Graduates Face Many Barriers in Job Hunting /+sn-$/"i
It is graduation time again. Whether joining the social workforce or pursuing Gc4N)oq)}b
advanced studies, about four million Chinese graduates will soon turn a new page in Otn,(j;u
their lives. Still, no matter what, campus life will remain deeply etched on the minds _"a(vfl#
of China's former students. What lies ahead for the country's graduates? 8
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Statistics released by relevant departments of China show that in 2006, graduates 1b;Aru~l
from all Chinese colleges and universities numbered 4.13 million, up 750,000 from X||oiqbY
2005 with a growth rate of roughly 22%. Hence, the employment tension further 2[9hl@=%
intensifies. Meanwhile, various intangible barriers exist in social relations, regional 20zIO.&o
restriction, permanent residency and university's reputation have made the graduates' 27t:-O
job-hunting process tougher. {TzKHnP
Some analyze that against the backdrop of intensified employment tension for @a>+r1
university graduates, needy students from rural and urban areas usually find ilayU
themselves in relatively inferior positions. 5$GE 3IER8
Some graduates realize that in order to get a job, they have to sign some "unfair <R*.T)Z 1
treaties" that promise not to take the postgraduate exam or leave the company within *FK!^Y
several years, or they have to pay 5,000 Yuan for breaching the contract. Some c(ZkK
recruiters even declare openly that they only need students from famous universities, H `),PY
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so graduates from other schools are not even entitled to apply. lp!@uoN^T
Currently the contradiction in China's higher education has transferred from entering &Zd{ElM
to leaving a university and from the difficulty in enrollment to employment after 2ztP'
graduation. It has become a common phenomenon that "graduates become jobless". -g;iMqh#
Should this problem not be tackled rightly, the employment issue would turn into a 22}J.'Zb
new factor that causes social instability. /]F3t]FlC
College—A New Experience `Kpn@Xg
Living at college, first of all, gives me a sense of responsibility, of being on my opte)=]J
own. My parents aren’t around to say, ―No, you’re not going out tonight‖ or ―Did you rm+|xvZ4
finish your homework?‖ Everything I do has to be my decision, and that gives me the 1W$ @
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responsibility of handling my own life. During the second week I was at college, I had 4}W*,&_
to go out and look for a bank where I could open an account. Before that I looked in $khWu>b
the phone book since I had no clue about any banks around here or where they were BtVuI5*h
located. I went to the bank and made decisions for myself—whether to have a -XkCbxZ
checking or savings account and whether or not to get a MASTER card. 1 c3gHc7{t
Friendly people: that’s another aspect I like about college. On my first day (and %^2LTK(P
even now) people were nice to me. I came to Marymount University here in Virginia \[B5j0vV,
from New York and – even though I’d been here before—I was a bit confused about dF5EIPl;J
where I was going. My mother and I drove in, not knowing the building we were
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supposed to go to, and the guard was especially nice: with a smile, he told us what n0>#?ek12
building we were looking for and where we could park our car. Some upperclassmen l<(MC R*
saw me and asked, ―Are you a new student?‖ When they found out I was looking for pu0IhDMn
my dormitory, one said, ―Oh, just follow us; that’s where we’re going.‖ Even now I 5^ARC^v
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feel comfortable in the dorm because there are friendly people around to talk with. V~+Oil6sa
Finally—to add to my likes of college—I love having Saturdays off. Also, I love F7Mf>."
to sleep in, something I couldn’t do in high school. SBzJQt@Hs
How Can We Finance Our College Education? l"f.eo0@7
Nowadays, tuition fees for college are much higher than ever before. How to r0+lH:G*q
finance our college education has become a matter of concern for many students, ;8'hvc3i$
especially those who are from the remote areas. ~ZweP$l
Actually, there are many ways to solve this problem. We can get the money from b" 1a7
our parents. We can apply for a loan especially set up for college students. We can `J'xVq#O
also acquire the money entirely by ourselves, keeping a part-time job in our spare dPc*!xrq
time and doing a full-time job in summer and winter holidays. Or we can ask our FDbb/6ku
parents for most of the money and earn the rest in our spare time in college. ?w#V<3=
As far as I am concerned, I prefer the last way. I don't want to depend entirely on 07[A&