Watching the senior guys jump to global giants feels strange

Seeing high-level executives pack their bags

I spent some time reading about Lee Seok-hee, the former CEO of SK Hynix, moving over to Intel to lead their foundry business. It honestly felt a bit surreal. In the Korean corporate scene, we are so used to seeing people stay within these massive conglomerates for their entire careers. When a top-tier executive decides to pivot to a global entity like Intel, it signals something deeper is changing in the market. It isn’t just about the paycheck anymore, though I’m sure that’s huge. It feels like the definition of a stable career path is being rewritten while we’re all just watching from the sidelines.

The talent drain feels more aggressive lately

Then I saw the news about John Jumper leaving Google for Anthropic right after getting a Nobel Prize. It made me wonder what even counts as a ‘safe’ place to work these days. If the people at the very top of the food chain are jumping ship to rival startups or competitors, what are us regular employees supposed to think? I have friends working in local tech, and lately, the talk at dinner is less about projects and more about who is getting scouted by these big overseas tech firms. The competition for local talent has become so fierce that it’s almost frantic.

Getting cold-called by companies I’ve never heard of

This trend seems to trickle down to everyone. Last week, I got a random call from a company called ‘Dooseong Tech’—or at least that’s what the caller said. The number didn’t show up with a company name, and I had never heard of them. It felt a bit invasive, honestly. You update your profile on a site like JobKorea, trying to see if there’s anything better out there than your current grind, and suddenly you’re dealing with cold calls from places you didn’t even apply to. It makes me question if the HR tech platforms are actually helping us find better lives or if they’re just feeding our information into an endless recruitment loop.

The reality of constantly looking over your shoulder

There’s a lot of pressure to keep your resume updated, but does it actually lead to something better, or just more frequent transitions? I’ve seen people hop from one role to another, thinking they’re leveling up, only to find the same messy internal politics at the next place. It’s expensive for businesses, sure, but it’s exhausting for us. I’m starting to wonder if the ‘AI-driven’ recruitment platforms are really just creating more friction. They make it look so easy to just click a button and start a new chapter, but in reality, moving jobs usually just means resetting your social capital and starting the whole ‘getting to know how things work’ phase all over again.

Still not sure if the grass is greener

I’m sitting here with a half-written cover letter, and I’m genuinely not sure if I should hit send. I’ve looked at other options—some smaller, some bigger, with salary ranges hovering around a 10-15% bump—but is that worth the uncertainty? Everyone is talking about these big tech moves, but nobody talks about the cost of just wanting to stay put. Maybe I’ll just close the tab and wait another month. Or maybe I’ll just leave it open and keep refreshing my LinkedIn feed like it’s going to tell me what to do tomorrow.