Stanford PhD physicist gets his dream job as a rural clerk in central China
- Accomplished candidate may want to use his talents to build up hometown, says academic who adds rural Chinese post may be chance to shine
A Stanford physics PhD graduate has been selected to work as a grass-roots civil servant in rural China, an unusual career step that has attracted widespread attention.
On Sunday evening, the civil servant bureau of Suzhou, a city in the southwestern province of Anhui, published its second intake of recruits for the year.
While other candidates attended little-known colleges and vocational schools in China, Su graduated from a leading American institution ranked third in the Best Global Universities list.
Of the six candidates competing with him for the same position, Su came first in the written test, interview and final score, according to Suzhou authorities.
He will not be working in a city, but instead will be in a rural town. The list shows he applied for the post of township basic affairs management in Lingbi, a county of nearly 1 million people in northern Anhui province that comes under the jurisdiction of Suzhou.