Youth unemployment anxiety is at a peak in Korea, and posts exposing the absurd credential bar for chaebol entry-level jobs consistently go viral because they validate what young Koreans are experiencing firsthand. The 'spec inflation' phenomenon has gotten so extreme that even highly qualified graduates feel hopeless, making this a deeply relatable and emotionally charged topic.
Getting hired at one of Korea's major conglomerates — think Samsung, Hyundai, LG, or SK — has always been brutally competitive. But a post circulating on Korean online communities is reigniting the conversation about just how stacked the average MZ Generation applicant's resume needs to be just to get a foot in the door.
The post, originally shared on a Korean baseball community board (yes, Koreans discuss job market anxiety everywhere), highlights the so-called 'average spec' — a term Koreans use to describe a candidate's qualifications package — that MZ Gen applicants are bringing to the table when applying to top-tier chaebols. We're talking: a degree from a SKY university or top-tier school, a near-perfect English score on the TOEIC or OPIC exam, at least one overseas internship or exchange program, multiple certifications, and often a graduate degree on top of it all. And this is considered *average*.
The reason this keeps going viral is that it hits a raw nerve. Korea's MZ Generation (roughly millennials and Gen Z, born between the early 1980s and mid-2000s) grew up being told that if they studied hard enough, a stable corporate job was waiting for them. Instead, they're finding themselves in an arms race of credentials where even an objectively impressive resume can get lost in the pile. The post sparked a flood of reactions ranging from dark humor to genuine despair — and a whole lot of 'wait, that's supposed to be *average*?!'