In order to squeeze into the system, I took exams all over China

Not everyone can be at the forefront of innovation, like us students just in can only do a screw.

As long as the system, the other does not matter

The “public examination fever” that has lasted for more than a decade continues to heat up this year.

Just graduated young people into the system as the first employment choice, in the workplace for many years of “social animals” will also be the last way out of civil service.

For Wang Ke, to successfully walk across this one-way bridge, you must use the strategy of patrolling the exams and moving around different cities for a long time to improve the chances of “getting on”.

Wang Ke gave up looking for a job and was determined to study at home step by step, just like he did for the exam, spending nearly 10 hours a day from morning to night on brushing up on the questions and online classes.

From April 20, 2019 in Henan Province, to August 22, 2020 in Hubei Province, December 19 in Shandong Province, and December 20 in Jiangsu Province, she took seven provincial exams in total.

Wang Ke has only one goal – to stabilize early and get this “iron rice bowl”.

“Where there is a test to go”

In the civil service examination circle, the freshman status is very valuable.

The policy of the national civil service examination stipulates that graduates of the national unified enrollment of ordinary colleges and universities who have not implemented a work unit within the two-year career choice period (extended to three years in some places) can be treated as fresh college graduates.

Having the status of fresh graduates means that you can draw a line with many gods who have been patrolling the exam for years and smoothly step into the fast track specially set up for fresh graduates.

In 2018, Wang Ke missed the most prime autumn recruitment time due to her exams, and after failing the exams, she then turned around to go around the spring recruitment market and found that there were only a few jobs matching her Chinese teacher training major.

Under the persuasion of her family, she gave up continuing in the job market like a fly in the ointment, but put her whole body and soul into the provincial exam preparation. These expectations of “stability, low competition, and stable income” encouraged Wang Ke, and after making her decision, she collected a lot of information about the provincial exam on the Internet and enrolled in several popular courses in a row. She began to review and the tour of the exam began.

I went to Nanjing to talk to other candidates and found that there are quite a few people like me, who do not work and maintain a freshman status, in order to become a member of the system as soon as possible, where there are exams to go. “

Wang Ke called this group migratory birds, a year between different cities, whenever the provincial exam notice landed, they immediately non-stop planning routes, set train tickets, select hotels, this set of processes in the many exam experience has long been familiar with, almost formed a complete muscle memory.

At first the family felt that Wang could have to stay in his hometown of Henan or around, and then realized that multiple touring exams to improve the chances of landing, “as long as the economy is better places they want me to try “. Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, Shanghai are the places she has “campaigned”.

The same “migration plan” as Wang Ke candidates and winter winter.

She had already participated in the 2017 graduation season in the selection exam and Henan provincial exam, and after failing to make it to the bank she did not choose to continue, but became an online teacher in her husband’s hometown of Shandong.

This job is only a transition in her opinion, although the income is good, but she has been convinced since the beginning – only the life in the system can give her a sense of security.

In 2020, Winter’s road to patrol the examinations officially restarted. “In fact, 17 years of public exams are into the face, although later two or three years in the middle are not prepared for the exam, but the bottom has always been in. “

Due to the special nature of the work of online teachers, Monday to Friday belongs to the preparation time, Saturday and Sunday scheduling is full, winter in between work still brush questions to keep hand, and then the public examination time became more intensive, she had to give up certain work opportunities.

“I generally rely on weekend income for my salary, but if I run into an exam that day, I still use my annual leave for an opportunity. It’s very circumstantial to go back and forth across the country, and with gas and hotels plus the money you’re supposed to earn, you’ll probably lose a few thousand dollars per exam. “Winter after much deliberation, weighing left and right, finally chose to Shandong as the core of a few developed cities as the target.

July 25, Henan Province test, August 22 Hubei Province test, December 19 Shandong Province test, December 20 Jiangsu Province test, five months, four exams.

Dong Dong’s mother often called from Henan to ask how she was doing, and several times in a row Dong Dong was on her way to a foreign country. Her mother thought she had been taking the exams and advised her to take a break and take the exams later.

But for Dongdong, the tour is the most important goal in the near future. Winter’s husband had already successfully run the race through the introduction of talent, and a peaceful little life was gradually dawning. The thought that if she had previously chosen to take the teacher’s preparation earlier, perhaps long after on a clean slate to start preparing for pregnancy, she was more anxious.

Husband told comfort winter, the landing would have been a small probability event, “it does not matter if you can not take the test, the big deal is to play well. “

The exams became an opportunity to roam. Sometimes on the exam place music festival, they will not hesitate to buy tickets to play.

This time she will comfort herself: it’s okay, touring is just a part of life.

Imagining life in the system

Wang Ke almost lost her patience with exams after failing twice in graduate school and many times in provincial exams.

After failing again and again, the ego she had just built up was crushed under her feet by reality.

The decision to take the exam was also a passive one. At that time, she was still curious about media work, and while she was casting her resume and writing articles for her portfolio, her mother, who was far away in Henan, called countless times and repeatedly emphasized that the provincial examination must be taken seriously.

The whole family was also keeping an eye on her. At a family dinner, three aunts and six uncles gathered to discuss her job. Relatives who work in the system have advised and even “promised” Wang Ke that life will not be too hard after the bank, you will have extra time to try other hobbies, now The actual fact is that you’ll be able to get a lot more than just a few of these.

In fact, I didn’t understand the outside world myself, the previous internship was too little, and now I don’t know where to start at all. The news on the Internet says that big companies always squeeze their employees and have no life at all, and after being ‘brainwashed’ by people at home, I don’t want to struggle at all. “

There was no offer in her hand, and the “resistance” seemed doomed to failure.

At the beginning of 2020, Wang Ke returned home from the closed course to live with her mother. Every day when she woke up, she started to watch online classes, brush up on the problems, and the only thing she did was to go out to get the delivery and feed the stray cats. “.

Nearing the exam, Wang Ke’s mood also became anxious and did not step out of the house for several days. She said, “I seem to be trapped here. “

In March and April, the flowering of the small town has arrived, Wang Ke ran downstairs in a hurry wearing a down jacket, and suddenly realized: so the world outside has been so warm ah.

Winter, who is in Shandong, did not choose to take off from her studies as Wang Ke did, she still insisted on her job as a teacher in between her exam rounds. Because it is online teaching, she must constantly sit in her position, and even the classroom lesson accounts for a large proportion, she has also fallen victim to cervical spondylosis as a result.

The more stressful the work, the more the determination to patrol the exams took root deep in her heart. In her opinion, the lack of humanistic care in the private sector environment was not conducive to her preparation for pregnancy in the next few years. Winter wanted the unit environment to be friendly to pregnant women and babies; it would be too hard to continue classes outside the system, even with a big belly.

To stay motivated to prepare for the exam, Winter and a colleague on the line formed a punch card group, and the two of them share each other’s study progress every day. This method of finding the same kind of people is not uncommon in the super talk of provincial exams, of which there are even groups with even mikes and videos, and they try to find a space like a Cyber study room, where they can have a natural learning atmosphere without having to talk.

Multiple lives make people split up, and while Winter’s colleague chose to leave her job to do a full review after making money in the fund market, Winter didn’t want to give up the job, in her opinion the workplace pockets would give her some short-lived security.

“I don’t want to put my best foot forward for something that doesn’t have a definite outcome, that would scare me. “

Outside of the patrol exam, she must consider the specifics of each identity, such as a wife, who doesn’t want to leave her husband alone with the pressure of a loan, or a daughter, who wants to save a little for her sick father’s medical bills.

Yipeng Li, a prospective freshman, also joined the exam rounds. He is still studying in Nanjing, majoring in computer science, and the second half of 2020 is a prime time for him to find a job. Most of the students in the same major have chosen to enter private enterprises, large factories, ready to become a programmer working day and night, but he is hesitant to move forward.

The “996 blessing” and “sudden death jump” on the Internet. The news such as “sudden death jump” makes programmers become the focus overnight, Li Yipeng more sure of the choice of public examination. At least decent work, wages are not low. The space for professional play, he no longer cares so much.

While collecting information about the exams in various provinces and cities, Li Yipeng is still shuttling through the school’s large and small lecture sessions. He only wants to go to Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and these two places provincial examination on the bank would have been difficult. “Our computer science major is still relatively good job search, so first take a few offers to ensure the bottom. If I can’t take the civil service exam, then I’d better go back to the big factory and work overtime. “

The road to the examination, there is no end

Dong Dong got two interviews, respectively in Jiangsu and Shandong. She spent most of the Spring Festival alone in Jiangsu practicing interview questions, but forty days of hard work didn’t get her to the bank.

She fell into a collapse of emotions and had no time to care about the interview in Shandong immediately after, but this “random face” but she received an invitation to the medical examination of the Shandong unit.

The interview is particularly lucky, some examiners are anti-set, the standard is not the same. Sometimes the examiner has a very good impression of you, you may be over. “

Next, Winter will resign from her job as a teacher. Before meeting the new life, she specially asked someone to inquire about the work of the future unit, it turns out that the life of the system is not all like the legend – a newspaper a cup of tea to sit for a day is basically impossible.

“The workload is still very large, work is still very tired, no way, but I can accept it. “

February 8, 2021, Zhejiang Province, the provincial exam results were released, Li Yipeng to the written exam first score smoothly break through the shortlist, to become a member of the interview list.

His parents have no special understanding of life in the system, think where to go. But Li Yipeng believes that if he is successful in the interview, it means he will soon say goodbye to 996 and have more time to build a quality life.

“What is a high quality of life? “, Li Yipeng doesn’t have the exact answer yet.

On March 27, 2021, Wang Ke had just finished taking the latest Henan provincial exam. After the exam, she got together with a few of her fellow examiners for a meal, and they began to talk enthusiastically about work and life in the system. The girls around her talked about their dating plans, and even planned where their future children would go to school.

Wang Ke, who is also in her twenties, just sat there, not saying a word, she never thought about this. “I feel like I still can’t fit into this place, where I’m like an outsider, I can only fret. “

That night Wang Ke walked from the restaurant to the neighborhood, she did not immediately go home. March in the small city of Henan, the weather has turned warm, the wind blowing across the cheeks, warm and whistling. Sitting downstairs in the home Wang Ke clamor began to fall down the tears, thinking back to the nearly two years of the patrol exam life, she described herself as pathetic.

“It feels as if there is only this road, can only be driven to this track, and on this road I do not like very much, and not very hard, every time there are no results, I am still particularly sad. “

This June Wang Ke’s freshman status is going to disappear. Staying unemployed for almost two years, without any financial basis, she needs to face the next life. Wang Ke is determined to continue writing, and submits articles to her favorite public websites, a process she calls “collecting fragments”.

She said she was waiting for the moment when the fragments would shine, shifting from complete passivity to partial initiative, wanting to take control of her own life.

(All characters in this article are pseudonyms)