Globalization, Economic Development and the Reliance on Guanxi as a Job Search Strategy for Chinese Students

The concept of networking for business has been documented extensively in the international business literature. In particular, relationship networking, or guanxi, has become a much-studied phenomenon since the wealth-creation success of Overseas Chinese and their Mainland China counterparts became noticeable in the early 1990s. Relatively less well known is the use of guanxi as a job search strategy. In the wake of domestic economic reforms and increasing international economic pressures, young graduates are having to rely less on job placements arranged by their universities, and more on their own initiative. This is a report of the extent to which guanxi is a significant job search strategy among final year business students at Shantou University in Guangdong Province, China. With its exceptionally strong links with Overseas Chinese, Shantou is well placed to give its young people an advantage in tapping into the job opportunities created by international trade and incoming investments.