Employment is the foundation of people’s livelihood and the foundation of social stability and development. With the popularization of higher education in China, the scale of higher education continues to expand and the number of college graduates continues to rise. According to statistics, the number of college graduates in China in 2024 reached a record high, reaching 11.79 million, an increase of 210,000. At present and in the future, there is a great demand for college graduates’ employment. However, the contradiction between supply and demand of jobs still exists due to factors such as insufficient tapping of labor market potential and low matching efficiency of employment information.
In view of the new situation and problems faced by college students’ employment, colleges and universities should make efforts according to the situation, carry out career education scientifically, and help college students plan their employment choices rationally. In my opinion, career education in colleges and universities should guide college students to establish a rational concept of employment, integrate their own ego into the ego serving the motherland and the people, and integrate their personal employment ideals into the process of social development.
Based on social reality, establish a rational view of employment
College students should establish a rational concept of employment, adapt to the current social reality that the total pressure of talent supply and demand and structural contradictions coexist, and form employment choices that are synchronized with the times, the same frequency as the country and the same heart as the people.
Adhere to the combination of ideal and reality, and establish the concept of "employment first and then choosing a job". College students should adjust the concepts of "only entering graduate school has a future" and "only looking for jobs with professional counterparts", and do not set too many restrictions on employment areas, the nature of units and professional counterparts, so as to increase employment choices and opportunities. At the same time, college students should not only face up to the current employment environment of contradiction between supply and demand and structural imbalance, but also see a large number of new employment opportunities created by the Internet and information technology under the digital wave. Actively expand employment channels, break traditional occupational barriers, and explore emerging industries and flexible employment methods.
Adhere to the combination of self-value and social value, and establish a concept of employment that keeps pace with the times and shares the destiny with the people. College students should set up lofty career ideals, take the initiative to make contributions to the places where the country needs them most, face the wider central and western regions, poverty-stricken areas and hard and remote areas, and realize their self-worth in the process of serving the country’s construction.
Precise matching of people and posts and establishment of scientific employment goals
Under the guidance of rational employment concept, college students should set scientific employment goals through job matching based on self-analysis and career analysis.
On the basis of fully understanding themselves, college students can reasonably locate their personal employment choices. Self-analysis is needed to establish employment goals. This involves in-depth consideration of one’s own interests, personality, ability and career orientation. College students can ask the following questions to understand their career needs: What career are you interested in? What occupation is your personality suitable for? What kind of work are you more qualified for? What job do you think is the most valuable? In this regard, students can seek personalized service from employment guidance and consultation institutions, and evaluate their personality, interest, ability and career orientation with the help of scientific career interest scale, personality scale and other tools. In addition, it is also important to participate in various practical activities extensively. By participating in vocational skills competitions, enterprise job fairs and extracurricular part-time jobs, students can self-test their knowledge, experience and skill level. These ways can help students understand their career needs: "What do I want to do", objectively evaluate their own conditions: "What can I do", and then find a matching career.
Scientific employment choice is inseparable from career analysis. In the process of career exploration, college students need to deeply understand the development status of different regions in China, focus on the national major regional development strategy and the characteristics of major regional urban agglomerations, and combine personal conditions and employment needs to rationally choose employment locations; In-depth understanding of China’s industry classification and the great significance of key fields and industries to national development, and responding to the call of the state to enter key fields and industries to make contributions; Understand the work content and development path of different units, and the role they play at the national strategic level, and join the grassroots and key units for employment in combination with their own majors and national needs; Understand the basic information of different positions, and position the matching between people and posts from five dimensions: hobbies, entry qualifications, lifestyle, workplace and industry status.
Positioning employment choice and improving professional quality
In order to achieve the employment goal, college students need to further improve their professional quality to match their employment choices.
In the first year of college, students can awaken their professional consciousness through entrance education, professional education and employment situation education. Entrance education helps students to understand and adapt to university study and life, and realize the role change from high school students to college students; Professional education helps college students understand the training objectives, training modes and social occupations of their majors, and lays the foundation for determining their career direction and goals; Employment situation education helps college students understand the employment situation and employment countermeasures of their major as soon as possible, so as to make good preparations for employment in advance.
In the second year of college, students can prepare for their future career by learning professional knowledge, cultivating professional ability and accumulating practical experience. College students should not only master solid professional knowledge, but also extensively dabble in other fields of knowledge and cutting-edge information of the times; We should not only cultivate professional ability, but also cultivate self-management ability and transferable ability, and actively participate in volunteer service, competitions inside and outside the school, extracurricular part-time jobs and other activities to accumulate practical experience.
In the third and fourth years of college, students can improve their employability and job-hunting ability based on their career goals. We should constantly reflect on the gap between our own conditions and the target occupation, evaluate the employment competitiveness, and improve the knowledge, skills and experience required by the target occupation in a targeted manner. According to the needs of employers, college students should also improve their job-hunting ability in making resumes, writing cover letters, preparing for written tests and interviewing skills.
Join in employment practice and constantly optimize employment choices.
From leaving campus to entering the workplace, it is not only a process of changing identity from a student to a workplace person, but also a process of dynamically matching one’s interests, abilities and career tendencies with the knowledge, abilities and values needed for employment.
When college students find that their personal conditions do not match their professional needs in employment practice, they can improve their professional work ability, achieve job matching or adjust their employment choices. College students who are new to the workplace can gradually change themselves from a young newcomer to a mature one by improving their teamwork ability, time management ability and communication ability. We should rationally look at the possible temporary failure of the postgraduate entrance examination and other goals, or the problems of "less response" and "more job hunting", and open up new employment channels for ourselves by changing job search channels, avoiding popular cities and choosing related positions.
College students should constantly discover their career potential in employment practice and optimize their employment choices. Practice is the source of knowledge. Students can not only check whether their employment choices are correct in employment practice, but also find their own advantages and specialties in practice to further optimize their employment choices.
(Author: Li Sen, Minister of Education Department of Shaanxi Normal University, Dong Shuang, Ph.D. student of Marxism College of Hainan Normal University)