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Indonesian student Calvin Ho became interested in China in 2013 and applied for a place in a two-year master’s programme in international relations at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University last year.
He said he had been very satisfied with the class discussions, his alumni network and his weekend expeditions, and had hung the medals he earned by finishing two marathons in Beijing on his dormitory wall. But Ho, who is also learning Chinese, said that when it came to the finding a job after his graduation next summer, he admitted he was clueless.
「I really, really want to work in China, to take advantage of my educational background, but some of my seniors did not get a job and had to return home,」 he said. 「I think there are campus job fairs, but they are all in Chinese.」
Chinese universities have become increasingly popular with international students, with their numbers rising from 52,150 in 2000 to 442,000 last year. More than half came from Asia, with the next biggest source being Africa.
A survey by the Beijing Language and Culture University in 2001 found a third of foreign students wanted to stay in China to work. A survey of international students at Peking University in 2009 found that 82.7 per cent came to China to study because they wanted a career related to China. A job fair for international students held last year by the Ministry of Education found that 95 per cent of them wanted a job in China.
But the reality has been less encouraging. There were only 235,000 foreigners with work permits working in China last year, a figure dwarfed by the number of foreign students studying in the country.
「Many foreign students want to stay in China but they can’t,」 said Eric Liu, a consultant at Foreign HR, a Beijing-based recruitment agency for foreigners. 「If a foreigner graduates from a language course or obtains a bachelor’s degree and wishes to stay on and find a job, they can’t obtain the work permit.」
He said international students needed to have at least two years of post-graduation experience before applying for a work permit, which was a high threshold.
Galvin Ho, from Indoesia, hopes to find a job in China after he earns his master's degree in international relations at Tsinghua University next year
The restriction was loosened a bit in January when the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security allowed postgraduates from 「excellent universities」 to work in China without work experience.
「It is understandable that China wants to attract the high-end talent to stay in China,」 Liu said. 「Compared to some countries, the work policy for foreigners is quite lax.」
He said some foreigners stayed on without work permits, in fields such as English teaching, but they ran the risk of being expelled from China.
Three top universities in Beijing said they did not have a career centre for international students, and nor did they evaluate their employment situation. One university said that was because 「many went back home immediately after graduation」.
Even graduates from top universities, now spared the work experience requirement, struggle to find the right job.
「My feeling is it’s not difficult to find a job, but not necessarily the one you want,」 said Charlotte Conerly, who graduated with a master’s degree in international relations from Tsinghua University this summer. 「It’s very easy to find a job teaching English, or something that needs English speaking or writings skills,」 but that was not the career of her dreams.
Conerly, who is from Louisiana in the United States and describes China as her 「second home」, said she had portrait photos taken by a professional photographer in March and prepared a résumé in Chinese. She browsed Chinese hiring websites every day and got in contact with headhunters on LinkedIn in the hope of finding a job in China.
「That were three solid months of job hunting and investment in myself,」 she said.
She had two job interviews – one with a law firm and the other with a Chinese logistics company that was going global – before finding her current job with the Shanghai office of a company that finds investors for property projects in the US.
「I think they liked me but when I told them my expected annual salary to be US$50,000, they laughed at me,」 she said. 「Even my headhunter wouldn’t call me back.」
A former boss during an internship told her about the job she ended up taking in Shanghai. Malaysian Joker Lai Kok Kiong, who obtained a bachelor’s degree at a university in Fujian and is now studying for a master’s degree in sports industry management in Beijing, agreed it was not difficult to find a job, but it was harder to find one he really liked.
「We can either join a big international firm, where will only be a cog in a machine and the room for promotion is limited, or we can join a start-up company,」 he said. 「We need to think about the prospects of such companies because some will eventually fail.」
Jakob Sarne, from Germany, would prefer work for a German company in China
German Jakob Sarne, who graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is now pursuing a master’s degree in electrical engineering in Germany, said he hoped to get a job in China because of its rapidly developing economy, but only with a German firm.
Sarne, who spent time as an intern at a German company in Shanghai and is also studying Chinese, said working for a German company in China would provide better benefits and a more ethical environment.
「I think the work rules are different,」 he said. 「With a German company you have more public holidays and the benefits are better. I am learning Chinese and trying to pass some tests. Language can be an issue if you want to talk to a higher-up official or if your colleagues don’t speak English at all.」
Ho said he would start searching for a job in March and was hopeful he would land one eventually.
「I am sure many local firms could make use of my education and my background, especially if they want to go global,」 he said.
留學中國受青睞 留華就業大不易
印尼學生加爾文·何去年申請到在中國名校清華大學攻讀兩年期國際關係碩士學位的機會。他對課堂討論、校友關係網及外出活動都很滿意。但還在學習中文的何承認，他對明年夏天畢業後找工作的問題不知所措，「我很希望在華就業以利用我的教育背景，但一些學長未找到工作，不得不打道回國。」
中國眾多高校越來越受國際學生歡迎——已從2000年的52150增至去年的44.2萬，其中一半多來自亞洲，非洲學生人數緊隨其後。北京語言大學調查發現1/3外國留學生渴望留在中國工作。北大調查顯示82%外國學生赴華留學的原因是希望找到與中國相關的工作。中國教育部去年舉行的國際學生招聘會發現，95%外國留學生打算在華就業。
但現實並非那麼令人鼓舞。去年僅有23.5萬在華外國人持有中國工作許可，明顯少於在華外國留學生人數。總部位於北京的外籍人才獵聘及諮詢服務商福瑞恩的顧問埃裡克·劉說，「許多外國人希望留在中國，卻無法如願以償。」
他說中國以前要求國際學生畢業後至少具有兩年工作經驗才能申請在華工作許可證，這是很高的門檻。1月開始中國稍微放鬆限制，將允許部分無工作經歷、在知名高校獲得碩士及以上學位的優秀外籍畢業生在華就業。「可以理解，中國希望吸引高端人才留下。」
北京三所頂尖大學都表示，既未設立國際學生職業中心，也未曾評估外籍畢業生的就業狀況。
即使一些名牌大學留學生也難以找到合適工作。畢業於上海交大的德國學生沙恩正在德攻讀碩士學位，他曾希望在經濟迅猛發展的中國找到一份工作。他說明年3月會重新開始在華求職，希望終將得償所願，「我堅信許多當地企業能利用我的教育和背景，尤其是那些希望進軍全球的中企。」
今夏在清華大學獲得碩士學位的美國學生夏洛特·康納利認為，「找工作並不難，但未必能稱心如意。很容易找到一份教英語或需要英語讀寫技能的工作，」但這並非她的理想職業。把中國稱為「第二故鄉」的康納利在上海就業前曾面試過兩家公司，「我覺得他們喜歡我。但當我說預期年薪是5萬美元時，他們發笑了。連獵頭都沒再給我回話。」
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