Why Are 'Open-Type' Promoters from Seoul Districts Moving to Large Corporations One After Another?

Seoul District Public Relations Officer Moves to Major Corporation Subsidiary PR Executive, Followed by Another District Media Team Leader Confirmed as Major Corporation Headquarters Director After Just Over 5 Months

Promoters from Seoul's autonomous districts are drawing attention as they consecutively move to large corporations.

A publicity officer A from one of Seoul's autonomous districts served as the head of publicity for over three years before moving a few months ago to a publicity executive position at a subsidiary of a large corporation. He was originally a reporter for an in-house internet media outlet, worked at the Blue House spokesperson office, and then served as a publicity officer at B District Office.

Although Manager Lee had no major issues with his work ability or leadership, he voluntarily resigned and moved to a publicity executive role at a large corporation.

Another autonomous district's C media team leader was selected through a public recruitment about five months ago and received good evaluations for diligently handling media relations and other duties.

However, he is set to leave soon after moving to a large corporation. In particular, this team leader, a graduate of a prestigious university and former deputy chief at a major media company, was expected to leave not long after joining.

The publicity officer in charge at the autonomous district said, "He worked very hard, so it is very regrettable that he decided to change jobs for his own development."

The reason why Seoul's autonomous district open-type publicity officers do not stay long and leave seems to be due to limitations such as promotion opportunities.

Open-type public officials have a structure where promotion to grades 4 or 5 is almost impossible.

An autonomous district executive said, "Entering as a grade 9 public official and working hard for about 30 years, one can barely get promoted to grade 5 (manager) or grade 4 (director), but if someone enters as an open-type official, it is like taking a position away from regular public officials, so it is true that they are not viewed favorably internally."

In particular, autonomous districts have a small number of executives who all know each other well, so it shows that it is not easy to work when coming from outside.

Accordingly, currently only one media team leader in a Seoul autonomous district has worked as an open-type official for over 10 years. This team leader is known to have lasted long because he had over 10 years of publicity experience in the corporate sector and has a very good personality, adapting well with surrounding public officials.