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‘Youth mentor’ admits lying about career

Kim Won-gi, a 28-year-old college student who was recently hoisted by media as a “student mentor,” admitted that he lied about being hired by Samsung SDS and his alleged master’s degree from Yonsei University.

“It’s (the accusations of lies) all true. I had to lie in order to succeed,” he told the Chosun Ilbo newspaper on Friday.

On Thursday, Yonsei University announced that Kim had been expelled for poor academic performance and disciplinary actions were being sought against him.

“The student in question did not even graduate. To say that he already earned a master’s degree is absurd,” the university said, adding that it was mulling legal action against Kim.

Since 2010, Kim had been spreading success stories about himself. He claimed to have been hired by Samsung SDS, an IT service arm of Samsung group, over a year before graduation.

He promoted his fake success while emphasizing that he had been at the bottom of the class during his high school years, a story that was well received by the public and media.

Thanks to a lack of fact-checking, Kim quickly became a popular motivational speaker built on sheer lies.

He published a book about himself in June 2011, which was titled “Spec-bodan Yeoljeongida (It is Passion That Counts, Not Spec).” “Specs” refer to qualities commonly sought of job seekers.

The book tells a story of Kim going from troublemaker to employee of Samsung Group, one of the most coveted workplaces among Korean college students. He also encouraged youngsters to try out instead of just studying hard.

Barely two weeks after the book was published, Samsung SDS told the book’s publisher that Kim had never been hired by the company. The publisher was forced to remove all the copies of the book at bookstores and Kim had to pay it 20 million won ($18,000) to compensate for the losses.

The revelation about Kim’s lies shocked many students who saw him as a role model.

In South Korea, the prolonged economic slump has hit the job market. The unemployment rate of people in their 20s marked 8.4 percent in the first half of this year, and the monthly rate marked a two-year high of 9.1 percent in February.

The competition for jobs has led college graduates to become obsessed about their “specs,” such as their foreign-language abilities, computer processing skills and internship experiences. These embattled students came to idolize Kim, the single person who seemed to have achieved the goal of landing a decent job without securing a growing list of specs.

Public fury ensued after it was revealed that Kim’s reputation was based on lies.

“He cheated the young and desperate to make money. That is the lowest level you can stoop to,” said one Twitter user.

“His specs were fake, success story was fake, and his book was fake. It’s passion that counts? No, it’s honesty that counts,” said another user.

By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)