The '90-Hou' adults begin job hunt
- By Zhou Jing
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail
China.org.cn, November 17, 2011
Some new college graduates have clear career directions, others are quite lost. All will be tested by an increasingly competitive market in this economically uncertain time.
 |
|
The time has come for the first wave of "90-Hou" – or Chinese young adults born in the 1990s – to finish school and join society. [Photo: Sina.com.cn] |
The time has come for the first wave of "90-Hou" – or Chinese young adults born in the 1990s – to finish school and join society.
At 8:30 a.m. on Nov. 10, a lengthy queue of new university graduates were already waiting outside an exhibition center in Shanghai's Xujiahui district. Others late in coming – perhaps still hanging on to wakeup habits from college – could easily find the entrance just by following the moving crowd.
The annual job fair was heralded by recruiters in suits, standing on the curves or weaving in and out of the crowds handing out pamphlets introducing the companies and providing maps for the event.
When doors opened at 9 a.m., the eager job hunters poured into the halls with their stacks of resumes, and many were soon taught one of their first important life lessons: taking refusals. And they would push on and dutifully prepare for the afternoon interviews.
Just as they are taking off the sneakers they ride the subways in and changing into high heels before facing their bosses, the younglings – who for so long have been the generation of rebels and Internet-dependants – are learning the steps of entering adulthood.
Tong Xiaochen: full speed ahead
Born in 1990, Tong Xiaochen is a senior majoring in Korean at the Shanghai International Studies University. She will soon graduate and become one of the first 90-Hou's to enter society.
Tong took up several internship opportunities while attending college. As a junior, she was at times a translator, an interpreter and a clerk for a variety of Korean companies. During her senior year, she became an interpreter for a South Korean business executive, and she would work every day from 7 a.m. to deep into the night.
However, Tong might consider herself lucky compared to a friend who had to cut classes because of conflicting schedules with his internship, and was warned he might not receive his diploma.
Yet both knew the importance of internships. "If we only take classes and have no work experience, what companies would hire us?"
Still, Tong had not let her academics lag behind, taking national language level exams in both English and Korean. Realizing the importance of personal networks in her job search, she has also been trying to look for and seize any opportunities in her social relationships.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)