A Career Fair

Berkeley becomes sunny again when I'm NOT seeing Carol in San Francisco. I went to a career fair in downtown Berkeley hosted by Zhejiang Recruitment Group. As the name suggests, the Group consists of representatives from the government, enterprises and universities in Zhejiang Province to recruit recent graduates from UC Berkeley and surrounding universities. In recent years, Chinese recruitment groups come to the US several times a year to find qualified candidates for their job openings back home. But most recruitment is conducted at the national level, and very few provinces can organize their recruitment teams but Zhejiang is an exception. I met a few CEOs from private companies, professors in universities and governors from the CCP departments. Even though the government is not recruiting for itself, the presence of government officials imply that this is a government-organized activities.

I didn't talk much there, but I must say some salary packages are really tempting. Zhejiang seems to be rich enough to offer international pay in a lot of positions. But concerns still remain regarding to whether these promises will be carried out, and how many additional provisions they may have. Some people also worry about the non-standard and opaque performance evaluation and promotion system back in China, which can turn a high starting point into a dim future. Most people at the career fair were talking - to the recruiter, organizer and other students, but I don't know how many of them are keen on starting a career in China.

With a background in social science, sometimes I do find it difficult to get a job here. After talking to the Zhejiang recruiters, I realize it may be the same in China. It looks like that they don't find the US education has advantages in liberal arts, but believe the science education is much better. (It's funny to think about that Americans believe that Chinese are good at math and science, while Chinese have the same perception on Americans.) They want to recruit people with US science degrees because they believe these degree receivers are sure to bring new technologies and ideas back to China, but they are less interested in recruiting students in social science as they may not find people majoring in social science will make a big difference.

It is fascinating to see how much people value knowledge, and almost for sure overseas degree recipients will help Chinese companies improve their performance in both domestic and international markets. With a less developed legal system and market, Chinese market is more likely to help shrewd businessmen accumulate wealth quickly. And when they are trying to expand to overseas markets, it's important to have someone who knows the world better. Zhejiang has been playing a leading role in encouraging small business and export-oriented industry since 1980s, and it's a smart move to distinguish itself from other similar industries by investing on human resources.