'At career's peak, a student again in her 40s': Yoon Ki-yeol's debut essay explores identity beyond titles

"Tell me the global MBA rankings."

That was the short question typed into ChatGPT in January 2024, and it set everything in motion. At the time, the author was head of communications at a fintech unicorn, leading a team of about 40 people. Following the answer to that question, she soon received an acceptance letter from London Business School. She had to decide whether to give up her current position for an opportunity she had stumbled upon almost by chance. The decision did not take long. She left the company later that year and headed to London, returning to being a student in her 40s at the peak of her career.

It marked the opening of a new "fourth act" in her life. She rose from an assistant in a corporate public relations team to an executive at one of the world's largest PR firms, eventually becoming head of communications at Toss.

Dok Publishing announced Wednesday that it has released Yoon Ki-yeol's first essay collection, "The Role Is Not Given: A Journey of Career and Self-Definition."

The book chronicles the questions the author raised and the answers she found while looking back on her career after 18 years of expanding her own role, having become a student again in her 40s in London.

The author began her career as an assistant in a corporate public relations team, later working at a PR agency and serving as an executive (director) at Edelman Korea. She joined Viva Republica, the operator of Toss, in 2017 as its first PR manager. She went on to lead a team of about 40 people for seven years as head of communications, overseeing content, brand marketing and external affairs.

At some point, she naturally began to consider a new life outside the organization. Choosing an opportunity she had come across almost by chance, she stepped outside a title for the first time. That period of recharging led her to reflect on her 18 years of work.

The book is organized into three parts, tracing the start and growth of a career and what lies beyond it.

"The Start and Growth of a Career" looks back at how chance beginnings and opportunities, both large and small, accumulate into experience. Over time, they become the material that shapes one's own standards and competitiveness.

"The Leap in a Career" describes the process of defining and expanding one's role based on the essence of the work itself. It introduces ways to create one's own role rather than staying confined to a given one.

"Beyond Career" recounts the author's experience in London of looking, for the first time, at herself apart from her work and title.

Before writing the book, the author had expected that the chapters chronicling her career growth and achievements would be its highlight. But in the epilogue, she writes otherwise: "Ultimately, the place I most wanted to talk about turned out to be the final chapter, 'Beyond Career.'"

Dok Publishing said the book is "recommended for all readers who want to define and forge their own role at different stages of life and build a narrative of their own."