u/akikosquid

Hello everyone.
Recently, I joined a group chat consisting mostly of Chinese people who want to immigrate to other countries. Unsurprisingly, many of them said that they want to immigrate to English-speaking developed countries. Almost everyone in the group had graduated from a top-tier or second-tier Chinese university, commonly referred to as 985 or 211 universities.

Some of them were particularly interested in immigrating to Australia, so I asked what kinds of jobs they planned to do after moving there. I was surprised to find that many of their desired occupations were significantly below their current level of education and professional experience. I don’t mean skilled blue-collar jobs such as carpentry, construction, or interior finishing, because those occupations require specialized training and practical skills. I’m talking about jobs such as waitressing, invigilation, food delivery, and other relatively low-skilled, minimum-wage positions that have little connection to their existing qualifications and professional experience.

I don’t consider myself a meritocrat, and I don’t think that working in these occupations is inherently inferior. However, I find it difficult to understand why someone with a highly competitive degree and valuable professional experience would willingly accept a long-term career path that makes little use of their existing skills, simply in order to obtain permanent residency or citizenship in a developed country.

Of course, immigration itself can be a perfectly rational choice. People may value political stability, social welfare, work-life balance, education for their children, or other factors more than career advancement or income. I can understand that. What I find difficult to understand is the willingness to sacrifice almost all of one’s existing career capital for the sake of living in a particular country, especially when there may be other countries where their skills could still be utilized.

What also surprised me was how strongly some people rejected the idea of moving to countries outside the English-speaking developed world. Some seemed to regard countries outside this category as inherently poor, backward, or hopeless, even when the actual economic and career opportunities might be quite different from what they assumed.

This made me wonder whether there is also a cultural or status component to this phenomenon. Is it possible that some highly educated Chinese immigrants are not simply seeking better economic opportunities, but also seeking social recognition associated with living in Western, particularly Anglo-speaking, societies?
If so, I find that attitude somewhat troubling, because it seems to reproduce a hierarchy in which Western countries are automatically regarded as superior, while other countries are dismissed regardless of their actual circumstances.

I told people in the group that I thought some of these career choices could amount to wasting their educational and professional potential. They considered my comments offensive and removed me from the group. I understand why they might have found my wording judgmental, but I still think the underlying question is worth discussing.

Is severe occupational downgrading a reasonable price to pay for immigration, or can it become a form of underutilization of human capital? And how much of people’s preference for particular immigration destinations is actually driven by economic considerations versus cultural prestige and social status?

I’m genuinely curious about how other people see this. I joined the group in the first place because I had often seen Chinese people discussing immigration on social media, and I wanted to understand what they actually hoped to achieve after immigrating.

The first screening call was for an events position at a hostel company. The recruiter asked if I intended to stay with the company after finishing my internship. I could tell she wanted me to say “yes!” But honestly, I wasn’t sure. I’m applying for jobs in a foreign country, so I said I wasn’t sure, and that since I’m currently on a visa, I’d probably look for jobs in my home country too. She said, “Oh, we’ll let you know the result on Friday!” which I took to mean rejection. I really didn’t know how to answer that question properly, since I’m not a permanent resident in this country.

The second screening call I failed was yesterday. It was an event related role at a med tech company. The recruiter asked if I had any experience booking hotels for someone. I said I’d worked on expos before, but more on the organizer side rather than representing a specific company, so even though I’d worked with vendors from other countries, I might have to learn something new for this role. She rejected me again, but what I said was honest: I really don’t have much experience working for a specific company at an expo.

The third company, where I’ll probably fail too, was for a communications and creative marketing role at a charity. I did a lot of research beforehand and felt that one of my previous campaigns was very relevant to this role, since it was also for a charity organization. I knew they had a major event coming up in September, so I deliberately mentioned it and asked if I could participate if selected. During the panel interview, I told the recruiters this and they seemed satisfied. Then they asked, “Could you tell me about one of our posts on [social media platform] and how you’d improve it?” Honestly, I completely froze at that point, because their social media account wasn’t doing great, I have to admit that, but I felt their overall direction was off, since they weren’t targeting the right audience. I was too scared to be that honest, so I answered in a vague, euphemistic way, and they didn’t seem happy with it (I just didn’t know how to phrase it better). I said I’d add a hook at the beginning, make the video longer, and add something that built a connection with viewers. But they seemed unimpressed, so I think I likely failed this one too.

Similar issues have happened to me a few times. Sometimes when they ask about international experience, I’ll talk about my experience working in other countries, but some recruiters don’t seem to respond well to it (probably because it’s not the country they’re looking for). I’m neurodivergent, so I find it quite difficult to read the room sometimes. How can I improve my interview skills to better match what recruiters are looking for? Does anyone have any suggestions?🕯️🕯️

After applying for 600 jobs, I decided to give up on job hunting eventually; finding a job these days is obviously a dead-end attempt, a structural adversity, rather than a personal problem.

I hold two degrees from two different countries, one of them from a top-tier university in the world; I had internships in three different countries and speak three languages, and clearly, that doesn’t make me stand out. What corporations are looking for is a docile, stable person. Sending applications on LinkedIn is emotionally draining; most of the recruiters judge you because you don’t hold a STEM degree or you have worked in too many countries, so they find you 'unable to see a clear career path' or 'cannot plug and play.'😢

I found out it’s even so much easier to find a client as an entrepreneur rather than looking for an actual job in an office. I had interviews with many top companies; most of them rejected me for no reason. I was rejected in several final-round interviews, and they never gave me feedback. I found out it’s even harder for me to find a corporation that truly understands me than starting my own business with several friends in creative consulting. After four months of job hunting, I finally understand the problem might not be me; it’s because of the society.