Author: reporter Chen Peng
"Guangming Daily" (version 07 on January 4, 2022)
Two months later, Liu Yikun will graduate with a master's degree from King's College London, and he made up his mind to return to China for employment.
At this time, he was doing an internship in a company in Shanghai. While doing internship, he continued to invest more than a dozen resumes.
In the last week of the end of 2021, he participated in 6 interviews, internships and interviews "turn around", still "waiting for good news."
It is another job hunting season. Under the influence of the epidemic, the future of returned overseas graduates is facing uncertainty.
On Douban, a group gathered a large number of returned overseas students.
They ridiculed themselves as "returnee waste" when they complained about their job hunting experience.
There are no shortage of Ivy League graduates from the prestigious schools, and without exception, they have temporarily encountered setbacks: some people complained that because they lived overseas all the year round, the information they obtained after returning to China was not equal; some people lamented that they did not anticipate the difficulty of job hunting; some regret that they did not. Mastered excellent skills, after returning to China, I had an empty diploma, but no company wanted it.
What job hunting experiences have returned overseas students go through?
Today, when studying abroad has become more frequent, what kind of talents does the society need for studying abroad?
Reporters conducted an investigation.
"Excessive positioning" and "insufficient experience" are two major problems for overseas returnees in job hunting
In 2017, Liu Yikun went to study in the UK and entered Swansea to study for an undergraduate degree.
Four years later, he was admitted to King's College, University of London to study for a master's degree. Both master and bachelor's degree majored in finance.
In order to apply for a master's degree, he spent more than a year studying in the library.
Undergraduate and master's schools are ranked 440 and 35 in the "2022QS World University Comprehensive Rankings". "It took a lot of hard work to complete this leap." Liu Yikun said frankly, "The study and life abroad are not as easy as some people think. Night battles are also common".
For the decision to return to China for employment, this is his life plan made early in the morning. Studying abroad is just to "experience multiculturalism."
Although the financial industry has always been hot, he feels that he has "hard currency" in terms of academic qualifications and "the problem is not big".
But after participating in many interviews, I found that I was "overly optimistic."
New Oriental’s company “Future Going Abroad” has just released the “White Paper for Studying in China 2021”, which shows that with the development of the domestic economy and proper control of the epidemic, overseas students intending to return to the country will have more confidence in the domestic employment environment in 2021. Compared to 31%, an increase of 6% from the previous year.
The data also shows that international students are too optimistic about their job search expectations, and that “over-positioning themselves” and “not enough internship/work experience” have become the two main problems.
In particular, “positioning yourself too high” has become the most difficult job search problem for international students in the past three years.
Liu Yikun participated in the recruitment of a number of domestic and foreign companies and found that the styles of the two are quite different.
"Tell me about your internship experience" and "How do you do if you encounter this kind of problem", in his view, "These two problems represent the two thinking of domestic and foreign companies recruiting."
"The former is almost always a question asked by domestic corporate interviewers. Domestic companies value the'hard skills' such as the work and internship experience of international students, and hope to use your internship experience to assess the level of candidates. Foreign companies are more interested in the latter question. They pay more attention to "soft skills" such as personal character. Some foreign companies will also require on-site character analysis reports to be generated, and positions are arranged based on the results of the report. People who are good at socializing will do sales, and those who are good at organizing events will do public relations."
Liu Yikun "overestimated" the gold content of academic qualifications in the recruitment market. Because of the lack of relevant internship experience and the inability to match a suitable position in the personality test, his recent job applications ended in failure.
In the eyes of many people, these returned overseas students find a job as an easy way. They are white-collar workers after they start, enter and exit high-end office buildings, and use fluent foreign languages to handle company business.
But from the current point of view, Ma Bin's career as a returned overseas student may not be like this.
After looking for a job in Shanghai, Ma Bin decided to return to his hometown of Hefei. "The gap between imagination and reality is too big. Not only are there many competitors, but they also have very high academic qualifications."
Although I went to study abroad for four years, I was finally persuaded by my parents to apply for the civil service examination and was willing to work in the system.
At the end of 2021, the signing lists for recruiting outstanding graduates on Xiamen's primary and secondary schools were announced successively. A group of returned overseas students were successfully shortlisted, including Cambridge University, University College London, University of Edinburgh, National University of Singapore, etc.
The halo of returnees has gradually faded. They choose to work within the system and become teachers and civil servants. After media reports, they always attract attention.
According to the "2020 Study Abroad Trends Report", in the survey sample, nearly half of the international students entered the system after returning to the country, 21% of which worked in state agencies/institutions, and 25% worked in state-owned enterprises.
There is no advantage in salary, and the cost-effectiveness of studying abroad decreases
On Douban, a user posted a question: "Is it normal for a graduate student to return home with a salary of 6,000 yuan?"
According to the user, he submitted 30 resumes and only participated in 3 interviews: game advertising optimizer, overseas market operation specialist, cross-border e-commerce advertising management, and his salary was basically 5,000 to 10,000 yuan.
There are many followers on this page, and the tone seems to be puzzled: Compared with the financial and time investment in the earlier period of studying abroad, some returnees feel more and more "not worth it".
"Study abroad is no longer related to high salaries." Wang Zhiqi, the person in charge of a Sino-British international student job search agency, calculated an account for reporters: in the cost of studying in the UK for a one-year master's degree, the tuition fee is about 200,000 yuan. The cost is about 120,000 yuan, and the overall cost is about 400,000 yuan a year.
"In the initial stage of entry, the audit post of the four major domestic accounting firms is about 120,000 yuan. The four major domestic accounting firms are already one of the best jobs that returned overseas students can find." Wang Zhiqi said.
In the 12th issue of "Journal of East China Normal University (Education Science Edition)" in 2021, the article "Research on the Factors Influencing the Employment Quality of the New Generation of Returnees" shows that the higher the education level, the higher the income.
However, compared with the average starting salaries of graduates with different degrees in domestic colleges and universities in 2019, returnees for bachelor's degree, returnees' master's degree, and returnees' doctoral degree are 3,512 yuan, 2,944 yuan, and 1,244 yuan higher, respectively. The advantages show a significant decline.
Associate Professor Shen Wenqin of Peking University agrees with this: "If it is purely a financial return, the cost-effectiveness of studying abroad is decreasing. However, the effect of studying abroad on personal growth, character shaping, etc. cannot be measured by money."
"It is not appropriate to use the salary of returned overseas students to compare the total cost of studying abroad at the beginning of their employment, and to conclude that it will take many years to return to the cost, because studying abroad cannot just focus on'returning the cost'." Chen Yuan is an international high school in Zhejiang. The administrator of this school has nearly a hundred students choose to study abroad every year.
The salary of young people is not static, and often increases with the increase in working years.
The beneficiaries of equity incentives and bonus incentives of some large private enterprises are mainly young people, and many of them returnees.
Chen Yuan’s international high school will also recruit many job-seekers who have experience studying abroad. “Take my experience of recruiting as an example. The academic qualifications are just a stepping stone. The real thing depends on my performance after joining.”
There is a very obvious trend. Chen Yuan said frankly, "The salary of returned overseas students has not much advantage compared with that of domestic university graduates. Unless it is a foreign company or a relatively international private enterprise in China, the returnee background It cannot be a bonus item for employers when recruiting. Moreover, compared with previous years, the hiring pace of these large private enterprises has slowed down."
"There is another fact that is easy to be obscured." Shen Wenqin reminded reporters that, generally speaking, most of the overseas students come from urban families. When choosing employment, they mainly focus on the big cities, and the competition for good jobs in big cities The degree is usually the most intense.
Returned overseas students also face a problem-the graduation process does not match the time of the domestic recruiting unit, forming a "employment jet lag", resulting in reduced job search opportunities and extended job search time.
Wang Zhiqi gave an example: “British one-year master’s students will start in September 2021, and most of them will graduate from November 2022 to January 2023. When you finish your studies at the end of 2022 and get your diploma and return to your country, you may miss 2022. The golden period of autumn recruitment in China."
Ability development is most important when studying abroad
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2018, the number of people studying abroad in my country was 662,100, and the number of people who returned from school that year was 519,400. The proportion of returnees to overseas students reached 78%, compared with the ratio of about 50% around 2010. Significant improvement.
In 2019, the number of Chinese students studying abroad exceeded 700,000 for the first time.
Compared with the early study abroad, both the total number of people and the number of study destinations have reached a peak.
In the context of the normalization of studying abroad, we have to consider a question: what kind of international students does society need?
After graduating from a design school in the United States, Xue Meng worked in the United States for three years.
Because of the epidemic, he planned to return to China half a year ago and successfully joined a Shanghai design company by participating in online recruitment.
When looking for a job, he wrote the urban design project that he had participated in while studying in the United States and the experience of translating a monograph for that major into his resume.
On the third day after the online interview, he was invited to join the company.
For Xue Meng, work is "not only an errand to support the family, but also growth."
After joining the company, he immediately participated in the design of a riverside scenery belt in a southern city.
"We don't need to clock in at work, the atmosphere is relaxed, and the company also supports employees' creativity and exploration."
Xue Meng is "satisfied" in terms of living conditions, income, professional accomplishment, or personal growth space.
It's just that he is not used to the pace of overtime work in China and the practice of not using e-mail to communicate work.
Among returned overseas students, such stories are not rare.
“In the past, not many international students returned to China. Now those who have received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in foreign countries will basically come back. There are also many students who have received master’s degrees in foreign countries applying for domestic doctorate degrees. This situation is increasing.” Shen Wenqin said, “From a national perspective, studying abroad is still one of the channels for cultivating cutting-edge talents. After all, there is still a clear gap between us and Western countries in some fields, such as mathematics, computing, and social sciences. my country’s most urgent need for science and technology elites Talent."
Recently, the Ministry of Education announced the "Response to Recommendation No. 5337 of the Third Session of the Thirteenth National People's Congress", stating that the Ministry of Education adheres to the new era study abroad policy of "supporting studying abroad, encouraging returning to the country, freedom of coming and going, and playing a role".
The Ministry of Education stated that it will improve its online service capabilities, strengthen the external promotion of the domestic innovation and entrepreneurship environment and related policies, guide and encourage more overseas students to return to the country for employment and entrepreneurship, and continue to match the development of overseas students to the country and the transformation of projects.
"From the perspective of human capital accumulation, international students may not have obvious advantages over domestic students." Shen Wenqin gave an example. Taking master's education as an example, the British master's degree is generally one-year, and the academic system is relatively short, so academic writing is not required. paper.
"The knowledge and skills they have accumulated during the master's degree have no advantage compared with the three-year master's degree students of top domestic universities, and may even be at a disadvantage."
"From the perspective of parents and students, the competition for high-quality domestic resources is very fierce. The difficulty of entering Peking University, Tsinghua University, and Fudan University is no less difficult than that of a famous foreign university. In this case, if they choose to study abroad, they will be admitted to a better university. On the contrary, the possibility is greater. For a wealthy family, studying abroad is still a good choice." Shen Wenqin said frankly.
For many people, going abroad is just the first step in studying abroad. What abilities should be cultivated when studying abroad?
"For the training of international students, we value language ability. If you can't go abroad for a few years, you can't use a foreign language. You have to be able to work in a foreign language; you must be independent and reliable, be able to think, deal with and solve problems independently, and be good at collaborative communication." Chen Yuan said, “You must have a strong learning ability and be willing to try new things and accept new ideas.”
The "Research on the Factors Influencing the Employment Quality of the "New Generation of Returnees"" also concluded that returnees employed in the central and western regions generally have a more positive and pleasant employment experience.
The article suggests that returnees should establish a correct employment concept, adjust their mentality, pay more attention to their own development space, the development potential of the post, and the social value and significance of the post, and they can appropriately focus on the central and western regions or second and third-tier cities.
At the same time, the "new generation of returnees" with expertise can broaden their employment horizons and engage in the research and development of new technologies and new products in some new knowledge fields, such as legal and finance, new medical medicine, cultural media, and computer information technology.
(Reporter Chen Peng)