Other places are also looking at overseas returnees.
Beijing's labor authority started to hire overseas returnees to be village heads in 2011. More than 30 applied for the posts, and five were recruited.
Song Xin has a master's in education from La Trobe University in Australia and now works as assistant to the head of Paifang village in Beijing's Chaoyang district.
"The premier obstacle I need to conquer is how to communicate with villagers," the 28-year-old said. "I told myself I am a farmer from the day I took the job."
He said by doing this, he can really understand what villagers are thinking about.
Song's job also requires him to mediate civil disputes. "Sometimes the work is like cracking a hard nut, but it helped me understand how to be down-to-earth, as well as the importance of dealing well with every small issue," he said.
Overseas returnees have a comparatively broad scope of vision and active thinking and their innovation is an advantage, but grassroots jobs are not yet major employment channels for them, according to the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Human Resources and Social Security, which is in charge of the city's recruitment of village heads.
Overseas returnees are less active in applying for grassroots positions and are less stable in retaining the work compared with graduates from domestic universities, the bureau said.
Among the five overseas returnees recruited in the city, three have quit, it said.
Liu Xin, a professor of human resources at Renmin University of China, said it's normal for overseas returnees to take grassroots jobs because the employment situation is tough. Many find it hard to get a job when they return to China, he said.
"Managing a village requires a deep understanding of the rural political situation, including grassroots democratic elections," Liu said. "It can take a long time."
Courses offered by overseas schools don't necessarily suit domestic jobs, he said.
Beauties at Beijing Film Academy enrollment site
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