China’s elder millennials, like high-level game characters, quest afar to cure ‘curse of 35’
- Youthful vigour is a highly valued trait in the Chinese workforce, but those who know their industries inside and out are the ones companies want to send abroad.
It’s been a few years since Jim Jiao became afflicted with the “curse of 35”, and getting his hands on an antidote was an arduous assignment for the elder millennial.
Now in his early forties, with a background in explaining and selling scientific and technological products, Jim Jiao’s advancing age has seen him unjustly branded an industry relic.
The broader economic slowdown in China following the pandemic did not help his situation, nor that of millions of others facing what might feel like a career mortality rate – the point beyond which youthful vigour outvalues the slower but more experienced industry veteran.
So, when the middle-aged Shenzhen native landed a job overseas last month as a sales manager in charge of developing the Asian market at a tech company, he suddenly had his coveted antidote in hand. And, like a high-XP video game character traveling to a distant land to obtain a rare red potion that rejuvenates his life bar, Jiao was also awarded better pay and a higher title.
For the time being, he’s also insulated from the effects of being unemployed beyond the age of 35 in China.
“My last salary had dropped to 60 per cent of what I earned at the age of 35 in 2018 – at the peak of the internet industry boom,” Jiao said. “Now this overseas job offers me 75 per cent of what I earned in 2018, I’m quite happy about it.”
“The overseas expansion of Chinese companies has been a lifesaver for the careers of many middle-aged professionals,” said Gao Zhendong, a human resources consultant who helps Chinese firms explore investment opportunities in Southeast Asian countries.
This cohort faces a working culture that has grown more ageist, with many companies capping the hiring age for certain positions at 35 as experience is considered less valuable amid shrinking domestic demand.
However, Gao pointed out that having a more comprehensive background of capabilities is a huge selling point when companies go overseas. And that realistically only comes from years of experience.
Young Chinese graduates do not have an advantage when looking for overseas jobs
“Each talent sent abroad needs to know almost everything, from production and technology, to dealing with local people, attending exhibitions and conducting business negotiations, especially for small enterprises,” he said. “Such talent requires at least 7-10 years of work experience. Young Chinese graduates do not have an advantage when looking for overseas jobs.”
According to a report by iiMedia Research in August, among all Chinese companies that had implemented a “go global” strategy, medium, small and micro-sized enterprises accounted for 17.5, 39.4 and 13.6 per cent, respectively.
While there is no precise data on how many Chinese jobseekers have benefited from this “go global” strategy, the 2024 First Quarter Employment Big Data Insight Report conducted by recruitment platform Liepin showed that among the top-10 newly posted jobs in the first quarter of 2024, four were related to foreign trade or foreign markets – overseas marketing, overseas sales, cross-border e-commerce operations, and overseas operations – with growth rates ranging from 37 to 51 per cent, year on year.
The average annual salary for overseas marketing jobs was the highest, reaching 261,200 yuan (US$36,000).
The “2024 China Enterprises Overseas Talent Recruitment Insight” report, released by the Beijing-based ShineGlobal industry think tank, showed that 86 per cent of those employees sent by Chinese companies “going global” held a bachelor’s degree or higher, and 68 per cent had more than five years of work experience.
“The real benefit of overseas positions is that the same position is relatively less competitive than in China,” said Liu Chen, a veteran business development manager who has already spent several years on various overseas jobs commissioned by Chinese companies. “The educational and language thresholds are a little higher, but there is no horrible age discrimination like in China.”
However, the tradeoffs of such opportunities may include separation from family and job stability. Meanwhile, rapidly changing geopolitical relations punctuate a major concern among those who accept overseas roles.
“The biggest difficulty for most employees working overseas is long-term separation from family, because few Chinese companies would pay the cost of your spouse and children going overseas with you,” Liu said.
And those geopolitical changes can “directly affect the demand for dispatching employees or technicians overseas”, he added. “For example, business development in the Philippines and Russia has become slow recently for most private [Chinese] firms.”
Even with the average salary on the decline among newly published jobs abroad, competition for them appears to be on the rise, with the talent supply-to-demand ratio rising from 0.58 in 2021 to 2.18 in 2023, meaning two candidates compete for one position, according to a report by maimai.cn, the Chinese equivalent of LinkedIn.
Another common worry shared by this group of workers is their employers’ business performances in the overseas market, as this may lead to a change of strategy or even withdrawal of investment – decisions that could abruptly impact the life of someone like Jiao, whose new job appears to be a career-extending tonic.
“Frankly, I am worried about how long this new job can last,” Jiao admitted. “If the companies’ main business in China continues to lose money and grows short of capital flow, it is very likely that those companies would withdraw their overseas offices and factories.”
