakao Entertainment, a major pillar of Kakao’s global business such as Kakao Webtoon, has launched its first large-scale recruitment of experienced developers, with a record triple-digit scale.
In the case of Nexon, it plans to hire 1,000 talents by next year. Nexon’s development subsidiary Neople is conducting a triple-digit scale developer recruitment until the 26th. To attract excellent talent, Neople has raised the starting salary for new employees this year to 50 million KRW for development positions and 45 million KRW for non-development positions.
Even CEOs Join... 100 Million KRW Bonus
IT companies are intensifying their promotional efforts by offering various incentives to attract talent. The mobile financial service ‘Toss’ is actively leveraging the fame of its CEO for recruitment. CEO Lee Seung-gun will hold a live broadcast on the 28th to communicate directly with applicants. He plans to explain various topics such as Toss’s vision and goals and personal career development. Toss, which has hired over 700 employees this year, plans to recruit an additional 100 talents.
The real estate platform company ‘Zigbang’ has announced large-scale developer recruitment for the second half of the year, offering a signing bonus of 100 million KRW. This amount is paid to experienced developers who apply by the 15th of next month. The company also highlights its remote work system as a strength. Zigbang employees work by logging into the metaverse collaboration tool ‘Metapolis.’ As long as they are connected online, it does not matter if they work from Jeju Island or even Australia. Yeon Seon-woong, Vice President of Zigbang, said, "Securing IT personnel is important for our big goal of innovating space through technology. If you join Zigbang, you don’t need to consider living close to headquarters or transportation; just connect to Zigbang’s Metapolis."
Some companies openly advertise that they will offer higher salaries than Naver and Kakao. DeepBrain AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) specialist company, offers industry-leading salaries. It also provides incentives such as stock options worth about 100 million KRW to developers. DeepBrain AI has raised the salaries of all employees by up to 20 million KRW and offers welfare benefits worth up to 10 million KRW per employee regardless of rank or years of service, including self-development expenses, medical expenses, cultural activity expenses, and housing expenses.
An industry insider said, "IT startups sometimes deliberately use top stars as models to build recognition in order to attract good developers. The competition to secure talent is becoming fiercer every year."
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