No Wings, So We Run, by Kim Do-yun and Jegal Hyeon-yeol

No Wings, So We Run has a title that tells you what kind of book you are about to read.

I found it while I was looking for a job and anxiously waiting to hear back after a final interview at a large company. I did not get the job. I had two good legs, as the book might have put it, so I started running again.

Two young people looking for a foothold

Kim Do-yun and Jegal Hyeon-yeol felt that their academic backgrounds would put them at a disadvantage in South Korea. In the early 2010s, job seekers competed to pile up what Koreans called “specs,” from scores and certificates to extracurricular achievements. Then they had to find a story that made the list stand out.

The two set out to build a record that employers could take seriously even if their résumés did not look the way recruiters expected.

What competitions gave them

Competitions are central to their story. They entered, started winning prizes, and built up a body of work they could show to employers.

They explain what they did to give people a reason to look beyond where they went to school.

Jegal delivers the hard truths and Kim offers encouragement

Jegal tends to put things bluntly, while Kim offers reassurance. Both provide concrete accounts of how they tried to improve their odds.

The alternation between sympathy and practical detail keeps the book from getting stuck in frustration.

Finding work you care about

The two ask readers to notice what they actually want to do. It is easier to sustain the effort of finding a way into a field when the work itself holds your interest.

They looked for people who had done things they admired and tried to meet them. Finding a way to ask those people for their time became part of finding a direction.

They also visited companies with résumés and portfolios, sent emails, and even put an advertisement in a newspaper to get their names in front of people.

No wings, so you run

I did some of the same things. At one point I walked into Blizzard with a résumé and asked whether there might be an internship.

After I was turned down by CJ E&M Games, I went back and asked someone in human resources whether I could work there as an intern. The company could not offer the unpaid arrangement I proposed, but I remember how determined I was to find a way in.

The energy it takes to make your own way

Competitions gave the two authors a way to try something for themselves and make a record of what they could do.

I also won a top prize in a Korea Communications Commission competition and applied for jobs with the credentials I had put together. I never got the position in games that I had hoped for. I ended up at a public enterprise.

I later left and moved into freelance and independent work. Picking up the book again brought back the effort and uncertainty of those months before graduation.

A difficult job market in 2024

The early 2010s felt difficult enough at the time. Looking back from 2024, I was struck by how much hiring in technology had cooled after the pandemic surge.

It also seemed harder to find postings for the kind of work or companies I would once have applied to.

The title still felt apt. When there is no obvious way forward, there is always the chance to try the next thing you can think of.

Book details

No Wings, So We Run

Authors

Kim Do-yun and Jegal Hyeon-yeol

Published

September 25, 2012

ISBN13

9788965700944

View the book on YES24

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