sinovels Chapter 126 Innovative Enterprise Micro-Roadshow
Chapter 126 Innovative Enterprise Micro-Roadshow
Chapter 126 Innovative Enterprise Micro-Roadshow
On the day of the Shenzhen University Autumn Job Fair, the gymnasium was bustling with activity.
The booths of major companies lined up along the venue, with the largest crowds in front of giants such as Procter & Gamble, Dongda Mobile, and Haier, with queues stretching for more than ten meters.
Students crowded around the booths of medium-sized enterprises and well-known local companies. Quiet self-introductions and the rhythmic question-and-answer sessions filled the air.
51job and Zhaopin, as the largest recruitment platforms in China, also had their own booths, located in the middle of the venue. The booths were quite large and well-decorated.
At the 51job booth, several staff members were busy distributing beautifully printed platform guides and job-seeking tips booklets to passing students, guiding them to register and browse jobs in the campus recruitment section of their website.
A sales manager from Zhaopin.com was standing nearby talking to the R manager of a local tech company, vigorously promoting their "campus recruitment solution".
Not far away, the booth of Tongcheng Life Network was decorated in a very high-tech style.
The huge poster reads: "Tongcheng Life Network - Real Interview Experiences and Salary References from Local Famous Companies".
Four laptops were placed on the long table in front of the booth.
Wang Rui, Chen Jing, and several campus ambassadors were being consulted by a group of students.
"Hey, what kind of companies are you interested in? Internet? Manufacturing? Or finance?" Wang Rui asked, quickly opening the relevant company pages on his computer.
"Look, this is a summary of interview feedback from several local internet companies. Some describe the interview process, some describe the interviewers' styles, and some share their experiences and complaints."
A young man wearing black-rimmed glasses peered intently at the screen: "So the second round of interviews at 'Xunke Technology' was a stress interview! Some people were even stumped by the questions—this information is useful; I'm going to their booth this afternoon to submit my resume."
A girl next to me asked, "Is this 'salary reference' really accurate? I saw it says that Qiming Software offers 6,000 to 8,000 yuan to fresh graduates, but I heard they don't offer that much?"
Chen Jing explained, "This data is an estimate based on anonymous sharing from our platform's current users and publicly available information from some companies. It's a range, and there will definitely be fluctuations, but it's more reliable than guessing or relying on rumors. You can use it as a reference range, but the specifics depend on your interview performance and the position."
"That's better than being completely clueless," the girl muttered, continuing to follow the "Interview Strategies for Companies Participating in the Shenzhen University Job Fair."
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On the whiteboard on the side of the booth, there were "Urgent Job Opening Fast Track Cards" for more than a dozen local innovative companies that have partnered with Tongcheng Life Network.
Each card is printed with the company name, urgently needed positions, and brief requirements, with an application guide provided by a local website at the bottom.
"These are some of the high-quality companies that our platform partners with. Some of their positions are in urgent need of applicants. If you apply through us, you might get a faster response, and some of them even offer internal referral opportunities," the campus ambassador explained to interested students.
This attracted many students who didn't want to blindly apply to numerous jobs. They carefully looked at the "urgently needed positions" and then went to the booths of the corresponding companies, targeting their applications strategically.
By looking at the guides, they roughly know what kind of interviews they will face, what the salary range might be, and even whether to take a faster application route.
At the other end of the venue, in front of the booth of "EasyTech", a hardware startup, Ms. Zhang was extremely busy. She is a part-time administrative staff member at the company and this is her first time participating in campus recruitment. Faced with the surging number of students and the snowflakes of resumes, she was a little overwhelmed.
A student handed over their resume and asked, "How many rounds of technical interviews does your company have? What are the main areas of focus?"
Ms. Zhang replied, "It's usually two or three rounds, but I'll definitely ask about the technical aspects."
The student nodded. At that moment, another student squeezed in, handing over his resume and saying, "I saw this hardware engineer position through a local online community referral. Someone there shared that your company likes to ask about practical project experience and hands-on skills during the technical interviews, and I happened to have done a similar course design—"
Ms. Zhang's eyes lit up; this student was clearly better prepared, and the communication was much smoother.
She couldn't help but glance at the resume a couple more times and made a mark in the corner. She remembered that the company boss, Mr. Wu, had indeed mentioned a collaboration with that local life website; she hadn't expected that students would actually use it.
Similar situations occurred at the booths of several companies that had "speed dating" or referral partnerships with local life websites.
These companies' booths weren't well-known, but thanks to the "information support" and "fast track" provided by the local website, they attracted a group of students who seemed to be of higher quality and had clearer goals.
Zhao Cheng, the sales manager of 51job, patrolled the venue, making efforts to maintain relationships with major clients.
He didn't stop walking past the "EasyTech" booth. Small companies with only a few dozen employees were never his focus. His eyes were always on the large companies with long queues, figuring out how to deepen cooperation with these "big players".
He frowned when he inadvertently noticed a large crowd gathered around the local life website's booth, and that the students weren't simply taking promotional materials but were seriously looking at the computer screens and asking questions.
"What kind of tricks are they playing now?" he muttered to his colleague beside him. "They're just setting up a few computers, spreading some so-called insider information, and trying to attract attention. What kind of impact can that have? When students finally look for jobs, they still have to look at how many big company positions are available on our platform."
His colleague nodded in agreement, but inwardly disagreed.
He overheard two students talking as they walked: "That 'interview feedback' section on the local life website is actually quite useful. At least you know what questions you might be asked, unlike some companies that are all so mysterious."
"Yeah, you can also take a look at that salary reference so you don't get misled by HR." These words made him vaguely feel that these "tricks" that the local life website was using might really have hit some students' sweet spot.
On the evening the job fair ended, Wang Rui and Chen Jing returned to the company with excitement.
Preliminary statistics show that their booth received more than 500 inquiries, and the "urgently needed positions" of the dozen or so partner companies received nearly 500 resumes submitted through dedicated channels.
More importantly, feedback from several partner companies indicates that students who came through the local online platform today have a much better understanding of the company than those who applied through mass applications.
"Especially E-Tech, for their hardware engineer position, we received five resumes submitted through our referrals, and H said he plans to invite all of them for interviews," Wang Rui reported to Lin Feng.
Lin Feng asked, "What are the students most concerned about? Besides interview experience and salary, what else?"
Chen Jing thought for a moment and said, "Many people ask which companies are 'pitfalls,' which companies have extremely serious overtime issues, and what the team atmosphere is like. These are things you basically don't see in traditional job postings, but they care a lot about them. We mention them sporadically in our 'interview feedback,' but it's not systematic."
Lin Feng nodded: "Make a note of these points. In the future, we can guide users to talk more about these soft skills when sharing their interview experiences. For job seekers, sometimes these are more important than salary."
Almost simultaneously with the campus recruitment fair, Xie Xiaodong and Qin Lang's "light headhunting" service also cracked a tough nut to crack.
The target customer this time is a cybersecurity company called "Iron Shield Technology" that has just received venture capital funding.
The other party urgently needs an experienced cybersecurity engineer who is familiar with firewalls and intrusion detection systems.
The job requirements are quite high, requiring both knowledge of underlying technologies and some project implementation experience. The salary offered is around the 50th percentile among industry professionals, which isn't considered high. I've been posting on Zhaopin.com for quite a while, but the resumes I've received are either due to insufficient experience or because the applicants have enough experience but their salary expectations are too high.
Zhou Kun, the company's technical director, complained about the difficulty of recruiting on a local tech forum. A netizen replied by mentioning the "light headhunting" service of Tongcheng Life Network and attached a screenshot link that Mr. Wu, the general manager of cross-border e-commerce, had previously shared.
Zhou Kun was skeptical, but managed to contact Xie Xiaodong through forum messages.
Xie Xiaodong and Qin Lang took on the job. They first spent time thoroughly understanding Iron Shield Technology's products, customer types, technology stack, and General Manager Zhou's specific expectations for the candidates, including technical preferences and teamwork requirements.
Then, Xie Xiaodong used his connections in the IT industry, first inquiring with local system integrators and software companies, and then contacting several familiar technical forum moderators to ask if they had any suitable candidates to recommend.
In 2004, professional cybersecurity personnel were relatively scarce, and the industry was small.
Ultimately, he narrowed it down to two targets: one was an engineer who had worked in cybersecurity at the information center of a large state-owned enterprise for five years and wanted to leave; the other was an engineer who had worked in technical support at a well-known cybersecurity equipment distributor in South China for three years, had solid technical skills, but wanted to switch to product development for clients.
Xie Xiaodong did not simply hand over the resumes, but instead had detailed conversations with both candidates separately.
They not only talked about technology and projects they had worked on, but also about career planning, expectations for the work environment, and acceptable salary ranges.
After the communication, he compiled two detailed evaluation reports and submitted them, along with his resume, to Zhou Kun, the general manager of "Iron Shield Technology".
The report not only includes technical matching analysis, but also Xie Xiaodong's judgment on the candidate's personality traits, job motivation, and potential concerns.
After reading the report, Zhou Kun was quite surprised. It was much more detailed than the simple resumes and brief introductions provided by headhunters he had encountered before. He felt that the person was an insider and very knowledgeable.
The subsequent interviews were scheduled intensively, and the communication was highly efficient. Ultimately, they successfully recruited the engineer who had come from the agency.
Not only because of the technical compatibility, but also because Xie Xiaodong learned in the early communication that this engineer was very interested in the new generation of firewall products that "Iron Shield Technology" was developing, and that he himself had also done research in this area.
Moreover, Xie Xiaodong frankly analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of switching from Party B to Party A, which won the other party's trust.
A month after the engineer joined the company, Mr. Zhou, the general manager of "Iron Shield Technology," called Xie Xiaodong: "Manager Xie, your local life services live up to your reputation. Not only are you good at finding the right people, but you really understand what kind of people we need. If we have any difficult-to-fill positions in the future, we'll definitely come back to you."
Xie Xiaodong packaged this case as yet another "proof of value".
He shared his case study within the IT community, particularly with tech company executives facing similar challenges in recruiting skilled technical talent. These success stories serve as excellent examples of word-of-mouth marketing.
Xu Li, the marketing director of Zhaopin.com, heard about the case of "Iron Shield Technology" from her friends in the IT industry.
She was immediately shocked.
Upon returning, he immediately instructed his subordinates to investigate and confirmed that the "Iron Shield Technology" order had indeed been won by Tongcheng Life Network, and that it was done through a deep service model similar to that of a headhunter.
Upon confirming the news, Xu Li's face turned ashen. High-end technical positions have always been a highly competitive area in the recruitment industry, offering substantial profits.
TongchengLife.com, a local website that started by recruiting blue-collar workers, has surprisingly stolen her high-end clients by using headhunting methods.
Enraged, Xu Li initiated a major overhaul of the company's sales and customer service systems. The business manager responsible for liaising with "Iron Shield Technology" was demoted and had his salary reduced.
Following the success of the innovative enterprise roadshow held at Shenzhen University, Tongcheng Life Network organized a second "Innovative Enterprise Micro Roadshow" on the campus of another science and engineering university in Shenzhen.
This time, Wang Rui and Chen Jing summarized the experience of Shenzhen University, and the scale was larger, with more participating companies.
The founders or core executives of each participating company attended in person, sharing their experiences for a longer period and engaging in more lively interactive sessions.
This time, Tongcheng Life Network is not just a sponsor, but also the initiator of an experiment dedicated to breaking down information asymmetry and making recruitment more transparent and efficient.
Lin Feng personally went to the site. He interacted warmly with college students and founders of other technology companies in his multiple roles as a college student entrepreneur, general manager of Fengchi Digital Technology Company, and founder of Tongcheng Life Network.
Lin Feng held discussions with these entrepreneurs. Although he doesn't understand technology, he understands products and the difficulties of starting a business and the pain of recruiting. He has the data and case studies from the Tongcheng Life Network platform to support his views, making them more persuasive.
After several rounds of discussions, several companies chose to establish strategic partnerships with Tongcheng Life Network.
During the Q&A session with university students, Lin Feng was invited to the stage by the host to give a brief presentation.
He didn't preach any grand theories, but instead interacted warmly with the students in the audience as a "college student entrepreneur."
"A few years ago, I sat down here just like you, feeling lost and unsure of where the way out was."
Big companies are hard to get into, and small companies don't even look at me. Later I realized that for your first job, the platform and salary are important, but not everything.
More importantly, can the company's business and your own business be integrated? Can you grow quickly in the company? Are your colleagues and boss people that you are willing to work hard with?
Recruiters won't write this kind of information; you'll need to find out and experience it for yourselves. We hope this information provided by our local community website will help you understand things more clearly.
During the subsequent open discussion session, Lin Feng was one of the busiest people. Students kept surrounding him, asking about his entrepreneurial experience and seeking advice on finding a job.
He handled things with ease, sometimes like a patient senior student, sometimes like a shrewd businessman.
Wang Rui and Chen Jing watched from the sidelines, secretly admiring him.
Mr. Lin is usually a man of few words, but when it's his turn to speak, he always manages to grasp the key points perfectly, achieving twice the result with half the effort.