As the summer heat fades, the cooler weather heralds not just autumn but also the nation’s biggest hiring season.

It’s a crunch time for college graduates and graduates-to-be, who have been polishing their resumes in hopes of landing a job at big companies like Samsung, LG and Hyundai.

An impeccable resume, however, won’t guarantee the applicant an interview. One must first pass a written exam, for which previous successful applicants strongly recommend old-fashioned cramming, brushing up of one’s knowledge of history or even some paper folding, as the best ways of preparation. 

“I just finished submitting resume and cover letters for three companies this week, and I plan to apply to about two more next week,” said Jeong Su-ji, a senior at Konkuk University in Seoul.

“Now I have to prepare for the personality and aptitude test of each company. I feel quite stressed,” she said.

In Korea, almost all major business groups, including Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte, require job applicants to take their own entrance exam, developed exclusively for each group and typically divided into two sections -- personality and aptitude tests.

Samsung Group, Korea’s No. 1 conglomerate and college grads’ all-time favorite, will hold its Global Samsung Aptitude Test, or GSAT, on Oct. 16 in Seoul and four other metropolitan cities in Korea along with New York and Los Angeles.

The dates for LG, Hyundai Motors and SK are set for Oct. 8, Oct. 9, and Oct. 23, respectively.

In 2014, Samsung saw a record number of test takers. Roughly 100,000 people sat each of two exams that took place in spring and fall that year. Stung by increased recruiting costs and concerns over the ever-intensifying competition for a Samsung job, the group decided to tighten resume screening and reduce the pool of candidates advancing to the written test.

Still, tens of thousands are expected to take the Samsung exam this fall again, although the group declined to disclose the exact number.

It also refused to disclose the number of people it plans to hire, although multiple sources say it is likely to stick to a similar scale of recruitment as last year.

“Group-wide, we hired about 14,000 employees last year,” a Samsung spokesperson said. “We can’t disclose this year’s numbers.”

GSAT is required for applicants to work at nearly 20 Samsung Group companies, including the world’s largest smartphone-maker, Samsung Electronics. Those applying for software development positions are required to take a different test.

There are private cram schools to prepare for the Samsung test. Questionnaire books for GSAT and other company’s aptitude tests occupy an entire section of Seoul’s largest bookseller Kyobo Book Center.

The GSAT requires test takers to answer 150 questions in 140 minutes, divided into five sections: verbal, quantitative and analysis, logical reasoning, visual thinking, and basic job knowledge.

A mock question of the visual thinking part asks test takers to select the final figure of a pentagon after it is folded in five different directions, then flipped upside down.

“I felt lost practicing visualizing the final shape of the presented figure after it is folded as described,” recalled a former examinee surnamed Hong, who applied for Samsung Electronics’ marketing unit this spring.

“I couldn’t draw any correlation between marketing and the ability to visualize shapes.”

Samsung Group explained that the visual thinking segment was incorporated to “evaluate logical thinking through questions that require in-depth analysis of various information at one time.”

Applicants who pass the GSAT will be notified of a date for an interview, which should take place sometime between November and December.

The interview consists of three parts that take 30 minutes each: giving a presentation on a question related to the applied field, answering questions spontaneously and participating in an in-depth interview conducted by executive-level officials.

Samsung is expected to announce the final results after late December, ending the three-month long process.

The recruitment process is quite a journey for those who applied for LG’s marketing or sales departments.

After the entrance exam and job interviews, LG Display announced that it will conduct a four-week internship in November for these applicants, as part of its fourth stage of evaluation. In early December, it will hold a four-day final assessment, and release the final results in mid-December.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)