Job hopping and recruitment happen every year, so why is it particularly prevalent this year? How do branded real estate companies "force out" professional managers? Why is there a lack of mid-to-high level talents in the real estate industry? The undercurrents among mid-to-senior level professional managers reflect what kind of current situation in the real estate industry?
"After returning to work after the Spring Festival, I found that the middle and upper levels of several companies had changed. Some friends at the marketing director level have also left the real estate industry," an insider recently revealed on Weibo.
Although job hopping and recruitment peak after the Spring Festival every year, Chengdu reporters found when reviewing recent recruitment situations of real estate companies that marketing supervisors, sales managers, and other mid-to-high level talents have become the focal point of the current talent supply and demand contradiction. From December 13, 2011, to January 31, 2012, there were a total of 67 recruitment information for mid-to-senior level marketing talents in the real estate industry on Job5156; from February 1 to 11, there were 233 such recruitment information, including well-known real estate companies such as Henderson Land, Kaisa Group, Greenland, R&F Properties, and Longfor.
As early as December 2011, the signal of a shortage of mid-to-high level talents in the real estate industry had quietly been released. Peng Zhiyuan, vice general manager of Shijia Institution, once posted a recruitment tweet offering a high salary of 500,000 yuan for a chief business representative; Poly Real Estate also issued a recruitment notice in January 2012 offering a 300,000 yuan annual salary for a marketing department supervisor and a 400,000 yuan annual salary for a deputy marketing manager. More mid-to-high level talent flows were completed through headhunting companies secretly.
"I've already changed jobs!" This was the most common opening line Zhou Yunhui (pseudonym) said during a New Year's gathering with friends in January 2012. Previously, he was the marketing department manager of a certain brand real estate company in Chengdu, and now he is the public relations department manager of a certain group company in Sichuan. "The company is located in the southern extension line, with development projects mainly concentrated in second-tier cities such as Yibin, Zigong, and Ya'an." He would make such additional explanations each time he handed out his new business card.
In the eyes of others, leaving a branded leading real estate company for a medium-to-small-sized real estate company is hard to understand, but Zhou Yunhui believes: "Three years ago, the company's development status was still quite good. Since the earthquake in 2008, performance has been declining year by year, and finally, it barely stabilized with external help, which lasted for two years of regulation. Although it still bears the name of a brand, its former glory is long gone, it has suffered heavy damage, and its debt ratio increases year by year, and layoffs could happen at any time. The current company may not be as famous, but the projects it develops are relatively high-quality, and its business covers multiple fields such as energy, decoration, forestry, and animal husbandry. Its diversified development model is much more stable."
Public data shows that the asset-liability ratio of most listed real estate companies in China is over 60%, some even around 150%. Whether or not cash flow is sufficient directly affects the survival status of real estate companies.
Li Peipei, marketing director of Xinyuan Mingjia, who is about the same age as Zhou Yunhui, also joined the ranks of job hoppers at the beginning of this year. The reason for her job change is because the Xinyuan Mingjia housing project she oversees has entered the final stage of sales, and the company plans to fully withdraw from the Chengdu market this year, making job hopping inevitable.
"The overall real estate market was sluggish in 2011, and professional managers' career choices at this time will be more rational." Chengdu reporters learned from Zhilian Recruitment and Job5156 that currently, professional managers with strong intentions to 'jump out' mostly work for highly leveraged real estate development companies. Those who send them career information are mostly small and medium-sized real estate companies. "Many small and medium-sized, non-listed real estate companies that primarily focus on residential projects have reduced their employment plans for 2012. The core factor that job hoppers pay attention to is stability. They consider factors such as the enterprise itself and industry reputation."