How to Become a Professor in South Korea: The Unfiltered Truth

Please take this lightly — just a casual read.

The Basic Requirements

To become a professor, you first need a bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree. There are occasional exceptions — people with very special real-world experience (like G-Dragon, for instance…), but even most of them actually hold a PhD.

I imagine the most common questions would be something like these:

“Can I become a professor even if my bachelor’s degree isn’t from an SKY university?” Yes, you can.
“Can I become a professor without a PhD from abroad?” Yes, you can.
“Just follow me and I’ll show you the way…” Just kidding.

There Are More Universities (and Professors) Than You Think

South Korea has a LOT of universities, and each university has a LOT of professors. Take my school, for example — it’s a large private university in Cheonan. We have around 13,000 enrolled students and about 500 full-time faculty members. But if you ask people living in Seoul, many of them have never even heard of it. Haha. That’s how many universities and professors there are that most people don’t know about.

Also, a university’s name value and its financial situation don’t always match. So you might be at a prestigious university but earn a modest salary, while a lesser-known university might actually pay quite well.

So How Much Do Professors Actually Make?

This isn’t official data, but I did my own informal salary survey across multiple universities. How did I do it? I just straight-up asked people around me — friends and juniors who got appointed at universities in Seoul and in regional areas. (Most of them were friends or former students… lol)

The salary difference between Seoul universities and regional universities was almost negligible. Maybe around 10 million won difference at most, which honestly isn’t that significant. It might sound like a lot, but a university professor’s actual income depends far more on projects and research grants than on base salary alone.

That’s why engineering professors can make a lot of money, while humanities and social sciences professors… not so much. Haha. But I shouldn’t complain (I’m in the humanities/social sciences field myself) — when I see engineering professors working around the clock running experiments, I think they absolutely deserve that money. What can you do? You should’ve studied engineering then, right? Lol.

The Two Most Important Factors in Getting Hired

1. Research Track Record

Your publication record matters — a lot. And the trend has shifted from valuing domestic journal publications to prioritizing publications in prestigious international journals. This was always somewhat the case, but now it’s almost entirely moved away from KCI toward SSCI and SCIE journals. Some universities have even stopped recognizing MDPI publications altogether. I don’t have many international publications myself, honestly… I really need to step it up.

2. Reputation

This one is equally important — your reputation. Someone once applied to my university, and I received a reference check request about them. They were a senior alumnus from my school. When asked what I thought, I carefully recommended that we not hire them, and they were ultimately rejected in the final round. Their research record was the best among all applicants, but every single person who had been involved with this senior had ended up in some kind of legal dispute. So I confidently gave a thumbs down. You’d be surprised how many people get eliminated this way. Please manage your reputation carefully.

Even if your academic advisor seems like an absolute maniac to you, outsiders often don’t see it that way. In many cases, if you go around bad-mouthing your advisor, you’re the one who ends up looking bad. So I strongly recommend doing thorough research before choosing a graduate program.

In my case, I joined my advisor’s lab as a junior (third year of undergrad) and built a genuine relationship over time, so I could choose without hesitation. But I’ve seen friends who chose their major based solely on how a professor seemed during undergraduate lectures, only to suffer financially and emotionally in grad school. The fastest way to find out the truth might be to talk to current graduate students in that program. Also, ask around about the professor’s reputation among faculty at other universities and within the academic community.

The Hiring Process

The typical professor appointment process goes something like this:

Document screening
Interview
Mock lecture
President’s interview

Some universities add one or two more steps, but mine was roughly these four stages.

At the document screening stage, they narrow it down to 3 to 5 times the number of positions (though some national universities reportedly screen up to 10 times the number). During the interview, you’ll get questions related to your field as well as questions unrelated to your specialty. Even the field-related questions often don’t match your exact sub-specialty, so the interviewers may not know the deep details — just prepare accordingly.

The Mock Lecture

The mock lecture varies by school. Ours required it to be in English. When I found out I had to prepare a lecture in English, my mind went completely blank. Since I’m a graduate of a domestic university, I had an even bigger English complex. But I actually got compliments afterward — they said I did better than expected. So don’t be too intimidated if your English isn’t perfect. Just prepare well. Memorize about an hour’s worth of English script and you’ll manage. You chose this path — so grit your teeth and push through.

Usually everyone delivers their mock lectures in a very solemn, serious manner, so the audience tends to get bored. I threw in a few jokes during mine, got some laughs, and the response was great. At first, while writing the script, I wondered if it was even okay to include humor. But after I cracked the first joke, I could feel the whole atmosphere shift. Don’t try too hard to be funny — just prepare some light, subtle humor that can give the room a little breather.

The President’s Interview

At the president’s interview, the university chaplain and the president were present. It was pretty uneventful, honestly. But because I had written my application documents with such sincere religious devotion, the chaplain asked me, “Is there a Scripture verse that God has personally spoken to you as a promise?”

I debated between “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” and “Call to me and I will answer you…” and went with the latter. Then they asked if I knew the exact book, chapter, and verse — so I answered, “Jeremiah 33:3.” Hahaha. Honestly, I chose that verse precisely because I knew the chapter and verse by heart — I figured it would look cooler that way.

Luck Is Everything (Well, Almost)

And just like that, I passed and became a professor.

The truth is, becoming a professor varies wildly by department and by the times. The year I got hired, there was a huge wave of openings in Education as a field, and I benefited from that — I became a professor more easily than others. These days, universities are desperately hiring AI specialists and struggling with a talent shortage. Maybe rushing through your PhD could be a smart move?

There was also a period when Python education became a required general education course at universities, and they hired a massive number of Computer Education professors. A lot of people became professors during that wave. The Computer Education department at my alma mater? It was actually an unpopular department that students avoided, and graduate students were obviously scarce. But those who timed their PhD right got a free pass into university positions.

At the end of the day, it’s all luck. I’d say it’s 70% luck, 30% skill. Some would even argue 90% luck, 10% skill. I have a senior who obviously expected to get the position over their own junior — but luck just wasn’t on their side… haha.

That said, you can’t just say “well, it’s all luck, so I’ll do whatever I want.” The things within your control are writing papers and building your reputation, so write diligently, follow senior researchers around, take on lots of projects, and try to act professionally. (I’m honestly too embarrassed to say that about myself… sigh.)

I just wrote this on a whim because it came to mind. If you have any questions, leave a comment and I’ll answer to the best of my knowledge.

— Jobak

About the Author

Jobak holds a PhD in Education with a specialization in statistics and measurement. He is an assistant professor at a private university in South Korea, currently pursuing a second doctoral degree in AI. He writes about Korean education through data and lived experience.