It has been almost two months since my last update. After that previous post, I received a great deal of encouragement and support, and I am truly grateful for it. Those words gave me more courage to keep looking for a new direction in life.
This year, there have been more openings in state-owned enterprises and public institutions related to my field than ever before. I applied to more than a dozen such employers in Southwest China. I interviewed with several of them and failed. Then, in early June, I traveled to Sichuan for an interview with a state-owned enterprise for a formal establishment post. The interview was extremely demanding. It lasted more than forty minutes, and they examined us carefully from every angle. In the end, I ranked first by score and made it into the medical examination stage.
The medical exam is already over, and now I am waiting for notice about the political review. After that comes public announcement, and once that is finished I will need to submit some original documents for the employer to report upward for final approval by the supervising authority. If everything goes through, I am expected to start work and sign the contract in late August.
My former boss withheld my April wages and used them to pressure me into going back to train his younger brother in website construction and maintenance, so that his brother could take over the company website work. In mid-May, I had no choice but to return and give them some training. At that point, his brother realized that building websites was not nearly as simple as they had imagined. Whether my former boss regrets what he said is not something I care to guess. I have already left, and none of that has anything to do with me anymore. In early June, I finally received my April pay.
Last Friday, I went back to the company and got my resignation certificate, stamped by the district-level labor department. That document is enough to prove that I have officially left. I cannot receive unemployment insurance. As for the housing fund, the company only contributed for me on paper for six months: 100 yuan was deducted from my salary each month, while the company itself contributed 0 yuan. That means the entire 600 yuan in the account came from me alone. But in Kunming, the account must be sealed for six months before it can be withdrawn, or I must contribute in another location for six months before it can be transferred.
I also went in person to the local social insurance service hall to ask about my social insurance status. The staff told me that all of the insurance I had paid into was under a provincial pooling system and could not be transferred across provinces. If I work outside the province, I would have to enroll again from scratch. Everything I paid in Yunnan would remain permanently frozen there. Unless I continue working in Yunnan, I would not be able to resume or use those contributions in the future.
I still remember what my former boss said to me on April 15: “You’re worthless now,” and “That master’s degree of yours was a total waste of three years.” I just smiled. If I had not completed my graduate degree, I would never have had a chance at this state-owned enterprise, and I would never have been eligible to apply for many public-sector jobs at all.
In my field, most public institutions in Southwest China—except for township veterinary stations—generally require a master’s degree or above. Township veterinary stations usually ask for a junior college degree or a bachelor’s degree. In places with stronger economies or better locations, the relevant institutions—again, excluding township veterinary stations—often require a doctorate, and some recruit only postdoctoral candidates. Even township veterinary stations in those places may require a master’s degree or above.
So my graduate education was absolutely worthwhile. It was very hard to complete. During that time, my family’s financial situation was so difficult that my advisor even urged me to withdraw. But I persisted and finished the degree. Now is exactly the moment when that degree is proving its value.
This morning I had a dream. I came out of a shop, crossed a river in front of me, and tried to take a narrow path uphill. There was still snow on the path, half-melted and unstable, but I stepped onto it and kept going. Just as I was about to make it up, the ground beneath me gave way. I lunged forward with great effort and fell to my knees on the road beyond the collapse, barely avoiding a fall into the hole. Then someone beside me scolded me harshly, telling me not to take that narrow path again. He said he had already repaired the place where I had stepped through, and I should stop walking there.
For so many years, haven’t I been walking on paths like that? That melting snow was the company I had worked for before. And nearly falling into the collapse was the rough, stumbling process of trying to choose a new job. In the end, I still made it up, protected by the unseen guardians who have watched over me all this time. For that, I am grateful.
The compensation at this state-owned enterprise is not nearly what many people imagine. My monthly take-home pay will probably be around 5,000 to 6,000 yuan. That is the after-tax amount. But in my line of work, that is already very, very good. In private companies, aside from large chain livestock groups such as Charoen Pokphand or Wens, most relevant private employers would offer only 2,000 to 3,000 yuan at best, and sometimes just over 1,000 yuan, or even only a few hundred. Of course, state-owned enterprises do offer some benefits that private firms usually do not, such as a relatively high housing fund contribution. Beyond that, things are fairly ordinary.
I waited a week without hearing anything about the next step, and perhaps the employer was busy processing a different round of recruitment for positions without formal state-enterprise establishment status. Yesterday I chatted with someone I met during the medical exam who may become a future colleague. He said his family had wanted him to apply only for positions with establishment status, but he could not pass the ones in Chengdu. I told him that positions without establishment status simply were not enough. In private firms, layoffs can come at any time, and companies can collapse overnight. You cannot be raising children and carrying loan payments while still having to go out and hunt for work again. He agreed.
Someone on Zhihu once said something painfully true: eight out of ten private companies are traps, and among small private firms, all ten out of ten are traps. I have fully learned that lesson. Last year the economy was already in bad shape. In Kunshan, Jiangsu alone, more than a hundred factories shut down, and layoffs were happening in many other places as well. In Kunming, plenty of companies were barely staying afloat. After surviving last year’s economic downturn, this year the pandemic hit, and many private firms started paying only the local minimum wage—in Kunming that is 1,670 yuan—or else cutting staff or closing entirely.
If at a time like this you are already carrying debt and also need money for your children’s schooling, how are you supposed to live? So many companies in the industry have already gone under. How are you supposed to find work and support a family? There is no point talking about slogans like lifelong learning or constantly reinventing yourself. As people get older, their ability to learn declines noticeably. Even if you want to keep changing, your body and mind do not allow endless reinvention, and the changes you do manage to make may not be what those private companies want anyway.
After a great deal of reflection, I have come to believe that choosing a state-owned enterprise was the right path. At last, I have made one correct move. I still need to improve myself, study more professional knowledge, and, when the time is right, I will have to pursue an in-service doctorate. But at the very least, I should finally have a stable job.
I want to give myself a small reward. Once I officially start work, I will need to do a lot on a computer. My current one has lasted six years, and the smoothness of Linux has helped keep it usable, but I have decided that I should buy a new computer. As for my phone, as long as people can still reach me by calling, replacing it is not important.
I will reply to the comments from my previous post after I finish dealing with everything in July. Once again, thank you to everyone who encouraged and supported me.
Update: June 25, 2020
The employer I applied to has now informed us of the next procedure: transfer of personnel files. Our files will be requested from the institutions currently managing them, and once they arrive, the employer will open and inspect them. Only if everything recorded in the file is in order will the review be considered passed.
The transfer letter is currently on the way. As soon as I receive it, I will return to my hometown and go to the local talent service center to arrange the file transfer.
The whole process is unbelievably strict.