Graduates under the epidemic: wait, sow, take root
When asked what society is like, 22-year-old graduate Chen Yifei replied.
"Society is like a large farm with complex terrain. You bring the knowledge you have learned from books in the past ten years, but you are faced with unexpected situations such as thunder and rain. Many people have occupied a small piece of their own land, and the harvest is full. Full, for new farmers, they need to carefully consider where they choose to open up wasteland and what kind of plants to plant, and if they choose the wrong one, they may face a winter with no harvest.
Statistics from the Ministry of Education show that in 2022, the number of college graduates in China is expected to be 10.76 million, a year-on-year increase of 1.67 million.
At the turn of the spring and summer when the graduation season and the epidemic are superimposed, young people are pouring into a more severe job market than ever before.
The long job search is a slow process of being hammered. Whether it is a graduate of a famous school or an ordinary second-class student, they all collide with the real world with their own confusion.
"Frustration," "anxiety," and "passive relief" are their common emotions.
Lowering expectations amid uncertainty and craving stability in the midst of rapids may be a new turn in young people's hearts.
Experiencing the exhaustion and confusion of job hunting, some of them still hold their ideals and carefully guard the fire in their hearts; some make room for themselves and experience the real life and limited freedom; some turn to Concrete, feel a new power in being with specific people.
spring of nothing
In May 2022, the spring recruitment has come to an end.
For the freshman Chen Yifei, this is a "no harvest" spring.
Before the start of spring recruitment in March, she never imagined that employment would be so difficult.
She graduated from a top 985 university in Beijing, majoring in advertising. She has won several school-level scholarships and 4 awards in the National College Student Advertising Art Competition. She has long-term internship experience in 4A companies and Internet companies.
Before applying for a job, Chen Yifei took this resume and asked friends who had worked in HR whether they needed to be revised. The feedback he got was, "The resume is very good, there are no shortcomings and needs to be revised."
Loss is slowly accumulated within three months of job hunting.
Chen Yifei remembers the initial frustration of being rejected. In early March, she uploaded her resume to a Shanghai-based Internet company and chose three advertising-related positions according to the job requirements.
She started to check the process on the official website every day, and after waiting anxiously for a week, she saw that the process on the platform's official website had become "the process has ended".
She realized her resume didn't even pass the initial screening.
And then repeat the anxiety every morning.
After waking up, Chen Yifei submitted his resume over and over again according to the spring recruitment information form compiled on the social platform.
Among the more than 150 resumes submitted, the number of interviews was about 10, and the number of offers was 1.
This only job opportunity required her to go to Shanghai for an internship immediately. Considering the epidemic situation in Shanghai and the busy graduation season, Chen Yifei had to give up the only opportunity.
Similar to Chen Yifei's situation, Guo Jie, who graduated from a second college in Beijing, majoring in human resource management, also spent a spring of nothing.
At first, she set her sights on a bank near her home. After receiving no reply, Guo Jie began to pay close attention to the employment platform for college students in Beijing since April, and participated in three online double-selection meetings.
There are basically more than 50 companies participating in each double-selection meeting, click on the company, and submit the resume. She repeated these steps and delivered more than 100 companies.
After the resume was sent, it was like a rock, no phone calls, no text messages, no emails, and no company responded to her.
"I'm just an ordinary second-class student, and I don't have any advantages on my resume." Guo Jie commented on herself.
When she was most discouraged, she went to the supermarket in front of her house to buy things, thinking that she would just clean up in the supermarket.
The change of the graduation double election meeting to online is only part of the impact of the epidemic.
According to the "Report on the Employment Market of College Graduates in the First Quarter of 2022" released by Zhaopin, the CIER index of college graduates in the first quarter of 2022 (reflecting the overall trend of the employment market) was 0.71, falling to the lowest point since 2020, significantly lower than National level of 1.56.
The report pointed out that the increase in the number of job applicants in the first quarter of 2022 was significantly greater than the increase in the number of recruitment needs.
The decline of the company's recruitment scale and budget has directly affected Li Kai's job search process.
He graduated from Inner Mongolia University, majoring in broadcasting and hosting arts. At the end of 2021, he began to look for jobs on major job-seeking platforms, and followed more than a dozen public accounts that released information on spring recruitment.
Because he has no internship experience, he adopts the delivery method of casting a wide net when applying for a job: consulting industry, venture capital, marketing, exhibition planning, game industry, advertising push, intellectual property, and any position he has applied for.
After getting the opportunity to chat with HR, he also checked a lot of information as much as possible to learn the knowledge of posting positions.
On March 11, the HR of an entrepreneurial service provider in Beijing contacted Li Kai, and after two rounds of interviews, he sent Li Kai an acceptance letter to Guan Trainee in early April, promising to wait for his entry sign after graduation in June. According to the labor contract, the monthly salary was 11,000 yuan unexpectedly.
Li Kai breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the job search could finally come to an end.
On May 17, Li Kai received a message that gave him a head start.
The company's HR told him, "I am sorry to contact you here. Affected by the epidemic in recent months, many of the company's sales and delivery tasks cannot be carried out normally, economic benefits have fallen sharply, and the living environment has become increasingly difficult. After a series of layoffs and salary cuts After that, the company is still unable to afford new employees, so it is no longer able to provide you with job opportunities.”
HR told him that he was also part of the layoffs.
More than half of May has passed. Standing on the tail of Spring Recruitment, Li Kai feels helpless. Being cancelled not only means losing time, but also losing the time window for school recruiting, and there is almost no choice.
Stability in the vortex
Jenny, a master's student from the Finance Department of the University of Adelaide, one of Australia's eight famous universities, is facing a huge gap in the spring recruitment.
In July 2021, Jenny finished her studies, and after returning to China in September, she began to look for a job in Beijing.
She scans the official websites and apps of major financial consulting companies every day, and has repeatedly revised several versions of her resume according to the specific requirements of different positions in different companies.
Before each interview, she finds the interview company's strategy on social platforms, and then writes a version of the answering skills that she summarizes.
However, after submitting more than 30 resumes, the number of interviews in the second round was only single digits, and no offer letter was received.
The freshman status can only be retained for one year. Under the pressure of time, Jenny found a job search agency located in Jiuxianqiao, Beijing after the year.
During the interview, the person in charge of the agency swore to tell her that there was no problem with entering the foreign company of her dreams, and promised to arrange internship opportunities in the Big Four accounting firms to help her get internship certificates and opportunities for internal referrals and interviews.
On March 10, Jenny signed a contract with a job search agency and paid 36,300 yuan.
It starts with revising resumes, training written tests, mock interviews, and then a long wait.
The originally promised four internship opportunities were replaced by an internship with an unknown accounting firm. After the internship, I only got a recommendation letter and no internship certificate.
As for the interview opportunity, the agency used the epidemic as an excuse to keep delaying. By the end of April, Jenny realized that she might have been deceived.
While requesting a refund from the job-seeking agency, while submitting a resume to make up for the missed spring recruiting opportunity, "I'm looking for a job under enormous pressure." Jenny said with a sigh.
Her job-hunting expectations have also dropped over time, and she has delivered a lot of "unfavorable companies" in the past, and her expected salary has also dropped from tens of thousands of yuan to 8,000 yuan.
Six years ago, Jenny went to Australia to study at a university. After graduating from an undergraduate degree, she went to a graduate school. The major she chose was finance. At the time, this major meant a high-paying future, which meant that the educational capital paid would be rewarded after graduation.
Roughly, in Australia for 5 years, her tuition and living expenses are about 1.6 million yuan.
Chen Yifei, a graduate of 985 College, has also interviewed several advertising companies, and one of them clearly told her that the maximum salary can only be 6,500 yuan.
In addition to the cost of renting a house in a first-tier city, and the cost of a round-trip ticket to return to her hometown every month, she judged that she could not even live independently on her salary.
But the employment situation was so difficult that she lowered her salary to 7,000 yuan.
Guo Jie, who positions herself as an "ordinary second-class student", has very low salary requirements. "As long as you are willing to give me a job and pay me a salary, I can accept any amount."
Lowering employment expectations is a common choice for current freshmen.
According to the "2022 College Student Employability Survey Report" released by Zhaopin in April: 55% of graduates have lowered their expectations due to external factors such as the economic environment, and only 27.2% of graduates have higher expectations.
The adjustment of 65% of graduates' employment expectations is affected by "job-seeking competition", and 57.1% and 49.4% of graduates are affected by "domestic economic situation" and "industrial development" respectively.
Most graduates have rational expectations for the pressures facing the economy and the job market.
According to the data in the report: the average expected monthly salary of 2022 graduates is 6,295 yuan, down about 6% from last year.
Most graduates are willing to lower salary requirements to adapt to the job market.
In addition to lowering salary expectations, the same report shows that state-owned enterprises are still the first choice for graduates in terms of their preferred types of employment companies, accounting for 44.4%, higher than 42.5% in 2021, and 17.4% choosing private enterprises, which is higher than that in 2019. 19% continued to decline.
The popularity of state-owned enterprises and public examinations has increased, and the popularity of private enterprises has decreased, which together reflects the intensification of this graduate's attitude towards stability in choosing jobs.
Fresh student Tong Lei is a member of the pursuit of the establishment.
Tong Lei is about to graduate from a double first-class university in Beijing, majoring in preschool education.
Most of the students in this major tend to apply for public kindergartens with career establishments. In the interviews in the autumn and spring recruitment, Tong Lei felt that the competition was extremely fierce.
In the early days of her job search, Tong Lei delivered online to some well-known kindergartens, but none of them passed the initial screening.
The competitive pressure has not diminished after the switch to ordinary public kindergartens.
There will be 20 to 30 people participating in the offline interview.
Like watching a theatrical performance, Tong Lei sat in the auditorium, the teachers in the front row were interviewing, watching the students who applied for the job come to the stage to show their talents one by one.
"They are very professional in dancing, they know all kinds of musical instruments, and they are tall and beautiful." In contrast, he only learned the piano after college, and the daffodil waltz and scale songs he prepared seemed Can't get it out.
In early March, after participating in more than 10 interviews, Tong Lei passed an interview at a public kindergarten and started her internship.
If it goes well, she will sign the "National Employment Agreement for Graduates of Regular Colleges and Universities" after 3 months of internship.
Two weeks after the internship, the school's admissions officer informed 15 interns that the kindergarten could only provide 6 establishment positions.
Tong Lei is introverted, with the childishness of students in her conversation, and is not good at handling interpersonal relationships with school leaders. Thinking that it is unlikely to stay, she gave up the competition on March 11.
That day, Tong Lei wiped her tears all the way on the subway back to school.
Flexible employment, sink into real life
Before applying for a job, graduates have a lot of imagination for their first job.
Jenny, who has five years of study abroad experience, believes that she is more adaptable and stress-resistant than other graduates.
She dreams of being able to work in a foreign company, with relatively more welfare training and seminars in foreign companies, so that she can improve her knowledge and ability quickly.
For Jenny, a platform that allows her to learn is crucial, and she doesn't mind the pressure of overtime and competition.
This expectation is often met with obstacles when applying for a job.
Foreign companies have high requirements for hard skills, such as statistical analysis, data processing, modeling capabilities, and even programming languages.
Whenever HR asks if these skills can be used proficiently, Jenny can only answer honestly, just basic level.
Jenny pondered the possible disappointment of HR in her heart, and then a burst of grievances appeared: her data processing ability is similar to that of her classmates. Aren't these skills improved while working?
Chen Yifei from Anhui set the target city for job hunting as Shanghai.
Advertising majors have greater opportunities for development in first-tier cities. Shanghai is close to home. As an only child, she can also go home to see her parents every month.
For future planning, Chen Yifei is very clear. She wants to follow her hobbies and continue to engage in creative-related work. As for the company she will join in the future, she hopes that the company will have a mature structure system.
The income does not need to be too high, but at least ensure that you can live independently in Shanghai.
Similar to them, large and medium-sized enterprises are the choice of most graduates.
However, Guo Jie's job search focus is different. She pays more attention to the coordination of work and life, and pays more attention to the stability of her work.
Before applying for a job, she clearly knew that she wanted to find a job that was close to home and would not work overtime.
That way, she has time to cook, eat with her boyfriend, and walk the dog together after dinner.
Before graduation, Guo Jie groped for her own business, and partnered with a friend to open a script-killing store.
She is in charge of clerk recruitment, operations and the publishing and distribution of scripts.
During the epidemic period, the store cannot continue to operate, but because of the small initial investment, the business can still continue.
Guo Jie said that in her second university, there are not a few "slashed youth" like her, and many of her classmates work part-time during school to earn some extra money.
The "2022 College Student Employability Survey Report" shows that in addition to lowering psychological expectations and more conservative job-seeking behavior, fresh graduates may hedge their immediate employment by entering freelance jobs, slow employment, and further study, or by seeking employment in state-owned enterprises and micro-enterprises. for stability and employment.
Guo Jie also had an internship experience in a state-owned enterprise. On the first day of her internship, a colleague asked her to pick up the courier. She walked to the courier point in the cold wind, only to find out that the courier was a snack bought by her colleague.
After returning to the office, she shouted loudly in the office, "No one will ask me to take the courier in the future." The senior who recruited her in persuaded her that the intern has no work, and this is part of your job.
Guo Jie finally couldn't hold back her anger, "Then why didn't you tell me when you were interviewing that my job was to deliver couriers!"
The internship therefore only lasted one day.
Guo Jie brings the vitality of the younger generation. In her cognition, work is just a job, and the company should pay money for labor. She does not need to be low-profile, let alone be grateful.
"The most important thing is my life," she said.
On April 23 and April 24, Guo Jie participated in two offline double elections in Beijing.
She has prepared more than 100 resumes, and when she sees a job-hunting booth, she submits it. When she encounters a less busy HR, she takes the initiative to introduce herself.
She is extroverted and easily exuding confidence.
In just one afternoon, she and more than half of the HR team won the opportunity for an on-site interview.
"I didn't want to be the one who got picked," she said.
During the interview, although she did not have high expectations for the salary, she also actively protected her rights and interests, whether she needed to work overtime frequently, whether it was a weekend break, and what the company's specific benefits were. She asked these questions in detail.
A large private company offered Guo Jie an offer within a week. The position is a management trainee, and he can officially join after graduation.
During her internship in this company, Guo Jie found that she had only one intern in the human resources management position.
She asked the leader, why not recruit a few interns to compete, and then stay with the best.
The leader replied, "Would you like to put it aside? The golden period for graduates to find a job is only a few months. It's a waste of time for other people's conscience."
Hearing this, she felt that it was the right time for her to come to this company.
Guard the fire in the heart
In March, after being recommended by a previous internship kindergarten, Tong Lei came to the current kindergarten. Although the scale and hardware facilities of the school are not as good as those of the previous school, Tong Lei will have a career establishment.
In mid-May, she signed a tripartite agreement, and her job search that spanned more than half a year was finally settled.
"I'm not very good. Compared with most of my classmates, I'm lucky." Tong Lei admitted frankly.
This joy wrapped in "lucky" did not last long, and what Tong Lei began to feel was the separation of the knowledge she had learned and her real work.
"The things learned in school seem to be high-rise, very beautiful and idealized. In kindergarten, I found that this is not the case." Tong Lei said helplessly.
"Children are feet, education is shoes." This is the educational philosophy she believes in.
Preschool children are in a very special psychological stage. She believes that teachers should help children get close to nature, respect children's personality development, and pay attention to children's individual differences.
But in the real teaching process, Tong Lei found that these "should things" are difficult to achieve.
Teachers often spend a lot of time maintaining order, and the most common words are "don't move" and "don't talk".
Fortunately, I was physically and mentally exhausted when I first entered the workplace, and I found relief in getting along with every child.
Tong Lei remembered the personality of each child in the class, and the touch of each soft little hand pulling her finger.
"Teacher, you are so cute", "Teacher, I love you", the children never hesitate to express their trust and love to her.
Kindergartens have been closed due to the outbreak in Beijing.
Tong Lei often thinks of the children in her class. What worries her most is a little boy with ADHD in the class.
Thinking about it now, Tong Lei knows that he needs the attention and approval of those around him. After school starts, she wants to slowly guide his behavior and patiently respond to his needs.
For Li Kai, the first half a year of job hunting is a temporary compromise process.
While chatting with the head of a game company, Li Kai was asked to analyze the company's products.
Opening the video, Li Kai found that from the art style to the design concept, it was very similar to a mobile game once launched by a foreign game company.
Although he despised this kind of behavior in his heart, he still praised the game's prospects against his will, "After all, it is not me who is picking people, it is people who are picking me."
After the contract was broken, Li Kai described himself as a headless fly for more jobs.
When interviewing for a sales position, HR asked him, "Have you considered it? Have you really decided to do sales?" Li Kai suddenly stopped talking, "No one has ever asked me what I want to do. Philosophically interrogated, I realized that I hadn't figured out my career plan."
Since then, his mentality began to change, and he decided to slow down, study the needs of various industries, and think about what his heart desires.
After four years of studying advertising, Chen Yifei's love for advertising has only increased.
"When you suddenly burst into inspiration in the middle of the night, come up with an excellent idea, and then watch the idea become a reality, spread, influence the people around you and even the entire era, and become a common memory for a generation, how romantic and fulfilling it is I feel grateful." At the end of his graduation thesis thanks, Chen Yifei wrote this sentence.
The moment of disillusionment came quickly. During a draft pitch, the team leader said at an internal meeting that he would try to fight a price war with another company, and win the project even if he lost money, otherwise he would not be able to complete several projects throughout the year.
Such things are commonplace. After following up on several projects, Chen Yifei realized that this is a job that is controlled by others, and creativity is not the core of the job.
The face always has to be faced.
In his spare time, Chen Yifei likes to go to the flower, bird, fish and insect market.
Because of her frequent visits, the owners of several stores knew her and would release the small animals from their cages for her to play with the animals.
The air in the market was hot and humid, the budgerigars had beautiful feathers, and Xuanfeng's melodious calls made her watching and listening, feeling relaxed and satisfied.
Chen Yifei said that she will always be a person who respects creativity and is willing to live a turbulent life full of adventure and unknown.
"Maybe I will leave this industry in the future and take the civil service exam or career establishment. But definitely not now." She said with a firm tone.
(All characters in the text are pseudonyms)
Beijing News reporter Yang Liu