More Than 100,000 Hopefuls Sit Samsung Job Test

Applicants leave a test venue in Daechi-dong, Seoul on Sunday after sitting an exam to get a job at Samsung.

Samsung administered a written test, the first hurdle to getting a coveted job with the conglomerate, in 85 test centers across Korea, Los Angeles, New York and Toronto on Sunday. The test is sometimes compared to national bar exam because competition is so fierce.

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Over 100,000 applicants sat this round, 80,000 for permanent jobs and 20,000 for internships. But the Samsung Group is only hiring 4,000 to 5,000 new staff in the first half of this year.

Many test takers found the test difficult and confusing as the types of questions changed considerably. A Samsung spokesman said, "We reduced the number of questions about simple facts and increased the proportion that test critical reasoning" and broader interests.

Samsung plans to pass 8,000 to 15,000 applicants based on the test results, two or three times the number of vacancies, who will move on to interviews next month.

Since more than 200,000 people took the last test, Samsung introduced an ill-fated university quota in January this year in a quest for greater efficiency. But such was the controversy when the details emerged, especially the number of slots allotted to each university, that Samsung scrapped the plan.