For over a decade, the craze of Chinese college graduates taking qualifying examinations to become civil servants has remained unabated. An important proportion of graduates views civil service as their top priority in job selection and they spare no efforts in preparing for those examinations, sometimes years before their graduation . There’s the same as Civil Service. Millions of Chinese college students sit for qualifying examinations for graduate studies, primarily in Masters programs. Students prepare for those examinations either through years of arduous self-education or by spending large sums of money attending local training schools. The publishing of examinations-related study materials and the training programs offered, both online and offline, have combined to form a sizable industry.
Faced with the harsh reality in the employment market, which is forever looking for graduates with higher degrees, many college graduates find going to graduate schools is a good way to avoid unemployment and to enhance ones competitiveness in future job hunting. To some extent, this craze is a modern revival of the ancient notion that those who excel in academics end up in officialdom. In the present-day ,there are complicated reasons underlying this phenomenon. The jobs in sectors other than civil service are insecure and unstable, and employees have to work under greater stress faced with growing competitions in the workplace and the industry. Some government departments are related to monopolized industries and civil servants can enjoy unusually high salaries and welfare benefits. Finally, government officials are usually regarded as occupying the highest rung of the social hierarchy and a student who succeeds in becoming government official is considered the pride of the family, adding prestige and glory to the entire clan.
For all the apparent attractions of the officialdom, the craze of entering the civil service is a distorted one. In the United States, truly ambitious students enter the industry instead of civil departments, where they apply their individual initiative to achieve personal success. It has already been pointed out that, with so many best minds of the nation fighting their way into the civil sectors, the consequences are catastrophic. The civil servants system, with its inherent bureaucracy and rigid rules, would inevitably turn the otherwise energetic and aggressive young people into docile followers of their superiors instructions and dutiful but mediocre implementers of executive orders. This will considerably undermine the vitality of a whole generation and the competitiveness of the entire country in the international arena. All forms of craze are accompanied by elements of irrationality and abnormality and, the sooner this craze vanishes, the better.It is really pathetic to see that students undertake graduate studies with an ulterior motivenot for the sake of loving what they study, but for the sake of merely landing a job, which in many cases might be unrelated to what they have studied.
An alarming fact about this craze is that most students pursue graduate studies not out of their voluntary will. However, without that voluntary initiative, most students who do enter graduate schools are not motivated. For them, the only thing that ultimately counts is the degree or the diploma which they expect could give them an upper hand against other job hunters. As to the actual substance of their graduate studies, its not a big deal for them, as long as it leads to that degree or diploma.The chill truth is that students soon find their anticipations are a mere dream. As so many undergraduates proceed onto graduate studies, the employment situation remains as severe as ever. Instead of bringing about apparent competitive edges, two or three years of additional academic training is simply a waste of time and energy. They need to reflect on this craze and would have been better off distinguishing themselves with outstanding knowledge and skills when they were undergraduates.