- 10 hours ago
From beauty ideals in South Korea to career paths for non-graduates, hurdles facing foreign professionals and the rise of medieval magnate Jakob Fugger.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:01You've got the looks, you get the job and a head start on the career ladder.
00:06The pretty privilege translates into 2.5% higher pay,
00:10which for top earners can mean a cool five grand extra a year.
00:14A growing number of people are turning to cosmetic surgery
00:17to also embellish their career prospects.
00:20The Gangnam area of Seoul has become an undisputed hub of the beauty industry.
00:25Among other issues in the fast-changing working world
00:28is a college degree still that crucial?
00:31What hurdles the young professionals arriving in Germany face?
00:34And the rise of medieval magnate Jakob Fugger, all in this career special on MADE.
00:52Cheongyong Park is an aesthetic doctor who's represented South Korea
00:56at international beauty pageants.
00:59And as the director of his skincare clinic in Seoul,
01:02he knows just how important his appearance is for bringing in business.
01:07Usually, male clients ask about things like jawline,
01:11since I have a relatively defined jawline, or about skin tone.
01:15When they see me, they often ask how they can achieve fairer skin.
01:19With hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers,
01:22he says young patients often reach out,
01:24hoping that minor facial enhancements will help improve their economic prospects.
01:30Patients like Madison.
01:32Years ago, I got a lot of laser treatment,
01:35and then also like cheek botox that make my face like more slim.
01:41And then after that, I think I became more confident,
01:45and my skin looks more healthy and white and glowy.
01:50Based on that, I work more confidently and I earn a lot than previous income.
01:57Dr. Park's clinic is in Gangnam, a district with over 400 cosmetic and plastic surgery centers
02:05in a single square mile, where intense competition drives prices down.
02:10Advertisements for a quote unquote perfect face follow you everywhere,
02:15from skyscrapers to storefronts and buses.
02:19Some even target students specifically, offering job interview preparation packages.
02:26At Uwa Clinic, one of the country's most prestigious facilities,
02:30demand nationally and internationally is so high the operation spans multiple floors.
02:36Two dermatology floors, one, two, three, four.
02:40Rhinoplasties start at US$3,500, half of the price in the States.
02:46Uwa CEO and head surgeon Dr. Kim Woo-jung sees cosmetic treatments as a social tool.
02:53In Korea, appearance is an important part of society,
02:59and many consider it a form of social competitiveness.
03:03So before choosing a job or going into interviews,
03:09people often undergo procedures to create a better impression.
03:15Clinics like these help to sell the idea that a polished look can open doors professionally.
03:22And across the river in Hongdae, a university district,
03:25students and recent graduates are beginning to learn how to navigate these societal expectations.
03:31Studies show that some recruiters in South Korea do still hire based on appearance.
03:37And most organisations across the country do still require a CV photo.
03:42Now that pressure, especially for young people to look a certain way,
03:47has given rise to businesses like this one.
03:50This is effectively a Photoshop,
03:53but it's a Photoshop that specialises in creating that perfect CV image.
03:59To see how the process works, I went through each step myself.
04:04Hello!
04:05Votobi's owner says he caters the service to the needs of the client.
04:11If someone is applying for a service job,
04:14we try to help them look brighter and more approachable.
04:17If it's sales, then we try to make them look trustworthy.
04:20I think let's retouch this one.
04:25The editors smoothed out my skin, sharpened my jawline, and even altered my forehead.
04:31So you're removing all my moles? Wow!
04:34This is something many young Koreans do to help them stand out professionally.
04:39But not everyone follows these rules so strictly.
04:43Jiwon Lee is a recent biochemistry graduate,
04:46and part of a growing feminist movement that doesn't conform to beauty standards.
04:50Though she says that it's not always easy.
04:53I've always imagined if I were a man.
04:57If I were a man, would my mom be complaining that I don't wear makeup,
05:05and I don't wear skirts, and I don't decorate myself.
05:10Despite Jiwon's resistance,
05:12it's hard to ignore that the need to look a certain way is deeply entrenched in South Korean society.
05:18For many young people, adjusting their image digitally or physically has become an almost quintessential part of the job application process.
05:27And as the industry continues to boom, the fundamental question remains.
05:32Is it creating opportunities or simply deepening inequality?
05:42You've graduated from high school and are considering what your next options are?
05:47Maybe a gap year abroad?
05:49How about a vocational traineeship?
05:52Or perhaps go straight to college after all?
05:54A degree has its benefits, but no longer opens so many doors.
05:59A career as an engineer, IT specialist, or even a pilot doesn't necessarily mean going to college.
06:06So, are degrees overrated?
06:10Being a college graduate used to be a guarantee of landing high-paying jobs that were inaccessible to those without degrees.
06:20But a growing number of people without degrees are now applying for those very same jobs in marketing, production management, communications, and programming.
06:29So, is it better to hit the job market right away instead of pouring over countless books?
06:36With on-the-job training and a little help from AI a feasible option?
06:42The fact is that a large number of employers in the industrial sector are now also hiring non-graduates for a comprehensive range of jobs, including senior positions.
06:53I'm also observing this trend, and there's a whole discussion now also in academia about whether we will see more of this so-called skill-based or experience-based hiring.
07:07Big-name companies are now posting vacancies for those higher positions, stressing no degree required.
07:14An approach shared by the head of Tesla.
07:17There's no need even to have a college degree at all, or even high school.
07:23I mean, if somebody graduated from a great university, that may be an indication that they will be capable of great things, but it's not necessarily the case.
07:33There's widespread uncertainty, including at colleges, something labor market experts are noticing.
07:39It's not clear that the learning for a four-year degree in a university is going to carry you through forward.
07:48And the people who are currently at college, what do they think about the option of getting straight to work after high school?
07:56I think what a lot of people think is that having experience, practical experience, is a lot of the times more worth it than necessarily getting the degree.
08:07Graduates used to have more jobs to choose from than young people who hadn't studied.
08:12But in some places their rate of employment has become almost as high as that for non-graduates, and in some cases higher.
08:19The overall jobless rate in Europe is currently 5.9%, but among graduates only 3.8%.
08:27Contrast that with Turkey, where unemployment among graduates is higher than the average, at over 9%.
08:34And the figures are fairly similar in the US too, with an average rate of 7.3% and 6.7% for graduates.
08:42What explains the growing difficulty of finding a job for people who've been to college?
08:51I think we've seen in the past several countries where there has been a rapid expansion of the higher education sector
08:59that was not readily matched by demand by the labor market.
09:04One answer is shortcomings in the practical relevance of college courses.
09:08Looking at things realistically, plenty of graduates do find a job after a year of searching.
09:14But the issue has assumed dramatic dimensions in India, where the graduate unemployment rate is 7.1%,
09:21compared to under 1% among those with only a primary education.
09:26There's been a rapid expansion of higher education.
09:29And many countries, including in India, we've massively increased university enrollment.
09:35And that's not gone hand in hand.
09:39The curriculum is not tweaked as per the labor market need.
09:42Employers save money because trainees with lower formal education tend to earn less.
09:48And many trainees do not have the funds to be able to study.
09:53And once they have secured a job, not having a degree makes it harder to change professions.
10:00And the benefits of a degree?
10:02We asked students in Germany, where there are only minimal college fees.
10:07So we are also very grateful for this university time.
10:10I think it was like one of the best times of my life.
10:12And I learned so much, I had also so much fun.
10:15If I was going to study anything, it had to be something you can't do without a degree,
10:22which meant medicine, plus it's doing good for society.
10:29I agree that artificial intelligence is likely to replace some of the jobs
10:34that you would have expected to especially enter into the legal field with.
10:38But I also think that a lot of the jobs that are the crux of the legal profession won't get replaced.
10:47These students are not worried that AI will take their jobs,
10:51saying that you need to be smart to ask the right questions and interpret the answers.
10:56And perhaps AI will also be able to help out when it comes to making college education better aligned
11:03to ever-changing job requirements.
11:07Germany urgently needs skilled workers in a range of sectors.
11:20But many young professionals from abroad find it difficult to enter the job market here.
11:25One frequent factor, authorities and employers not recognizing their qualifications and job experience.
11:32In some cases, they're even overqualified.
11:35Or they're asked to provide additional credentials that they don't have.
11:39Experts are calling for reforms to close labour shortage gaps and make integration easier.
11:48Getting a job in Germany as a foreigner isn't easy.
11:53That's because many professions require job applicants to have specific, local forms of certification.
11:59In other countries, I did not need to have any additional papers so my diploma was valid.
12:06Before moving to Germany, Natasha worked as a biologist in Serbia.
12:11Here, she's taking advantage of a free consultation hour to learn what her options are in her new country.
12:17I'm trying to apply as a lab technician.
12:21I'm overqualified and I cannot get a job because apparently for that you just need Ausbildung and I've got a master's certificate.
12:30Germany's medical sector is in desperate need of workers.
12:35Experts estimate that there are between 200 and 300,000 open positions for medical professionals.
12:41That's why 41% of all qualification recognition applications are submitted from nurses.
12:48In 2024, the German government received more than 95,000 requests from foreign workers to recognize their profession.
12:55That's more than double the amount of requests Germany got eight years previously.
13:00The fact that we have reached such a high level is also due to the fact that we have accelerated processes,
13:07that we raised awareness and that there are now many initiatives, especially in the field of nursing.
13:1397% of the processed applications last year were approved.
13:18That's good news for job seekers who are already in the country.
13:21Most of the qualifications Germany approved were acquired in Turkey, followed by Ukraine, Tunisia, India and Syria.
13:29Firstly, we can still improve when it comes to issuing visas.
13:33We just need more staff at the embassies abroad.
13:36The second point is that we should offer a centralized digital platform.
13:40And third, we need more personnel at the immigration offices in Germany.
13:47More personnel needed to close the labor gap.
13:50Germany is also experiencing a shortage of doctors.
14:00The country's medical association says the healthcare system would collapse without foreign medical professionals.
14:06In 2024, around 70,000 foreign doctors were working in German clinics and neighborhood practices.
14:12That's one in six physicians, almost 80% of them employed by hospitals.
14:18Germany is actively recruiting staff from Latin America, for example, with a program that helps new arrivals with housing, visas and useful tips.
14:28But here too, the rigorous certification process remains a hurdle.
14:32Dr. Freddy Bautista Vanegas is making his rounds here in a Parkinson's clinic in Beelitz, Germany, an hour from Berlin.
14:43Before coming to Germany, he practiced medicine in his home country of Bolivia.
14:47But the process to become a certified doctor here has been a long one.
14:52I have to be very honest with you, this process is a bit tedious.
14:57It is a bit long, but with a lot of perseverance, a lot of support, and a lot of patience, we can achieve it.
15:04Bautista Vanegas is one of approximately 300 doctors that have come to Germany through a program aimed at reducing job vacancies in healthcare.
15:17It also benefits partner countries.
15:19In Mexico, for example, 40,000 medical students graduate each year and compete for just under 18,000 training positions.
15:27Bautista Vanegas is far from home, but feels welcomed by his colleagues and patients alike.
15:34And the patients always ask, where are you from? What are you doing here?
15:40When I tell them I'm from Bolivia, most of them automatically become happy, start smiling, and say, oh, I was in Bolivia. Bolivia is so nice.
15:50I went on a vacation to Bolivia.
15:53They start to say, oh, I was in Bolivia. I went on vacation to Bolivia. Bolivia is very beautiful, no?
16:00Since 2017, Germany's Federal Employment Agency has been running an initiative that places specialized doctors from mostly Mexico and Colombia into German healthcare facilities.
16:12For us, it is really important to work with countries who have a surplus of professionals in a certain area, so they won't have a shortage in their own countries.
16:27So we have as, like, focus countries, for instance, Mexico and Colombia, because that is the case.
16:39Between 2023 and 2024, nearly 50,000 critical jobs in healthcare remained unfilled in Germany, according to the country's public health agency.
16:49Medical professionals going through the program, like Bautista Vanegas, have to learn upper intermediate B2 level of German in their own countries.
16:59Then there is a visa process, which can take several months.
17:02Once in Germany, doctors practice under the supervision of a senior doctor while studying and taking a series of other qualifying tests.
17:10Next week, I have the phase four exam, which is the exam for technical medical language. Once we pass this exam, we only have the last one left.
17:23We only have the last one left.
17:27Doctors in the program must obtain the qualification to practice medicine within two years of arriving here.
17:33The specialized program helps them with nearly every step of getting settled, from finding housing to navigating the often complicated bureaucracy.
17:41For example, each of Germany's 16 federal states has different requirements for becoming a certified doctor.
17:48A good guidance through this federal system, the different recognition processes, that should be more streamlined in the future.
17:58And it will be, I think, but until now, it's one of the most, the biggest challenges also for us.
18:07Meanwhile, Bautista Vanegas prepares for his medical technical German language test next week.
18:14The last one of two.
18:24Global supply chains are dominated by giants like Maersk.
18:28Amazon oversees the world's largest network of delivery partners.
18:32China controls the global market in rare earths.
18:35J.P. Morgan is the go-to investment banker for the super rich.
18:38And the U.S. boasts the biggest arms industry, all superlative players in today's global economy.
18:45But in medieval Europe, one man dominated all of those sectors.
18:49Here's how Jakob Fugger rose to become the richest man on the planet.
18:53Jakob Fugger was one of the richest men in history.
19:00Adjusted for today, his vast fortune would be worth around 400 billion U.S. dollars.
19:08Fugger lived from 1459 to 1525 and built what was, at the time, the world's largest business empire.
19:15His wealth rivaled that of modern-day billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and the oil baron John D. Rockefeller who lived a century ago.
19:27And like them, Fugger's success raised moral questions about his business practices.
19:32But more on that later.
19:34Fugger came from a merchant family in Augsburg that traded cloth.
19:39His grandparents were poor weavers.
19:41As a young man, he went to Venice to represent German merchants and learned the business first-hand.
19:48But how did he manage to amass such extraordinary wealth? And what did he do with it?
19:55It's a story in five parts.
19:59Chapter 1. Supply Chains
20:03Jakob Fugger controlled entire supply chains.
20:06From his beginnings in Augsburg, he expanded the family business into every area that generated profit.
20:13Alongside textiles, this included the metals trade and large-scale monetary loans.
20:22This is what his control of supply chains looked like.
20:26He supplied weavers with cotton and wool and bought the finished fabrics directly from them.
20:32In the metals trade, he secured mining rights and oversaw smelting and marketing operations, for example in copper.
20:38Everything came from his own production, bypassing the middleman.
20:44Chapter 2. Global Commercial Representation
20:48To handle his business, Jakob Fugger built a Europe-wide network of commercial representations.
20:55These branches were offices that managed trade abroad.
20:58A number of the offices were in Germany, but there were also branches in Krakow, London, Antwerp, Venice, Rome and Lisbon.
21:08Fugger staffed every office with traders and scribes, forming an international communication network.
21:15His mines also helped keep him informed about developments in the trade of metals and other goods.
21:24Across his many offices, he learned who had money, who wanted to buy and who was bankrupt.
21:32Jakob Fugger spoke German and Italian and corresponded in Latin with the Popes.
21:36He introduced modern accounting methods from Italy to Germany.
21:40This allowed him to track the current profits of each of his companies
21:44and to maintain an overview of the overall balance sheets of his growing business conglomerates.
21:50Chapter 3. Fugger's Dominance in Mining and Metals
21:55Jakob Fugger became the world's leading copper trader of his time.
21:59He also traded in iron and silver, building an international metals and mining enterprise.
22:06First, he secured direct deliveries from silver mines near Salzburg, giving him a financial advantage.
22:13His ties to the region's Archduke, Sigmund of Tirol, proved especially valuable.
22:19Burdened by an expensive court and an ongoing war, Sigmund ran up debts of more than 150,000 guilders,
22:26roughly the gold value of around 50 million euros today.
22:32In return, Fugger received the rights to mine the region's silver and copper deposits
22:38and to market the metals himself.
22:43When Sigmund was forced to abdicate in 1490 due to mismanagement,
22:47his nephew, King Maximilian, assumed Fugger's outstanding debts and became his new debtor.
22:52Maximilian also granted Fugger usage rights to the Habsburg mines in Tirol and Hungary.
23:00He soon acquired additional mines.
23:03From his port on the Baltic Sea, he began selling copper and other metals across Europe,
23:09and even as far as India.
23:13Chapter 4. Fugger's Banking Transactions with Rich Clients and His Political Connections
23:18By offering large-scale loans, Jakob Fugger turned Europe's ruling aristocracy into his bank customers.
23:28He had an unerring sense of power and was a master of the manners and customs of Europe's royal dynasties.
23:35He was convinced that King Maximilian would become Holy Roman Emperor, and so it came to pass.
23:40To secure his election, Maximilian needed vast sums of money to buy the votes of the German prince electors.
23:48Fugger lent him the record sum of 545,585 guilders, around two-thirds of what he needed.
23:57Today, that would equal roughly 160 million euros in pure gold.
24:02Chapter 5. Fugger as Financier of Conflicts and Wars
24:09Jakob Fugger also did business with popes and princes through the sale of indulgences in Germany.
24:15At the time, church doctrine held that Catholics could have their sins remitted in exchange for donations,
24:22which helped finance the construction of St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
24:25Fugger organised the transfer of these funds and earned commissions and interest from both the clergy and secular rulers.
24:36The church's financial practices contributed to the rise of the Protestant reform movement and to military conflicts,
24:44eventually culminating in the Thirty Years' War which claimed millions of lives.
24:48Fugger financed numerous wars waged by princes, including the Peasants' War of 1524 and 25.
24:56In that conflict, tens of thousands of peasants, weavers and miners rose up against their exploitation.
25:02And the end of the story?
25:05Jakob Fugger died in 1525, leaving behind a vast fortune.
25:10He had the world's first social housing estate built for the poor of the city of Augsburg.
25:15In return, its residents are said to pray for his soul to this day.
25:20Over the centuries, the family lost most of its fortune.
25:24Today, the once global enterprise survives as a family foundation with capital funds,
25:30an investment company, thousands of hectares of forest and several castles in which they still live.
25:35That's it for this edition of MADE.
25:43From keeping up appearances in South Korea,
25:47and getting ahead without a college degree,
25:50to the hurdles facing skilled staff coming to Germany,
25:54and not forgetting the original oligarch, Jakob Fugger.
25:57Take care!
26:05Thats shit, take care.
26:06So let's begin just to walk till on,
26:08go back to müm birаем,
26:10and get her rough 말씀.
26:12So we can wait,
26:13task and lean to beholden 1.
26:15The pit backganess proprio width 1.
26:17The multitask that we put onto the wall in Gerica.
26:20We put the most important steps in the chest.
26:22I 거기에 μέ into thereshold based on the fact that's not built upon the wall in Blaga.
Be the first to comment