Hey kid, it’s time to wake up!

by Brian Sun, Managing Partner, Orion China Consulting

Fresh graduates in China will have another challenging year in securing their ideal job opportunities with major enterprises in 2015. In the pyramid bottle-neck between job vacancies and volume of young job applicants, top organizations will cherry-pick young talent that fits their job requirements.

As highlighted in a recent 2015 McKinsey Quarterly report, .

“A substantial proportion of new graduates will not find jobs that require a degree. Indeed, many will find what they learned and how they learned at university has done little to prepare them for the 2015 job market in China. Other than for an elite minority, starting salaries will be flat yet again, at levels less than the income level of a full-time taxi driver”

The majority of graduates come from sheltered family life and frog-marched academically since first grade. Chinese families and the education system still value more the time-tested discipline of churning academic grades at the compromise of life skills acquired from social, sports and recreation experiences.

The consequences will become increasingly obvious as most graduates will realize what they studied at university has little direct application to the average work place. In major cities like Shanghai and Beijing, it will be an uphill struggle to achieve the material dream of owning an apartment, automobile or middle class consumers.

Consecutively, the influx of cross-border talent will also dampen as the cost of living has increased entry barriers into primary cities. The direction is finding career opportunities locally and considering private enterprises, small and medium enterprises or service sectors. Opportunities are still plentiful if students are prepared for a paradigm shift towards applying for jobs with private trading firms, start-ups or hospitality.

Ultimately, newly graduated students need to adopt a higher degree of flexibility and learning mindset towards a nurturing work environment instead of a stable job role alone. Prospective graduates should plan ahead and identify work relevant skills that can honed from summer internships or social activities.

Brian is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Orion China Consulting, an international human capital solutions and advisory provider, established since 2005. www.orionchina.net

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