Kim Su-min to return to work after 5-year hiatus and law school graduation

Kim Su-min, who gained fame as the youngest announcer in SBS history, is returning to the workforce after five years. Following her departure from the broadcaster, she navigated marriage, childbirth, and raising two children, while also completing her studies at the UCLA School of Law in the United States. News that she will return to work this October is drawing significant interest, as her long hiatus served as a period to build an entirely new professional foundation.

On the 20th, Kim announced via social media, “Everyone, I am starting work on October 1st.” Sharing a photo of a new bag prepared for her return, she expressed her feelings, saying, “It feels strange to be going to work after five years.”

Comparing the past five years to her time in parenting, she remarked, “Since I’ve raised two children over the last five years, it feels like I’ve finished basic training and moved past being a private to becoming a private first class.” While it is an unexpectedly humble metaphor compared to her days of being spotlighted for her glamorous broadcasting career, the expression reflects her realization that the time spent raising two children was another vital chapter of her life.

Kim continued, writing, “Now that I am around twenty-nine, the things I want—a job I can do for a long time, people I can see for a long time, a bag I can carry for a long time—have changed significantly.” While the modifier 'youngest' was attached to her name when she first joined the broadcaster, this reflects her transition into a stage of contemplating long-term life directions and sustainable work through age and experience.

Above all, this re-employment represents a massive shift in Kim's resume. Joining SBS as part of the 24th open recruitment class in 2018 at the age of 21, she garnered attention as the youngest announcer in the station's history. Since then, she built her profile as a broadcaster by hosting various programs such as 'Morning Wide', 'TV Animal Farm', and 'Full-Fledged Entertainment: Late Night'.

However, she left SBS in June 2021, three years after joining. Her decision to leave the stable organization of a broadcaster drew considerable interest at the time, but for Kim, her resignation was less about changing jobs and more about an opportunity to redesign her life. Afterward, she balanced freelance activities with marriage, childbirth, and childcare, creating a life trajectory different from her previous career as a broadcaster.

Life after marriage was also not easy. Kim married a former prosecutor in 2022 and became a parent to two children. Later, during the process of preparing to study abroad in the United States, she had to manage both childcare and her studies simultaneously.

In particular, Kim drew attention by revealing that she had challenged the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) several times during the process of being accepted to the UCLA School of Law. She shared her journey honestly, revealing how she continued to prepare for exams even while pregnant and showing how she studied during the COVID-19 pandemic and her full-term pregnancy.

In 2025, she also shared the news that, following her acceptance to the UCLA School of Law, she had received a scholarship worth $50,000. At the time, she expressed her joy, noting that it was an opportunity given to her as a foreigner with no prior experience studying abroad, and mentioning her perseverance.

Life in the United States was not always smooth either. Kim personally expressed the difficulties of her studies, stating that she felt the limitations of her English during her time as an international student. Regardless of her background as a famous person with broadcasting experience, this showed the reality of having to adapt as a student again within a new language and educational environment.

Her life in the United States concluded this May with her graduation. At the graduation ceremony, Kim shared photos with her family, expressing gratitude to her husband and both sets of parents who helped her over the past year, and announced her plan to return to South Korea soon.

And now, she stands once again at the threshold of daily life: 'going to work.' However, this time, she is not entering the broadcasting station as an announcer. Since she has not yet disclosed which specific field or organization she will be working for, it is difficult to prematurely define the nature of her new profession.

What is interesting is that Kim's career cannot be explained solely by the way she maintains one profession for a long time. She went from being an art major to an announcer, and after leaving the broadcaster, she challenged herself to study law through marriage and childcare, and now she is starting her professional life again. Rather than making a single title her lifelong identity, she has reconstructed her expertise and interests according to her needs.

As career breaks and re-employment have become important social issues, Kim's journey is more than just celebrity news. By connecting her studies and self-development to her return to the labor market after childbirth and childcare, she redefines the meaning of a 'career gap.'

Of course, a new start does not immediately guarantee success. What work she has chosen and how she will expand her expertise remains a mystery. However, the fact that Kim, who started with the title of 'youngest announcer' at 21, is returning to work five years later as a mother of two and a law graduate is highly unusual.

Unlike her first job, which began with the record of being the 'youngest,' this return is guided by sustainability rather than age or records. Attention is now focused on what this new career starting October 1st will be, and how it will add a new chapter to her multifaceted life.