The harsh realities of job hunting
She had thought such experience would make it easy for her to find a glamorous and decent high-paying job in the future, and reach a career at least as successful as her parents’.
According to the 2024 China International Students Returning to China for Jobs Insight Report released by LinkedIn, a globally renowned recruitment platform, as many as 84 per cent of international students choose to return to their home countries for employment after studying overseas.
Upon completion of their studies, Tong eagerly went into the job-seeking market. However, her CV was largely ignored, whether at multinationals, state-owned enterprises or internet companies. She submitted hundreds of CVs and attended countless interviews, but never found her ideal job.
“It’s been three months since I returned from the UK and I still haven’t got a job. My undergraduate and master’s degrees cost my family 3 million yuan, but the monthly salary of a civil servant is only 3,000 yuan, so I probably won’t be able to earn back the money I spent on studying abroad in my lifetime.” Tong said.
Her friend, who works at Tik Tok, told her that in 2017, entry-level positions only required a bachelor’s degree, but now they require a bachelor’s degree from a “985” university and a master’s degree from a QS top 20 university in the world to get an interview, and usually it takes five interview rounds, and some internships even require 10 or more interviews. Her CV didn’t even pass the initial CV selection.
Balancing personal ambitions and reality
She decided to take the civil service exam.
According to the “Employment Report of Returned Overseas Students” released by New Oriental, an international authority on studying in China, the average number of job choices for returned overseas students when taking the civil service exam is higher than that of non-fresh graduates of undergraduate programmes studying in China.
Returnees’ average choice of jobs was 15, while the average choice of jobs for non-fresh graduates was 10. This difference in data reflects, in part, the job selection advantage that comes with the study abroad experience.
“At our class, many students are here to prepare for the civil service exam, and 20% of them are international students. Some students even choose to study abroad to find the right major for the civil service exam, essentially “getting” a master’s degree just for the qualification.” Said Zhang Peng, Civil service exam training class teacher.
Investment not matching the income
“My cousin went to Australia from high school and spent double what I did, and my uncle told me he wants her brother to take the civil service exam as well the other day.” she said.
“I invested a lot of time and money, but when I returned home I found the job market was not friendly to me.” Tong said. “Right now, my study abroad experience doesn’t seem to give me any advantage.”
“We all think studying abroad is a shortcut to make us more competitive in the job market, but the reality is cruel. Maybe we should really consider other ways out.” Tong’s friend Yinhang, an international student at Bangkok University, said.
Tong shook she head, “I’m not willing to give up just like that. Our educational background and ability shouldn’t be buried. We have given so much and deserve to be rewarded accordingly.”
“But the reality is that we have to face an increasingly discerning market. You need to realise here how fierce the competition is now. Even graduates from top universities in China are fighting for an average position, and we overseas returnees don’t have much of an advantage at all.” Yinhang said.
While in the UK, Tong often flew to European countries on weekends for pleasure trips, and the secretive nature of civil service work required the surrender of passports.
She sighed, “This means I’ll lose the opportunity to travel freely, and the thought of that is a bit disheartening.”
