I find it interesting reading stories about overseas graduates struggling to find work back in China. From our company's perspective in Shanghai, we'd actually love to hire these people. The math is simple - having employees with good English, international experience, and solid work habits would boost our revenue significantly.
We've tried recruiting from this pool, offering good salaries and reasonable working conditions. Our expectations aren't crazy high, and we don't have the brutal hours you see elsewhere.
But honestly, the experience has been disappointing. We've had recent graduates who spend entire days doing essentially nothing, even when they could easily solve their problems by asking AI or doing basic research. Instead, they end up scrolling social media.
We eventually had to let them all go, though we keep trying. What's amazing is that our best performers are people without fancy degrees or big city backgrounds - folks who came to Shanghai hungry to work and learn. These guys literally get 3x the work done compared to college graduates with prestigious credentials. They're street smart, figure things out fast, and don't waste time. When they hit a problem, they solve it instead of sitting around. Their attitude and hustle beats fancy degrees all day long.
We haven't given up on finding overseas talent, but it's taught us that work ethic and street smarts beat credentials every time.
It’s a bit crazy to think that those with overseas degrees ended up returning to China. I suppose they didn’t know how bad the situation was at home, didn’t have luck finding work overseas and had no choice, or perhaps have parents whom they wanted to be close to. I know of one engineer who chose to return to China during COVID, and that was seen as a logical way by many.
And I think it’s almost common knowledge in China that studying humanities is going to make job hunting especially tough even during the best of times…
As I’ve been saying to anyone who would listen, people should leave while they can. In the best case scenario, things stagnate for the foreseeable future. If the economy and your livelihood plateaus while the rest of the world continues progressing upwards, then you’re slowly declining over time. Even worse for your kids if they come into the picture.
Mainly that by 2022 or so (after the Shanghai lockdown viral video), it should be pretty clear to most Chinese people how the government operates. So if one knew that and still chose to return to China, that seems crazy to me.
The one engineer I mentioned went back in 2020, which does make sense given the situation then. But for anyone making that choice after Shanghai 2022, unless it’s for familial reasons, it just does not make good sense anymore.
As Beijing becomes more paranoid about the sources of their young peoples' education, the young are reconsidering the authenticity of their lives in a world where older narratives are crumbling and the age of endless export growth has ended.
You summarized it well! At the same time, I don't think education officials are concerned about employment of overseas grads—they are a small group compared to domestic grads, are not taken into account in their KPIs. From Beijing's POV, they tend to have a safety net to fall back on instead of causing social instability. So all in all, they don't matter.
I find it interesting reading stories about overseas graduates struggling to find work back in China. From our company's perspective in Shanghai, we'd actually love to hire these people. The math is simple - having employees with good English, international experience, and solid work habits would boost our revenue significantly.
We've tried recruiting from this pool, offering good salaries and reasonable working conditions. Our expectations aren't crazy high, and we don't have the brutal hours you see elsewhere.
But honestly, the experience has been disappointing. We've had recent graduates who spend entire days doing essentially nothing, even when they could easily solve their problems by asking AI or doing basic research. Instead, they end up scrolling social media.
We eventually had to let them all go, though we keep trying. What's amazing is that our best performers are people without fancy degrees or big city backgrounds - folks who came to Shanghai hungry to work and learn. These guys literally get 3x the work done compared to college graduates with prestigious credentials. They're street smart, figure things out fast, and don't waste time. When they hit a problem, they solve it instead of sitting around. Their attitude and hustle beats fancy degrees all day long.
We haven't given up on finding overseas talent, but it's taught us that work ethic and street smarts beat credentials every time.
Thanks for sharing your perspective! I hope they are only the exceptions and one of us gets to prove our worth haha
It’s a bit crazy to think that those with overseas degrees ended up returning to China. I suppose they didn’t know how bad the situation was at home, didn’t have luck finding work overseas and had no choice, or perhaps have parents whom they wanted to be close to. I know of one engineer who chose to return to China during COVID, and that was seen as a logical way by many.
And I think it’s almost common knowledge in China that studying humanities is going to make job hunting especially tough even during the best of times…
As I’ve been saying to anyone who would listen, people should leave while they can. In the best case scenario, things stagnate for the foreseeable future. If the economy and your livelihood plateaus while the rest of the world continues progressing upwards, then you’re slowly declining over time. Even worse for your kids if they come into the picture.
I wonder why you think it's crazy to think they end up going home?
Mainly that by 2022 or so (after the Shanghai lockdown viral video), it should be pretty clear to most Chinese people how the government operates. So if one knew that and still chose to return to China, that seems crazy to me.
The one engineer I mentioned went back in 2020, which does make sense given the situation then. But for anyone making that choice after Shanghai 2022, unless it’s for familial reasons, it just does not make good sense anymore.
As Beijing becomes more paranoid about the sources of their young peoples' education, the young are reconsidering the authenticity of their lives in a world where older narratives are crumbling and the age of endless export growth has ended.
You summarized it well! At the same time, I don't think education officials are concerned about employment of overseas grads—they are a small group compared to domestic grads, are not taken into account in their KPIs. From Beijing's POV, they tend to have a safety net to fall back on instead of causing social instability. So all in all, they don't matter.
Thank you Yaling, I appreciate your clarification.