Weird jobs

Economy push Chinese into unusual jobs such as "Standing in line for other people", a "Face Job" in a company and old position: "granny police".

 

 

 

 

China as a world power has some jobs that are unique to its culture and others that may be found elsewhere but are interpreted differently.
Th flood of graduates in China concerns the nation leaders, who want to maintain stability. Students are trying to enter the workforce as millions of migrant workers are unemployed because of fewer manufacturing jobs. The government is counting on people to buy more goods to help the economy rebound.
Making the situation even more difficult, the new graduates are attempting to start their careers as 1 million graduates from last year are still looking for work.
"College students, laid-off workers and migrant workers waiting for jobs are my biggest concern," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told job seekers at an employment center last month, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
Wen urged students to choose jobs in rural areas. If they do, after a few years, they're promised entry to graduate school or residence permits to live in big cities.
Chinese officials are on "red alert" over unemployment, says Wang Kan, a lecturer at the China Institute of Industrial Relations in Beijing. "The government fears that unemployed university students and migrant workers protesting about lost jobs could create a real, independent labor movement. The graduates have knowledge, and the migrants have physical power."
Since the second half of 2008, Beijing has introduced several policies to create jobs
There are jobs out there for graduates willing to take them. After a national recruitment drive, two women were recently picked to be "Lavender Angels" to promote a town in south China that grows lavender.
In Nanjing in eastern China, a public restroom — named "fragrance" — limits its recruiting for an attendant to "a beautiful female" with a postgraduate degree or higher. When the city of Suzhou needed maintenance workers for 58 public restrooms, 870 people applied, including more than 40 college graduates.
Zhao Guangxu, who majored in home economics, worked as a nanny the past two summers while in school and endured jokes from his friends. " 'How could a man do a women's job?' they asked me, no matter how hard I explained the advanced system of child care in Western countries," he says.
 Graduates must be "less choosy and more reasonable and realistic," says Wang Jian, marketing manager at 51job.com, China's leading recruitment website. "In the past, all students wanted to work in Top 500 companies. Now I tell them to choose smaller, private companies."
 
Some of the weired jobs include:

Face Job
This does not refer to plastic surgery, but rather appearances, which in this case are completely deceiving. Americans will seek out an Asian for a kung fu sidekick just as Chinese businessmen utilize a white guy to fraudulently represent their companies as bigger and more successful than they otherwise might be.
It is an odd and rather hypocritical illusion, as China really doesn't want foreign ownership of any of their companies, but they do desire the lucrative coffers that only successful international firms can provide. Renting white men in nice suits as one might rent a nice car, and having them attend press and business conferences and ribbon-cutting ceremonies renders an apt but completely fraudulent impression.
In keeping with the absurdity, white women don't usually get to be pretend-CEOs, because they cannot be business people according stereotypical thinking. They can, however, pose as exotic girlfriends to the fake white guys in business suits.
 

Standing In Line For Other People
In Beijing where it takes 5 hours to see a doctor and sometimes days of camping out to register for housing and also some schools for children, paying someone to do the "standing" nets about $3 US per hour. It is said that on some movie sets in China people are used to hold lights and reflectors instead of C-Stands because hiring a person to do the job is cheaper than renting a C-Stand.
The idea of standing patiently in line is deeply rooted in the Chinese concept of competition, which is driven by the need to "get there first." The best deals come to those who wait (or hire someone to wait for them). Standing in line is a fact of life to be not so much endured as to considered as a path to a goal. Whether or not the Western world can learn from this remains a moot point.
 

The "Granny Police
An old Government position still popular in off center urban and rural areas. citizens who keep an eye on other citizens and report their doings and whereabouts. "watch and tell"

 

Poop Collectors
China is a large recycler of human waste and the profession of collecting it has been a tradition since ancient times. In one reported instance last year, 391 desperate graduates unable to find any other work, answered an ad placed by a Chinese sanitation company for five poop collectors. Another Chinese city the year before last, had ten positions available to which 2,500 applicants responded.
Despite severe regulations, the Chinese do not respond to orders when it comes to this very private fact of life. The job entails picking up waste from all the public toilets and outhouses. Although far from appetizing, it is steady work. There may be even more openings in this arena in the near future, as China may be looking to collect urine as well.
 
Sources: Calum MacLeod | USA TODAY & MDeeDubroff | Weired Asian News & Dave | lite987 & Christina.H | Cracked

 

 

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