Min Hee-jin mentioned the reason why she moved to HYBE one year after becoming SM’s director, “I was too exhausted”
CEO Min Hee-jin talked about the reason why she left SM and joined HYPE.
In the 133rd episode of tvN’s “Yoo Quiz On The Block” aired on December 1st, art director Min Hee-jin appeared as a person who is expected to gain attention in 2022 in the special “People who will make big things next year”.
CEO Min Hee-jin worked as a creative director at SM Entertainment for 16 years and was in charge of Girls’ Generation, SHINee, f(x), EXO and Red Velvet. She moved to HYBE in 2019 and became CEO of HYBE‘s new label “ADOR” in 2021. In addition, she is currently preparing to launch a new girl group.
Regarding the reason why she decided to join the entertainment industry for the first time, entering SM Entertainment in 2022 then becoming a director, Min Hee-jin said, “Originally, my taste was not popular music, and when I looked for my favorite musicians, I found out many musicians from other countries regardless of the border. I had the ambition to create new jobs in the mainstream market by designing graphics.”
She explained, “The reason why non-mainstream is inevitably not popular is that it’s actually a little complicated. The mainstream market seemed attractive to me because I could introduce many interesting things to more people. I just wanted to bring surprises to people.”
Having worked at SM for 15 years, CEO Min Hee-jin quit her job 1 year after becoming a general director of SM. Regarding this, she said, “I was so exhausted at that time. If we filmed a lot of music videos within a month, we could make up to 4 or 5 videos. My team members often said this as a joke, ‘Wow, if I play a survival game, I’ll win first place”. I believed I had devoted my 20s and 30s to work. I’ve never had a proper vacation. I got severely burned out, and thought about quitting the job completely. I just cried when I told this to teacher Lee Soo Man for the first time. My self-torment was so severe.”
However, regarding her choice to change the company, Min Hee-jin said that she had thought a lot about things that she hadn’t finished yet. She shared, “Many agencies contacted me within a few days. The first place that reached out to me was HYBE.”
