Fresh graduates enter the job market directly, society inside the wall is too outrageous right now!! Can't even the least picky group of people afford a meal? Qi Qi Ba Ba TALK Episode 972 20260917

This article records the job-hunting experience of a master's graduate from a non-985/211 university (a "double-non" university) in the current grim employment environment. Facing a scarcity of positions, extremely low wages, severe overtime, and competition from a massive volume of resumes, it reflects the job-hunting anxiety and economic downward pressure currently faced by young people.

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I really don't know what the point of getting this master's degree from a "double-non" university was. From August until now, I've sent out hundreds of resumes, and very few have passed. First round, second round, AI interviews—layer after layer of hurdles. A few days ago, I interviewed for a sales position, and there were actually many students from 985/211 universities competing alongside me. Some companies finish their initial screening; could you at least give an answer on whether I passed or not? What's most speechless is when I ask HR about the salary online, they say, "Come for an in-person interview." I'm puzzled—is this something that can't be said? Isn't salary the point workers care about most? Doesn't it cost money to travel there? Yesterday, many people told me to just find someone to marry; they should keep such comments to themselves. In many people's perception, taking the civil service exam after graduating with a liberal arts degree is the only correct path, but it actually doesn't suit everyone, and it's not something you can pass just because you want to. I admit I don't have that ability; one must consider the positions one is eligible to apply for, as well as future plans. I studied accounting for my undergraduate degree and business administration for my master's. I'd like to remind students preparing for the postgraduate entrance exam: be very cautious with broad-category admissions. Your diploma won't state your specific research direction, only the broad category, which will have a direct impact on future job hunting and civil service/public institution exams.

I don't consider myself a lazy person. After graduating from high school, I opened my own tutoring class; I handled the research, operations, and teaching all by myself, and through that, I earned my first pot of gold. Later, because I was in a rural area and there were fewer and fewer children in the village, I stopped doing it. After finishing my master's, I went to one of the "Big Eight" accounting firms for an annual audit. You can't even imagine the intensity of the overtime. It was deep winter in Harbin; during the day, I had to travel between various banks and companies to reconcile transaction records, and at night, I'd get off work at 10 PM and return to the hotel. Every day I was holding a pile of vouchers to photograph, filling out endless forms, and reconciling accounts that never seemed to end. It was during that time that I developed cervical spondylosis; now, if I look down for too long, I get headaches and feel dizzy. During my master's, I interned at a listed company association. It sounded very respectable, but the salary was only 1,000 yuan, and the daily commute took over three hours. At the time, I could only live at school because if I rented a place outside, I would literally be paying to work. With just that little salary, HR even told me that many people were desperate to get in, and the key was that they wouldn't even offer a permanent position. I actually quite like education; being a teacher gives me a sense of accomplishment, and I have practical experience from my tutoring classes. But I won't graduate until next June. Due to major restrictions, I can't apply for positions with official establishment status. When I apply to private schools, they don't want me because I haven't graduated yet. Top-tier educational training companies prioritize 985/211 graduates. Smaller institutions are willing to accept me, but the salary offered is only 1,200 yuan, and the teachers there even advised me that the educational training industry is very difficult now and doesn't have good prospects for the future.

This is my reality. This double-degree graduate program is something I earned through sheer hard work and full effort. It cannot be simply summed up by the phrase 'taking off Kong Yiji's long gown.' I don't want to follow the standard answer that everyone else sees, but reality hits walls everywhere. It's not that I don't want to work, I just don't want to casually find a job that consumes me. Confusion is confusion, but resumes still need to be sent out. Are there any fellow students like me who clearly have internship experience yet still hit walls everywhere in their job hunt? When I graduated with my bachelor's degree, the salary was eight thousand a month. At that time I thought, as a proud college student, shouldn't I be making five hundred thousand a year? Otherwise, maybe I should get a master's degree first. Then after getting my master's degree, the salary was still eight thousand a month. I thought, how is this the same as a bachelor's? As a proud master's graduate, shouldn't I be making four hundred thousand a year? Then maybe I should get a PhD. And then after finishing my PhD, the salary was still eight thousand a month. Well, actually, I thought, eight thousand a month is acceptable, OK, I can do it, I can happily start the job. But then, but then, they said, you are a PhD, but PhDs are too old, we don't want PhDs today. Can I, should I—I just want to ask, who on earth in this society has actually found a job? I am truly speechless about the current job market.

Ever since I returned to China at the end of last year, I've been looking for jobs all the way until now. At the time I thought, at least I still have the status of a fresh graduate, maybe opportunities would be a bit more numerous, but in reality it's completely not like that. To be honest, if I could have foreseen that this would be the current situation, I wouldn't have gone to get this master's degree at all. Our liberal arts master's returns are simply a wasteland. Later on, you know, I really couldn't find a job, and those I asked about on recruitment apps either left me on read or, after an interview, gave me no feedback at all. So I thought, let me just go do something to earn some money first. Therefore, I asked around a lot; I even asked at a coffee shop for a waiter position, but they didn't want me because I lacked relevant experience. I was just asking to be a cafe waiter, and you tell me I can't do it because I lack vertical experience? That is so absurd, truly, so absurd. Later I went to ask study-abroad agencies, because I thought, I studied and lived abroad for a period of time, and I understand various aspects pretty well, so being a salesperson should still be OK, right? But the result was no good either, because I didn't have relevant vertical experience, so it couldn't even be discussed, sisters. Seriously, forget it. What kind of people on earth does this job market want to find?

Sorry, the interviewer is too busy, can you do a ten o'clock interview tonight? I said, it's hard, after all, it's the autumn recruitment season; no matter what, I could accept it. So, I logged on punctually at ten o'clock, and I waited and waited and waited for a long time, until I felt I had transformed from a job seeker into a philosopher, shifting from 'how do I ace this interview' to 'do I really need this job?' My brain was just floating. After waiting for forty or fifty minutes, the interviewer finally logged on. Actually, I was quite angry at the time; although I am a humble little recruiter, you are showing me zero respect. But the moment he connected to the video and I saw his face, he looked extremely weathered and extremely exhausted. Actually, our cameras are very blurry and add some beauty filters, but even beneath such a thick beauty filter, I could still see his very heavy dark circles. Originally I was full of anger, but at that time I just fell silent, and then he suddenly asked me, 'Can you accept a 12-hour work system?' I was stunned for a moment, but you definitely can't say no, right? So I said yes. Then going back and thinking about it, something was wrong—how could it be 12 hours? After getting this offer, I struggled with it for a long time. The pay they offered was very high—twice as much as the company I am currently at. Because they do overseas expansion business, I felt it would be relatively beneficial for my growth. The next day I was supposed to confirm whether to accept the offer, so I looked for my friend who also entered this company, and I asked him, 'How is your state?' He replied to the message I sent in the morning only at night, saying he was currently in the hospital because he had been working overtime for a long time and had some issues requiring medical conditioning. Suddenly, at that moment, I thought of the interview time, thought of the interviewer's haggard look, like a withered flower, yet he should be about my age. I felt, do I really want to live this kind of life? Later, the next day when the HR called me, I rejected the offer. You say, do I regret it now? I don't know either. I can only say that at the time, I didn't regret it. I am almost unable to endure this job environment: a 3,500 base salary and only a one-day weekend. Please look at the married, childless, unemployed vagrant, going crazy looking for a job.

Ever since I became unemployed, I haven't woken up early once. The interview at this place took only ten minutes, and now I'm heading to the next one. Why is finding a job so hard? The interview was over after just 20 minutes out, and I've already reached the entrance of the subway station. Our task is to host live streams, and then we need to do rotational streaming like this. We also have to manage accounts and run top-level budgets. How many accounts are we splitting into? About three. Then the early-stage commission is four to five points. We found out before that they don't require experience, right? And it's a one-day weekend, right? Yes, a one-day weekend. What is the base salary for a one-day weekend? Our base salary is 3500, plus a 500 performance bonus. Now, what is your impression of this place? I feel like the workload is a bit too much, and the salary doesn't quite meet my expectations. I didn't expect the pay to be this low. Because I had asked them about the salary back then, and they said the total package would be much higher, so I thought it would meet my expectations. But after coming here, they told me the base salary is 3500, with only a one-day weekend, plus multi-platform matrices. Moreover, out of all the places I've interviewed at so far, they're all 7-11 death shifts. Who on earth invented the death shift in Hangzhou?

Hangzhou, I was wrong. I was too arrogant in my last video, talking big about playing HR like putty. Now I haven't even seen the face of anyone who wants to interview me. No, everyone knows the employment environment in Hangzhou is this difficult, and I know it too, but is this any way for a person to live, seriously? I spent two whole days applying, sending out around 300 resumes, but the number of read resumes is only 10, and the interviews—only 1, which was from that person at 4 PM today, the HR who sent me an interview invitation. No matter what, I'm a fresh graduate, right? At least I worked on Xianyu for over a year, which should count as an e-commerce platform, and my sales volume was over a million. Now I want to cross over into cross-border e-commerce. I know crossing over is hard, right, but I applied for an assistant position. An assistant position, for crying out loud! Their assistant role actually requires over half a year of experience on a specific dedicated platform. Good grief, I am truly seeing pitch black. I'm a fresh graduate after all; how can they not even give me a chance at an assistant position? And what I want to complain about the most is this: I send out ten resumes, and about eight of them are unread, with only two marked as read. I just want to ask the HRs: if you're not hiring and you don't look at messages, why do you even post these job openings?

However, some people still come looking for me: real estate, apartment rentals, group live streaming, and takeout delivery and chat companion jobs that make it impossible to tell the days apart. I am seriously fed up, for crying out loud. Is this any way for people to live? Some people might say that at least we still get interviews, right? Let me tell you all about this job: operations role, three-month probation period, base salary 3000, full-attendance bonus 2000, plus performance and commission. After passing probation, it's 3500, plus a 200 full-attendance bonus, plus performance and commission. I am honestly seeing pitch black. This is already the year 2026. My sister is six years older than me, and when she entered the job market six years ago, her base salary was over 4000. Yet now, the only place that has sent me an interview invitation offers a base salary of 3000. I am dying right here, brothers. To be honest, I don't even want to look for a job anymore. My head has been aching from job hunting these past two days. Is this work for human beings, seriously? They all say going to work is like waiting in line to eat shit, and right now I can't even get a steaming bowl of shit. I am so done.

To sum it up, finding a job right now is just too damn hard. I came to this city because of a listed company, but I failed the interview, stayed in a youth hostel for a week, and eventually ended up at a company paying 1500 a month. As it turned out, my roommate also came to this city, and she couldn't even get her resume through anywhere. When I went for my interview, the HR said she had already received hundreds of resumes. A monthly salary of 1500 and hundreds of resumes! And she even said that women in their 30s were coming to apply for this job too. I thought to myself, with a salary of 1500, the employment environment is way too harsh right now. And I only chose this 1500-yuan job because I couldn't get accepted anywhere else. Yet, so many people were competing for that 1500-yuan job! Then, after I had been working there for two weeks, it was August, and my roommate applied again. I acted as an undercover spy on the inside—someone was about to resign, so when she went to apply, the salary directly dropped from 1500 to 800. Because when it paid 1500, the HRs already thought the pay was super low, but since they received hundreds of resumes and so many people were fighting over it, they just slashed the salary straight down to 800 this time. My roommate might not even get hired; I am truly speechless. The current job market environment is just too toxic. I want to lie down and do nothing so badly, oh my god.

What you have just seen is the latest situation for university graduates, where it gets harder year after year. This is no longer just a theoretical statement on paper, but a real, tangible event happening inside the Great Firewall of China. Every year, graduates emerge to face an even more difficult employment situation than the year before. You might say that any country encountering such a situation would be absolutely devastated, and they would be terrified. You should all know that when the employment rate for new graduates—those who have just finished university—is very low, it is the most alarming state for a country. Because while high unemployment can have various causes, if even newly graduated university students cannot find jobs, it can only mean that the economy of this country is in a terrifying state, and job openings are pitifully scarce; otherwise, such a situation would absolutely not occur. Because we know that university students are not picky about work, friends should understand this. For example, if a middle-aged person is unemployed, there could be all sorts of reasons: perhaps they didn't do the job well, or there was a dispute over benefits with the company, or there was no room for promotion, and so on, which might lead them to resign, or they might have been fired due to a major mistake. But new university graduates haven't had time for any of that, and for them, they don't even know how much salary they should be getting for their work. Therefore, many of them are actually in a very naive state regarding salary and benefits; they wouldn't be that picky about a job. Furthermore, when entering an industry, they don't really understand the field they are about to join, right? Because they haven't even started working yet, having only a tiny bit of internship experience, so they might not be particularly knowledgeable about the industry. They don't know what kind of benefits, development opportunities, or salary packages they should be striving for. Yet, even for this group of people—a group that isn't picky, who are even willing to work hard and aren't afraid of hardship—they still cannot find jobs. If they cannot find work, then tell me, under these circumstances, what kind of state has the entire society's survival condition reached?