> Mr. Kim said Samsung fired him in 1995 for doing what many others, before and since, have tried to do: organize an independent labor union.
No he was not. He was fired because he tried to sexually assult a women co-worker.
> The woman said in a notarized statement that Mr. Kim had not assaulted her, and he sued Samsung, demanding his job back.
Although he 'claims' that he has a notarized paper that confirms he did not do it he never submitted it to the court and failed to show it to the public.
> In 1992, his wife was sexually assaulted, and an unsubstantiated newspaper report speculated that the attacker had a connection to Samsung.
The only proof of the incident was the newspaper article, which was an allegation by his wife of attempted sexual assult. No other proof exists.
I have no dog in this fight but it hardly seems beyond the bounds of possibility that Samsung would just lie and slander a former employee who was an annoyance. What’s the worst that could happen? He somehow finds rock solid proof they did so and gets $10m in damages? The chances of anyone supporting him even if everything he said was true is zero. Pissing off one of Korea’s largest companies isn’t something people with sense do whether they work there or not.
Can you post the sources? As it stands you're saying one woman's sexual assault allegations are false and those of another are valid, even though both cases (as presented) are not much different from each other.
I have a friend who didn't know how to code in C++ (although he graudated from CS major) but still got into samsung as a developer, got trained how to write code there. It's a typical conglomerate thing in south korea though. The main strategy here is to assetize(they call them selves as samsung family member) their in-house trained developer. He's going to spend rest of his life there as a samsung developer, enjoying social prestige as a 'samsung employee'.
I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products.
I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society.
I work for a Japanese companies, and more than half of the developers here have non-IT backgrounds like marketing, sales, design etc... All of them started with scala from zero and 2~3 years later they start talking about monad, final tagless or writing concurrency helper libraries... Our brain is quite malleable so having non IT background doesn't prevent you to be a good developer.
>I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products.
>I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society.
Are you sure it's a Korean thing, and not just a hardware-company thing? Even in the west, hardware companies are notorious for having terrible software development practices / UX. Perhaps the sole exception is Apple, and this has allowed them to dominate (compare iOS to the crapware OEMs like Samsung bundle with phones).
So, basically the company hired complete junior, was willing to train him and somehow that is bad thing as big companies should hire only already learned people?
If he didn't know how to write C++ but has a CS degree then presumably he knows another language like java. Many language features are interchangeable so it sets you up for picking up a new language fairly quickly
This is the exact history of Tetsuya Iida, Sony programmer responsible for PS2 software compatibility layer.
"I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let alone how to write any programs. Even now, I can’t help but wonder what people at Sony saw in me when they decided to hire me.
Luckily, I got the chance to learn how to program computers thanks to a training program that the company ran. "
I'm Korean ethnicity, but Canadian born, my wife is Korean ethnicity and Korean born. We keep talking about whether or not to live in Korea. Korea has seen more rapid economic advancement than any other country in the world. Yeah, I'm saying it beats out China in that regard. I work in China, and while China's progress has been insane, Korea's at a place where China is not yet. So the debate is live in Korea, Canada, or somewhere else (or could just continue working in China, but difficult to call China home, given our backgrounds).
The #1 reason why I wouldn't prefer Korea is because Samsung and other chaebols have too much of a grip on the country. They don't play fair. They don't give other companies even a chance to disrupt them. It's worse than what Microsoft was like in the 90s because at least Microsoft didn't blatantly bribe and corrupt the highest levels of government. They manipulate the stock market extremely maliciously to take out competitors before they can become disruptive. I attended a lecture from a professor at Seoul National University who was an advisor to the government on how to get them to make the stock market more fair and allow companies to grow and achieve success. It was startling to what extent the stock market got manipulated.
Never mind the idea of starting a company and being able to have a great exit. Even if I was just a normal worker, how would my retirement funds be able to grow in that kind of a stock market, even if my employer matched contributions? I'd be dependent on only my bank account savings for retirement, no chance for reinvestment. Or my retirement funds are all tied into the prospects of my employer's stock? Also scary, zero risk diversification.
I think Korea's long-term growth prospects will be severely limited as long as the chaebols have a stranglehold on the economy. I am hopeful by the fact that they let Hanjin go bankrupt. Apparently, everyone in Hanjin was just completely complacent and waiting for the government to bail them out. When they didn't get bailed out, it was a sign that the new government was willing to make some of the hard decisions necessary to allow for a properly entrepreneurial society to thrive.
>They manipulate the stock market extremely maliciously to take out competitors before they can become disruptive.
>Even if I was just a normal worker, how would my retirement funds be able to grow in that kind of a stock market, even if my employer matched contributions?
You really think Samsung manipulates the market to gain something? And you think you'll lose something from it?
>They don't give other companies even a chance to disrupt them.
>Never mind the idea of starting a company and being able to have a great exit.
You know that startups in the United States also don't compete with the sectors where big companies' grip are strong, right?
>I'd be dependent on only my bank account savings for retirement, no chance for reinvestment.
There are loads of reinvestment options like real estate, foreign stocks and others if you think ((they)) are controlling the national stock market.
>Or my retirement funds are all tied into the prospects of my employer's stock? Also scary, zero risk diversification.
Then perhaps don't get a stock option?
>I think Korea's long-term growth prospects will be severely limited as long as the chaebols have a stranglehold on the economy.
And yet, when Samsung tries to close their Gwangju plant everyone starts their uprising. Not in my country but please in my back yard?
>I am hopeful by the fact that they let Hanjin go bankrupt.
Oh, I'm so politically correct that I am happy with thousands losing their jobs! My views are more important than their lives.
I live in the US after living in Seoul and Newfoundland. I will choose Korea over Canada at any times. Canadian medical system is a shitter, slower and bureaucratic version of Korea. I feared for my life because I was not able to get an emergency surgery because they have shortage of doctors. I had to wait a week where in Korea I've had my surgery in 3:00 in the morning after waiting 20 minutes. Old people in Canada fear for their life and move to Mexico or US. It's a total mess.
Services at restaurants are shitty and more expensive. Groceries are shitty and expensive. Winter too long that people can't live without Xanax. Drug addicts on the street. Gun control. Housing prices. Trump ruining the economy. Unemployment rise and fall with raw material prices.... Yeah, I'd love to live in Canada to feel these.
[+] [-] maallooc|6 years ago|reply
No he was not. He was fired because he tried to sexually assult a women co-worker.
> The woman said in a notarized statement that Mr. Kim had not assaulted her, and he sued Samsung, demanding his job back.
Although he 'claims' that he has a notarized paper that confirms he did not do it he never submitted it to the court and failed to show it to the public.
> In 1992, his wife was sexually assaulted, and an unsubstantiated newspaper report speculated that the attacker had a connection to Samsung.
The only proof of the incident was the newspaper article, which was an allegation by his wife of attempted sexual assult. No other proof exists.
[+] [-] barry-cotter|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hatsunearu|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rajlego|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] totorovirus|6 years ago|reply
I recently heard they are now considering to move their code base from svn to git, and write some test code to stabilize the firmware that goes into the ssd products.
I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society.
[+] [-] coconut_crab|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] logicchains|6 years ago|reply
>I don't think I can explain in short how a mediocre developer who never actually coded something into reality got a degree, and got a job in allegedly the biggest company in south korea... All I can say it is a complex korean thing that requires some cultural understanding of our society.
Are you sure it's a Korean thing, and not just a hardware-company thing? Even in the west, hardware companies are notorious for having terrible software development practices / UX. Perhaps the sole exception is Apple, and this has allowed them to dominate (compare iOS to the crapware OEMs like Samsung bundle with phones).
[+] [-] watwut|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] ChrisRR|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rasz|6 years ago|reply
"I had no real electrical engineering skills to speak of whatsoever and I didn’t even know how to boot up Windows 3.1, let alone how to write any programs. Even now, I can’t help but wonder what people at Sony saw in me when they decided to hire me. Luckily, I got the chance to learn how to program computers thanks to a training program that the company ran. "
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22501566 https://medium.com/@freelansations/the-story-of-the-ps2s-bac...
TLDR: this seems to be standard Asian hiring practice.
[+] [-] PakG1|6 years ago|reply
The #1 reason why I wouldn't prefer Korea is because Samsung and other chaebols have too much of a grip on the country. They don't play fair. They don't give other companies even a chance to disrupt them. It's worse than what Microsoft was like in the 90s because at least Microsoft didn't blatantly bribe and corrupt the highest levels of government. They manipulate the stock market extremely maliciously to take out competitors before they can become disruptive. I attended a lecture from a professor at Seoul National University who was an advisor to the government on how to get them to make the stock market more fair and allow companies to grow and achieve success. It was startling to what extent the stock market got manipulated.
Never mind the idea of starting a company and being able to have a great exit. Even if I was just a normal worker, how would my retirement funds be able to grow in that kind of a stock market, even if my employer matched contributions? I'd be dependent on only my bank account savings for retirement, no chance for reinvestment. Or my retirement funds are all tied into the prospects of my employer's stock? Also scary, zero risk diversification.
I think Korea's long-term growth prospects will be severely limited as long as the chaebols have a stranglehold on the economy. I am hopeful by the fact that they let Hanjin go bankrupt. Apparently, everyone in Hanjin was just completely complacent and waiting for the government to bail them out. When they didn't get bailed out, it was a sign that the new government was willing to make some of the hard decisions necessary to allow for a properly entrepreneurial society to thrive.
[+] [-] maallooc|6 years ago|reply
>They manipulate the stock market extremely maliciously to take out competitors before they can become disruptive.
>Even if I was just a normal worker, how would my retirement funds be able to grow in that kind of a stock market, even if my employer matched contributions?
You really think Samsung manipulates the market to gain something? And you think you'll lose something from it?
>They don't give other companies even a chance to disrupt them.
>Never mind the idea of starting a company and being able to have a great exit.
You know that startups in the United States also don't compete with the sectors where big companies' grip are strong, right?
>I'd be dependent on only my bank account savings for retirement, no chance for reinvestment.
There are loads of reinvestment options like real estate, foreign stocks and others if you think ((they)) are controlling the national stock market.
>Or my retirement funds are all tied into the prospects of my employer's stock? Also scary, zero risk diversification.
Then perhaps don't get a stock option?
>I think Korea's long-term growth prospects will be severely limited as long as the chaebols have a stranglehold on the economy.
And yet, when Samsung tries to close their Gwangju plant everyone starts their uprising. Not in my country but please in my back yard?
>I am hopeful by the fact that they let Hanjin go bankrupt.
Oh, I'm so politically correct that I am happy with thousands losing their jobs! My views are more important than their lives.
I live in the US after living in Seoul and Newfoundland. I will choose Korea over Canada at any times. Canadian medical system is a shitter, slower and bureaucratic version of Korea. I feared for my life because I was not able to get an emergency surgery because they have shortage of doctors. I had to wait a week where in Korea I've had my surgery in 3:00 in the morning after waiting 20 minutes. Old people in Canada fear for their life and move to Mexico or US. It's a total mess.
Services at restaurants are shitty and more expensive. Groceries are shitty and expensive. Winter too long that people can't live without Xanax. Drug addicts on the street. Gun control. Housing prices. Trump ruining the economy. Unemployment rise and fall with raw material prices.... Yeah, I'd love to live in Canada to feel these.
[+] [-] neonate|6 years ago|reply