Heartthrob, Your Image is Crumbling!

Chapter 607: Finding an Internship and Job

Everyone froze for a moment after Lin Xue finished speaking. Although Zhongshe Group wasn't a particularly great company, getting recommended by a counselor for an internship was still a rare opportunity. Furthermore, none of the other students had this chance. You Changjin had specifically recommended Liu Yue, which inevitably made the others feel a bit jealous.Upon hearing this news, Liu Yue was also taken aback. Then, without saying a word, she immediately ran out of the room.

In truth, Liu Yue had made several advances toward You Changjin in the past. However, You Changjin was a principled teacher. He had earnestly persuaded Liu Yue, explaining that he only helped her out of duty. Seeing that graduation and leaving school was imminent, Liu Yue had already planned to give up on You Changjin.

Yet, right at this moment, You Changjin unexpectedly gave her a glimmer of hope. How could Liu Yue not be deeply moved?

Honestly speaking, though, the only reason You Changjin fought for this internship opportunity for Liu Yue was simply because he felt she had it rough. As her counselor, he just wanted to give her an extra chance.

Unfortunately, it was too late to clarify things now. Liu Yue had spent three years studying alone in Jinling and had experienced the vicissitudes of human nature. She couldn't fit in with her roommates, and after finally finding two boyfriends, each turned out to be scummier than the last. In the end, only You Changjin treated her the best. How could her heart not be stirred?

With the internship period approaching, everyone felt anxious and confused. Lin Xue chose to prepare for postgraduate studies, while Ma Tian and Li Jing decided to return to their hometowns. Thanks to You Changjin's recommendation, Liu Yue entered Zhongshe Group.

In May, the Student Union held its annual transition of power.

Around this time last year, Shen Yu had just become the president of the Student Union and was incredibly thrilled. At that time, she felt quite remarkable for securing the position. She had secretly vowed to manage the Student Union exceptionally well and make everyone look at her with new eyes.

Now, a year later, Shen Yu found her past thoughts rather laughable. The Student Union was nothing more than an ordinary organization. She used to spend countless days and nights fantasizing about how majestic she would be as president, but once she actually took the role, she realized that everything just needed to proceed step by step.

Regardless, she was finally stepping down after this month. The new Student Union president was the internet celebrity junior female student, Yin Songyue. Yin Songyue was originally in the Arts Department, but because Zheng Yanyan disliked her, she moved to the Organization Department. Later on, owing to her status as an internet celebrity and her slight bit of personal capability, many people in the Student Union recommended her to become the new president.

Seeing this, Zheng Yanyan naturally felt a bit jealous. She muttered softly, "The Student Union really is getting worse with every term. Even someone who posts borderline suggestive content online can become president now. Don't you agree, Linlin?"

Lu Lin initially could not be bothered to pay attention to her, but hearing this left her speechless. She replied, "You have the nerve to talk about others? Didn't you also do a poor job as the minister of the Arts Department?"

"Did I do a poor job? I thought I did quite well," Zheng Yanyan said, blinking her large eyes with a completely harmless expression.

Lu Lin, however, was left utterly speechless.

With their junior year ending, Zheng Yanyan and Lu Lin also officially stepped down from their roles as staff members in the Arts Department.

After the handover ceremony concluded, the Student Union held a buffet party in the auditorium. In reality, it simply involved placing some small cakes on tables alongside drinks like iced black tea and cola. It allowed the students to come over, enjoy some chatting, dance a bit of ballroom dancing, and relax. It was considered a perfect way to put a period on their university lives.

At the party, the most common topic of conversation was everyone's plans for the future.

As the president of the Student Union, Shen Yu was naturally the one who received the most toasts. Some people flattered her, saying that since President Shen was so excellent, she must have already received several job offers.

Shen Yu, however, openly and generously stated that she hadn't sent out any resumes at all.

"Yanyan and I plan to continue working at Zhou Yuwen's company," Shen Yu told them with a smile.

Hearing Shen Yu's answer, they were surprised at first before chiming in, "Oh, right, we almost forgot! It seems you guys have been working at Zhou Yuwen's company for a while now."

"Sigh, I really envy you for securing a job in advance. Unlike us, still running around like headless flies," one of them sighed.

Listening to their words, Shen Yu simply chuckled and modestly replied that it was alright.

"You can list all your experiences in the Student Union on your resumes. I remember you were the runner-up in our Xianlin University Student Debate Competition. I'm sure there are companies out there that will value these achievements," Shen Yu suggested.

Hearing Shen Yu's words, the person shook her head repeatedly and said helplessly, "President Shen, what are you thinking? What company is going to care about what place you got in a debate competition?"

"Exactly. Bosses only care about what kind of profit you can bring to the company. No matter how impressive we are in the Student Union, we still go to a second-tier university. Major companies will toss our resumes out during the first round of screening."

"Those small companies are an even bigger trap. They just treat us as free labor. They use us for six months and then outright say we're not a good fit. Sigh, if we had known Zhou Yuwen's company was going to grow so rapidly, we would have joined in to do some part-time work too. Even though it might have been a bit tiring, at least we would have a job secured by now."

A year ago, Zhou Yuwen's company was still in its developmental phase. Although there were hiring thresholds back then, they weren't too stringent. Many students from their school took on part-time roles there. As the company grew, the entry requirements for these part-timers were appropriately lowered compared to regular applicants, essentially granting them direct employment at Zhou Yuwen's company.

It was worth noting that the current compensation and benefits at Zhou Yuwen's company ranked among the top three in all of Jinling. Especially after Zhou Yuwen announced his partnership with the Jiang Family Estate, the company's reputation and assets skyrocketed. Countless people were desperately fighting tooth and nail for a spot but still couldn't get in.

Now, Zhou Yuwen's company predominantly recruited interns from first-tier institutions like Jinling University. As for the students from their own second-tier university, apart from those early part-timers who received special treatment, it was practically harder than ascending to the heavens for the others to join his company.

Having never experienced the pain of job hunting, Shen Yu was clearly still a bit naive. Listening to the complaints of the students under her, she couldn't help but say, "It shouldn't be that bad, right? After all, you've spent so much time in the Student Union and have gained some office experience. I'm sure that whether it's a large corporation or a small business, they will place some value on that."

"Sigh, President Shen, it seems you are simply too fortunate. There are countless students just like us all over Jinling," they lamented.

"Exactly. You say we are excellent, but President Chen is definitely far more excellent than we are, right?"

President Chen?

Shen Yu almost failed to react. She paused for a moment before suddenly recalling, "You mean Senior Sister Chen Wan?"

"Who else could it be?"

Ever since Chen Wan stepped down from the Student Union, there had been no news of her. Rumor had it that she went to Shanghai and was hired by a foreign enterprise.

However, the truth was quite different. When she first stepped into society, Chen Wan could be described as incredibly arrogant and proud. It should be noted that she was only twenty-one that year, yet she was already managing two companies valued at over a million under Zhou Yuwen. No matter where she went, the subordinates trailing behind her respectfully addressed her as Sister Wan.

Furthermore, the planning company Chen Wan previously managed dealt primarily with wealthy individuals. Holding Su Qing's creative ideas and Zhou Yuwen's resources in her hands, everyone naturally treated her with great courtesy. They hoped she would meticulously plan their weddings, and some clients even openly praised Chen Wan for her competence.

They would tell her it was a real pity for her to work as a planner there, saying that if she came to their company, they would at the very least groom her to be a manager. At the time, Chen Wan would just smile and gracefully avoid continuing that line of conversation.

However, she inevitably felt a sense of pride in her heart. She truly began to believe that she belonged to the same social class as these clients and developed a strong conviction in her own abilities.

So much so that later, even after being kicked out of the company by Zhou Yuwen, she was unable to accurately evaluate herself.

She constantly felt that even without Zhou Yuwen, she could always carve out a place in the world relying on her own talents. After all, she was the Student Union president, not to mention the wealth of experience she had accumulated working for Zhou Yuwen.

Chen Wan simply refused to believe that she couldn't find a job.

In the beginning, she didn't choose to rely on the empty promises of those former clients by calling them up. Instead, she wanted to rely on her own merits and try securing a job on her own first.

Students in her year would share their job-hunting experiences in the dormitory. For instance, they would mention opting for second-rate companies because of their academic backgrounds. Top-tier companies would filter them out in the very first round. Unless they had connections, there was no way to even get their resumes onto the HR desk for a glance. Otherwise, HR likely wouldn't even look at their applications.

And with second-rate companies, it was really just about fighting for an interview opportunity. As for the outcome, that entirely depended on their personal performance.

The private discussions among the students were quite realistic. For example, they felt that applying to first-tier companies was a complete waste of a resume. Black-and-white prints were fine, but color resumes meant wasting a sum of money. If they were design students, some companies even required past design portfolios, and color printing those would be a significant expense.

They hadn't noticed it back in school, but once they stepped into the real world, they realized that everything required money. Therefore, they had to calculate carefully and budget strictly.

Compared to them, Chen Wan's financial situation was slightly better, but her ambitions were correspondingly larger. Chen Wan felt that while they were right not to choose top-tier companies, her own resume was so excellent that she should definitely give it a shot.

Thus, she color-printed several copies of her personal resume, continuously editing her ID photo to make herself look as flawless as possible. In her summary, she noted that during her time at university, she had served as the vice minister of the Organization Department and the president of the Student Union, organizing various student events and activities.

She also wrote that she had served as a manager at Xianlin Planning, organizing and executing over a dozen large and small weddings.

In short, others would rack their brains and still fail to scribble down three sentences on their resumes.

Chen Wan scribbled away so furiously that a single sheet of paper was barely enough to contain all her achievements.

Unfortunately, after submitting several resumes and waiting in her rented apartment for nearly a month, she stubbornly did not receive a single reply. This made Chen Wan feel incredibly bewildered.

Even if they didn't think highly of her, they wouldn't just leave her without a single response, right?

Consequently, Chen Wan made a phone call to one of the companies. The moment the call connected, Chen Wan spoke politely, "Um, hello. I am Chen Wan, an applicant for your company's recruitment. I would like to ask, how long is the wait for an interview?"

"Ah? I'm sorry, Miss Chen, but our company's recruitment ended half a month ago." The person on the other end was momentarily stunned before seemingly understanding Chen Wan's intent, replying in a formulaic tone.

"Half a month?"

Chen Wan froze. "Wait, no one notified me."

"Beep—"

Before Chen Wan could finish her sentence, the other side had already hung up. This left Chen Wan deeply discouraged. Refusing to believe that every company was this heartless, she called them one by one. Regrettably, the majority of the companies chose to ignore her calls. Someone even ruthlessly told her straight up, "I'm sorry, our company doesn't accept interns from universities below the first tier."

Hearing this, Chen Wan became furious, arguing about how they could be so arbitrary. "Although I am a student from a second-tier university, I..."

"It's useless telling me that. This is our boss's decision. Beep!"

After saying this, the person on the other end hung up as well.

Alright, it was only at this moment that Chen Wan realized the profound difficulties of job hunting. In truth, this wasn't because Chen Wan lacked excellence. It was just that the first batch of resumes she sent out went strictly to absolutely top-tier companies. These companies might occasionally hire students from second-tier universities, but they certainly wouldn't recruit you just because you previously served as some staff member at your school. It would only be because of what roles your parents held or what assets they possessed.

Unfortunately, Chen Wan had none of that.

Having stayed at Zhou Yuwen's company for a year, Chen Wan had indeed learned real skills. However, by the same token, possessing these skills made it impossible for her to humble herself and lower her expectations like the other students.

She stayed in her rented apartment for another half a month. During this time, Chen Wan researched company after company. Finally, looking at these second-rate companies whose salary offerings entirely failed to meet her expectations, she couldn't help but purse her lips.

She thought, 'Why don't I just find a few small companies to stay at for a while? Once people witness my talent, I'm sure someone will come headhunting me.'

So, Chen Wan shifted her focus and began targeting second-tier companies with her resumes.

At this point, HR representatives finally began taking the initiative to call her.

Moreover, their tones were relatively amicable. The most frequent question they asked was, "Hello, Classmate Chen. I see from your resume that you've worked at Xianlin Planning. May I ask if that's the Xianlin Planning under President Zhou, Zhou Yuwen?"

"Yes, it is," Chen Wan answered earnestly.

"Um, could I ask why you left Xianlin Planning? Because as far as we know, employees who work at Xianlin Planning rarely leave. Especially someone like you, who had already reached the position of general manager..."

Chen Wan expressed that Xianlin Planning was indeed quite good, but it was too comfortable inside, and she wanted to properly challenge and temper herself.

"Mhm, I understand. Classmate Chen, you are truly excellent. I also noticed that you haven't written down the specific job role you wish to apply for. Do you have any requirements regarding your position and salary?"

The HR representative's tone was incredibly kind. Chen Wan felt that this was the type of good company that genuinely respected and sought out talent. A growing sense of good impression toward this company blossomed in her heart. She thought to herself, 'It seems first-tier companies might not necessarily develop as well as second-tier ones.' So, she replied, "Well, I previously served as the general manager at Xianlin Planning, so I can lead a team independently after joining your esteemed company. As for the salary, I am hoping for eight to twelve thousand. Does that work for you?"