Talented returnees benefit from new lives in country

Sense of belonging regained, job prospects improve

Countless talented people are returning to the Chinese mainland after studying and working abroad for several years, as they believe their homeland offers more promising job prospects and a sense of belonging.

According to a report released last year by the Ministry of Education, the number of returnees seeking jobs in China rose by nearly 34 percent year-on-year in 2020.

More than 96 percent of those surveyed had either returned or were planning to come back to China, and nearly 13 percent of those who had overseas work experience had decided to return home, the ministry's report on the employment competitiveness of overseas students stated.

Liu Sisi, 38, from Beijing, said 10 years of studying, working and living abroad made her stronger and more independent, but she was still determined to return to China.

"I am very grateful for my experience overseas, as I had to adjust to a variety of environments, languages and cultures, and overcome difficulties by myself. This enabled me to become stronger in heart," said Liu, who graduated from Soochow University in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, where she studied public management, and then went on to study in Spain.

In 2009, Liu applied for a one-year course in Spanish in Salamanca, Spain. She obtained master's degrees in environment and economics in Madrid over a three-year period, but always intended to return to China.

"In Spain, I worked part-time for education service companies by helping students apply for visas. I also taught Chinese to children from middle-class families," Liu said.

However, she became depressed during her final year of study, when she met her future husband, who was studying in Bordeaux, France.

Liu has since studied French, got married and worked as a freelance supplying Chinese students with educational services such as university applications. In 2015, she and her husband went to live in the Scottish city of Glasgow, where she worked as a language teacher at a Chinese school, and gave birth to her first child.

In 2018, the couple moved to Iceland, where Liu continued working part-time as an educational consultant and translator.

"Overseas work experience in the education sector allowed me to see things from a different perspective, which I believed could be used to help more local students prepare for studying abroad," said Liu, who was keen to return to China as she wanted better career development prospects and for her child to grow up at home.

At the end of 2019, she was eventually offered a position at a business college in Suzhou after submitting dozens of resumes and failing to pass several final interviews. Her husband found a job at Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in the city.

Liu said: "I was able to make up for my lack of experience in graduate employment at the business college by dealing with human resources departments at different companies in a variety of industries. During this time, I was also preparing to start my own business."

Figures from the Ministry of Science and Technology show that in 2021, a record 1 million-plus students studying overseas returned to China to become innovative entrepreneurs.

That year, Liu launched her own company offering customized consulting services with detailed plans and professional advice for students planning to apply for higher education courses.

"I expected being an entrepreneur in China to be tough, but the good thing is that I am motivated to keep learning to avoid being left behind," said Liu, who developed consulting services for early education in 2021 to help parents choose suitable curricula for their children.

According to a report on returning Chinese students seeking jobs released by LinkedIn last year, 71 percent of such students prefer working for foreign-funded enterprises. More than 80 percent want to work in first-tier cities, and nearly half prefer to work in East China. About 37 percent hope to find a job and work abroad after graduation.

Offer accepted

Ni Lanlan, 25, from Hunan province, accepted a first job offer from an internet company in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, in 2020, the year he obtained a master's in human technology interaction from Eindhoven University of Technology.

"I studied abroad not just to broaden my perspective, but to learn advanced knowledge and professional skills in the internet industry to develop my career wherever I go," said Ni, who gained a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in China.

Overseas studies were different from what he expected, and Ni struggled with theoretical courses. He also found it difficult to find a job after applying for more than 100 positions in three to four months in 2020.However, after a three-month internship as a user experience designer, Ni became a full-time employee at the Amsterdam company.

As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in early 2020, Ni started to feel he was being viewed as an outsider from overseas.

"I realized that no matter where you are, you live your life every day, but it's more about being consistent wherever you are — overseas or back in China," he said.

Ni also experienced loneliness and felt helpless while working from home.

During Spring Festival in 2021, he returned to China for a short family reunion. He spent three months traveling and visiting friends across the country and eventually regained the sense of belonging he had missed for years.

"I enjoyed experiencing life and making decisions at different times and in different states of mind. However, it was time to return to China to experience the things I missed in my early 20s, when I gained experience in exploring the world," said Ni, who quit his job in the Netherlands without a formal farewell.

According to a 2021 employment survey of Chinese returnees released by recruitment platform Zhaopin this year, the number of overseas returnees submitting resumes in China in 2021 rose by nearly 34 percent compared with 2019.Although more overseas students returning home found it difficult to land a job for the first time, over 26 percent of them found work within a month, a year-on-year rise of 6 percent.

Ni spent more than two months submitting dozens of resumes online. He was contacted for further interviews by about 20 companies, until finally receiving an offer from a United States enterprise based in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, after five rounds of interviews in June.

In August, he went to work for another foreign company on a higher salary and with a friendlier working atmosphere.

"I've learned from living abroad and in China that I should not set limits for myself, but return to my original intention of experiencing something different, going with the flow, and feeling free to enjoy the moment," Ni said.

The Zhaopin report also said that returnees are now younger than their predecessors and hold higher educational qualifications. In 2021, returnees in the 16 to 34 age group accounted for more than 90 percent of job seekers in China, with less than 10 percent of them older than 35.

More than 75 percent of returnees had a master's or higher qualification — 1 percent more than the previous year. The internet industry was the favored choice for nearly 27 percent of those returning home.

Main reason

Zhi Xiaoxuan, 28, from Beijing, said the fast-booming internet industry in China was the main reason she decided to return home after studying and working in the US for three years.

She wanted to develop her career, so in 2019 she quit her job in the US to apply for a position at a Chinese internet company headquartered in Beijing.

In 2016, Zhi turned down a postgraduate recommendation from her university in Henan province and flew to study international relations and international communications at Boston University in the US.

"In Western countries, more emphasis is placed on flexibility, creativity and coordination skills, so I was trained to acquire more comprehensive cognitive abilities and view problems from a more open-minded perspective," Zhi said.

Two months after she settled in the US, she began to look for work — starting an internship at the branch of a Chinese recruitment company in early 2017.

"I wanted to make the most of every minute by studying and working to put into practice the knowledge I had learned, and also to progress," said Zhi, who worked as public relations manager after her internship ended since 2018.

Her desire to advance her career after reaching the goals she set herself resulted in Zhi deciding to return to China.

As she expected, the quicker pace at the internet company enabled her to learn new things and to work in other areas of the company in a short time.

However, she gradually got tired of working and started to question if toiling nonstop was a wise choice.

"My working ability increased rapidly, and I reached my initial goal of understanding internet industry, but I also realized I did not want a life of constant constraints in which I had no sense of fulfillment," Zhi said.

She resigned and joined Love Survive, an entertainment company in the music industry in Beijing as a co-founder, dealing with music copyright, production, managing musicians, and planning music events.

"I've experienced setbacks, struggles and introspection, but have learned to adjust my expectations, so I don't set myself limits. As each part of life has a different development stage, I may soon embark on bigger challenges," Zhi said.

A survey of human relations officers from different enterprises released by recruiting company Lockin China last year showed that nearly 81 percent thought that overseas study experience could be an advantage.

Wang Yu, a human resources business partner in Beijing, said, "The value of overseas work experience depends on whether the industry and the company concerned have surpassed China in global rankings. At present, chip technicians and drug discovery and design talent in the artificial intelligence pharmaceutical industry are in relatively high demand in China."

A survey on employment and entrepreneurship among Chinese returnees issued by the Center for China and Globalization in 2019 indicated that the main reason for them coming home is to reunite with family and friends, which accounted for 60 percent of respondents, followed by 42 percent who said they came back to develop their careers.

A total of 61 percent of the returnees started their careers in China, and 34 percent chose to pursue further education or take a gap year.

Difficult time

After spending her childhood in Shanghai, and adolescence in the United Kingdom on her own, Ruan Chengrui, 26, landed a promising job at JP Morgan in London, but she missed her family so much that she quit in 2020.

When she was 14, Ruan wanted to study at a girls' boarding school in London, two years earlier than her family planned, as she was keen to explore the world and adapt to life overseas.

"The first semester was particularly hard, and I panicked every day, but I began to master English and adapt to local life," said Ruan, who believes this experience enabled her to mature more quickly.

By the 10th grade, she was thinking about living and working in the UK after graduating from university, where she studied economics, and in spring 2017, Ruan received a summer internship offer from JP Morgan.

After graduation, she enrolled for a three-year management trainee program with the company's finance and business management department.

"Everything was going so well that before I realized it, I had completed my work in different departments, during which I was preparing to land a permanent position," Ruan said.

However, she abandoned these plans before the end of her first year of work in 2019 for a number of reasons, one of them being that her mother wanted her to live closer to the family.

"Another reason was that many friends chose to return to China, so I was largely on my own for a whole year, and was keen to regain a sense of belonging," Ruan said.

Job hunting in China did not go well for Ruan, who submitted dozens of resumes in early 2020, but failed to find a position that met her expectations for salary and working conditions.

Benefiting from her overseas experience, she received an offer from media monitoring and social analytics platform Meltwater in Shanghai, which also made her an offer in her third year at university.

"I communicate with more people, help customers with personalized services, and gain a sense of responsibility and achievement by working in a friendly atmosphere and living in a city I call home, which totally meets my expectations," said Ruan, who was promoted to account manager within eight months.

In 2021, she experienced some hard times, which hit her hard. Ruan thought her return to China had been meaningless, but with friends' help, she took part in a variety of activities, and earlier this year she developed a passion for cycling and skiing.

Ruan now cycles three or four times a week and flies to ski at the Beidahu Ski Resort in Jilin province almost every weekend.

"Although I've gone through hard times and am now single again, I've had lots of happiness in a busy life full of belonging, which I definitely couldn't experience in the UK," said Ruan, who launched her own cycling club with friends in August.