Young graduates eye alternative internships, prioritizing growth

Rather than sticking to traditional professions, or waiting for arrangement by schools, in recent years, a growing number of Gen Zers are seeking alternative internships, in suburban farms, logistics warehouses, or niche cultural creative e-stores.

Take, for example, Liu Yuyang, a junior college student, who learned by chance about internship vacancies at nine rural resorts. The internships were designed for college students, would-be writers, and freelancers, as part of a "New Farmer" program arranged by Trip.com.

It somehow tugged at Liu's heartstrings.

"Compared to the hustle and bustle in a big city, I am always trying to seek a different pace for life," she said, adding that the internship was a perfect way of gaining professional experience, having a novel village experience, and de-stressing.

Liu majors in Tourism Management and set to work immediately upon arriving at the resort in Foping County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province. However, she soon realized the discrepancies between the concepts elaborated in textbooks and the realities of the job.

She discovered her weaknesses, but also her strengths, as when her foreign language proficiency was put to the test with three foreign tourists on July 27.

Liu began to see her major in a new light. She is studying for a newly conceived major: Tourism Management Plus Russian and English Languages, as part of a specialty readjustment since 2019 to develop "comprehensive talent."

With Liu's expertise put to good use, she has also gained a heightened sense of the meaning of college education reform.

In a similar development, some suburban farms in Shanghai are also becoming a good starting place for young men aspiring to discover alternative professions and lifestyles.

In the beginning, these farming internships were often the choice of students uncertain about their future professions, or those a bit wary of the beaten track, like Qiu Tian, who chose to intern on a coastal farm in Fengxian District.

Qiu is studying Chinese Language and Literature, but was curious about farming.

Most of Qiu's colleagues were septuagenarians who did not think much of a farming job, but Qiu learned new things, such as how to plough the soil with a small rotary tiller.

In his daily contacts with the elderly farmers, Qiu also learned something new about life. In spite of the saying often heard among these farmers that work on a farm is endless, the veteran farmhands had an uncanny talent for always getting the pace just right so that they would call it a day in good time.

Qiu also found that these elderly farmers continued to work because it provided them with company and an opportunity to chat on the farm. This led Qiu to think that this might be work that could sustain him well into old age.

Those applying for internships on a farm need to fill out forms in great detail and go through several rounds of screenings and interviews to secure internships that last from three to 12 months, under the guidance of a tutor.

According to Gao Meiying, a project manager for such a program, since November 2021, they have recruited interns for three programs. Only 64 of the 170 applying for the third session were selected, suggesting a growing number of young people keen on eco-agriculture.

With some students, it was also a journey of self-discovery, like Tingzai (a moniker).

Being a self-media music aficionado who had garnered tens of thousands of fans in three years, after submitting a carefully polished resume and surviving rounds of interviews, Tingzai landed an internship at a big tech company.

She did not last long there, being frustrated by the sense of impotence of being a dispensable cog in a machine that is precisely programmed.

"This job of mine is actually good for anyone, even though during the interviews they pretended to place a higher premium on creativity and individuality. As a matter of fact, such qualities are irrelevant here," she said.

For Tingzai , a steady job was not the goal of her journey, and documenting her internship on social media became a major occupation that brought her more followers.

After bidding farewell to the big tech company, she started working in the operation of a small culturally creative product company.

Her entrepreneurship seemed to be more elicited in this small entity, where her strengths, as well as her failings, become equally sharply defined.

A number of students have observed, after their internships, that it is important to gain experience in a wholly new terrain, free from traditional constraints, and disenchanted from the halo invested in a big name entity.

As one school career advisor suggested, Gen Zers are increasingly diverse in their choice of internships. This new generation has demonstrated an open and proactive mindset in exploring careers, highlighting the need for colleges to support them better in their journey of self-discovery by providing a range of internship resources.

There is also the need to stress interdisciplinary education, so that the students could explore the knowledge outside the range of their specialty.

(Based on sources provided by East China Normal University, Shanghai International Studies University, and Donghua University.)