How to Make a Fortune before Graduation: a Peak into Chinese College Students’ Part-time Jobs
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The Takeaway
Chinese college students nowadays have a lot more to do than just taking classes. What part-time jobs are they taking to earn money in the Internet age?[/vc_column_text][/thb_border][vc_column_text]
I Feel Like a Real Student After Taking So Many Classes
“Looking for someone available in the morning to take a class. Man needed!”
7.55am, a tall and thin man was looking around at the door when he came in. He squeezed out the water from his hat and jacket, found a place to hang them. He took a picture of the class and finally he accommodated himself. While sitting, he kept moving his head back and forth.
8.05am, the teacher rapidly irrupted the classroom. He took out some A4 crumple papers from the briefcase, and started taking attendance by calling the names as fast as he could: “Wang Tengfei!”
“Here!”
Meanwhile, the students tried to lift their heads to figure out who was that tall and thin young man. They quickly understood the situation and got back to their stuff. He was Qian Han, and it was the 26th time he showed up for an absent student that month.
8.25 am, half an hour after his presence in the classroom, Han received 50 RMB from the ‘employer’ on his phone and he replied by a smiling emoji. Soon, another message showed on the WeChat group of the same demand: 5th December, morning, first and second class, man needed, decent payment. If interested, contact privately.’ After adding the WeChat contact of this man, Qian carried on with this ‘order’. Seeing a lot of scheduled appointments and names while adding this one, by time and places. Everything was written in different colors and in a very organized way: It is clear in this way. When the time is up, the phone will notify me”.
“I heard of this kind of part-time job, taking class for other students, when I first entered the university. I can join the group on phone if I want to.” He has been doing this kind of job for 2 years. Qian spent all of his pocket money for a whole semester on travelling for one month, which is the reason he chose to do this instead of asking for extra money from parents in shame.
“At that time, searching on Internet, I found out there were many ‘substituting hourgroups’. If somebody is looking for a guy to take a class, he has to indicate the place and the time. It is also important to have a talk privately and clarify the payment and the details. The details contain homework to hand over or to collect, sometimes you have to substitute for only one hour, sometimes two or three. The most valuable order Qian Han has taken was for 13 weeks and earned him 1000 yuan.
Now, Qian Han has already joined five or six similar groups. Every group counts from 500 to 1000 people. Qian Han says:” They are not even big enough, I used to be in a national group which counts 2000 people. He can pick up orders every day since the population of students is big enough. He brings homework in the ‘guest’s’ requirement. After showing up for attendance, he can use the Internet on cellphone and read books freely, because those courses are not even related to his major and interests.
This kind of business became online e-commerce due to the popularity. They can post online messages to recruit people and to encourage new costumers to join, gaining 3 to 5 yuan per class per order. “Now, there are lots of this kind of job all over the country. The majority of schools are composed by permanent members who have an easy access to the Internet”.
The regulations have become stricter for both sides, in case of violations, there are penalties such as suspension or expulsions. But the business is still on the track. “Most of the lessons are public, professors can’t remember everybody because of the varied population. It happened that I took a small class with 20 students in total. From the first lesson, I carried on with that course. The professor started thinking I was one of those actual students and sometimes even I felt like a real students there after taking so many classes.“
I Have to Run to Pee to Not Miss New Customer Notifications
1:30 am.
“It has been really cold recently, put on some clothes!” Wang Ou sent a warm greeting to the last customer online. Even though he hired a customer service and his sister was helping, during the peak season, he was busier than usual.
“It has been two years since I’ve run the business, everyday it is about serving customers”. At this time, Wang Ou is a senior year student in college and a successful owner of a “double-crowned” Taobao shop. In specific, Wang Ou’s business is focused on selling vacuum packaging machines. Before setting up the business, Wang Ou was considering to take advantage from the time after school to study and to get certifications, preparing for getting a job. Wang Ou spent a considerable amount of time to think over his business and his financial independency. Finally, mainly thanks to his family’s support, he decided to go down to business with one of the biggest E-commerce platform, Taobao. Due to his relatives’ deep understanding for that kind of products (they all work in a packaging factory) and Taobao flairs for business, Wang Ou decided to start selling vacuum packaging bags and packaging machines produced by the factory in Taobao.
“At that time, I searched for some online resources about opening Taobao shops. In particular, I focused on the quite successful companies and tried to improve their strategies. He tried to search on QQ with key words:” specialties” “beef bar”. The research was successful, he immediately added a lot of QQ groups:” I joined a lot of groups. I spoke a lot, I kept good relationships and had good deals with them”.
After opening the business, Wang Ou bought a tablet to take care of business during class. Every day he would be working non-stop from 7 in the morning to 2 at night, typing on his computer to talk to customers asking questions about the machine and to deal with customer-service related questions. There would always be clients who ask very specific question about each types of machines and take half an hour to decide on one, and other clients complain or argue persistently trying to get a discounted price. Wang Ou’s fingers and elbows soon began to hurt as he often needs to type back to more than 5 customers at the same time. “Even to go to the bathroom, I needed to run, otherwise my computer would be notification overloaded.”
On WeChat, Wang Ou added a lot of Taobao clients, he had to send them his greetings time by time, especially during the holidays.” You should call them to solve problems and even talk to them with family topics time by time. For example, if parents want to pack something for their child, you should tell them how happy their child will be and how you wish your parents would be like them. When the weather becomes cold, it will be nice to tell you clients to put on some clothes.
Even though he hired a customer service, he has never left his computer. From nine in the morning to the middle of the night, he is always working to update order tracking information or analyzing data, asking for the help of his roomie to get water. “I always go back to read my records of conversations with the costumers to check if I made mistakes by using inappropriate words”. He also takes responsibility from the small matters such as changing details to big matters such as the entire organization of the shop.
Wang Ou says,” It is not a big deal, I can even talk to those bad guys who give me back ratings or reviews on purpose.” If Wang Ou finds a bad rating, he’d often quickly apologize and offer to compensate by paying 20-50 RMB.” I usually think that running a competitive business is like being in war, you never know if you are going to win or lose. I would like to compromise by returning it and pay the money back, to be secure. And that happens a lot.”
He admitted that he caught the end of the e-commerce boom on Taobao. The rookies will definitely die if they do not buy fake customers, when nine out of ten shops do it. Lots of shops still do it even the regulations became stricter than ever before, taking the risk of shutting their shops down, simply because you will probably die either way.
“Having a shop in Taobao is not for everybody.” Wang Ou said it with a smile, “You have to stay in front of the computer for an incredible amount of time, you have to deal with all sorts of clients. No more distinctions between week days and weekends. As for me though, I think it’s ok.” While speaking, the phone of Wang Ou rang because of a client’s notification. “I am sorry I have to take this client’s call.”
10 minutes later, finally getting off the phone, Wang Qiu signed, “You know, sometimes after spending so long in front of the computer, I ask myself for what I reason do I work like this. I don’t have a life!”[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_cta h2=”Credits:”]Translation:虫洞翻翻
Source:土逗公社
Original article (Chinese) :代课族与淘宝店主 大学里副业这么多你应该去哪 [/vc_cta][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text][vc_wp_posts title=”Recent Stories ” number=”5″][/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Tweet[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]
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