Job Prospects in Banking Sector Narrow Further for Job Seekers Unfamiliar with Digital Skills

Focus on Securing Digital Talent in New Employee Recruitment

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Sun-mi] As the digital and non-face-to-face era unfolds, restructuring of offline organizations in the banking sector is underway, with a focus on recruiting digital talent for new hires. The employment opportunities for job seekers lacking digital knowledge in the banking sector are expected to become even narrower.

According to the banking sector on the 16th, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea is accepting applications for the public recruitment of 100 new employees until the 26th of this month. The recruitment focus is on securing digital talent. Excluding the separately established veterans' special recruitment, 23 of the 100 hires will be in the digital sector, which is the same number as the 23 hires in the general finance category (48 hires total) excluding regional quotas (25 hires).

Last year, in the first half, 25 digital sector recruits were hired out of 250 new employees, accounting for only about 10%, but this has more than doubled to about 25% in just one year.

The existing 'Financial Sales' field has also been renamed to 'General Finance' to reflect changes in the financial environment, and digital knowledge has been added to the written test subjects. Digital sector applicants must take written tests covering IT, basic and applied digital knowledge. From this year, even applicants for the general finance category must take exams related to basic digital knowledge such as data understanding and SQL (a database sublanguage).

In line with the digital and non-face-to-face era, the self-introduction letter to be submitted includes the question: "Choose one financial-related project promoted by financial institutions or big tech companies in preparation for the post-COVID-19 era, analyze its strengths and weaknesses, and propose improvements."

The situation is similar at other banks.

NH Nonghyup Bank, which is recruiting 340 new employees in the first half of the year, completed application submissions in February and written tests and interviews in March, and is scheduled to announce the final successful candidates on the 21st. The self-introduction letter for general financial sales handling personal and corporate finance includes the question: "Explain, based on your experience, what you think is the most important factor in building a digital lifestyle financial platform, and describe how you can contribute after joining the bank in this regard."

Shinhan Bank, which has not yet finalized its first half new employee recruitment plan, will accept applications only in three categories until the 18th of this month to secure digital talent: ▲ Digital·ICT open recruitment ▲ Digital·ICT open recruitment Samsung Youth Software Academy (SSAFY) special recruitment ▲ ICT specialized high school open recruitment. Shinhan Bank is also considering introducing a 'Digital Literacy' assessment (understanding and utilization ability of digital technology) to measure digital capabilities in the second half new employee recruitment.

A representative from a commercial bank said, "Due to the overall reduction of offline branches across the banking sector, the number of hires in general financial sales is decreasing, while the organization is being structured to strengthen digital capabilities, increasing the need to secure digital talent. Without basic digital competencies, it will be even more difficult to break through the already narrow employment doors in the banking sector."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.