"700 Million Won Bonus?" Short-Term Success Craze: "Hynix Exam" Fever Grips SK Hynix Production Recruitment

Recently, a so-called "Hynix Exam" craze has been spreading around the public recruitment for production positions at SK hynix. With eligibility restricted to high school and junior college graduates, and expectations of high bonuses, the job market is heating up.

Employees are leaving work at the SK Hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. Photo by Jinhyung Kang

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According to the education industry on April 20, Hackers has recently launched a "SK hynix Short-Term Pass Class." This course covers all stages of the recruitment process, including company analysis, resume writing, interview preparation, and SK Group's aptitude test (SKCT). Similarly, Chwiupdong School is targeting candidates by offering 10-day and 20-day short-term courses for SKCT preparation.

Sales of related exam prep books are also rapidly increasing. At the online bookstore Yes24, written test materials for SK hynix high school and junior college recruitment once topped the real-time bestsellers list in the exam prep and certification category. The SKCT basic book published by Eduwill also ranked first in the overall e-book category at major online bookstores.

This SK hynix recruitment is for full-time production positions, limiting the highest education level to high school or junior college graduates. Those with a bachelor's degree or higher are not eligible to apply. As a result, some job seekers are considering omitting or lowering their educational background when applying.

SK hynix headquarters in Icheon, Gyeonggi Province. The Asia Business Daily DB

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On online communities, posts such as "I'm a four-year university graduate, but I wonder if I can apply by hiding this" are being shared, reflecting real concerns. However, falsifying academic background clearly violates the rules and may result in cancellation of acceptance or employment.

Analysts say this phenomenon is also linked to expectations for bonuses. The securities industry forecasts that SK hynix will record an operating profit of approximately 250 trillion won this year.

If the company maintains its excess profit-sharing (PS) structure, which allocates 10% of operating profit as the bonus pool, the total bonus pool is estimated to be around 25 trillion won. Dividing this by the total number of employees, about 35,000, the average bonus per person could reach 700 million won.

With expectations for a semiconductor market recovery and the company's reputation for high salaries and large bonuses, many applicants are flocking to production positions, which have relatively lower entry barriers.

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