Article by Laura Desinsa Jackson from Danwei.org.
You just walked across the stage and became a college graduate, so what are you going to do next? Maybe entering the Chinese job market is the answer, but how? According to the 2010 census 600,000 expats live in China and this number is growing. There has also been an increase of foreigners looking for internships in China’s job market. Thousands of opportunities await foreigners in IT, engineering, teaching, marketing, finance, insurance, business and more. People are looking for jobs in China and not just recent graduates. However, foreigners are now in heavier competition with Chinese citizens.
At the end of 2011 764.2 million people were employed in China and 818,400 Chinese students returned home after studying abroad with hopes of finding a job. Hai gui (海 歸 – Chinese returnees, punning on 海龟 or sea turtle) with polished English and Western cultural experiences are becoming the ideal candidates for Chinese companies looking to market and maneuver as Western businesses do.
Looking at one industry, the public relations (PR) job field: Chinese PR has a lot of similarities to its Western counterparts: passionate PR folks, media kits, innovation and the importance of writing. (It’s the same in every language; writing is key.) Agency, corporate and non-governmental organizations all run similarly as well. The philosophy of “If you work in an agency, you can work anywhere” holds true. Corporate work has one focus, one voice and everyone works in the same direction with higher responsibility. NGO PR is rewarding but still underfunded in China, and not the path to take in search of a high paying job. However preparing to enter the PR world in China can be challenging, but only if you come unprepared.
Interview
Just like an interview in the U.S., come equipped. Read Chinese news outlets, know who the leading PR firms are, be aware of trends and headlines, understand and review the culture and work the company you are interviewing for does. Will Moss said one important piece foreigners need to be able to identify is why PR and most importantly why PR in China? How are you going to stick out from the Chinese candidates and show that you have something that will benefit the company? Make the commitment. Travel to China. Learn the culture, explore and discover. Show that you want this. For 海 歸 students, express how your Western experience will put you ahead of the Chinese students only learning English in the Chinese universities.
New Relationship
PR is all about networking and it is very difficult to start a new network from the ground up. Business relationships are different in China. Business cards are important but what is more important is how you handle them. A lot of communication is done through social media, email and telephone in the West, but in China get ready for more of a courtship. If you have not done so in your love life, you will learn the art of “wine and dine” in China. Treating, or bribing (depending on how you look at it), someone to dinner or with gifts is something of the norm in China. China business is personal. Yes, your new relationship will be something to get used to but there is another relationship that is more difficult to adjust to for PR professionals.
The Government and Censorship
The relationship you have with the government will never end. Chinese media is censored and learning to accept and adjust is key. All communication targeted for the public must favor the Chinese Communist Party. In order to have a publication approved, it must first pass through the General Administration of Press and Publications and all publications will have a stakeholder that will sponsor them. Stakeholders represent publications and assure the GAPP that the material being presented will abide by regulations and if not the stakeholders will be to blame. According to The China Business Review focusing on advertising, media and PR, a company’s target audience could range from government agencies, the public, the CCP, state-owned enterprises, and even nongovernment organizations. They go on further to say, “Knowing which media outlet is influenced by which precise mix of government authorities and commercial market forces is more art than science.” The real trick to PR in China is find out how to abide by the CCP and GAPP, gain the trust of the public and get results in each of your campaigns.
Because there is government control on media it is difficult for the public to believe what is written. It is easy to gain coverage in China, but it is hard to gain the trust of the readers. Stick to the facts. Try to incorporate quotes from reliable local sources. Press releases and media kits are still regularly used to gain coverage, but keep in mind your word usage. Omit censored words from the headlines and body if you want hopes of being approved. Words such as human rights, work camp, freedom and imprisonment need to be avoided. This year marked the 23rd anniversary of the 1989 protests and social media sites were quick to take down any comments relating to the incident.
Social media and the Internet are more difficult to monitor. There are 538 million Chinese Internet users and picking out every message and comment that is distributed daily is impossible. Beijing police have recently promoted a crack down on internet users attacking the government. The goal is to create a more secure Internet environment for the younger generations. Although Article 41 of the Constitution of China states a citizen may criticize the government, they cannot do so falsely. The question is what is considered inappropriate to say? Although the internet is censored, it is still a great market to tap into for PR professionals. Mashable created the perfect infographic to show us why.
Playing Dirty
Ethics are tested in Chinese PR. Everything has a price. If you want a piece to be covered in print or broadcasting you must get used to the “transportation fee”. This sort of paid placement is referred as “paid news” or “soft news”. Journalists and reporters accepting payment for sources, coverage, attending press conferences and travel expenses are the norm. Some publications even post ads for news-for-sale prices. The Chinese law forbids this practice, but only when it is published and advertised to the public as being “soft news”, which never happens.
“Corruption has become a lifestyle in today’s China,” said Sun Xupei, a journalism fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing. “But when it happens in journalism it’s even worse than other fields, because people feel there’s nothing they can really trust.”
“If one of my companies came up with a cure for cancer, I still couldn’t get any journalists to come to the press conference without promising them a huge envelope filled with cash,” said one Shanghai-based private equity investor.
Hierarchy
For this final section, the writer interviewed William Moss for his opinion on entering the PR field at different career levels.
If you are a recent foreign graduate looking for a junior or entry-level job, do not get discouraged. You not only have to prove yourself as a young PR professional, you also have to do so as a foreigner. Moss advised young aspirants to be prepared to work on editing the English material and potentially working on foreign media relations down the road, “since many Chinese PR pros are not very comfortable dealing with Western media.” This only pertains to agency work because it is rare for foreigners to be hired in a corporate setting at a junior level.
Haigui are treated the same as Chinese local and can be just as qualified to obtain a junior position anywhere.
At the mid-career level foreigners are usually chosen because they specialize in a field. A company is looking for an expert that fits their needs. “Any mid-career foreigner has to have a clear reason why they should be hired over a local, who will be way less paperwork, and possibly (though not always) cheaper.”
As a foreigner looking for a senior-executive level position you must have the same qualifications as anywhere else in the world. With an infinitive knowledge about the industry that can be credited from your accomplishments and experience, remember it also has to extend further than China. Positions can consist of running agency offices in larger cities after obtaining a regional market or regional specialized practice position for fifteen years or more.
Mr. Moss ended by saying, “There is no “ideal profile.” People succeed with different combinations of strengths and experience. That’s one of the good things about the industry – there are lots of ways into it.”