For foreign graduates, a working solution

Busy as a bee

To build his skill set and boost his chances of attracting Chinese recruiters, Heulin started volunteering and has become involved in Beijing's burgeoning startup community.

He's now chief innovation officer for Planitworld, a startup dedicated to solving the problems caused by urban waste, and director of Startup Grind University Beijing, which fosters entrepreneurship and helps students understand and seize opportunities in the Chinese market. Both positions are unpaid.

He said the experience he gained in those positions quickly led to several companies offering him internships. However, he had them on hold while leading the Business development of BeHive, a nonprofit group that organizes gatherings, workshops and lectures around Beijing for international students looking for work in China.

Like Heulin, co-founders Petros Djakouris and Costas Georgiou, two postgraduate students from Cyprus, have been in the same position as the people they aim to assist: They came to China to study, fell in love with the place, and wanted to stay. But they had no idea how to look for work or what the visa requirements were.

They went to a career services center for advice, but everything was in Chinese, said Georgiou, 27. "So we decided that with no one giving us the answer, we could organize a community like BeHive so that we could help each other," he said.

Georgiou and Djakouris, who both previously studied in the United Kingdom, completed an intensive Mandarin course at UIBE in 2017. Georgiou then joined an international talent program operated by HNA Capital, the Chinese conglomerate, before starting at a law firm, while Djakouris, 26, now does marketing for a technology company.

Using the BeHive platform, which was launched in March 2017, they have organized 25 workshops focusing on topics including networking, interviews, intercultural communication and presentation skills. They have also partnered with other organizations and invited professionals, usually experts in presentation and leadership, to give speeches.

Professional trainer and consultant Malcolm Nerva has been working with BeHive almost since the beginning and has offered many insights on job hunting. In June, the group organized a self-awareness workshop facilitated by Nerva, pointing out ways to discover one's strengths and weakness through personality assessments. The event took place at Tsinghua University's Schwarzman College and attracted more than 150 people.

Past guest speakers have included Andrew Shirman, CEO and founder of the NGO Education in Sight, and Alex Weber, a corporate trainer who has worked for Audi, Lenovo, JD and UNICEF.

"They train students for free because they believe in our vision and they can see the lack of career support for students, especially in Beijing," Djakouris said, adding that BeHive has helped over 1,000 students, equipping them with the professional skills needed to find employment.

The group is now made up of 30 unpaid volunteers, from countries including China, Russia, Greece, Italy, Kazakhstan and Iran.

The plan was to take BeHive beyond simply training job seekers and create a space where people can make friends, have fun and enjoy events, according to its founders. They are inviting more Chinese students to share the resources and hope to team up with job fairs and build closer links with university career centers.

Changing the rules

In August, the Ministry of Education told China Daily the government had decided to lift its nationwide ban on international students finding paid part-time work. Since 2000, foreign students had only been allowed to get unpaid jobs and internships.

The move came after Shanghai and Beijing relaxed local regulations to encourage students to start their career or business in China.

Shanghai introduced a pilot program in 2015 that enabled foreign students to launch businesses in the city's Zhangjiang National Innovation Demonstration Zone for up to two years after graduation.

The Ministry of Public Security also released a policy in 2016 that cleared the way for foreign students to get paid part-time work or launch a startup at Zhongguancun Science Park, the so-called Silicon Valley of Beijing.

Last year, the central government announced that students with postgraduate degrees and those from "prestigious" universities can now obtain work permits immediately after graduation, instead of having to wait a minimum of two years.

Zhang Shujun, head of Tianjin University Press, and Feng Baoping, a lecturer at Tianjin University's School of International Education, said in a research paper published in 2014 that allowing foreign students to work is in line with the development of society and will help them become more independent.

"It will not only ease their financial burden and improve their understanding of Chinese society, but it will also help them accumulate work experience and strengthen their comprehensive capabilities," the paper said, adding that off-campus work experience should be included in Chinese university programs.

Heulin said the new policies will be warmly welcomed by international students, as they will allow them to make money while gaining knowledge.

"They are very valuable policies and hopefully they will work out," he said.