This spring should have been a golden period for the job hunting of 2020 graduates. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the opening of the university was delayed, on-site recruiting activities were suspended and the due campus two-side selection fairs and job fairs were held online. These changes not only disturbed the graduates but also disrupted the original pace and plans of Beijing Forestry University’s employment arrangements.

 

In order to minimize the impact of the COVID-19 on employment, BFU launched five initiatives of “Jointly Fighting against the Pandemic and Working Together to Ensure Employment”. We swiftly made adjustments to accommodate the online pace, collected online data to ensure precise employment, initiated online procedure-handling services, established online platforms to innovate online job hunting and strengthen online guidance through well-prepared online courses. These policies were adopted to help graduates hunt jobs online and relieve their pressure. 

 

Strengthen coordination and comply with online rhythm

 

Shi Mengyu, a career counselor from the School of Landscape Architecture, was worried in the midst of the peak employment period. She said, “Since the spring recruitment season is approaching, I was worried about employment procedures of graduates under the delay of school opening. There are many steps of the procedure being handled at my hand.”

 

To address the concerns of teachers and students in time, BFU immediately formulated and issued the Notice on the Employment Procedures during the Winter Vacation and the Delay of School Opening, and the Notice on the Adjustment of Employment Arrangements during the Period of Campus Management and Control, which adjusted the employment work during the epidemic prevention and control period to reassure our teachers and students.

 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the Standing Committee of the Party Committee of BFU has discussed the employment of graduates for three times, demanding precise help for them to graduate smoothly and find jobs as soon as possible. At the beginning of this term, Wang Hongyuan, the secretary of the Party Committee of BFU, came to the Recruitment and Employment Office to make a special survey, and demanded to innovate working models, expand platform resources, care about the situation of graduates and ensure their smooth employment. University leaders concerned listen to the employment work report every week, pay attention to the progress of employment work, guide and supervise the implementation.

 

BFU has established the consultation mechanism of the employment of graduates, strengthened the coordination and information exchanges, formulated a series of documents such as the Implementation Opinions of Beijing Forestry University on Promoting the Employment of Graduates of Class 2020 and so on to ensure the implementation of each item and higher quality employment of graduates.

 

Collect online data to ensure precise employment

 

What are the results of preliminary postgraduate examination? Are students planning to go abroad affected by the epidemic? How are the graduates in Hubei province now? How are the online interviews? Although teachers and students are separated by the pandemic nationwide, teachers in BFU's Career Service Center are always concerned about the situation of graduates.

 

Since February, BFU has launched surveys on the condition of employment of graduates, set up a record file for each graduate, and dynamically tracked the employment processes of graduates weekly, so as to fully grasp the job-hunting dynamics and psychological conditions of graduates under the influence of the epidemic, and understand the urgent difficulties and problems they are facing.

 

Having attained the information, BFU has provided targeted employment guidance and help for graduates; informed and guided the graduates to prepare for the secondary postgraduate examination; supported graduates who will go abroad; encouraged graduates ready for working to know the requirements of job market, actively send resumes online and seize the opportunity of interviews; focused on graduates who have failed in the preliminary postgraduate examination and helped them to cheer up.

 

For 707 graduates with financial difficulties and 195 graduates from Hubei province, BFU conducted one-to-one assistance. For graduates who have not found jobs, with the leading groups of all schools taking the lead, Party members and cadres, teachers, and mentors have been appointed for “one-to-one” employment assistance tutors. And work has been carried out to help graduates strengthen their confidence and ease their employment anxiety.

 

Launch online service

 

While the domestic epidemic is gradually improving and China Telecom has also offered a job to Pan Duoxin, a graduate of the School of Science, he is still frowning. The teacher told him in the employment class that the final contract-signing part cannot be ignored when you are finding a job, which he always keeps in mind. However, how to handle the signing procedure under the pandemic?

 

In order to address the inconvenience of signing contracts, changing assignments and issuing employment certificates for students, BFU has simplified the employment procedures and optimized the online one-stop employment service process such as “online application - counselor’s agent - materials mailing”, and changed the procedures from “running once at most” to “no running”.

 

Thanks to “no running” service, Pan Duoxin has successfully signed the employment contract. And now he is ready for graduation and starting work.

 

Apart from fresh graduates, BFU has also opened a “Green Channel” for former graduates.

 

Zhou Shuang, graduating from the School of Soil and Water Conservation in 2017, has been working for a company in Shenzhen for over 2 years. During the professional title evaluation, she found that her employment registration card was lost. After knowing BFU’s “no running” service, Zhou Shuang consulted the university via a phone call. A few days later, she smoothly received a new employment registration card.

 

During the COVID-19 epidemic, BFU has handled such procedures as signing employment contracts, changing assignments and issuing employment certificates for 44 graduates. Provided that the graduates need to go through the employment procedures, the career counselors at the university and schools will respond immediately to ensure that a 24-hour online career service is provided.

 

“It’s our greatest relief to be able to solve graduates’ problems quickly and effectively and then hear their voice on the phone turn from anxiety to reassurance.” said Zhang Lizheng, a career counselor in the School of Technology.

 

Hold two-sides election fair via online platforms

 

“Hello, this is BFU’s Career Service Center. We are expected to hold the spring online two-side selection fair for 2020 graduates on March 30. So we sincerely invite your company to participate in the job fair,” “If we invite one more employer to our university, there are more chances that graduates can find jobs.” Since March, Jiang Bin, a teacher at BFU’s Career Service Center, has never stopped calling.

 

BFU immediately launched the development of the “Employment Plus” online promotion system. After two consecutive weeks of developing and testing, the system was officially launched on February 11, which solved the problem that employers could not have face-to-face communication with graduates.

 

In order to build an online two-side selection platform for employers and graduates, BFU’s Career Service Center actively contacted and invited employers to be engaged in online recruitment activities, and also cooperated with the Beijing College Graduate Career Center, fraternal universities and colleges, and Zhaopin (a job-hunting website). In March, three online two-side selection fairs were held consecutively to facilitate graduates to seek jobs, with a total of more than 1,700 enterprises participating.

 

In mid-March, BFU, along with Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, University of Science and Technology Beijing and Beijing University of Chemical Technology, jointly launched the “online two-side selection fair”, in which 1,171 enterprises and 10,397 graduates participated, and 4,896 jobs were offered. The job fair adopted the following methods: firstly, graduates submit resumes to their ideal companies in advance; secondly, after examining, the enterprises would conduct online video interviews and interactive communication. In this way, the college graduates can land a job at the enterprise without leaving their homes.

 

In order to ensure that the employment information “does not decrease”, BFU’s Career Service Center arranged specific staff members to collect and publish recruitment information on the WeChat official account “BFU Employment” every day. What’s more, the recruitment information was accurately pushed to the graduates’ WeChat via the micro-service platform of “Employment Plus”.

 

The schools in BFU also worked ingeniously in succession, actively contacted their internship and employment bases and cooperation partners, and searched for jobs for the graduates. We posted the recruitment information to the graduates and interpreted the employment policies through the micro-service platform, WeChat, QQ group and other channels, so that the graduates can have more confidence and capacity to find a job.

 

Strengthen online guidance through well-prepared online courses

 

“Hello, everyone! Today, I’m pleased to share some tips with you   on how to cope with psychological stress in the job-hunting process...” Zhang Jinti, a teacher of BFU’s Career Development Department, was interacting with the graduates via the live-broadcasting platform.

 

On the first day of the online teaching, the well-prepared Innovation and Career Guidance Course was successfully launched, and a total of 3,387 graduates studied online. Given the graduates’ learning needs in the epidemic prevention and control period, the university also sorted out online employment-training courses and posted them to students for independent learning via WeChat. In the light of the personalized problems encountered by graduates, career consultation teachers at the university and schools also provide online “one-to-one” services for graduates through the “Employment Plus” consulting platform, WeChat, QQ and other channels.

 

In addition, BFU also carried out a series of “Job Hunting against Epidemic'' career guidance activities. HR experts inside and outside the university were invited to help graduates proofread their resumes online. The experts from Beijing Overseas Study Service Association were invited to answer questions for graduates planning to go abroad. The HR teachers and HR managers from enterprises were also invited to offer live courses about employment guidance and online courses about “national civil service examination lecture”.