Chapter VI: Career Counselling--A Centre Obviated by
Guanxi
Summary: This chapter starts with a brief
examination of career counselling in China. It then
looks at the Euro/American model of counselling.
The next part reviews the history of szu's short-
lived careers office and how it reflected the
foreign model. Finally, it explores the reasons for
the office's demise and tie them in with the role of
guanxi in the student's job search.
Career Counselling in China
As indicated in Chapter II, China's two-decade experiment
with job allocation put little emphasis on the needs and
wants of students. The very fact that students belonged
to a particular academic major was sufficient criteria
for job assignment. The formal allocation procedure,
characterized by top-to-bottom decision-making, more or
less excluded input from both student and university
officials. Informally, students could lobby on their own
behalves for the jobs they most desired, and cases of
parental influence were reported.1 But most graduating
seniors (and their parents) were not in direct
communication with the assignment officers. In any case,
these officials were attached to bureaux that oversaw the
program, and the office in charge changed from year to
year. The system was designed, however inadvertently, in
such a way that it hindered back-door dealings, and
tended at the same time to be so rigid as to exclude any
student input. Thus, there was no need to provide career
counselling, in the western sense of the term.
This is not to say there was no career guidance. To
the contrary, the system was one of almost total career
guidance. A generation of youth was successfully
counselled to devote themselves to national needs.2 From
another perspective, the state guided one into a career
through a system that involved household registrations,
school admission procedures, housing policies, the
rustication of youths and job availability.3 In fact,
the variable that the government did not have under
control was the state of the economy.
The state had most power in daily affairs, and the
citizens had least, when economic prosperity was
medium. Individuals somewhat increased their
freedom of career choice, and the government had
fewer means to resist them in these personal
matters, when the urban economy was doing either
quite well or quite badly.4
As fenpei is being phased out, job assignment
responsibility has devolved to the schools themselves.
The implementation of a program that now seeks more
responsibility from employers, students and schools gives
all three of these groups more choice. Students are now
identified as having career values.5 In addition, the
expansion of vocational and technical education offers a
wider range of institutions for students to choose from.
Journal articles report that students still blindly
choose their majors; they were not very satisfied with
their jobs because they "do not have the opportunity to
explore the world of work and know little about
themselves."6 In the late 1980s P. Fan reported that
high school teachers in Shanghai provided little help in
career counselling.7 The response to this problem by
educators in Shanghai, which is considered by many to
have the most progressive educational system in China,
was the setting up of a special course called career
guidance in the city's secondary schools.8
Certainly, so much free choice might prove chaotic;
logic from those who lived under China's command and
centralized economy calls for some sort of organized
system and a central level response. Sure enough, the
response is found in the 17th item of a 20-item SEdC
notice issued in the spring of 1989:
17. Local governments, departments and tertiary
institutions should establish counselling offices
for graduates. They are to be established jointly
by city personnel departments and higher education
institutions and by the SEdC and ministry of
personnel at the state level. Localities decide
which departments participate. Counselling offices
should ensure that state policies on job securement
are implemented and that information is given out,
serve as a channel between 3 parties, give
counselling, create a fair competition environment,
oversee smooth implementation of two-way choice,
give schools feedback, and solve problems that
arise.9
As a supplement to the above regulations, another
circular discusses the establishment of a State Job
Counselling Centre.10 Originally scheduled to be set up
January 1989, the centre came under regulations which, as
republished in an official collection, were dated 25
April 1991. The disparity in dates suggests the centre's
establishment was delayed, perhaps due to the events of
June 4, 1989. As a direct affiliate of the SEdC, the
centre was to coordinate information flow, improve
counselling, and coordinate channels for placement. Its
responsibilities were to elucidate, propagandize and see
that policies are implemented, collect information,
organize activities related to information flow,
coordinate information received, give guidelines for
provincial level counselling centres, investigate actual
placement and do follow-up. Also, it was to publish a
periodical called Biyeshenge Jiuye Zhidao, that might be
translated as Graduates' Job Securement.
There has been other activity concerning career
counselling in China.11 Beijing Normal University opened
one of the first counselling service centres in 1987.
Also, "[i]n 1989 the university provided an introductory
course in counselling as an elective for students
majoring in psychology. Now, American career counselling
theories and inventories appear in Chinese educational
journals. Several books have been published introducing
vocational guidance and career counselling."12 In
addition, an organizational meeting attended by over 100
people was held in Beijing in January 1990 to plan the
establishment of a professional association of university
counsellors. Still, among educationalists writing about
job placement, very few seem concerned about counselling.
Of the 68 articles I reviewed, eight mentioned
counselling--all favourably--but most devoted no more
than a sentence.13 Another advocated the importance of a
comprehensive centre that did more than just provide
students information on companies.14 Another two, which
are discussed below, examined szu as one of five case
studies and describes the program in some detail.15
It is worth noting that the State Job Counselling
Centre's mandate fails to mention students' or employers'
needs or the general career development activities that
direct their western counterparts. The lower level
guidance offices, following the national centre, would
not be student-centred. Students were merely the
production unit to be managed according to state
guidelines and policies. This greatly contrasts with the
nature of western offices, as discussed next. This
situation also ties in with the distinction offered by
Sanyal between two different educational approaches to
career development--the social demand strategy that
emphasizes individual demand for higher education and the
manpower demand approach that is directed to meeting the
economic needs of society.16 The latter approach applies
to the prc.
Western job placement offices
The dynamic nature of a career counselling office in the
U.S. or Europe is reflected in the types of issues
discussed by job placement professionals. For this we
turn to JOBPLACE, an electronic forum on the information
highway where job counsellors in colleges and
universities exchange ideas and information.17 The over
800 subscribers are mostly job counsellors located in the
USA. By following the mail exchanges one gets an insight
into the workings of college placement offices.
I joined the JOBPLACE and followed the
communications for several months in late 1994. On an
average day about a dozen mails (internet vocabulary
permits this ungrammatical pluralization) are distributed
to the entire subscription list. Often a specific item
would generate several dozen responses and continuing
follow-ups over a period of several weeks. Examples of
topics included:
--omputerized databases on employers, jobs and
statistical information on localities
--the reputation of particular headhunters
(executive recruiters whose fees are paid by
companies), consultant and private employment
services (whose fees are paid by students)
--concern over diminishing student interest in
job centres
--career fairs and on-campus recruitment
--student internships, summer jobs and part-time
employment
--interview techniques
--career counsellors as psychological counsellors
--alumni networks
-- software for writing resumes.
From these exchanges, it becomes apparent that job
placement centres do more than place students in jobs.
One of their important functions is to groom and prepare
students for looking for jobs, especially how to write
resumes and develop strategies for taking successful
interviews. Yet their primary purpose seems to be to
provide information on jobs and employers and to give
advice to students on how to make choices. "Job
placement" seems almost a misnomer, as it implies that
career offices place graduates in jobs. This virtually
never happens. The comprehensive nature of the careers
office is described by Sanyal:
The information service is thus an essential part of
the overall career guidance programme which, if
properly organized, should include an appraisal of
individual students, a counselling service to
provide the student with the best opportunity for
self-study, decision-making, planning and dealing
with any personal problems, and a placement and
follow-up service.18
Not all agree that career counselling is a necessary
activity for colleges and universities. As D. Bland
notes:
One of the league tables by which institutions of
higher education are judged is the extent to which
their graduates and diploma holders are placed in
jobs within three months of completing their
courses: for that reason, if no other, the provision
of facilities to help them find employment becomes
important. There is absolutely no intrinsic reason
why a college should provide careers counselling and
information for their students and office facilities
for interviews: the whole thing could be done by
private consultants, the Department of Employment or
the students' union. Careers advisory services are
costly if they are run to high standards: a large
library of information is needed and the office must
be staffed by people who can direct enquirers to the
right material..."19
Nevertheless, many schools in the U.S. and other
countries have incorporated career counselling among the
student services they deem essential.
The Szu Careers Office
From even before the school was built, it was clear that
szu would not assign jobs to students. A book edited by
the provincial educational authorities stated:
Upon graduation the student will work in the
Shenzhen Special Zone. The government will not
assign positions. The University will make
recommendations, and the units in need of graduates
have the right to select those they need. On the
other hand, the student has the right to find a job
for him/herself.20
The question then became: how would the school implement
this unprecedented policy? Shenzhen University, which
officially commenced in 1983, graduated its first
baccalaureate class four years later in 1987. This
interval gave the school officials sufficient time to
plan and establish a careers office and develop what was
to become China's first and most sophisticated career
development office, called the xuesheng jiuye zhidao
zhongxin, or student job guidance centre. University
officials, including then President, Luo Zhengqi, had
visited the careers education offices at both Hong Kong
University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The
visiting delegation asked probing questions and were
clearly interested in establishing a similar type of
operation at szu.21
The szu careers office was part of a grand
management design that Luo had for the school. In his
experiment to bring democratization to higher
education,22 Luo set up four committees, one of which--
the students' affairs committee-- oversaw the operation
of four centres. In addition to the careers centre, the
others concerned students' part-time jobs, occupation,
and student research. The name chosen for the careers
centre is itself instructive. Fenpei was not included in
the name; the whole concept of allocation was purposely
excluded. In the mid-1980s, jiuye zhidao was not a
widely used term. It is literally translated as job way,
or way to get jobs. The English translation of Student
Employment Advisory Centre23 is perhaps the most
accurate. The term, however, is more commonly translated
as job placement, thus still implying the concept of
allocation.
The szu jobs centre provided various services to the
first class of graduating seniors in 1987. According to
H. Chen, 92% of those graduates secured their jobs
through the centre.24 Only 8% found jobs by themselves.
In line with the policy that the centre "should give
guidance according to [students'] individual needs,"25 it
provided individualized consultation as well as giving
lectures. It focused on developing work attitudes, how
to find the ideal job, interview procedures, job
application letters. One of the committees referred to
above, the xuesheng jiuye zixun weiyuanhua, or student
employment consulting committee, provided the centre with
information on jobs. The committee included the vice-
mayor, and representatives from the city personnel
bureau, labour bureau and heads of enterprises.26 In
addition, the centre videotaped student presentations,
which consisted of three minute-long introductions in
putonghua, Cantonese and English. It printed an
employment guide, dated May, 1986. The Centre also
maintained computer profiles of graduates that included
grades, work-study performance, health, awards and
disciplinary notices. Tang27 cites the case of an
English major who when for 10 unsuccessful interviews.
The centre then discovered that his oral English was poor
and advised him to look for jobs that required only
writing ability. He found a job.
The centre was seen as an educational innovation and
received favourable comment in the Guangming Daily, the
newspaper for Chinese intellectuals.28 In addition, the
vice-director of the counselling committee, edited a book
on szu reform, a large part of which focused on the
careers program.29 Some of this was copied in a book by
Chen30 and again copied in two nationally circulated and
reprinted articles.31 The latter praised szu's role as a
middle man in the employment process and suggested it be
a model for universities all over China.
The first graduating class consisted of around 200
students, of whom 177 registered with the counselling
centre for a job. Of these only one did not find a
job.32 Another report said that "more than 100 work
units have approached the centre and put forth some 600
vacancies to the 130 graduates-to-be."33 Calling the SEZ
job situation "rosy", the article continues: "Under fair
competition, whether the students can secure a satisfying
job seems only a matter of individual capability and
experience." Indeed, the issue of fair competition is
inseparable from a discussion of the centre's jobs. The
purpose of the centre was "to promote self-reliance,
which enhances fairer competition so students don't have
to depend on a `good father' who has guanxi. Students of
szu won't deem a `good father' as an asset and won't
worry about finding a backstop [something to back you up]
and won't rely on pulling connections to unfairly
`plunder' a job from someone else."34 It says that the
students worship a society that's built by themselves and
their reliance on true personal ability to obtain a job.
The Death of Counselling at szu
By 1989 the centre had completely transformed.
Individual consultation had been abandoned. Services
such as video-taping interviews and computer profiles
were no longer provided. The committee in charge of the
centre no longer met and its responsibility had been
assigned to the student affairs office. The office, run
by part-time night school students, had a single task: to
coordinate the activities of companies that recruited on
campus. They collected fees from the companies, informed
departments whose students might be interested, and
arranged for a room for recruitment to take place. What
caused this change?
The first important reason for change was the supply-
imbalance, in favour of students, putting employers at a
disadvantage. During the first years of szu, students
from inner China could not easily obtain the paperwork
(dang'an and hukou transfer) needed in order to work in
Shenzhen. Szu students automatically met this paperwork
requirement and consequently they were much in demand.
Also, the economy was expanding at such a pace that many
more positions were opening than there were university
graduates available to fill them. In the economic boom
times of the mid-eighties, szu students did not need the
counselling office. They could easily find jobs
themselves.
Second, the careers office lost its raison d'ˆtre
because the sez matured. The first students at szu were
mostly from areas in Guangdong other than Shenzhen. In
1983 when the school enroled its first students, there
was a small local population and few high schools. Most
students were enroled from the Guangzhou area. As the
economic zone grew and prospered, more and more students
graduated from local high schools. Granted, most had
arrived in Shenzhen within the past few years, but they
were starting to consider themselves Shenzhen ren
(Shenzhen persons). Meanwhile, the longer families lived
in Shenzhen the more developed their guanxi became.
Whereas the first graduates of the school were not able
to use connections because as new arrivals they lacked
relationships, the later graduates had these connections
and made use of them.
Third, the careers office faded away because it no
longer found itself needed in the narrow role it had
defined for itself, that of job placement. Whereas the
western model used career services to provide self-
assessment and job exploration, the szu office did not
treat the individual as unique. Hu et al.35 suggest this
narrow focus is problematic, that counselling in Chinese
universities should pay more attention to individual
education and life planning.
In sum, three factors--one economic, the other two
cultural--obviated the usefulness of the careers office.
The path to job placement reform that had been the
intention of the career centre's designers was occluded
by elements they had little control over. It chose a
narrow focus--ensuring students got employed. This
specific task could be accomplished by the students
themselves.
_______________________________
1."Buzhun Ganshe Daxue Biyesheng Fenpei Gongzuo" (1969) [No
Intervention in the Job Assignment of College Graduates].
2.Cheng (1994), "Young Adults in a Changing Socialist Society:
Post-compulsory Education in China," 64-65. The author
quotes from a 1958 textbook used for ideological
education.
3.White (1978), Careers in Shanghai.
4.Ibid., 217.
5.Zheng (1991), "A Study of Chinese Student Career Values."
6.Hu et al. (1993), "The Evolution of Career Counselling in
Education in the People's Republic of China," 10.
7.Fan (1991), Transition Processes from School to Work, 56.
8.Cheng (1993), "Reflection of the Market Sector in a Planned
Economy."
9.1990 Yearbook (1991), 181-182; Handbook (1992), 375-376.
10.1990 Yearbook (1991), 183-184; Handbook (1992), 411-412.
11.Hu et al. (1993), "The Evolution of Career Counselling,"
13.
12.Ibid., 13.
13.Rao & Xiong (1989), "Analysis of University Graduates
Allocation Reform;" Chen & Liu (1992), "Deep Thoughts on
Tertiary Students Job Allocation;" Deng (1993), "The
Megatrend Toward the Labor Market;" Deng (1989), "New
Thoughts on Job Allocation of University Graduates;" Zhou
et al. (1992), "An Analysis of the Possibility of Putting
into Practice `Charging Tuition and No Assignment of
Jobs' for College Students and the scheme of its
implementation;" Wang (1993), "Special Economic Zone
Graduates Job Allocation Under Market Economy;" Xiao
(1994), "A Preliminary Discussion on `Two-way Choice' in
Affecting Graduates;" Huang (1993), "Some Feelings on
Implementing the `Mid-term Reform for Higher Education
Graduates' Allocation;" __, "Job Competition Advocated"
(1986).
14.Wu (1988), "Points of View on Two-way Choice."
15.Zhang (1988), "1987: College Graduates Job Allocation
System Reform in Different Areas;" Chen (1990), "Study on
Graduates Counselling under the Trend of `Two-way
Choice.'"
16.Sanyal (1987), Higher Education and Employment, 94.
17."JobPlace (Self Directed Job Search Techniques and Job
Placement Issues) provides job search trainers, career
educators, researchers, private practitioners and other
interested parties a computerized network to ask
questions and share information" as described in
ACADLIST, compiled by dkovacs@kentvm.kent.edu. Jobplace
is provided by listserv@hkucc.uky.edu.
18.Sanyal (1987), Higher Education and Employment, 95.
19.Bland (1990), Managing Higher Education, 69.
20.Guangdong Higher Education Bureau (1984), Institutions of
Higher Education in Guangdong Province, 16.
21.Interviews with heads of both offices, 1994, 1995.
22.Chen (1988), "The Structure and Characteristics of
Management at Shenzhen University."
23.Chan (1987), "State Bows Out of Jobs in Shenzhen."
24.Chen (1989), New Thoughts, New Explorations, and New
Patterns, 48.
25.Tang (1988), Searching for Shenzhen University's Reform
Path, 249.
26.Chen (1989), New Thoughts, New Explorations, and New
Patterns, 52.
27.Tang (1988), Searching for Shenzhen University's Reform
Path, 248.
28.__, "Students Test the Open Job Market" (1987).
29.Tang (1988), Searching for Shenzhen University's Reform
Path.
30.Chen (1989), New Thoughts, New Explorations, and New
Patterns.
31.Zhang (1988), "1987: College Graduates Job Allocation
System Reform in Different Areas" and Chen (1990), "Study
on Graduates Counselling under the Trend of `Two-way
Choice.'"
32.Tang (1988), Searching for Shenzhen University's Reform
Path, 254.
33.Chan (1987), "State Bows Out of Jobs in Shenzhen."
34.Tang (1988), Searching for Shenzhen University's Reform
Path, 248.
35.Hu et al. (1993), "The Evolution of Career Counselling in
Education," 14.