I don’t know why, but lately I keep thinking back to the time when I was looking for a job in my senior year of college. Those of you who have read my pinned post probably know that I majored in materials science at a Project 985 university. Jobs related to my major required working in factories and doing night shifts, so despite graduating from a Project 985 university, I found myself unable to get a job. For one thing, I didn’t want to work night shifts; for another, factories were reluctant to hire women. Even a home furnishings company called Fuanna, which was recruiting customer service representatives, wouldn’t hire me.
It was one of the most bewildering periods of my life. I had always been the quintessential small-town student who excelled at taking tests, and I had always worked hard. But the system of evaluation I had relied on since childhood collapsed in the face of my inability to find a job. I couldn’t understand it. I had followed this path all along, so why wasn’t I getting the outcome I had worked for?
Later, a company called TP-Link came to recruit management trainees or HR staff. I submitted my résumé but didn’t receive an interview invitation. At the time, I heard that you could “crash an interview”—in other words, volunteer to interview even without an invitation, in the hope that the interviewer might reassess you based on your performance. So I found out where the interviews were being held, put on formal attire, and brought a pair of black dress shoes with me. Since they were uncomfortable to walk in, I wore sneakers on the way there.