Real Man

Out of the five candidates who entered the interview, only four of them looked extremely nervous, except for Yoo-hyun.

It was rather strange not to be nervous in this situation.

But Yoo-hyun’s face showed no sign of tension at all.

Instead, he was full of anticipation and excitement.

‘I wonder who the interviewer is?’

He didn’t remember the face of the new employee interviewer.

But he thought he would recognize him if he saw his face.

He must have worked in the same space for a long time, so he must have met him while passing by.

If he was lucky, he might even meet the person who was his team leader.

While Yoo-hyun was having a pleasant imagination in front of the door, there was a cold wind blowing inside the interview room.

“How can you not remember what you wrote in your resume?”

“Uh, well, that’s, I…”

“Yes, I understand.”

As Park Doo-sik, the head of the HR team, shook his head, the other interviewers nodded as if they agreed.

Swoosh.

At the same time, scores were marked on the score sheet on the table.

“There aren’t many good applicants as I expected.”

“I know, right?”

Several candidates had come and gone already, but there were hardly any who had proper manners.

They all seemed awkward and artificial.

He had been conducting interviews for five years.

He couldn’t even count how many people he had met.

Now he could tell how prepared they were just by looking at their entrance.

More than 90 percent of the time, his expectations were correct.

First impressions are science after all.

“Then we will end the interview for this group here. Thank you for your hard work.”

As Park Doo-sik finished his closing remarks, the five candidates who were sitting on their chairs got up with a clumsy posture.

The guy who was just babbling turned his head without even saying hello.

He knew it when he saw his feet and body pointing in different directions while talking.

He must have memorized it well, so his answers were accurate, but he couldn’t hide his ingrained habits.

“Sigh, please send in the next person.”

As Park Doo-sik sighed and spoke to the guide, one of the interviewers asked him.

“Mr. Park, I guess you don’t see anyone you like.”

“Well, I was expecting more from their grades, but I haven’t seen any candidates who are ready yet. What about you, director?”

“Well, I did mark a few. We always need more hands anyway.”

“Yes. If you picked them, they must be reliable.”

Park Doo-sik smiled at the interviewer next to him when the door opened again.

Creak.

And then five more candidates came in one by one.

Park Doo-sik scanned them as he always did.

‘Huh?’

There was a candidate who caught his eye for a moment.

His back was straight and his walk was upright.

He looked very natural as he made eye contact with the interviewers as he entered.

Especially with him who had been staring at him for a long time.

He had a distinctive appearance, but he didn’t feel unpleasant at all.

‘Do I know him?’

Rather, he felt comfortable as if he had been with him for a long time.

Then he quickly turned his gaze and calmly adjusted his posture.

His eyes sparkled with ease and confidence.

Most of all, he liked his hands resting on both knees naturally.

People say they look at smiles, eyes, faces when they see first impressions, but well.

Usually, the first thing that catches their eye is their hands.

If they feel awkward and out of place, it means that their hands are not handled well 100 out of 100 times.

Plus, the position of his feet and the angle of his knees looked very comfortable.

It wasn’t something that could be done by practice alone.

As Park Doo-sik looked at Yoo-hyun, Yoo-hyun also looked at him sitting in the far left seat behind the table.

Park Doo-sik executive director.

He knew it as soon as he entered.

He glanced at his ID card on the table and confirmed it.

He was the one who brought him from LCD business division to group strategy planning team.

They had different routes later on, but he had a good time working under him.

He must have been promoted to executive director by now.

Yoo-hyun smiled at Park Doo-sik who was looking at him.

‘Still the same.’

He learned a lot from him.

Park Doo-sik taught him how to read psychology from people’s gestures, which was useful for Yoo-hyun who had good observation skills.

He applied that method to not only get information by just looking, but also to make himself look good.

Thanks to that, Yoo-hyun’s abilities shone in the company and helped him climb up.

There was one thing he was sure of right now.

‘He likes me.’

Park Doo-sik had a unique expression when he was in a good mood.

His eyebrows rose and his nostrils flared slightly.

His posture leaning toward Yoo-hyun also indicated his favor.

Soon, Yoo-hyun casually scanned the other four interviewers who turned their heads.

He didn’t remember any of them clearly.

They seemed like people he had seen somewhere before.

It was natural that he didn’t know everyone since the business division was so large.

He didn’t know their personalities, but he could infer their characters from their appearance, the papers on the desk, and the way they held their pens.

Knowing the general tendencies of the interviewers was half the battle in the interview.

He could easily induce the questions he wanted.

He knew Park Doo-sik well, but he was only the interviewer, not the one who hired him.

He had no choice but to follow the opinions of the interviewers who were team leaders or part leaders.

After they looked at each other for a short time, Park Doo-sik proceeded.

“Then let’s start with self-introduction. Please start with Bae Yeon-seok, who is on the far left. You have 30 seconds.”

“I…”

He felt a panicked atmosphere from his side.

There was no clock in the interview room, and they usually prepared a one-minute self-introduction.

There must be a reason why he twisted the expected question in a different direction.

He didn’t want to hear the content that was repeated like a machine, but to see how the applicants responded on the spot.

The self-introductions of the applicants continued in turn.

“Okay, time’s up.”

“Huh? Oh, I…”

“That’s fine. Next applicant, please introduce yourself.”

Park Doo-sik cut off 30 seconds sharply.

Just the essentials briefly.

It seemed easy, but it was hard to summarize if they didn’t understand themselves well.

Not to mention there was no timer.

But Yoo-hyun figured out Park Doo-sik’s habit while listening to the three applicants’ introductions.

‘Check the watch at 20 seconds, lift your head after 5 seconds, and end after another 5 seconds.’

He could use that as a marker to calculate the remaining time.

Then Park Doo-sik’s eyes fixed on Yoo-hyun.

It was a look that said let me see what you got.

“Please introduce yourself, Han Yoo-hyun.”

“Hello. I’m Han Yoo-hyun.”

As soon as Yoo-hyun’s voice opened, the flow of air in the room changed.

His solid diaphragmatic breathing and open vocalization created resonance when he opened his mouth.

His eyes were drawn to his heavy voice that filled the room, not to his thin voice due to tension.

His slight smile made a brief pause in a short time seem relaxed.

He didn’t have to look closely to know.

The interviewers already had favorable impressions in their eyes.

30 seconds was a short time.

It was not enough time to explain his outstanding points.

It would be the worst to speak fast and list useless information.

He had to cut out what was in his resume boldly and tell why he came here as an applicant named Han Yoo-hyun.

“I think display is a business that has much more potential in the future than ever before. TVs are getting bigger and bigger, and we can see displays everywhere on the streets. All parts are disappearing in front of our eyes, but displays are providing more convenience for people in more places. I applied to Hansung Electronics LCD business division because I saw that vision.”

They were workers who were living under pressure from reality, but they were also people who belonged to the display industry.

They nodded their heads in front of the vision of the future that seemed close enough to touch but clear enough to see in their eyes.

One more thing here.

It wouldn’t be bad to mention the direction of short-term business on top of the big vision.

It would mean that he had thought more as an applicant for sales, marketing, product planning related jobs.

Yoo-hyun continued his speech.

“I believe that Hansung LCD business division will not stay in LCD, but use OLED as its growth base and become a leader in the future display industry with LCD and OLED as its main pillars.”

OLED was definitely a future technology that was being discussed at this time.

Hansung Electronics had also released OLED products at the level of prototypes.

Assuming that the interviewers were at executive level positions, they would understand what Yoo-hyun meant.

The future of LCD business division that they envisioned was to grow into a comprehensive display company that included LCD and OLED, not just one business division of a company.

In the subtly focused atmosphere, Park Doo-sik checked his wristwatch.

10 seconds left.

Seeing that, Yoo-hyun prepared his final remark.

It was better to finish it clearly than to end it vaguely.

Of course, the last thing was what he wanted to do in the company as an applicant named Han Yoo-hyun.

“I want to plan and make displays that can change not only what customers really want, but also their lives fundamentally, and even the world. I’m sure this place will be the starting point. Thank you.”

It might not seem like a big deal.

It was something he had heard somewhere before.

But as with all sayings, it depended on who said it, how they said it, and how the listener received it.

His relaxed posture and confident eyes showed that Yoo-hyun’s words were not just recited from memory, but deeply thought out convictions.

It might be a small difference, but it made him stand out from the others.

There was a brief silence after Yoo-hyun’s introduction.

Of course, in the meantime, the interviewers exchanged glances and checked something on the paper on the desk.

He could tell from that alone that Yoo-hyun’s short introduction was successful.

“Jang Soo-hyun, you try.”

“I…”

Especially, when the next applicant’s introduction followed, the interviewers realized it.

The naturalness that they felt as a matter of course was broken, making Yoo-hyun look even more prominent.

As soon as all the introductions were over, the interviewers’ eyes turned to Yoo-hyun.

“Han Yoo-hyun.”

“Do you have any questions… Oh, please go ahead, director.”

As they asked questions in the same direction at the same time, Park Doo-sik looked at Yoo-hyun with interest.

The feeling of being evaluated by someone.

The situation where he had to look good to someone.

There was no reason for him to lower himself or to look good to anyone except for the chairman as a president.

Why was this so fun?

“Hmm, I heard your introduction well, Yoo-hyun. But I think you have some misunderstanding. OLED is still a far technology. It will take more than 10 years to mass-produce products. You can’t make a good product plan with just ideals.”

No way.

In one or two years, Ilsung, a rival company, started mass production and Hansung also led the market with large OLED products in five years.

He wanted to shoot back at that interviewer who raised his head with a smug confidence inside him.

But this was an interview room. 

He didn’t know what would happen in the display market even an inch ahead, so there was no need to argue or explain.

Instead, he replaced it with showing how much he prepared.

“Thank you for your comment. I said that after seeing the thin and flexible OLED panel prototype that Hansung Electronics showed at this year’s CES exhibition. I only get information from articles, papers, and patents, so I can’t help but have limited thoughts. Please understand. If I join Hansung Electronics, I want to have a professional and specific perspective like you first. That’s why I want to be a leader of Hansung who creates the future.”

“Haha, you’re bold and good.”

The interviewer nodded his head and looked at his side, and the other interviewers also nodded their heads.

There might be some awkward parts, but he wrapped them up nicely and maintained a warm atmosphere.

Then questions came to the other applicants as well.

After technical questions, there were pressure questions that were vague to answer.

They asked how they felt about working outside Seoul in factories, what they would do if they had to work overtime a lot, and what they would do if their boss asked them to exercise on weekends.

They saw some applicants who were flustered.

They all had the same answer in their minds, but there was no naive guy who would answer honestly here.

“I don’t go to work to do overtime. I want to use my abilities to make a company where everyone can work without overtime.”

Oh, there was one.

That guy.

And right next to him.

The air became heavy for a moment and he saw the interviewer’s mouth twist.