China: Please, Give Me a Job · Global Voices
Meng Zhang

Although there are almost half a year before graduation, the seniors in the universities of China have already thrown themselves into the cutthroat job-hunting war. With the meticulously-made resumes, those ready-to-be graduates are busy running about the various job fairs, which can often attract tens of thousands of senior students flocking to seek their ideal work.
Youku vlogger Haomang Yigen (好芒一根) shot a piece of video of the recent “super surprising job fair in Nanchang University” (if the video is slow, you can click here to see the same one in YouTube):
今天12月8号南昌大学举行招聘会！附近大学毕业生有的纷纷涌向拥有亚洲最大校门的南大前湖校区！招聘会外面排队学生波涛汹涌！相互挤压有的女孩都被踩了！深思中国毕业生就业形势的严峻和毕业生的就业压力.虽然有各种形式的就业压力的分流，由于超大批的扩招大学生，一点压力分流就如杯水车薪！
Today is December 8 when it's time for Nanchang University to hold job fair! Some of the nearby graduates have been streaming to the Front Lake Campus(前湖校区) of Nanchang University which owns the biggest gate of Asia! The surge of the students waiting outside the job fair hall has resulted in some incidents that a couple of girls were trampled on in the crowded! Thinking of the serious situation and employment pressure of Chinese graduates, even if there is a variety of ways to help ease the employment pressure, the expanded college students in extremely large quantities still make the measures nonsense!
The report of the 17th CPC National Congress clearly required “the employment work for the university graduates should be done well”, which has fully reflected the Central Party Committee‘s ardent expectation of educational development especially the progress of higher education, the great attention to the employment work for university graduates and good care for the graduate students, China's Education Minister Zhou Ji indicated in a video conference of the 2008 national graduate employment work, which was held on December 5 in Beijing. Despite Minister Zhou's confidence, the annual job fairs across China universities from north to south have been a tough struggle to each senior who is going to work after graduation next year.
Generally, the enormous number of applicants is the stubborn headache to the authorities so that almost every time the organizers have to ask for policemen or security guards to keep order of the job fairs, however, the huge surge of people sometimes still makes the place of recruitment like a battle field.
leafmin in the tianya blog community collected a set of pictures of explosive scenes of job fairs in 2007:
郑州万人招聘会，大门被挤倒，电梯也被挤得变了形
Ten-thousand-people job fair of Zhengzhou, in which the gate was crowded down and the escalator was out of shape
人山人海，见到招聘企业人员的面就已算不错了。别说应聘行不行了！
A sea of people, it had been luckier to meet the company's interviewers. No space to consider whether you were hired or not!
After seeing a news about the graduate job fair in Tianjin, Sina blogger Zhang Le (张乐）recalled a similar scene which he had experienced at the beginning of December in Changchun. The heavy employment pressure had left him little latitude to select a good job:
长春招聘会现场
Changchun Job Fair
学校的老师说，在年前是一个签约的高峰，要把握这段时间尽量多看信息，多应聘，否则就要等到过年的三月份了，如果那个时候再签不到就比较麻烦。
这些天来我天天上网浏览各种招聘信息，忙的不亦乐乎也郁闷的不亦乐乎。上网抱怨几句，朋友发现现在快递行业比较“紧俏”建议我找个快递公司去送快递，听了这话我昨天晚上真的是很难入睡，虽然大学生现在已经遍地都是了，可难道我他妈的花了家里几万块钱读个大学就配去送个快递？这话说起来似乎会让人觉得我有眼高手低之嫌，其实我一直是做好了最坏的打算的，到毕业那天如果再没有合适的工作，再底层的工作我都会去作的，毕竟那是要解决生存的问题。
The teacher said, it's a peak for signing contracts before the New Year. We should grasp this period of time, collecting information as much as possible and holding any opportunity to submit applications, otherwise we had to wait until March of next year, in which it would be really troublesome if we failed again.
Recently, I surf the Net everyday to browse through all kinds of recruiting information, extremely busy and extremely disappointed. I made some complaints on Net and a friend told me the express service was “very popular” now, so why not work as a delivery man for the express company. Having heard such suggestion, I could hardly fall asleep last night. Although the graduates have been awfully abundant, how can I work as a delivery man after graduating from the university which has f*** cost my family tens of thousands RMB? The words may let someone think I'm a fastidious and demanding man who's actually inept, but indeed I have always prepared for the worst. If there's still no proper job for me until the graduation day, I will do any job no matter how hard it is. After all, it's a question about living.
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Exceptionally disappointed
Netease blogger flyheart, a postgraduate in Guang Zhou, described part of her job-hunting experience:
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说实在的，从11月24日参加大学城北亭举办的招聘会以来，给自己的一个感觉就是，不管什么类型什么层次的招聘会，都会有一大堆的大学生；不管什么样的职位，最后都有一大堆的简历。望着此中情景，只能感叹没办法，中国什么都缺，就是不缺人；本来在99年之前中国也缺大学生，那时的研究生可是香饽饽，可是最近几年硕士博士也都城地瓜土豆了。
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To be honest, since November 24 when I attended the job fair held in Bei Ting of Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center, one of my feelings is no matter what sort of job fair, there will be a swarm of graduates; no matter what kind of position, there will be a great pile of resumes. Facing such situation, I can do nothing. China lacks everything but people; before 1999 China used to be short of graduates, too. Postgraduates at that time were really precious, but in recent years even masters and doctors have been surplus.
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Another Sina blogger Qianqian Ruoshui (浅浅若水) personally analyzed the other side of the graduate job fair:
2008届毕业生招聘热潮已经掀起。可是参加过招聘会和了解招聘会内幕的人都在骂娘。我的一个南京大学的一个朋友，成绩不错，社会实践能力也很出众，但是他最近告诉我，他投出去的几十份简历份份石沉大海，没有一点回音，白白浪费了很多钱，搞得自己现在饭都吃不起了，我就借了点钱给他。也看到了现在大学生就业的艰难困境。那么，为什么那么多所谓的大型招聘会都在忙些啥，都没有招人吗，打听一下之后知道普遍的情势都不看好，大家灰心伤气，而毕业一天天临近，已经到火烧眉毛的时候了。那么大学毕业生招聘会的背后是什么？我们来分析一下。
大企业忙宣讲
每到招聘时节，大企业仿佛都一夜之间赶时髦似的全都跑到大学去开什么宣讲会去了，往往更注重宣讲，而真正的目的并不是招聘！大企业名企业都把招聘季节当作宣传自己企业的大好机会了，他们根本就不参加那些所谓的大型招聘会。
小公司招聘忙会忽悠
很多小公司打着招聘的大旗，招而不聘！据某公司一招聘经理称，他们去招聘并非真正招聘，只不过是去给企业做宣传，以招聘的方式给企业做宣传，真是滑天下之大稽。…
主办方借招聘之机忙赚钱和演戏
很多主办招聘会的单位根本不关心学生怎么就业，而是忙着赚钱，也不关心来招聘的企业到底是大公司还是皮包公司，只要交钱就给展位。随随便便，很不严谨的就冠之“2008某某大型招聘会”。什么叫大型到是值得商榷。每人１０元钱的门票，一般招聘会随随便便都有几千人，主办方趁机大大的捞了一笔。而一些高校的招生就业办公室，大都是在演戏，为了应付学校的考核或者指标什么。
大学毕业生算什么
而只有这些知识分子，大学毕业后新的弱势群体因为生存才在不断地忙招聘会。花钱和心思做简历，结果被那些缺乏道德和根本就不是来招聘的单位当做垃圾一样把简历扔在垃圾桶，不但丢失了自己一些个人信息，还丢失了尊严。
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The upsurge of recruitment for the 2008 graduates has started, but people who have attended the job fair or known the inside story are both complaining. A friend in Nanjing University who did a good job in study and had an outstanding ability of social practice recently told me he had sent dozens of resumes but got no reply and the high cost of job-hunting had made him hardly  afford the life, so I lent some money to him. The situation of the graduate employment is difficult, but what's the so called great job fair busy at? No one employ person there? After inquiring I found the general prospect was not good, everyone was disappointed and the dead line for graduation was approaching day by day, which demanded immediate action. Then what is it behind the graduate job fair? Let's have an analysis.
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Big Enterprise Busy at Advertising
Every time when the recruiting season comes, the big enterprises like following the fashion would go to the universities overnight to hold publicity meetings which mostly emphasize the publicity but not aim at employing workers! All the big and prestigious enterprises regard the recruiting season as a great chance to publicize themselves. They never attend the so called large job fair.
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Small Company Busy at Bragging
Lifting a signboard of recruiting, many small companies just interview the applicants without employing! According to some company's personnel manager, they actually wouldn't take on anyone there, but only wanted to do publicity. It's so ridiculous. …
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Organizer Busy at Making Money and Shows
A lot of job fair organizers are not concerned about the student employment at all but only busy at making money. No matter big giants or briefcase company, the host will provide display stand to anyone as long as they pay the cash. It's free and simple to give a name to the fair like “2008 so-and-so Large-Scale Job Fair” and what does the large-scale mean really deserves a discussion. The organizer will take advantage of the chance to gain lots of money because almost all the job fairs can easily magnetize thousands of people and each person always has to buy a 10 RMB admission. Besides, some university enrolment and vocation offices only make a show for dealing with checks and the like from the above.
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The Graduate Is Nothing
However, only the intelligentsia, the new disadvantaged group after graduation, have to keep busy at job fair for living. But finally, their carefully-made resumes which cost a full amount of effort and money are thrown away into the garbage bins by those immoral companies that don't mean to recruit the graduates at all. The graduate students not only lose some of their personal information, but also the dignity.
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In addition to the cruel competition, the green graduates also have to face different limits and discrimination during the job-hunting. QQ blogger Youth Laboratory (青春实验室) who is living in Beijing summarized four prejudices which some graduates would be faced in the job market:
女生先出局：性别歧视依然存在
在找工作的过程中，女生们似乎总是显得很无奈。“招聘的时候没有明文规定不招女生，可为什么最后通过面试的全是男生？”
进入笔试的同学里男女生的比例是差不多的，甚至女生稍多一点，可最后被录用的名单里，却清一色全是男生。现在很多单位并不写明只招男生，却在淘汰的过程中先推女生出局……
学历还要“查三代”
名牌大学的博士学位、硕士学位还不够，还要看本科。这是如今招聘会上用人单位查看学历的的要求，被不少人称为“查三代”。
肝病限制：用人单位怎么都在躲我们
患肝病的大学毕业生，在找工作时受到的限制似乎更多。事实上，医学上早已确认：乙肝病毒携带者肝功能相对正常，不等于乙肝病人，体力上与正常人无异，也不妨碍他人接受教育。正常的学习、生活、工作中，乙肝病毒携带者与其他人接触不会发生传染。 但用人单位还是谈肝色变。
相貌歧视：长得不好看是谁的错
相比于男生，相貌问题在女生求职中表现得更明显，用人单位对女生的相貌相对要求更高一些，因为长相不好求职失败的案例不少，近几年表现得更明显，但相关的法律法规对相貌歧视并没有明确的约束，求职者即使遭遇相貌歧视也很难通过法律途径维护自身权益。
Girls Are First Out: The Sexism Still Exists
The women graduates always seem helpless when they are hunting jobs. “No proclamation declaring that women are not employed, but why at last all the people who finally pass the interviews are men?”
In the schoolmates who have entered the written examination, the proportion of women graduates is even a little higher than men, but in the final list you can only see the men's names.
Now lots of units won't manifest that they only employ men graduates, but during the eliminating process they will firstly make the women out.
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The Academic Background Should “Be Checked to Three Generations”
Doctorate and master's degree of the prestigious university are not enough. The employers will check whether your Bachelor degree is also coming from the key university. Nowadays this kind of examination of educational background in the job fair is called “Be Checked to Three Generations”
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Liver Complaint Limit: Why Are We Shunned by All the Employers
It seems the graduates who have liver troubles will face more restrictions during job-hunting. In fact, the medical authority has already confirmed: Not equal to hepatitis B patient, people carrying virus of hepatitis B relatively have normal liver function. They are as the same as the normal people on physical power and won't hinder others from accepting education. People will not be infected when they are in touch with person who carries virus of hepatitis B. However, the employers still turn pale at the mention of liver.
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The Physical Appearance Discrimination: It's not My Fault to Be Ugly
Compared to men, the appearance play a more important role among the women graduates. The employers relatively have a higher standard for the women's appearance. To be turned down for the not good face is not unusual and such kind of phenomenon has been more obvious in recent years, but there are no relevant laws that clearly ban on appearance discrimination. As a result, it's very difficult for the applicants who meet appearance prejudice to protect their own rights  through legal procedure.