Why I Don't Hire Recent Graduates: 11 Interviews with Entrepreneurs, CEOs, and HR Professionals

Author: Song Sanxian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-04-01
Features: This is not a textbook teaching graduates how to find jobs, nor is it a social survey listing the employment forms of current graduates in detail. Instead, through interviews with multiple recruiters, it analyzes their mindset and their perception of graduates in the form of case studies, telling us why they don’t hire fresh graduates.
Case Study: There are too few jobs suitable for them
Mr. Xiao, who has engaged in various professions, entered the IT industry in 1999 by building and operating personal websites with a friend. Currently, he is the Executive Manager of an information service company. Most website-related jobs are done by young people, which is very trendy; graduates often admire it and often plunge into it right after graduation. When I mentioned the situation of fresh graduates in the company, Mr. Xiao’s face was filled with the frustration of “seeing potential but being unable to help.” However, he said it very tactfully: “I don’t think they’re suitable for my place.”
In the spring of 2000, I started a community-based website with a friend, and the website quickly developed rapidly. At that time, it was the peak of the domestic internet boom, and investment also came in. We needed to hire a large number of people to form the company structure and move away from the personal website model to start formal operations. It was April, and the weather was already getting warm. The recruitment venue was even hotter. After arriving early and setting up the recruitment booth, the students swarmed in like a tide. Most of them squeezed to the front of the booth to read the recruitment content, threw their resumes at us if they thought it was suitable, and then squeezed out. Some even turned around and left directly after reading. By the time half a day had passed, the resumes for various positions had stacked up.
As people were leaving one by one, Xiao Deng returned to me. I said, “We mainly recruit programmers.” I clearly remember that before Xiao Deng, there was a “fat glasses” guy—a round-faced fellow wearing a black-rimmed glasses—whom I met when he came up to hand in his resume along with a CD, saying it was a program he had made during his time in school. Back then, the mobile office phase had not yet developed, and laptops were very expensive. We had actually thought about setting up a desktop computer at the recruitment venue, but then we thought that there probably wouldn’t be network conditions in the venue (at that time, it might have been dial-up internet via a phone line). If we couldn’t let them see our website online, there would be no point in setting up a PC, which would be too troublesome. So when the “fat glasses” guy showed me the CD and said it was a program he had made, I felt very embarrassed—I couldn’t see what he had actually done, and his action almost “shocked” me.
After realizing that I couldn’t let him demonstrate his skills on the spot, the “fat glasses” guy looked very disappointed. He asked me, “I heard that working on websites pays very well—is that true?” I said, “The absolute salary definitely exceeds what your classmates earn in other jobs, but the relative salary might still be lower!” He was surprised, “What do you mean?” I explained it to him in detail: “In terms of absolute figures, if we hire you, based on your education level, your probationary salary would be 2,000, and after passing probation, it would be 2,500. If you perform well by the end of the year, there would be further salary increases. Meanwhile, your classmates working in factories might earn only 600 to 800 yuan per month, and that’s only if the factory is doing well. So in terms of absolute figures, it’s definitely higher. However, working on a website job generally doesn’t follow an 8-hour workday. If you can’t solve the problems, it’s not just about overtime or having no weekends—it might even mean you have to think about how to handle things while sleeping. So when you calculate the relative value of your salary per unit of work time, it might not be as high.”
After hearing this, the original disappointment on the “fat glasses” guy’s face was mixed with a sense of confusion, which I even thought could be described as melancholic. After making a perfunctory inquiry about when we would notify him about the exam after reviewing his resume, the “fat glasses” guy left the crowd in a frustrated manner.
By the time the recruitment venue was about to close, people had been leaving one by one, and Xiao Deng returned to me again. I said, “I say ‘again’ because I could already feel that this student had appeared before me several times that day. Xiao Deng was short, fair-skinned, and slim. He asked me, “Teacher, my education level is vocational secondary, and I’m not a computer major, but I think I can do the programmer position you require. Can I take the exam?” His voice was low, with a clear southern accent, and his tone was humble and gentle, with pronunciation that was clear. In the slanted sunlight coming through the window, he quietly looked at me. At that moment, I had a feeling that this student was so steady and confident, he should have a chance. I said, “Website work is quite exhausting. Are you prepared for that?” He said, “I was listening to you and that guy who asked about the salary earlier. I’m not afraid of hard work or thinking, as long as I can deliver results, it’s worth it.” I took his resume and flipped through it casually, saying, “It’s great that you have such a mindset. We’ll likely have the exam in three or four days, so you should still prepare well. I hope you can join our company and work with us.” Xiao Deng smiled, and that smile was so exaggerated that it wasn’t quite accurate to say it was like being relieved—it should be pure happiness. He said, “Thank you, teacher. I’ll do well on the exam.”
Midnight basketball shouting and not taking work seriously
During the first half of the year of my new company’s chaotic operation, the performance of the newly hired fresh graduates left me both happy and worried: of the only two regular university graduates majoring in computer science, one was fired after working for only two months, and the other left without even a month. The other vocational college graduates also left and replaced a few times, while the non-fresh graduates worked very steadily and effectively.
The one who was fired was named Xiao Wei. The reason was that he stayed up late watching basketball games. That year, there was the European Cup. Among the young employees, there was a group of die-hard fans. It’s usually a happy thing for young people to gather and watch basketball together, but Xiao Wei, who earned more than other employees (which was a failure on our part in setting salary tiers based on education level), first set up a satellite antenna in the dorm to watch ESPN. Xiao Wei used a half-trick, half-coercive method to collect money from the fan employees to buy the most expensive one, and then during every game, he bought a lot of food and drinks for everyone to share. This was too difficult for some children from rural backgrounds. Adding to this, Xiao Wei’s sportsmanship was also terrible—eventually, he ended up watching the games alone.
First, employees complained that Xiao Wei’s loud shouting while watching basketball at midnight disturbed others’ sleep. At that time, many employees were graduates from other places, and the company rented collective dormitories for the employees. Later, Xiao Wei even dozed off at his desk several times during working hours.
Website work was very exhausting at that time, whether it was editing, design, or programming. Almost everyone had a roll of straw mat under their desks. The company had a 24-hour operation, and even if you stayed late or took a break at noon, you could find a quiet spot in the office area to rest. Even if you took a 10-minute nap on your desk during working hours, we wouldn’t interfere as long as it didn’t affect your work. But Xiao Wei didn’t go to any other place to sleep—he just lay down on his desk and slept for two or three hours, severely affecting his colleagues’ work morale. After warning him twice, he still acted the same way.
So I asked the technical department head, Da Lin, about Xiao Wei’s work progress. Da Lin said he was also very troubled. Originally, Da Lin had assigned Xiao Wei to work with A Fa on developing the company’s public email system, but now A Fa was basically doing all the work. Xiao Wei’s part, which involved connecting the new website functions, had made no progress at all. At the company’s weekly work meeting, Da Lin had already “shouldered” this responsibility for two weeks, and there was really no reason to find an excuse for it this week.
Considering that Xiao Wei was also showing an increasingly obvious trend of not fitting in with his colleagues during daily work, we decided after discussion to take him as an example: give him half a month’s salary as compensation and let him leave immediately.