Applicants fight for vacancies in China
Following massive job cuts because of the global economic downturn, the city’s financial institutions have received an unprecedented number of overseas applicants from a recruitment drive in the US, an organizer said on December 26th.
Sheng Yuruo, an official of Shanghai Financial Services Office and deputy head of the recruitment group, said, headhunters from 27 Shanghai-based financial institutes received 2,176 job requests, 12 percent of which came from foreign nationals.
He added that some 840 applicants had reached initial agreements with the firms including banks, brokerages and trust and asset management companies.
Headhunters are overwhelmed by the result that the number of job applicants is far exceeding the number of available vacancies. Yang Qingzhong, human resource general manager of China’s largest brokerage Haitong Securities, said, “We were looking to hire only 27 people to fill our mid- or high-level positions, but received 540 applications. It’s far beyond our expectations.”
He also said that more than 200 candidates had been sorted out for a second round of interviews.
“The level of talent is much higher than what it was in 2002, when our company first went overseas looking for top professionals,” “And, ironically, their salary expectations now are not as high as they were in 2002.” He said.
Various firms offered the annual salary ranging from 200,000 yuan ($29,400) to 1.5 million yuan according to their work experience, positon, and educational background, Sheng said.
In the opinion of several human resource specialists who took part in the recruitment drive, the trip aiming at snapping up top talents was ended up successfully because of the background of most foreign financial firms laid off professionals to cope with the global meltdown.
Yang Zixin, an economics graduate from University College, London, said: “I feel safe and more comfortable working in China and prefer to work in Beijing Shanghai or Hong Kong, rather than overseas.”
Lu Hong, human resource general manger of China Unionpay, said she believed a huge number of Chinese were hurried up to return to the country for jobs. She said, “On a day of the job fair in New York, more than 1,000 people turned up at our booth despite freezing temperatures.”
Zhou Bin, the human resources general manger of China Pacific Insurance Group, said, “We have received a huge number of applications, and have decided to set up an internal talent database to reach the applicants as and when suitable positions are available.”
Are you interested in the business opportunities in China?
China is one of the world’s great growth markets and is likely to be for many years to come. Foreign companies often face difficulties in assessing Chinese market demand and enacting effective strategies because of the language barriers, culture differences, and high expense.
BPOVIA is the leading virtual assistant and Knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) service provider in China. BPOVIA is the only virtual assistant company ever been nominated for the prestigious “Red Herring 100 Asia” Awards 2008. Combines international perspective with local know-how, BPOVIA can provide our clients China business development service and help our clients doing successful business in China.
Please visit http://www.BPOVIA.com/ for details about our service.
Popularity: 2% [?]