This year, the number of college graduates nationwide will exceed 12 million for the first time. Recently, many places have seized the critical period of employment of "Golden Three Silver and Fourth" to hold spring job fairs. The reporter visited the spring recruitment site of colleges and universities and captured many positive signals. On the employer side, driven by the new technology booms such as humanoid robots and DeepSeek at the beginning of the year, the demand for jobs in emerging industries related to artificial intelligence has increased significantly; on the job hunting side, active application and pragmatic career choice have become the mainstream among young students, and many 2026 graduates have also participated in the spring recruitment practice in advance. The interviewees suggested that while stabilizing the supply of jobs in the public sector, we need to increase efforts to expand market-oriented and diversified employment channels, and employment assistance measures should be more detailed and accurate, and pay attention to effectiveness. While colleges and universities dynamically adjust their enrollment majors, they can encourage students to intern in enterprises during school and reserve their professional skills and literacy.

  Spring recruitment scale in many places exceeded last year's autumn recruitment

  The reporter's investigation found that in previous years, it was regarded as a spring trick to "picking up bargains", and its popularity has increased this year instead of decreasing. Tsinghua University recently held the 2025 Spring Recruitment, with more than 720 employers in 30 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country attending the meeting, setting a new high for job fairs in previous years; Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics' Spring Recruitment attracted 520 units to participate, 135% more than last fall recruitment.

  Emerging industries release employment needs. "Big Model Researcher", "AI Algorithm Engineer"... At the spring recruitment site of Tsinghua University, there were dizzying jobs related to artificial intelligence. Several recruiters told reporters that the technological boom set off by DeepSeek and humanoid robots at the beginning of this year has promoted enterprises to pay attention to artificial intelligence. Not only does the number of jobs increase, but the division of job responsibilities is also more detailed, and many students have received inquiries.

  Sichuan Tengdun Science and Technology Co., Ltd., which mainly engages in intelligent unmanned aircraft, has recruited nearly 40 R&D positions at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics this year. Li Yanmei, assistant director of the company's human resources department, said: "The current low-altitude economy has entered a period of strategic opportunity. We urgently need to strengthen the reserve of high-end talents in key areas such as the application of artificial intelligence technology, aircraft innovation and research and development, and intelligent control systems."

  Employment assistance services are more detailed and accurate. At the spring recruitment site of Peking University, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Xinjiang Shihezi University and other universities, the reporter noticed that the recruitment unit is divided into several areas based on its region and industry, so that students can go straight to the companies they are interested in or corresponding to, just like visiting supermarkets. All universities have also set up job interview guidance and resume modification tutoring windows to provide students with personalized and precise services.

  Focusing on bottom-line assistance, Nankai University has launched a special plan for "job seeking incentives" for eight consecutive years, implementing "one person, one policy, one file" key assistance for key student groups with special conditions such as family difficulties. Up to now, the implementation rate of student destinations in this program has reached more than 90%.

  Graduates’ employment preparation period is advanced and active and pragmatic become mainstream. "In previous years, spring recruitment was the second half of job hunting, and this year's spring recruitment attracted many 2026 graduates. They regarded spring recruitment as the first half of practice in advance, and asked corporate recruiters how to modify resumes or improve their interview performance." Yang Jie, director of the Employment and Entrepreneurship Guidance Service Center of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, believes that in recent years, the effectiveness of college career planning education has begun to show, and students are more concerned about the fit between jobs and majors and future development space, and their expectations for salary have become pragmatic.

  Excessive "seeking stability" mentality is out of touch with reality

  The heads of employment departments of many interviewed universities said that in the face of fierce market competition, the job-seeking mentality of college students has accelerated differentiation. Most young students actively apply for jobs, and some even propose "will rather go to school recruitment than to enter the social recruitment"; however, some graduates are not rational enough in their career choices and blindly "seeking stability". It is almost early summer and are still applying for public sector positions, which is prone to miss the precious job search period.

  Xiao Jia from Tianjin Normal University said that many students in the class give priority to "having a staffing" when looking for jobs. Cao Ting, deputy director of the Student Employment Guidance and Service Center of Lanzhou University, said that some graduates' career choice pursuits are out of touch with reality, and they tend to follow the trend and pursue big cities and state-owned enterprises, and their understanding of small and medium-sized cities, private enterprises, and grassroots positions is not comprehensive enough.

  "In my opinion, 'can't let go of the figure' and 'information lag' are two major factors that hinder the smooth employment of students around me." An undergraduate graduate from the School of Economics of Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics said, "Some students do not understand what specific requirements the companies have for talents, but just use hearsay and piece together 'imagination'."

  The head of the employment department of a key university in the north admitted that some graduates have little willingness to market-based employment. In the past three years, the initial destination of graduates of the school has been concentrated in units within the "system" units, with a proportion of more than 60%. Since some "system" units require only fresh graduates to be accepted, some graduates actively choose not to find employment in order to retain their fresh graduate status, and some even apply for postponement of graduation.

  The survey also found that as the scale of doctoral student training expands, the trend of career selection in this group is worthy of attention. A doctoral student in chemistry at Lanzhou University said that all the units he applied for were universities, "because the university is stable, there is no need to consider changes in salary." A fresh doctoral graduate from Beijing Jiaotong University said that he had already recruited spring and some doctoral students in the class had not yet implemented the appropriate job and were anxious.

  Liu Xiao, deputy director of the Institute of Educational Economics and Management, Nanjing University, said that in traditional concepts, doctoral students should enter colleges and institutes to engage in academic research after graduation. However, in recent years, the recruitment threshold of many colleges and institutes has increased and the competitive pressure for assessment has increased. The doctoral graduate group has also shown a trend of diversified employment, especially doctoral students in science and engineering majors. Mastering cutting-edge knowledge and technology in their respective fields can fully realize their own value at the front line of the enterprise.

  Take multiple measures to promote market-oriented employment expansion and quality improvement

  The interviewed school-enterprise people suggested that guiding college graduates to diversify their employment, especially market-oriented employment, requires the joint efforts of multiple parties, and especially promote the deep integration of industry and education. Yang Jie said that in close coordination between schools, local governments and enterprises, universities can set up "university talent workstations" in local areas and hold special job fairs for "local groups to join universities" to tap the recruitment needs of alumni enterprises and help expand and improve employment resources through multiple channels.

  "Through the exchanges between last year's autumn recruitment and this year's spring recruitment, we found that many graduates' understanding and expectations for the company are not clear enough." Feng Hao, human resources director of Guizhou Liyang International Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Li Shihang, deputy director of the Employment Office of Shihezi University in Xinjiang, suggested that in the years since the implementation of the special action of "visiting enterprises and expanding jobs", normalized connections have been established between schools and enterprises. It is advisable to further deepen cooperation and carry out internship activities for students entering enterprises, encourage them to feel the actual work and life scenarios of the company and cultivate employment confidence.

  To focus on market-oriented employment, we also need to manage the pain points in the market-oriented job hunting process, so that graduates can apply for the job with confidence. Nie Bingrong, deputy director of the Employment Guidance Center of Tianjin University, and Fan Zhi, director of the Student Employment Guidance Service Center of Peking University, suggested that to protect the legitimate rights and interests of graduates and clear up the stubborn problems in the employment market such as academic discrimination and paid internships, it is necessary to establish an effective problem feedback and handling mechanism between universities and governments and enterprises to prevent and resolve employment risks such as "the employer terminates the contract when they are about to graduate".

  In addition, to cope with the challenges brought by artificial intelligence to the employment structure, Xie Jin, director of the Student Career Development Guidance Center of Tsinghua University, suggested that universities should actively use new technical tools such as artificial intelligence models to analyze the employment situation in various industries, accelerate the adjustment of disciplines, majors and curriculum systems, and offer interdisciplinary general courses on artificial intelligence to improve the basic literacy of college students' artificial intelligence. (Reporters: Chen Xiyuan, Wei Mengjia, Gao Han, Li Yating, Bai Liping, Wei Jingyu)

[Editor in charge: Wang Mengmeng]