A Beijing graduate student’s 200-day job search: Jobs are really hard-won

A Beijing graduate student’s 200-day job search: a job is really hard-won

In a few days, Li Xinyong (pseudonym) will return to Beijing again. After the defense of his graduate thesis, his school life will also come to an end.

Two years of graduate school life is really short. He still remembered that on the day he reported to school, the cicadas on the tree kept chirping. Although the weather was very hot, he was in a good mood.

What he didn’t expect was that just one year later, his happiness would be replaced by the worries of job hunting. After traveling for nearly 200 days, submitting more than 200 resumes, more than 40 interviews, and spending more than 5,000 yuan, Li Xinyong now feels that his job is really hard-won.

A long-awaited job

In 2007, Li Xinyong, a junior in college in Jinan, chose to take the postgraduate entrance examination like many of his classmates. After a year of intense review, at this time in 2012, he got a postgraduate admission notice from a university in Beijing as he wished. As for why he took the postgraduate entrance examination, he thought like many people at the time, to find a better job in the future.

According to the original plan, this "better" job should be in Beijing. But now, he is sitting in a bank branch in Jinan and starting to practice counting banknotes. If nothing else happens, he will sign a contract with this bank in a while and officially take up the post in July.

According to the bank’s arrangements, the personnel recruited this time will undergo internships in four batches starting from the end of April, with each batch lasting 20 days. Li Xinyong chose the first batch so that he could finish early and return to his hometown first. Then (after May 10) go back to school to prepare for the final matters of thesis defense.

Now, Li Xinyong is familiar with the most basic operational knowledge at the bank. He doesn’t know whether he will stay in the branch or be assigned to a lower branch in the future. In the eyes of outsiders, this result is quite good. Moreover, there are few graduate students recruited this time, so they are more likely to stay in the branch, but Li Xinyong is not very satisfied with this.

However, for him now, this is close to the last choice. I started looking for a job in September last year and only found it in April this year. This job seemed a little late.

In early April, before Li Xinyong came to Jinan to take the bank exam, there was a position in Beijing that he was interested in signing, but because he could not solve the household registration problem, he did not agree. At that time, in order to take the written examination in Jinan, he also gave up interview opportunities in several units in Beijing, and the bank had become his last bet.

Fortunately, the work finally fell into place.

Thinking of returning to Beijing?

? Let’s work for a few years first. I still want to return to Beijing for development in the future. ?Li Xinyong still regrets not being able to stay in Beijing. He said that although the pressure in Beijing is high, there are more opportunities there.

Li Xinyong’s hometown is in Heze. In 2004, he was admitted to a university in Jinan majoring in economics, with a class of 41 students. Before graduation, most people in this class chose to take the postgraduate entrance examination, and 25 people passed the national line for the postgraduate re-examination that year. At that time, most of the students who were working were working in the banking system in Shandong Province. In 2012, Li Xinyong was admitted to a two-year postgraduate program at a university in Beijing, majoring in international finance.

Today, two years later, he joined the banking system like his undergraduate classmates. However, in his opinion, compared to undergraduates, the progress in knowledge of graduate students is secondary. What is more important is the change in mentality and a more mature view of problems. He also feels that students in Beijing are more career-conscious than students in Shandong, and they will seize every opportunity, while students in Shandong are obviously much more honest.

?There is an atmosphere in Beijing where everyone is rushing for work. Sometimes I attend up to four or five interviews a day, and I take the bus to catch the next interview if I don’t have time to eat lunch. ?Li Xinyong said.

New life

? There was no plan when I was looking for a job, but I knew it would be difficult. ?Li Xinyong said that the year he graduated as an undergraduate was just before the financial crisis. After graduating this year, the crisis has basically passed. Compared with last year, the employment situation this year is better. Taking banks as an example, they have hired many more people this year.

Having experienced failed interviews again and again, Li Xinyong now considers himself an interview master and has summed up some experience. For example, state-owned enterprise recruitment pays more attention to overall quality, political outlook, etc., while foreign companies will pay more attention to your professional qualifications, internship experience and foreign language proficiency.

At the same time, he also learned that he must not show off during the interview and must have a sufficient understanding of the company before the interview. ?Once an interviewer from a fund company asked, ?Which school are you from?? He replied, XX school, but he said directly, ?How dare you come to such a small school? ?Talking about such an interview experience of his classmate, Li Xinyong felt very shocked. In his words, although his school is well-known nationwide, it still appears weak in competition in Beijing.

In Li Xinyong’s view, the securities investment industry is one of the most profitable industries at present. Before graduating, he interned at a securities company in Beijing, but the company had no recruitment plans this year, which also made him regretful.

Nowadays, most of Li Xinyong’s classmates have already settled down. About half of the boys have settled their jobs a year ago, while the number of girls is slightly worse.

After work, there is another major event in life. Li Xinyong’s girlfriend was also in a college in Jinan before and was a high school classmate with him. She was not admitted to Beijing’s graduate school this year. Now that Li Xinyong's job has been decided, his girlfriend will also find a job in Jinan. In the past few days, Li Xinyong also took the time to pay attention to Jinan's housing market. Although housing prices are much lower than those in Beijing, they are still a bit high for him.

Renting is obviously more suitable.

In any case, in July, a new life will begin, Li Xinyong is looking forward to it? ;