I am not very sure whether this is right, but according to what I see and experienced, there are two major directions fresh graduates prefer in job hunting, foreign companies and local organizations, including government department and state owned corporations. There are also two kinds of thoughts about careers in foreign companies and local organizations.

One thought, which is the main stream among people I know, is that joining a foreign company is absolutely overwhelmingly more decent than going to state owned organizations. Student graduate from my school, Uni of INTERNATIONAL blah blah blah, is representative of this. In their opinion, working in state owned organizations is wasting life, while working in foreign companies, being called in an English name, wearing a staff card on neck, is a symbol of in high class. Thus, people in this circle kinda look down upon those who work for local organizations. For them, everything related with words such as international, foreign, global, are regarded as of good quality or high class, let along going abroad.

Another thought, which was very unenterprising but now practical and realistic to me, is that: entering a state owned organization, enjoying their special welfare, living in this very Chinese culture provide sufficient assurance for a easeful life. People who holds such conceptions do all kinds of things those so called international firm white collars held in contempt, such as joining communist party purely for getting better chance to state owned organizations, bribing to get internal information or priority during recruitment.

I used to be in the first category, taking entering foreign corporations as a dream, now I am changing my mind. In the past several weeks, I’ve been working my ass off, day and night, no time for entertainment, no time for shopping, more than 10 hours a day looking through excel sheets, figures, dealing with stupid but arrogant clients, my colleague complained that her life is not even compare to dog’s, and I told her to not insult dogs, dogs’ life is way much better than ours. Such life is hell to state owned company employees, and to me too, but it’s just normal in my firm. A newly promoted manager stop decorating his new apartment in the midway, leave his mother sick in hospital for this project we are working for, and he yells at us, challenges us, makes us work around clock, frowns all the time so that no body dare to even talk during meals, the only time for relax. I pity him. He has gone so unreasonable and crazy that he didn’t realize that even tree’s life is more meaningful. Trees absorb nutrition and water to live a longer and healthier life, enjoy birds singing, sunshine, fresh air, while he grabs some food to get the energy to speeding up depreciation of his body. Not everyone in foreign companies is like him, but he is typical.

So here comes the question I've raised a thousand times in my previous essays: what’s the meaning of life or what’s the most important in life. I more and more realized that the answer to this question is not just an answer, but could be a guide for lots of important decisions.

Those people who admire the word “international”, “foreign” may never experienced being asked to take a special gate for African and Chinese in NY air port to get inspection much more carefully than normal gate passengers get, and they may never seen some people’s facial expression when they talk about Chinatown. They spend thousands of money to travel abroad without even know our own land well, then come back with the conclusion: distance is the mother of beauty; some will keep this at the bottom of heart, then keep on showing off a pair of sunglasses bought in Paris, and saving money for another exoticism. Some people working in foreign firms, working as hard as horses (hope this doesn’t denigrate horse), but can never get pass that glass ceiling on which stand all big guns from parent countries. People like the manager I mentioned before, still despise staff in state owned corporations, even though they have turned themselves from human beings to machines, even though they know that they need tons of Red Bulls to feel alive while those state owned person drink some tea just to feel more comfortable when reading newspapers.

What's the meaning of life? This is a question people should answer by their voice within before they make fateful decisions. It's true that general speaking, people in foreign companies learned more and grow faster at the first few years than those in state owned corporations, it's true that entering and getting promoted in state owned corporations is not just a matter of qualification and ability, but what do you want most in life, more time with family, health, happiness or wearing an angel aura saying “I am international” but feeling like in hell? Of course, it’s not fair to call all foreign companies as hell, mine is one of a kind, you know, the big fat four, consultant whore (actually whore works at night, we work day and night, and professional whores earn much more than we do).

What should we do? To be or not to be, to die or not to die, to leave or not to leave, to change or not to change, it’s not a that painful choice, depends on how well you know the meaning of your life. Down to earth and courage, those are what we need.