Recently, the globally popular Netflix Korean drama "Queen of Tears" (lit: “Physical Education in Iron Fist”) stars Kim Ji-soo as the female lead Im Han-rim, a fierce inspector with the School Violence Protection Bureau, and her own career is just as impressive. She holds a double degree in Computer Engineering and Journalism & Broadcasting from Chung-Ang University in Korea. After graduating, she joined Samsung as an engineer, but quickly realized it wasn’t what she wanted, and left after three years. In a later interview, she mentioned that at the time, a senior colleague would invite her out for drinks every night, but she always claimed she already had plans in order to dodge the invitations. Laughing, she said: “My appointments were actually with the bus.”
At 37, Kim Ji-soo is just as cool as Im Han-rim in "Queen of Tears," though not for having top-notch fighting skills or a machine-gun-like way of scolding people, but for her outstanding academic achievements. At a young age, she landed a coveted position at Samsung Group, but found herself growing less interested in the work. Recalling that time, she said: “The words I said most at work were ‘Yes, yes, yes I understand.’ And after work, I’d always be saying ‘Sorry.’” To avoid the nightly drinking invitations from her senior, she would pretend she had other plans—perhaps her acting skills were honed during this very period.
Now, Kim Ji-soo is finally doing the work she’s most passionate and interested in, and thanks to the huge popularity of "Queen of Tears," her career has reached new heights. Remarkably, she never cut ties with her former Samsung colleagues; they still support her to this day, sometimes even sending coffee trucks to the set as a show of support, with banners that read “Daughter of Samsung,” earning widespread praise from netizens.