Children of the 1980s in China are finding their way in the corporate world alone. They could use some help

----By Kathleen Lau

Some of China's best-known artists and directors came of age in the 1980s. Foreign diplomats were streaming into Beijing, bringing with them not only diplomacy but suitcase loads of foreign culture. Foreign music, movies, art and science filled Beijing's backrooms. Many of China's more famous artists and directors graduated those years - Zhang Yimou, Cheng Shigai and Chen Yifei all came of age in that time.

But for those managing businesses in China today, there is a different group from the eighties that is important: those who were born then, the twenty-somethings of the present. They are our assistants, supervisors and budding junior managers. Unlike the 30-somethings who went seeking foreign work experience because of its aura of being more modern and advanced, this generation is more proud and confident. The China they know is state-of-the-art, not humble and backward.

Many of them speak English fluently, have foreign friends and some have travelled overseas. They've been through the Chinese educational system, have never lived abroad, and some of them have never worked for a Chinese company.

They are young, bright, full of energy and life and have a seemingly inborn expectation that the best is yet to come. Just a few years out of school, their salaries are overshooting the 30-somethings despite their lighter experience - and sometimes because of it.

And yet as they mature, what models will they look to navigate their careers, their love lives or even their ethical choices as they blaze the trail into the new China? Not their friends, parents, books on getting MBAs, nor the slew of magazines on better skin and furniture design. No, they are doing it alone - and some are getting lost.

Profiles in searching

Sarah is 27 years old and has worked for three different foreign companies in her five-year career. Her CV is two pages long, because she feels she needs the space to put in her list of responsibilities for all the jobs she's held. She doesn't understand that no matter how good "I set up their accounting system" sounds, when you're at the company for only one year, you don't have a chance to see that accounting system complete a full cycle.

She claims good reasons for leaving: better opportunities, dismal companies, and always the better offer. Now she's applying to be my finance manager. I point out that after two years in a company, she only begins to understand its problems, and that she could suggest possible solutions sh liked, but she wouldn't be around to see the outcome, not that soon. She gets angry at me for implying that she should have stayed longer at her past jobs. "You don't understand what happened!" she snaps back.

After a few more interviews with candidates with similarly spotty backgrounds, I interview Stan for the same position. At 25, he speaks fluent English, and has worked for only foreign companies in his four years of working experience - both multinationals. On the line for salary expectation, he has written RMB15,000 (€1,400) a month.

"Even if a company hired you at this salary it doesn't mean you can do the job," I say. "You'll hit a ceiling, your lack of experience will stop your career dead in its tracks!" Then, without meaning to, I blurt out, "You guys have no idea how to move your career forward."

I'm only venting, but Stan's reaction surprises me. "Tell me how!" he replies. "Tell me what to do." That's when I realise that he wants to do the right thing, but simply doesn't know what that is.

I say the first thing that comes into my mind. "You need a mentor, someone with more experience in your field who will take you under his wing and teach you everything he knows."

Then it occurs to me, Stan does need a mentor. They all do. More than training or English lessons, this generation needs guidance and advice. But when they look to older generations, they find a void. They are truly the first generation with unlimited possibilities. They are on the ground in the corporate world, navigating their careers in uncharted territory.

They are lost in another way. Up until now, the focus has been on doubling salaries and making a killing on the stock market. Nowhere is there a place to discuss ethics for use in business, or in life.

Doing the wrong thing

Sunny started out as an assistant. She was good, diligent and learned quickly. When an opening came up in the marketing department, I offered her the position. We raised her pay when the marketing manager left, and then raised it again a short time later. When a competitor offered an 80 percent increase, we knew it was time to say goodbye. We wished her well and threw her a party.

Upon arriving at her new job, she promptly used our confidential database to solicit clients for her new company. A friend believes she knew better, but I truly think she never gave a thought to right or wrong.

Terry illustrates this perfectly. She started as an assistant without any basic secretarial skills and went from not knowing how to keep files to setting up systems and procedures in the two years she worked for me. She took her skills to a competitor and for the next two years, she tried to recruit from my company. Once she actually came back to the restaurant "to say hello" while trying to convince a supervisor to make the move.

Last week I received an e-mail from her, "I want to tell you that I've left the company, and now I have a new job. I would like to thank you for everything you've taught me ... and can you write me a reference letter?"

Well, in a way, this article is that reference letter. It's a call to anyone who is managing the Sarahs and Terrys of this generation. They need you to be their mentor. Sunny and Terry learned a lot in my company, but they didn't learn ethics. In the next project that I'm creating, I plan to change that. If you have an idea or an example, please e-mail me.

© Copyright 2008 by Kathleen Lau. No part of this may be reprinted - in any language or format: printed, electronic or otherwise - without express written permission from the author