Someone hands you a business card. It says 김민수 / 과장. You now know their name and their rank, and you are about to discover that only one of those is usable.
Korean job titles are not decoration on a card. They are the word you say instead of a person’s name, every single time you speak to them — and getting them wrong is the fastest way to sound like you have never worked in Korea.
The system has two layers that English collapses into one, which is why most explanations of it are confusing. Separate the layers and it takes about ten minutes.
Rule Zero: You Do Not Use Their Name
This is the part that has to land first.
In a Korean office, the person’s name is not what you call them. You call them by their title with -님 attached. 부장님. 과장님. 팀장님.
Their name appears on documents and in the address book. It does not appear in the sentence you say to their face.
The one exception runs downward: you can use a junior or same-level colleague’s given name plus -씨 — 민수 씨. Even that is not automatic, and with anyone above you it is not available at all.
If this feels familiar, it is the same machinery described in how Korean names work — Korean reaches for a relationship word wherever English would reach for a name.
The Ladder — 직급
This is the seniority ranking, and it is what most people mean by “Korean job titles.”
| Korean | Romanization | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 사원 | sawon | entry-level staff |
| 주임 | juim | senior staff |
| 대리 | daeri | assistant manager |
| 과장 | gwajang | manager |
| 차장 | chajang | deputy general manager |
| 부장 | bujang | general manager / department head |
Above 부장 the ranks become executive (임원):
| Korean | Romanization | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| 이사 | isa | director |
| 상무 | sangmu | executive director |
| 전무 | jeonmu | senior executive director |
| 부사장 | busajang | vice president |
| 사장 | sajang | president / CEO |
| 회장 | hoejang | chairman |
Two honest caveats. The English equivalents are approximate — a Korean 과장 is not the same job as an American “manager.” And the ladder varies by company; some skip 주임, some skip 차장 entirely.
직책 vs 직급 — The Distinction Nobody Explains
Here is the piece that makes everything else make sense, and it is missing from almost every English guide.
Korean separates what rank you are from what job you are doing.
| 직급 (jikgeup) | 직책 (jikchaek) | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | your rank | your role |
| Based on | seniority, years, pay grade | what you are in charge of |
| Carries authority? | not by itself | yes — it is a command position |
| Examples | 사원, 대리, 과장, 부장 | 팀장, 본부장, 실장 |
팀장 is not a rank. It is a job. 팀장 (timjang) means “team leader” — the person running a team. 부장 is a rank on the pay ladder. One person is usually both: a 부장 by rank who holds the 팀장 role.
And this decides what you call them. When someone has a 직책, that is what you use.
A 부장 who leads a team → you say 팀장님, not 부장님.
This also explains something that confuses people: a 과장 can be a 팀장 while a 부장 in the same office is not. Rank and authority are not the same thing in Korean companies, and the title you speak reflects the authority.
What You Actually Say
Title + 님. Always.
- 부장님, 과장님, 팀장님, 대리님
- Never the bare title. “부장!” is not a thing — it lands somewhere between rude and comic.
- 님 does the same work here that it does everywhere else in Korean, which is laid out in Korean honorifics.
Downward and sideways:
| Situation | What to say |
|---|---|
| Someone senior | 부장님 / 팀장님 — title + 님 |
| Same level, not close | 민수 씨 — given name + 씨 |
| Same level, close, same age | their name, or 반말 if it has been offered |
| Someone junior | 민수 씨, or their name |
| You do not know their rank | 김민수 님 — full name + 님 |
| Someone from outside the company | their title + 님 if you know it; otherwise full name + 님 |
김민수 님 — full name plus 님 — is the modern neutral option, and it is safe when you genuinely do not know where someone sits.
When 반말 shows up at work, it is offered downward and accepted carefully; the mechanics are in banmal.
선배 and 후배 Are a Separate Axis
Titles are about rank. 선배 and 후배 are about when you joined — and the two do not always line up.
They are covered properly in Korean family terms, so briefly: a 선배 entered the company before you, a 후배 after, and a 동기 in the same intake year. None of it is about age.
The practical point at work is that you can be someone’s 선배 and their junior in rank at the same time, and Korean handles that by using the title in formal contexts and 선배님 in warmer ones.
Where the Titles Relax
Titles do not switch off after hours, but they loosen.
회식 — the company dinner — is where it happens. Ranks stay in the words, but the distance shrinks, and it is often where a senior colleague offers 말 놓으세요. The etiquette that governs the evening, including how to decline a drink without causing offence, is in Korean drinking etiquette.
What is actually being tested there is not your drinking. It is whether you notice an empty glass before its owner does — which is 눈치, and which matters far more at a Korean workplace than any title you memorise.
The Modern Shift — and Why It Keeps Failing
A lot of Korean companies have tried to flatten all of this. It is worth knowing about, because you may walk into one.
Companies that changed:
| Company | What they did |
|---|---|
| CJ | From 2000, everyone is -님 — including the chairman, addressed as 이재현님 |
| NCSoft · Netmarble | Ranks abolished, name + 님 |
| 아모레퍼시픽 | Same -님 system |
| Samsung Electronics | 2017 — seven levels cut to four, 님 and 프로 introduced |
| LG Electronics | 2017 — five levels cut to three, titles became 선임 and 책임 |
| Hyundai · Kia | Six levels cut to two — 매니저 and 책임매니저 |
| SK Telecom | 2006 — ranks abolished, everyone a 매니저 |
And the ones that went back:
KT switched to 매니저 in 2009 and reverted in 2017. Hanwha unified on 매니저 in 2012 and has since returned to traditional titles.
A 2018 survey by Saramin found 65.4% of companies rated title-flattening as low in usefulness, with the most common complaints being that changing the word does not change the hierarchy (37.3%) and that responsibility becomes unclear (30.3%).
What this means for you: ask. “여기서는 호칭을 어떻게 하나요?” is a completely normal first-week question, and the answer varies enormously by company and even by team.
Titles Outside Your Own Company
These matter more for travellers than the corporate ladder does.
| Korean | Used for |
|---|---|
| 사장님 | any shop or restaurant owner — extremely common |
| 선생님 | teachers, doctors, and as a general polite title for a stranger |
| 고객님 | what staff call you — “customer” |
| 기사님 | taxi and bus drivers, delivery drivers, repair technicians |
| 여기요 / 저기요 | getting a stranger’s or server’s attention |
사장님 is the one to remember. Calling the owner of a small restaurant 사장님 is normal, warm and correct — and it is the title you will use most often in Korea without ever working in a Korean office. You will hear it constantly alongside the phrases in how to order food in Korean.
Your First Week in a Korean Office
If you are about to start work in Korea, three things will save you more embarrassment than the whole ladder above.
Listen before you speak. For the first few days, pay attention to what colleagues call each other — especially the person you report to. If everyone says 팀장님, so do you, even if you know their rank is 부장. The role outranks the rank in speech.
Do not read the ladder as a chain of command. Rank tells you who is senior; the 직책 tells you who decides. A 과장 who leads your team is the person you answer to, even if there is a 부장 at the next desk.
Ask about 호칭 in week one. Many companies have flattened their titles and some have gone back, so no guide can tell you what your office does. 여기서는 호칭을 어떻게 하나요? — “how do people address each other here?” — is a normal question, and nobody will think less of you for asking it.
Looking Up One Title? English to Korean
Most people arrive at this page with one English title in mind. Here it is the other way round: the English word, the Korean rank or role, and what you actually say to that person.
| In English | In Korean | What you say to them |
|---|---|---|
| Chairman | 회장 hoejang | 회장님 |
| CEO | 대표이사 daepyo-isa, or 사장 | 대표님 or 사장님 |
| President | 사장 sajang | 사장님 |
| Vice president | 부사장 busajang | 부사장님 |
| Senior executive director | 전무 jeonmu | 전무님 |
| Executive director | 상무 sangmu | 상무님 |
| Director | 이사 isa | 이사님 |
| General manager / department head | 부장 bujang | 부장님 |
| Deputy general manager | 차장 chajang | 차장님 |
| Manager | 과장 gwajang | 과장님 |
| Assistant manager | 대리 daeri | 대리님 |
| Team leader | 팀장 timjang — a role, not a rank | 팀장님 |
| Staff member | 사원 sawon | their name + 씨 |
Two words from that table deserve a note. 대표 is the word you will hear most for the head of a company, especially a smaller one or a start-up — 대표님 is how staff address their CEO. And if you want a neutral word for “my boss” when talking about someone rather than to them, it is 상사 (sangsa), “superior.” Nobody is addressed as 상사; to their face, it is always the title.
Two Columns and One Word
Korean job titles look like a memorisation problem and are really a two-column problem. 직급 is your rank. 직책 is your job. Once those are separate in your head, the ladder is just vocabulary and the addressing rule is one line: title plus 님, and use the role over the rank.
And if you never set foot in a Korean office, one word still earns its keep: 사장님. The owner of every small restaurant and shop in Korea answers to it.
Sources: 직급 — 나무위키 · 재계, 직급·호칭파괴 열풍 — 투데이신문
Written by Minhyung Cha — 25 years teaching Korean, and 15+ years running an English academy in South Korea. I live and work in Busan, and every example on this site is checked as a native speaker. More about KEL.
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