College counselors and teachers persuade students to "speak up" and "run off their legs" for
college students' "slow employment" should they persuade them
"Have you looked for a job? When do you plan to look for it?"
During the recent period of time, Teacher Fang Caixia, a graduating class counselor of a certain university in East China, would "instinctively" say this every time he sees a student.
Her daily “top priority” this semester is to talk about employment with students.
There are 60 students in her class, and almost half of them have talked deeply.
We often use WeChat voice calls to contact each day, which can be as short as seven or eight minutes and as long as half an hour.
In addition, she often walks into the dormitory to communicate face-to-face with the students, first "chat" life topics to open up the other's heart, and then painstakingly persuade them to get a job.
Although some students have a good attitude, they will find all kinds of reasons to practice Tai Chi; some students simply "lost", text messages will not answer, phone calls will not answer, can only delay for a while before persuading.
In recent years, the phenomenon of “slow employment” of university graduates has become more common, which has brought certain difficulties and challenges to the employment guidance work of universities.
Due to the rigid requirements of the employment rate, the counselors and teachers who directly face the students often become the terminal for the transmission of employment pressure.
In this tug-of-war around employment, there has been a phenomenon that students are not in a hurry and teachers are anxious, but to persuade employment counsellors and teachers to "go dry" and "run off their legs".
Advising employment requires special attention to methods
"In a class, there are always three or five people who are not rushing to find a job." Liu Weili, a post-95 counselor who works in a higher vocational college, said frankly that although most students will actively seek jobs, there are always Some students with relatively negative employment concepts account for about 20% of the total number.
"They always like to find all kinds of excuses, such as waiting for the driver's license to be taken before looking for a job, or simply saying that they don't plan to find employment for the time being."
For these students, Liu Weili was afraid that the words were too heavy and pressed, and they would be disgusted. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the way of communication.
If things go on like this, he also summed up a set of "promotion system for employment."
"On the phone, I usually first ask about the student’s desire to find a job. If the other party wants to find a job slowly, I will remind him that the status of a'graduated graduate' is very precious. You can use the graduation season to find a job. Don’t miss this time. Duan.” Liu Weili recalled, the replies on the other end of the phone were basically "good".
At this time, Liu Weili will further ask the students what their current employment desires are, including factors such as location, industry, salary and other considerations. If the student responds, Liu Weili will follow up with a supplementary question: "Which channels do you use to obtain employment information?"
But the reply is often: "I just looked at it online."
Liu Weili will patiently continue to persuade: "You can usually go to the employment website of the education department, pay attention to the employment information of the class group, and some job search apps, and pay attention to the employment information release..." But most students' answer is still only two words— -"Ok".
"I usually ask about my intention first, and then see if I have suitable job resource recommendations, and use a relatively soft way to guide students to find employment." After each communication, Liu Weili feels helpless.
In his view, employment is the student's own business. If the student's employment goal is clear, slow down. "But those students who don't know one question and three questions are really anxious."
During the interview, many counselors and teachers reported that their stress was related to the school’s employment rate statistics.
On the one hand, the education department has high requirements for the employment rate of schools, and the initial employment rate needs to reach 80% to 85%, but the deadline for reporting statistics is often set at the end of August. This causes the phenomenon of colleges and universities urging students to find employment, and this pressure is naturally transmitted. To the counselor teacher.
On the other hand, every year there will be a considerable number of postgraduate "World War II" students. If the employment agreement has not been signed, it will also affect the employment rate of the year. This part of students is also a "key" and "difficulty."
About 40% of the students in the class led by Lu Shuai, a graduating class counselor at a college in Hefei, Anhui, are busy getting their graduation thesis first, always thinking about finding a job after graduation.
Since March this year, anxiety has been with him.
Every week, Lu Shuai calls all the students and asks them about their job search. Once a student says that he is looking for a job, he will follow up on the progress after a week.
On the phone, he tried his best to make his tone "kind": "How are you doing? Can you find a job? What are your plans?" However, many students who chose to take the postgraduate entrance examination for "World War II" clearly refused: they are not in a hurry. I'm still young, and I can have a better job for the postgraduate entrance examination.
Persuasion in every possible way but not worthy of a word of peers
According to Fang Caixia's observation, in recent years, 20% to 40% of students are not in a hurry to find a job every year.
The common reasons for the "slow employment" of these college graduates include: some people fail in the postgraduate entrance examination but are unwilling and choose to continue the "World War II"; some people concentrate on reviewing at home in order to enter the civil service or public institutions; and a few students simply avoid employment.
She analyzed that, on the one hand, affected by the epidemic, some students felt the pressure of employment and would give priority to units within the system, feeling stable; there are also some students who have superior family conditions and are not in a hurry to find a job and want to "buffer" for a period of time.
The attitude of parents is also a key factor in determining students' employment mentality.
Fang Caixia found in her contact that some parents are too doting on their children.
The father of a student in the class she led said in communication that even though his daughter had graduated from university, she was still too young, and entering society quickly might not necessarily adapt, so she was reluctant to go out to find a job.
Some parents think that there are too many undergraduates in society now. Compared with letting their children find employment, it is a better choice to go to graduate school or PhD to get their academic qualifications up, and then find a job.
Liu Weili remembered that when one of his counsellor colleagues asked about the employment situation of the students on the phone, the other parent grabbed the phone and asked in an angry tone: "Does your school necessarily require your children to be employed now?"
The counselor could only replied helplessly: "This is not mandatory. We just care about the current situation of the students. I will explain to you specifically..."
In Liu Weili's view, families and schools must understand each other. When it comes to student employment, everyone can work together to help students correct their mentality and make the most suitable life choices for them.
Compared with the family, the influence of the same age group cannot be ignored.
Fang Caixia observed that students in the same dormitory or class have mutual influence.
In some dormitories, one student fought hard for the postgraduate entrance examination, and the other three also read books carefully and compared each other to make study plans.
But in the same dormitory, as long as one person does not want to get a job, this sentiment will spread quickly, causing the other three people to be unwilling to find a job.
Their mentality is that everyone is not in a hurry anyway, and I don't care.
Fang Caixia said that the counselors' persuasion in every possible way is often not worth a word between peers.
Each student's growth experience and family background are different. The counselor and teacher can only be emotional and understand the rationale, communicate more with students and parents, think in different ways, and finally guide them to make the most reasonable choice.
Whether it is employment or slow employment, every trial and error and challenge in every experience is life wealth.
Dialectically look at "slow" and "three in one" to promote employment
Will "slow employment" be beaten to death?
In this regard, Wang Yunfei, an associate professor at the School of Social and Political Science of Anhui University, believes that it cannot be generalized and should be treated dialectically.
"For active and reasonable'slowness', society should fully understand and tolerate, but passive and lazy'slowness' must arouse vigilance and reflection."
Wang Yunfei pointed out that if students make a “slow employment” decision after fully assessing the situation, choosing ways to support education, entrepreneurship, etc. for a period of time after graduation, is a good thing.
"Students can take advantage of this'waiting period' to learn new knowledge and gain momentum, which can not only improve their own abilities, but also reduce the employment pressure of the society."
In this regard, Liu Weili also observed that, in fact, some of the slow-employed students have a positive attitude.
"For example, someone wants to experience a period of time in the company where they are currently intern, learn some real skills, and then decide whether to stay. This group of students should be supported and encouraged because they have clear goals."
Wang Yunfei believes that if college students’ slow employment decision is blind and hasty, and they choose various reasons to avoid competition, “slow employment” becomes a bad thing.
"At this time, families and schools need to persuade and guide work to solve problems, and government departments and society need to promote more to form an atmosphere that encourages employment, so that young people can actively face society and plan their lives."
Li Ya, who is in charge of employment guidance for students at a university in Anhui Province, called on government departments to design and introduce guidance policies that encourage graduates to actively seek employment.
For example, in terms of postgraduate entrance examinations, public examinations, and examinations, we should focus on encouraging graduates with work experience to apply for the examination, instead of focusing on recruiting fresh graduates and graduates who have not been employed within two years after graduation, as under the current policy.
"Although the original intention of this system is to solve the employment problem of unemployed graduates, it has become one of the factors affecting graduates' active employment."
In addition, in his view, although counselors are the backbone of employment guidance, they have too many jobs to put all the burden on them, and the pressure must be properly released.
"Universities should treat employment guidance as professional work, strengthen the career planning and employment guidance ability training of counselors, promote the docking mechanism between the market and universities, and rely on the strength of the human resource organization in the society to strengthen student employment guidance."
Wang Yunfei also pointed out that although “guide students to find employment” belongs to the job responsibilities of counselors, it is necessary to reduce and loosen the burden on counselors during periods of large employment fluctuations.
To this end, the leaders of schools, departments, and teachers should all "participate" to help graduates understand the meaning of employment and master the methods of job hunting.
Li Ya suggested that efforts should be made to promote the construction of a trinity and inter-linked employment guidance pattern for schools, families and society.
The first is to strengthen school education, through curriculum, management, service and other carriers, strengthen labor education and employment education, to help students correctly understand the macro and micro employment environment, and enhance employment and entrepreneurship capabilities; the second is to strengthen family guidance, through parental transmission and family education. Nurturing, help students establish correct values and employment concepts; third, we must strengthen social services, build a consensus on the value of professional equality and labor glory in the whole society, reverse the "education-only" and "hat-only" orientation of employers, and actively do Fresh graduates provide employment guidance services.
(At the request of interviewees, Fang Caixia, Liu Weili, Lu Shuai, and Li Ya are all pseudonyms)
China Youth Daily·China Youth Daily reporter Wang Lei, Wang Haihan and intern Wei Huimin Source: China Youth Daily