Recently, a middle school in Suzhou, China, posted a notice in its staff recruitment announcement that a young man surnamed Li has been employed as a contract worker in the school’s janitorial staff, who is actually a physics master’s student. This news sparked hot discussions among netizens and even trended on Baidu’s hot search list on September 22nd.
On September 14th, the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Suzhou Affiliated Middle School (Nanjing A&F Suzhou) released a “Notice of Employment of Contract Workers in the Janitorial Staff” according to the “Recruitment Guidelines for Temporary Staff in the Suzhou Industrial Park Education System.” After the announcement, document review, in-school interview, principal’s office meeting, and committee review, Li XX was employed as a contract worker.
The announcement stated that Li XX is male, born in March 2000, holds a master’s degree in physics, and was appointed as a janitorial staff. The announcement period was from September 14, 2024, to September 25, 2024.
Currently, the “employment notice” cannot be found on the official platform.
However, according to news from The Paper on September 21st, searching for “janitorial staff” information on the Nanjing A&F Suzhou official website still shows the “Notice of Employment of Contract Workers in the Janitorial Staff” from the school, but the related links are inaccessible showing “404-File or directory not found.”
Nonetheless, the preview information provided on the Nanjing A&F Suzhou official website regarding the “janitorial staff” matches the circulating screenshot of the announcement. Additionally, the Suzhou Industrial Park Education Network search results on “janitorial staff” also revealed similar announcement details.
On the evening of September 21st, Wang Jian, the secretary of the Nanjing A&F Suzhou Party Committee, explained to the Yangtze Evening News, saying, “It was a mistake by our staff. He only completed his undergraduate studies, has not obtained a master’s degree yet, and it was carelessness on our part. We will promptly issue a notice acknowledging the error.”
Following the release of this news, it has triggered discussions among hundreds of netizens.
A Baidu user, e194b12, expressed, “This once again proves the argument that studying is useless. It’s better to enter the workforce early rather than studying for a long time. By the time those graduates finish their education, you can already employ them.”
A netizen, “zxy_janrry,” lamented, “Even a position as a janitorial staff requires numerous obstacles to get through, and the applicant is a master’s student. It shows how difficult it is to find a job now. One cannot help but ask, what’s the point of pursuing higher education? Higher education means higher costs, in terms of time and money, and there’s no guarantee (or likely possibility) of landing a good job. So why bother pursuing more education?”
User “c307896” indicated, “Children graduate with an undergraduate degree but can’t find a job. They have no choice but to pursue further studies. After completing a master’s degree, they realize that the employment rate for university graduates is even lower than it was two years ago. They continue to pursue a Ph.D., only to find that the job they eventually get is similar to what they could have gotten with just a bachelor’s degree five years ago. The difficulty in finding employment ultimately falls on the parents, who bear the burden of five years of tuition fees and five years of youth.”
User “紫禁城游魚22” commented, “In these extremely difficult employment times, sometimes you have to rely on connections (‘guanxi’), other times you have to rely on yourself. Become a private tutor, at least you can make use of your expertise.”
Netizen “epicleii” expressed concern about the consequences of the news attracting attention, saying, “Someone finally gets a job, but with all this publicity, they might end up losing it.”