Chinese not competitive enough in US job market

Three in four Chinese students who undertook undergraduate studies in the United States never went through internship during university life, according to a report released in June.

In addition, about the same ratio of students said they did not have a clear career plan and found it hard to secure a place in the US job market.

According to the report, which was conducted and published by MentorX, a California-based online education company specializing in advising Chinese students in the US about internship and employment, nearly 80 percent of Chinese students in the US wanted to experience interning and working in the country. Only 18 percent said they were determined to return to China immediately after graduation.

The findings were consistent with the statistics from the United States Department of Labor, which showed that around 15,000 Chinese students, less than 10 percent of the total who obtained bachelor's degrees or master's degrees in 2015, were employed in the US after graduation.

"That means more than 90 percent of Chinese graduates were not capable of finding a job in the US where there is an emphasis on practical skills and where around 70 percent of new employees were previously interns," said Zhang Langhu, China general manager of MentorX.

In the US, overseas students are provided with opportunities to apply for certificates of CPT (Curricular Practical Training) and OPT (Optional Practical Training) during their graduation. However, many of the Chinese students did not seize this opportunity.

"In other words, they are not competitive enough in the international job market," he added.

The report was based on a survey conducted in May that polled more than 1,600 Chinese students who graduated with a bachelor's degree from US universities and colleges in the past two years.

"In comparison, the number of Indian students who obtained job opportunities in the US was much higher than their Chinese counterparts. Moreover, a rising number of Indians are taking up leadership roles in influential corporations," Zhang said.

Lu Jianning, a Shanghai native who graduated from a university in Illinois State last spring before heading back to China, said Chinese students tend to be less involved in class interactions and instead prefer to hang out with their compatriots after class.

Statistics from LinkedIn showed that the number of Chinese students returning to China to work in 2015 was more than four times that in 2010.

Wang Di, vice-president of technology at LinkedIn China, said that China's economic development and market potential contributed greatly to the rise in the number of overseas returnees.

At Shanghai Westwell Information and Technology Company, a startup specializing in artificial intelligence, 90 percent of its 35 technical talents graduated from prestigious universities overseas.

"In China, the considerable achievements in AI applications in areas including deep learning, computer vision, voice recognition and the large influx of capital have attracted many Chinese graduates overseas to be a part of the country's wave of development," said Zhou Min, public relations manager of Westwell.

zhouwenting@chinadaily.com.cn