薪水达不到期望值宁愿待业?

Wang Yuanyuan

A large number of university graduates are complaining about the difficulty of finding a job. But employers say that this is down to graduates having unrealistic salary expectations.

"Many graduates refuse to attend interviews for jobs that pay less than 3,000 yuan a month and most demand 'important positions' with future prospects," said Wang Fenlan, a human resources manager.

Wang attended a job fair in Guangzhou last week. Although 50,000 graduates attended the fair, many employers were dissatisfied with the talent available.

"In the past, it was us who picked students, but now students pick their employers," said Wang.

Most of the positions at the job fair offered about 2,500-yuan salary a month, which was about the national average salary for recent university graduates. "But many of the students left without applying for a job after discovering they could not find one that paid more than 3,000 yuan a month," said Wang.

Wang met a graduate from Zhongshan University, a key university in Guangzhou, who only brought four copies of his resume to the fair. "He said he only gave his resume to the companies which he was interested in. When I was attending job fairs as a graduate, I would bring hundreds of copies of my resume, and give them to anybody who was interested. Times have changed," she said.

"It is very difficult to find staff for the administration department as many graduates refuse to take 'with no future,'" she added.

Wu Guanyu, a graduate from Shenzhen University stressed the importance of finding a job that both paid well and had a future. "It is impossible to live in a city like Shenzhen on less than 3,000 yuan a month. The first job in your life is very important. Nobody wants to waste their time doing dead-end work," said Wu Guanyu, a graduate from Shenzhen University.

Wu's remarks were echoed by many graduates in the city as they "would rather not to waste their time on low status employment after spending four years at university."

According to statistics given by Guangdong Province's education authorities, there were about 100,000 unemployed university graduates in the province as of August.

"Most of these students are from families with good financial backgrounds, so they were not worried about supporting themselves after graduation. Many of them chose to wait to be offered high status work instead of starting from the bottom," said Guo Zhonglin, a professor at Guangzhou University.

Guo suggested graduates should not have high expectations for their first job. "Everything starts from the bottom. The most important thing about the first job is not the money or the future. It is the amount of learning one can do in such a position. The worldlier you become in your first job, the better chance you have of making your own way," Guo said.