After studying in the United States, do you want to return home or stay?
This is a problem that plagues every international student.
It runs through the whole study abroad time,
From before going abroad to graduation.
Let's start with a little story -
When I first came to the United States, there was one thing that left a deep impression on me.
Tian Changlin, president of the University of California, Berkeley, came to New York and gave a speech at the Asia Society, which was very exciting.
To sum up, he said two words to Chinese students, the first of which was: Be an American, that is, to learn to be an American. This is actually not easy.
Most chinese students eat Chinese food in the United States, read Chinese newspapers, and some also watch Chinese television, and now read Chinese website.
99% of their friends are Chinese.
——Professor Lu Bai of Tsinghua University
Why did you come to the United States?
For example, there are many newsstands on the road in New York, and there are all kinds of magazines, including fashion, sports, tourism, news, and so on. Pick up a Copy magazine, and if you can read it from beginning to end, you're close to American.
Now that you've arrived in this country, learn a lot about the culture of the country, including its economy, politics, historical news, culture and art, and all aspects of society.
But if you come to the United States only to turn yourself into a complete American, then you are a banana, white on the inside and yellow on the outside, which is very sad.
So it's not enough to understand the United States, there's a second sentence, which is Be a Chinese. At any time, do not forget our own Chinese culture, we must have a deep understanding of China's own culture.
Chinese Americans in the United States generally have three circles of life:
The first is the circle of work units, the universities, research institutes, and companies you work for. You spend most of your life here.
The second is the professional circle, such as academic societies, societies, etc. This is important for your career development because your peers, teachers, students, competitors are all there.
The third is social circles, circles of friends, clubs, public welfare societies, churches, etc.
For Chinese students studying abroad, the vast majority of this circle is Chinese, many in China. Successful Chinese were often able to enter the center of these three circles, the influential Inner Ring.
How do I get into the Inner Ring?
I found that many Chinese, including myself, would be invited into the inner ring of some mainstream American society, not or not just because of good scientific research, but because I was a Chinese, and I thought about the problem in a different way than others, and I knew China better than they did.
So whether you choose to go or stay, remember the phrase: Be an American, be a Chinese.
The second thing to prepare is called learning agility. Generally speaking, when we look at whether a person has a future, or when the company wants to promote a person, the first thing to look at is this ability.
When professionally assessing a person's developmental potential, there is a tool called the nine-box. Draw a 3x3=9 grid with 1 in the lower left and 9 in the upper right. The abscissa is performance, that is, your performance, how many papers you have published, how many grades you have made. The ordinate is the development potential.
To measure a person's potential is to use barrier agility, or resilience.
We can divide it into four parts, the first of which is physical agility, that is, when things change, there is no nervousness, no anxiety.
The second is people agility. It means that it has high emotional intelligence, is good at expressing communication, and is very good at dealing with people.
The third is change agility. When the situation changes, you have to adapt, the so-called "sudden arrival without panic, no reason to add without anger."
The fourth is results agility. In difficult situations, find a solution to the problem.
What kind of people are suitable for returning home?
There are probably two types of people, the most needed and the most deserving of returning home.
The first category is entrepreneurs. Why? First, China is developing rapidly. Follow a fast-growing country and your career will grow more rapidly. In addition, Chinese governments at all levels are very supportive of entrepreneurship. Of course, there is one more important reason: there are more opportunities.
The second category is the leadrs, leaders like Shi Yigong, Rao Yi, and Wang Xiaodong. There are also some young people, who are future leaders. They are ambitious, bold, visionary, and adept at translating ideals into practical actions. Their actions often lead the way and have an exemplary role.
What kind of people are not suitable for returning home?
The first is called a communicator. They try not to be out of line, the kind of people who put themselves in the middle of the bell curve.
The second type of person is called fast adapter. They quickly adapted to everything in China, including some clichés, and some bad habits and styles.
The third type of person is opportunist. They think of a kind of quick win and often end up disappointed.
The fourth is calculator. They think too much about their personal gains and losses, always counting and counting, always keeping their eyes on what they are about to lose, and perhaps finally counting the opportunities.
The fifth is the risk-averse people. They are timid and afraid of things, and they cannot withstand the waves of life. Most international students who return to China will choose to start a business, and life is definitely ups and downs, so people who are too timid are not suitable for returning home.
Some advice to those who are considering returning home
For those who are considering returning home, there are also some advice -
First, don't focus too much on immediate economic benefits. Generally speaking, when you return from the United States, your salary income will be greatly reduced. Especially for more senior professors, the salary after returning home may be much less than in the United States, but you will gain a lot of opportunities.
Relatively speaking, the economic status of most returnees in china is much higher than that of their peers in the United States. In fact, after returning home, the actual economic income and quality of life of many returnees are not worse than in the United States, and even improved.
Second, don't focus on today, think about development. You may be in the U.S. better off right now than you are in China, but China is growing fast. Can you imagine what will happen in 5 or 10 years?
Third, don't think that returning home will be easy. Returning home is a huge challenge in life, much greater than the challenge of going abroad.
When is it appropriate to return home?
The first category is to return to China after completing a doctorate or postdoctoral degree. These people are often particularly supportive of his units and leaders before going abroad; or they have just had a good opportunity recently; and some are because of family reasons.
The second category is to work for a period of time and then return to China. This will give you a certain amount of time to gain experience and build a certain relationship in mainstream American society. Opportunities are created by themselves.
The situation now is very different from the past. With the rapid development of science and technology in China, I am more in favor of young people who want to return to China or return early, and the development space of personal de is greater.
The third category is to return home after success. We must recognize the difficulty of returning to the home country of such people, so they need a lot of determination. They have to overcome their psychological fear of living and working in China, because a lot of things have to start from scratch. I personally admire the people who make these kinds of choices, who have the courage to say goodbye to past successes and pursue a new life forever.
Then there are the difficulties in building relationships. After reaching a certain age, it is more difficult to establish communication and trust between people. Finally, the more senior you are, the fewer opportunities you have.
However, in my opinion, it is precisely this group of people who should think more about the opportunity to return to China. China now lacks leaders with an international perspective.
Of course, in addition to the big stage and the possibility of better career development, I would like to add another fact: most of the people I know who have returned to China have lived more exciting and interesting lives than their friends who stayed in the United States.
Lu Bai, the author of this article, the original title: "Go or Stay: Reflections on returning to China to develop a career. II), with deletions
Selected from the http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-393255-780597.html science network