Post-graduate Entrance Exam Craze Cools Down, Graduates Should Rationally Face the Future

Once again, it is the season to prepare for the postgraduate entrance examination. For those college students who haven't yet made an accurate self-positioning, choosing between taking the postgraduate exam and finding a job is a realistic dilemma.

A third-year student of Beijing University of Science and Technology, Xiao Jiang, who had started preparing for the 2009 postgraduate exam at the beginning of the year, said: "I've tried looking for some internship opportunities, but I really cannot adapt to the environment outside. The school is better, quiet and simple. I don't want to face society, so I decided to take the postgraduate exam." When asked about her plans after the postgraduate exam, she said: "I don't know, but I don't want to look for a job."

Xiao Song, a graduate student in ancient Chinese language from Capital Normal University, said in an interview that most graduate students hope to enter institutions with fixed positions and stable jobs. If they can't find decent jobs, they will sign up with some acceptable units. Xiao Song said that graduate students usually graduate at the age of over 25, and immediately face real-life issues such as marriage, buying houses, and having children. They are unwilling to compromise in smaller places, feel insecure in large companies, and many companies think graduate students can do nothing. If they can use undergraduate students, they will not hire graduate students. This makes finding jobs increasingly awkward.

So, how should university students without clear positioning avoid life risks and make decisions they won't regret?

Educational experts say that taking the postgraduate exam is just one of many life choices. If there isn't a strong desire to achieve something in the field of study, but only to escape the current employment pressure, one might first rationally analyze whether taking the postgraduate exam suits them.

Taking the postgraduate exam requires buying various materials, attending training classes, and even renting outside the school for peace, which all require family support. Even if one passes in one attempt, two years of tuition and living expenses is not a small amount. By graduation, graduate students still need to face employment. Entering society at a later age, if they spend another two or three years accumulating work experience, the cost will be greater.

On the contrary, many university graduates plan ahead, choose sunrise industries with good prospects and high demand for talent, enhance their competitiveness through professional career training, and can also find employment smoothly. Working hard for two to three years, seizing opportunities, their development will not be worse than that of graduate students.

Wu Yue, who has worked at Founder Group for a year and a half, said that she was also confused before graduation. "I also thought about taking the postgraduate exam, but graduate students have trouble finding jobs too," Wu Yue said. "I studied computer science, but now there are too many people doing development programming. Not only undergraduates, but even graduate students find it hard to get company recognition." Wu Yue told reporters that during the job-hunting period, she interviewed several companies, but all failed. After calm analysis and careful consideration, she decided to try working in software testing. "Choosing software testing considers its professional characteristics, which suit me; on the other hand, IT enterprises have a huge demand for this kind of talent, and the salary is high." Wu Yue said that currently, China's software testing industry has a severe imbalance between supply and demand. Among the country's 1.2 million software professionals, less than 50,000 can engage in specialized software testing work. "This means that as long as you master the relevant professional skills, you can obtain good job opportunities." After several months of professional training, Wu Yue successfully received an offer from Founder Group, and she has now been promoted to the position of test team leader, earning around 8,000 yuan per month.

Since 2008, 56 universities in our country will enter the pilot scope of reform in the postgraduate training mechanism. These universities will abolish the free system and charge all graduate students. The craze for taking the postgraduate exam has therefore cooled down, with 82,000 fewer applicants compared to last year. Last year, the employment rate of graduate students in some provinces was not only lower than that of undergraduates, but even worse than that of vocational school students in popular majors. Zhaopin.com career planning experts remind graduates that whether choosing to take the postgraduate exam or find a job, the most important thing is to clarify what path you want to take. For those who merely hope to avoid reality by taking the postgraduate exam and lack confidence in job hunting, making career plans in advance, participating in suitable career training, and working hard for two to three years, will not be worse than being a graduate student.

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Beijing Aptech Birdland Information Technology Co., Ltd. (shortened to "Birdland Aptech") was jointly established in January 2000 by Birdland Headquarters Group and India's Aptech Company. It is a professional IT vocational education company. Birdland Headquarters currently has more than 400 employees, and the entire system has over 7,000 employees. In more than 80 cities across the country, there are over 200 training centers, cumulatively training more than 300,000 students, making it the largest IT vocational education institution and the largest provider of IT vocational education products in the country.

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