Chinese internet meme of the day: "Obtained employment"

students_unemployed.jpg According to ESWN, the "obtained employment" internet meme sprung from a July 12 post by a netizen on a Tianya Forum which said "I have just obtained employment. I have obtained employment. I am ecstatic. I have obtained employment without knowing the facts!" The netizen, who had just graduated, was having his file transferred to a HR center when he took a peek and found a "Employment agreement document" already red stamped. After reading the contents, "I was immediately stunned... The agreement documented stated the name of my employer in black and white, next to a big red stamp of that employer." An employer he had never heard of. Why would the university do this to him? To meet a quota by the Ministry of Education that forces them to be responsible for finding employment for their students. Since institutes with low employment-on-graduation rates need to accept fewer students, some have taken the shortcut of just stamping "obtained employment" on their wards' forms.

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