A New Year, A New Career

A regular theme of this blog is self-reflection. Just a few months ago, I was looking back on my past year as a 33-year-old, wondering what is the next step now that I had my fourth anniversary working with Blackpeak, graduated from my Ph.D. program at the University of Tokyo, got married, as well as became certified in Teaching English as a Second Language, Fraud Examination, and Anti-Money Laundering, all in the matter of one year. A new life project beckons, but at the time, I was unsure what that would be or where it would happen.

My wonderful wife, who often furnishes me with fantastic ideas about thinking and working better, provided the next push I need to change directions and acquire a new set of skills. Seeking to add an international dimension to her already formidable set of skills as a software engineer, she prodded me to head out again to an English-speaking country, while she can acquire language skills through immersion in day-to-day living through another language. As much as Blackpeak provided me with personal growth in the past few years, the firm fell short of realistically allowing its employees to be more mobile across international borders.

A few job searches took me to Australia, where New Zealand-based international educational consulting firm Crimson Education was seeking staff to support students in both Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) to enter top US and UK universities. Given the ever-increasing number of international applicants seeking admission into these universities, most of which have remained largely the same in size over decades, the application process has become highly competitive. Those seeking a leg up against other equally brilliant applicants now look for professional guidance from those experienced in those top schools.

And into the story of ambitious students aiming for the best academic institutions in the world enters another equally important perspective. As the ranks of successful globetrotting Chinese entrepreneurs swell alongside the economic power of China, a new class of wealthy Chinese immigrant population has become more established in multiple global locations where living standards are high and barriers of entry are (relatively) low. Nowhere has this trend been more apparent in ANZ. The rise of Chinese immigration in the two countries means the demand for Chinese speakers rises correspondingly through the economy. 

The impact of a greater Chinese presence is particularly evident in the education industry. Long a people that equate educational attainment with higher social status, the Chinese simply do not settle for mediocre universities when more prestigious options are available. For Chinese youths of ANZ, that often means targeting brand-name schools in the US and the UK rather than less internationally recognized ones in ANZ or elsewhere. Whether through their own personal ambitions or adhering to parental pressures, they have become ever more driven to leave ANZ for greener pastures of educational advancement abroad.

Yet, as much as my background as a Chinese immigrant with experience in attending top schools in both the US and the UK fit the needs of Crimson clients in ANZ, working with these clients will be a steep learning curve in light of my past career trajectory. A back-office operations guy through and through, I find myself often lost for words when the need arises to convince stringent and frugal parents to fork over a significant chunk of their savings for services that can no way guarantee a spot in any top university. Getting into Harvard or MIT is difficult for anyone, whether or not big money is involved.

Indeed, as the Chinese become wealthier, they have become more resourceful in their educational investment, with many firms emerging to cater to their increasingly demanding and specific needs. Globally ascendant anti-Chinese sentiments, fueled by the murky origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and deepened by fear of China as a destroyer of cherished international geopolitical and economic norms, have only made the task of converting even the most intelligent Chinese students into members of a highly educated global elite fraught with legal, political, and emotional obstacles.

Sure, as global headlines shift away from an increasingly irrelevant (if not less deadly) COVID-19 pandemic and stalemating (if no less depressing) war in Ukraine, things might become easier for ambitious students, even though of Chinese descent, to move across countries to increase their educational and then professional options. But given how much the nature of relationships among major powers in the world, and individuals of different values within each country, changed in the past few years, plenty of potential risks exist that can still derail dreams of emerging international elite seeking to make their marks on the world.