Intense Job Market

After finishing his conversation with the vice principal, Su Bai pushed open the office door and walked out along the corridor of the administration building.

Just now inside, the vice principal, eager for political achievements, was not only extremely enthusiastic but also took the initiative to offer the university's cooperation with the recruitment efforts of the businesses under Su Bai's name. Su Bai currently held several companies in his hands, such as Shengxi Technology, Bangbang Technology, and First-Gen Maternal and Infant Care. He did indeed need to absorb a large number of talents, so he gladly accepted the offer.

Glancing at the time on his wristwatch, Su Bai quickened his pace.

Next up was a general education course for his major. The teacher of this class was notoriously strict, insisting on roll call for attendance every single session and docking participation points mercilessly. Even though Su Bai was now worth billions, since he was still experiencing college life, he had to go through the necessary motions.

Arriving at the lecture hall, it was already packed full.

Su Bai's gaze swept across the room and locked directly onto the corner of the very last row. That was the prime real estate for college students. At this moment, Chu Mingzhe and Xue Tao had already secured three adjacent seats in advance.

"Brother Bai, over here!" Chu Mingzhe waved his hand.

Su Bai walked over and sat down in the empty seat on the outermost aisle.

As soon as he sat down, Su Bai noticed the activity of Xue Tao beside him. This guy had a thick copy of Data Structures and Algorithms spread open in front of him. Holding a can of high-energy black coffee in his left hand and a highlighter in his right, he was frowning deeply and frantically highlighting lines in the book.

Ever since they camped at Tianrong Mountain, where Xue Tao witnessed his ex-girlfriend Liu Yuanyuan fighting with her new lover and accidentally ended up injured and hospitalized himself, he had completely seen through the vanity of the world.

After being discharged and returning, Xue Tao was like a changed man. Not only did he quit gaming, but he also worked out every day without fail. The rest of his time was spent entirely in the library and study rooms, practically turning into an emotionless, fiercely competitive studying machine.

In contrast, Chu Mingzhe, who sat in the middle, appeared much more showy.

Chu Mingzhe had deliberately styled his hair into a slicked-back three-to-seven part today, shiny with hair gel. He wore a rather business-like casual suit and was tapping away on a tablet, occasionally adjusting his collar while looking at his phone screen.

"Why are you dressed like that? Are you going on stage to give a speech later?" Su Bai casually teased.

Chu Mingzhe lowered his voice and mysteriously patted his tablet. "Brother Bai, I am adapting to the dress code of business professionals in advance."

Before Su Bai could reply, the class bell rang.

A female teacher wearing a professional suit and high heels walked vigorously up to the podium. She slammed her lesson plan onto the desk, adjusted her black-rimmed glasses, and directly picked up the roster to start calling roll one by one.

After attendance was taken, the female teacher opened her PowerPoint presentation and began teaching today's general education content.

After lecturing on theory for about twenty minutes, the female teacher probably felt the itch to preach and started a tangent.

"Students, I see many of you sitting down there, either playing on your phones or spacing out. Do you think that since you are only freshmen, you have plenty of time and can just slack off?"

Hearing this, the students below managed to rouse themselves a bit.

The female teacher sneered. "Let me tell you, the current job market for computer science-related positions is long past the era where even a pig could fly if it stood in the right draft! Today's job market is a bloodbath! Do you think that just by holding a diploma from Jiang University, you can go to a major tech company and earn a salary of hundreds of thousands? Keep dreaming!"

She leaned both hands on the podium, continuing with an intense sense of pressure. "What do companies value more and more nowadays? They value internship experience! They value the ability to execute projects! A fresh graduate without internship experience at a major company won't even pass the initial screening in the eyes of an HR rep! If you don't start planning now, and wait until your junior or senior year to think about submitting resumes and competing with those intense overachievers, what will you compete with? Your rank in Honor of Kings?!"

These words were spoken with great force, and the atmosphere in the entire classroom instantly became heavy.

Many students who had been playing games under their desks silently locked their phones and stuffed them into their pockets. A few girls looked at each other in dismay, their faces showing obvious anxiety and nervousness.

Right in this atmosphere where the whole class was stunned into submission, Chu Mingzhe leaned back in his chair triumphantly, like a victorious general.

He nudged Xue Tao next to him with his elbow and lowered his voice to show off, "Old Xue, did you hear that? The teacher is talking about people with foresight like me. I have already polished my resume three times and am getting ready to apply for internship positions at major tech companies. I'm aiming to land an internship offer from Penguin or Byte during the summer of my freshman year."

Xue Tao, who was immersed in his algorithm problems, froze for a moment. He turned his head and looked at Chu Mingzhe with a bewildered expression.

"No, bro, the second semester of our freshman year just started not long ago. We are still a whole semester away from the summer break! You're looking for an internship this early?"

Chu Mingzhe shook his head. "Do you think internship positions at major companies are like cabbages that you can just pick up casually at a wet market?" Chu Mingzhe kept his voice low, his tone full of superiority. "Their corporate screening process takes time! Do you think you can just submit a resume and start working tomorrow?"

Xue Tao scratched his head. "Even so, you don't need to do it half a year in advance, right?"

"Of course you do!" Chu Mingzhe widened his eyes and began to lecture him extensively. "You can't even imagine how fierce the competition is now! A core internship position at a major company can receive thousands of resumes in less than a day after it is posted. HR will filter out eighty percent of people just through the initial machine screening. Do you know what the remaining twenty percent have to go through?"

Chu Mingzhe held up his fingers, counting them off one by one. "First is a personality test, then two rounds of online written exams, all of which are algorithm questions on hellish difficulty. If you pass the written exams, there's a leaderless group discussion for the group interview, where a bunch of people fight tooth and nail just for a chance to speak. Only after passing the group interview do you get the first technical interview, the second technical interview, the cross-departmental interview, and finally the HR interview!"

A few boys sitting in the front row, who had already been eavesdropping on the commotion in the back, gasped in shock upon hearing Chu Mingzhe rattle off this long string of interview processes like reading off a menu.

"Holy crap... is it that terrifying?" a boy in the front row couldn't help but turn around and interject. "They're just recruiting an intern, why make it seem like they're selecting special forces?"

"This is called the rat race! Understand?" Chu Mingzhe thoroughly enjoyed this feeling of being looked up to and continued to show off. "Going through this entire set of processes takes at least two or three months at the fastest. With even the slightest mistake, you're thrown straight into the talent pool to gather dust. If I don't start submitting my resume and grinding interview questions now, and wait until the end of the term to apply, all the positions at those major companies will be long gone, without even a crumb left!"

Xue Tao was dumbfounded. He looked down at the Data Structures book in his hands and suddenly felt that it wasn't enough anymore, as an unprecedented sense of anxiety rushed straight to his head.

Su Bai, sitting on the outermost side, rested his chin on one hand. Listening to Chu Mingzhe's frantic outpouring, his eyes were filled with curiosity.

So the current job market had already become this fiercely competitive?

To think that a summer internship for a college freshman required battling it out half a year in advance, going through online applications, written exams, group interviews, technical interviews, and HR interviews. Running that kind of gauntlet was almost more torturous than taking the grad school entrance exams.

Su Bai leaned back in his chair, recalling the hiring processes of the companies under his own name.

Back when he met Lu Yuning at a nightclub, he took a liking to her S-tier fashion design talent. Without even glancing at her resume, he made the decision on the spot, offering her a monthly salary of a hundred thousand and signing her right then and there.

Later, when he bumped into Li Xingya at a breakfast joint, he felt the girl was grounded and hardworking. With just a single word from him, Chen Yusheng took her in as a personal protégé, arranging for her to work a paid position directly in Shengxi Technology's top-tier laboratory.

Not to mention the people from the Galaxy Dance Troupe. In order to give Ke Yujia a good environment to develop her career, he boldly threw down 1.8 million to pay off the troupe's debts, absorbing the entire crew and their venue in one fell swoop. Now, the entire dance troupe danced for him and him alone.

In his world, there was no such thing as automated preliminary screenings, nor were there group interviews or cross-interviews.

As long as Su Bai liked the look of someone and felt they had value, a single word from him would instantly deploy millions or even tens of millions in funding. He could effortlessly revitalize even a maternity and baby care company that was on the brink of bankruptcy.

Listening to Chu Mingzhe still spitting everywhere as he exaggerated how brutal the interviews at major corporations were, Su Bai listened with genuine curiosity. So the current job market really was this fiercely competitive. Bosses like him, who ran companies and hired people so casually, truly were a rare breed nowadays.