Graduation shock--Open Job Fairs, Closed Company Doors

Recent Stanford MBA Grad Jason Jianyu Tu was born in 1989 in a small village 125 miles south of Xian--in what he termed a "sixth-tier city," meaning, "There's a very slim chance you can be successful." (See post one.) His parents, well aware of this, searched for ways out of this small village, and eventually found a path to Xian. (See post two.) The big city of Xian--although only a hop, skip and a jump away--was like a different planet, with buses and fast food and a really tough school. (See post three.) Jason gave up trying to do well in school, instead focusing his energy where his passions lay: guitar and blockbuster movies. (See post four.) While Jason's high school headmaster did not have high hopes that Jason would get a college degree, Jason jumped through hoop after hoop to get accepted to the University of Washington. His only problem? Funding. (See post five.) Thanks, however, to a mass e-mail marketing campaign, Jason found himself accepted to the University of Evansville in Indiana. (See post six.) He was thrilled...until he landed in what felt was the middle of nowhere. (See post seven.) As Jason was one of two Chinese people at the school, he was immediately the expert on anything and everything that had to do with China. (See post eight.) Not only that, but he was soon paired up with an American host family, something he looks back on as a very important part of his life. (See post nine.) Despite the warm welcome in Evansville, he decided he needed to move to a bigger place. (See post ten.) 

Jason spent three years studying Economics. For, while his strict early Chinese education had made him want to give up on math, he thrived under the encouraging U.S. system. He discovered he loved solving mathematical problems. His last year at Purdue, 2011, he wrote a research paper with his professor that he was sure would guarantee him a job. 

“I went to a lot of job fairs on campus. The structure of the job fairs was such that I would get to the last round of the interview, and I could speak reasonably-good English, so they sometimes wouldn’t ask, ‘Are you international?’  (Remember, he had that Brooklyn accent from watching all those Blockbusters.)

“Sometimes I would get to the last round of an interview where they would ask me my social security, and then they would realize I’m international and say, ‘Oh our HR department will contact you for the other documents.’"

This politically polite method was frustrating--he'd be filled with such hope only to be dropped to the bottom of the mountain again. Ultimately, it was also a huge waste of his--everyone's--time. Jason didn't say these exact words, but I've seen it happen to my own relatives. I can vouch for the emotions.

“Being an international student, even coming from Purdue, I had no chance of getting a job. Work status is an obstacle. It costs money for the company to file documents.  If they offer you a job that another American can do they have to write a legal letter that says this person is special. Because of that, a lot of companies just don’t want to deal with the situation.

"There are very limited options if you want to stay in the United States. That’s why you see a lot of Chinese students in the U.S. are Ph.D. students, because they have no option in professional industry.”

Jason applied to the Ph.D. programs at the top schools: Stanford, Harvard, Yale. He didn’t receive any acceptances.  Fortunately, the Professor who he had co-written the research paper with got wind of all of these closed doors. He offered Jason a chance to study and do research at the Toulouse School of Economics in France.

“It’s a good school. They have a lot of mathematicians who win Nobel prizes. My supervisor won a Nobel prize. They offered a stipend. Problem solved.”

Well, not quite.

(To Be Continued. Next: France Reminds Jason of China...the Bad Parts.)