Samsung To Hire More "Samsung Men" While the Tide Is High... Large-Scale Recruitment of New and Experienced Employees Next Month

Preemptively securing future growth engines
Open recruitment for new employees scheduled for mid-March
Recruitment of foreign talent in R&D
Participation by Samsung Display, Samsung SDI and others
Total hires likely to reach around 12,000

Riding the semiconductor supercycle and continuing to post record-high earnings, Samsung Electronics will launch a large-scale recruitment drive in March. This is seen as a talent investment aimed at responding to rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors such as high bandwidth memory (HBM), and at preemptively securing future growth engines. Given that Samsung announced last year that it plans to hire 60,000 people over the next five years, industry observers expect that around 12,000 people will be hired this year.

Samsung Electronics building, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News

According to industry sources on the 25th, Samsung Electronics is sequentially carrying out recruitment procedures for both new and experienced employees to secure talent. Next month, it plans to begin its first-half open recruitment for new employees. A Samsung Electronics official said, "We will start with on-campus recruiting after universities begin their semesters and then proceed step by step with the open recruitment for new hires," adding, "Barring any unforeseen circumstances, we plan to conduct the open recruitment in March according to the usual schedule."

The upcoming first-half open recruitment is expected to include not only Samsung Electronics but also major affiliates. This indicates that the group-wide stance of securing talent is continuing.

Separately from its regular open recruitment, Samsung is also pushing ahead with the hiring of foreign talent in research and development (R&D). The aim is to preemptively secure key research personnel amid intensifying global technology competition. Samsung Electronics, Samsung Display, Samsung SDI, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, Samsung SDS, Samsung Biologics, Samsung Bioepis, and Samsung Heavy Industries began recruitment procedures the previous day for experienced foreign hires in R&D.

As was the case last year, Samsung will maintain its policy of recognizing the study period of those who have obtained or are expected to obtain master’s or doctoral degrees as work experience. This reflects its intention to evaluate substantive expertise based on research capabilities.

Within Samsung Electronics, each business division selects the technical personnel it needs. The Device Solutions (DS) Division, which is in charge of semiconductors, is recruiting foreign talent in core process and design areas such as circuit design, semiconductor process design, and semiconductor process technology. The Device eXperience (DX) Division, which handles mobile devices and home appliances, is hiring experienced foreign employees in areas directly tied to product competitiveness, including circuit development, software development, technology development, and materials development.

Samsung Electronics is also conducting experienced-hire recruitment for the DS Division through today. Recruitment areas include the Memory Business, System LSI Business, Foundry Business, and Semiconductor Research Center. Until March 2, it will also be recruiting experienced employees for the DX Division, including Samsung Research and the AI Platform Center.

Looking at Samsung Electronics’ workforce trends, there has been something of a breather over the past year. Based on National Pension Service enrollment, the number of employees stood at 124,996 as of December last year, down 597 from 125,593 a year earlier. Although the number of National Pension subscribers is not a metric that exactly matches total headcount, compared with the year before last, last year’s new hiring scale is interpreted as having been relatively reduced. Analysts say the company managed its workforce conservatively amid a downturn in business conditions.

In this context, the resumption of first-half open recruitment this year, combined with the simultaneous hiring of experienced and foreign talent, is seen as a signal of workforce replenishment aligned with the recovery in the semiconductor market and the expansion of future businesses. It is evaluated as reflecting Samsung’s intention to strengthen qualitative competitiveness through selective hiring focused on R&D and core technologies, rather than simple headcount replenishment.

Samsung was the first domestic company to introduce an open recruitment system for new employees in 1957. It is currently the only one among the four major conglomerates in Korea that still maintains an open recruitment system. Regular open recruitment in the first and second halves of the year is regarded as meaningful in that it provides young people with predictable employment opportunities.

For more than 70 years, Samsung has continued to innovate its HR system based on its management philosophy of "people first." In 1993, it became the first company in Korea to introduce an open recruitment track for female university graduates, and in 1995 it removed academic background from its hiring eligibility criteria. Analysts say this track record of institutionally establishing a merit-based hiring principle has led to the current maintenance of open recruitment and large-scale talent investment.