Target Engineers at Samsung and LG

Chinese smartphone producers are luring talented Korean smartphone engineers with a sweet offer. 

Chinese smartphone producers are luring talented Korean smartphone engineers with a sweet offer that guarantees four times or more of their current salaries.

Industry watchers say that Chinese smartphone makers are recruiting engineers at Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics in large numbers through headhunters.

Chinese companies are approaching Korean engineers as Korea is losing ground in the global smartphone market. In particular, they are focusing on engineers at Samsung Electronics, which was embroiled in the game optimizing service (GOS) scandal.

Samsung's smartphone workforce has shrunken for three consecutive years -- 27,649 in 2019, 27,094 in 2020 and 26,426 in 2021. Among those who left Samsung Electronics, many are believed to have moved to Chinese smartphone makers.

Chinese companies are also coveting talented smartphone engineers at LG Electronics, which withdrew from the smartphone business last year. LG Electronics’ smartphone engineers are currently working for the company's other businesses, but they are talented smartphone experts armed with the latest technology, so they are regarded as a strategic recruitment target for Chinese smartphone makers.

However, some experts point out that Korean smartphone engineers should think about a possibility that they will be thrown away like an old shoe after being used in the long run in a worst-case scenario as in 2016 when China recruited Korean semiconductor engineers when China recklessly promoted the rise of the Chinese semiconductor industry. This is because many of Korean semiconductor engineers moved to Chinese semiconductor companies on the condition that they would be paid annual salaries nine times their salary in Korea for three to five years, but were fired less than two years later. Industry insiders warn that a similar situation can happen to Korean smartphone engineers when they take jobs at Chinese smartphone makers.

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