Nighttime job fairs offer graduates more options

With nighttime activities, such as night markets, gaining more popularity among young people, many cities in China have leveraged these events to attract young job hunters.

In July, Yinzhou district in Ningbo, Zhejiang province, launched the "young talent night market", which was actually a huge nighttime job fair held for young people. Fifty local enterprises, including ergonomic design company Loctek and trading enterprise China-Base Ningbo Group, offered more than 700 job openings at the market.

The innovative employment fair attracted nearly 1,000 young job hunters.

"It's awesome that we can seek job opportunities while having a cup of coffee at the night market. It integrates nighttime activities that are popular among young people with important stuff such as finding a job," said He Yangwei, a college graduate from Taizhou, Zhejiang.

In addition to the job opportunities, the market also offered summer internships for college students.

"It's our creative attempt at a job fair. We hope that we can offer more opportunities and attract more young people by combining job hunting with recreation," said Hu Dongping, deputy director of the Yinzhou district bureau of human resources and social security.

The night-market job fairs held in Haining, Zhejiang, in August attracted local employers as well as job seekers. At the market, young job seekers had the opportunity to speak with recruiters directly and leave their contact details for future communication.

"We have to try all recruitment methods because we never know when and how we will find the right person," said Wang Xiaofeng, human resources manager of Haining Yuli Socks. "We received an application for the position of a designer at our company. I wasn't sure if the applicant would be a good fit, but after speaking with her at the fair, I think we can move to the next step."

Zhu Enhui, a graduate who majored in accounting, said she aspires to be a new media graphic designer. "I've been engaged in the operation of the official WeChat account of my university for three years. I'd like to find a job related to new media," she said.

Companies usually prescribe a limit to applicants' majors in their job descriptions, according to Zhu. "I didn't get a chance to secure interviews for the type of jobs I want. However, at the market, I was able to look for more opportunities through face-to-face interactions with potential employers," she said.

Unlike the regular job fairs, which are held every Friday, the night-market job fairs are held on weekends and are targeted at college students, according to Haining's bureau of human resources and social security.

The markets are set up near high-traffic shopping malls, which allows young people to provide their resume when swinging by the mall.

Thanks to the digital employment platform "Intelligent Employment Code", which Haining launched in 2021, job hunters no longer need to carry a printed resume. They can scan a code and fill in an application form on the platform if they find a matching job position at the markets.