Calypso Consulting

A picture is worth a thousand words. Trust me, this is a long line. People gathered last week at a large exhibition center in Beijing for a two-day job fair. There were 300 companies offering 3,000 jobs. But there were 30,000 students looking for those jobs.  These fairs are happening all over China.  But the reality is that companies still find it tough to find employees who have the "right stuff."
Studies have shown that Chinese students who have just graduated lack the skills necessary to get going in a foreign firm. They have been memorizing facts for the past 16 years. They can be good test-takers but poor employees who are expected to think freely and make independent decisions. So most of these jobs go unfilled by fresh grads and go to people who have been lucky enough to work for a year or so as a secretary or an office clerk.
On the positive side, the Chinese government has announced that it will train one million new graduates over the next three years to help them be more qualified to work in a modern firm - be it Chinese or foreign.
This reminds me of when I first moved to China and we hired three of our college interns. While they were all smart as whips and hard working, we had to buy each of them (two men and a woman) business suits. We also had to give them lessons in how to deal with customers, how to deal with colleagues, how to dress for success, and how to talk to colleagues in other countries. Slowly but surely, China is becoming a multi-national country, but it is still on the way.