How are China’s jobseekers capitalising on hiring trends of major firms?

Mass-hiring plans among China’s tech giants are serving to reinforce an increasingly popular decision among families for their college-bound children to embrace majors related to science and technology.

The determination to capitalise on emerging trends, including a greater emphasis on fields related to artificial intelligence (AI), comes as China’s youth-unemployment rate – comprising 16- to 24-year-olds but excluding students – has remained stubbornly high.

This week, Xiaomi became the latest firm to unveil global hiring plans for students expected to graduate from now until the end of next year. It is offering 16 types of jobs, open to both domestic and international applicants. The top positions are related to software research, algorithms, testing, operations and hardware development.

Other tech giants, including Alibaba and ByteDance, have similarly released details of their campus recruitment programmes for the next batch of university graduates, and a marked emphasis on AI talent reflects the intensifying rivalry between China and the United States.

Several hundred universities and institutions in China now offer AI-related majors, according to state media and independent findings from financial services firm Morgan Stanley, and nearly half of the world’s top AI researchers are from the country.

As Washington tightens export controls on advanced chips and key technologies, Chinese tech giants are doubling down on domestic innovation and talent cultivation to reduce their reliance on foreign technology and stay competitive on the global stage.

South China Morning Post