Chapter 12 You're still taking exams at your age
The day after the interview, Li Xuan received an offer from Huang Mengfa. Unexpectedly, she immediately called Lin Yao and invited her and Long Weihe to dinner. Lin Yao had exams to prepare for the evenings, and Long Weihe was away on a business trip, so they made plans for after they started. Li Xuan, ever willing to repay a favor, asked if they were currently looking for someone and offered to help them with the company's directory or introduce them to candidates. Lin Yao thanked her with a distressed expression. She wasn't in need of candidates; she was in need of clients. The post-holiday peak recruitment period had passed. In the past month or two, aside from securing a private hospital director contract for Long Weihe at a hometown chamber of commerce spring gathering, Lin He hadn't secured any new clients. Contracts from existing clients were few and far between. The overall situation in the headhunting industry was worse than last year. The pain of losing Xingtan was intensifying. "Have you made up your mind?" Lin Yao hung up on Li Xuan, his expression shifting to a serious one as he asked Li Yan. "Yes, I've talked to Sister Wei about it. She understands," Li Yan said with a wink. He resigned, saying something had happened back home and he needed to go home for a while. "Why resign? Just take a leave of absence, or take unpaid leave. Your social security will be paid, and you can come back when you're done." She and a few of her colleagues had signed a standard confidentiality agreement, without a strict non-compete clause. If he joined another headhunter, taking part of his talent pool with him, it would be a loss. He had worked with her for two years, so they had some affinity. "I'd better quit. I'm not sure how long I'll stay in this industry. The market has less mobility at the mid-level and senior levels now, and people are more cautious about job-hopping than before. There's only one position for each person, and there are fewer openings. If there's an opportunity, I'd like to switch to client-side work." He currently had few projects and couldn't remember how many calls he'd made seeking expansion. HR managers were getting smaller and smaller headhunting budgets, while headhunting resources were piling up. He couldn't get in on the action with Linhe's small platform. He couldn't expand his own business, and Lin Yao had no projects to offer him at the moment. "Sorry, boss..." He blushed. After graduation, he worked in administration for two years at a vaccine pharmaceutical company. His work had nothing to do with human resources, and Lin Yao had personally mentored him. Lin He was facing a difficult time, and resigning felt like a burden. Naturally, Lin Yao was unhappy. Seeing through his rhetoric, she knew he'd likely end up at another headhunter soon. That evening, she called Long Weihe to discuss the matter. "Isn't he just looking for an excuse to jump ship? He's not going to a competitor right away. Can you find another one?" Long Weihe was packing her luggage for a business trip tomorrow. "No, let's wait and see." Having hit a business bottleneck,...
The day after the interview, Li Xuan received Huang Mengfa's offer. Unexpectedly, she immediately called Lin Yao and invited her and Long Weihe to dinner. Lin Yao had to prepare for an exam in the evenings, and Long Weihe had to go on a business trip, so they made plans for after they started working.
Li Xuan, ever willing to return a favor, asked if they were looking for anyone and offered to help them with the company's directory or introduce them to candidates. Lin Yao thanked her glumly. What she needed now wasn't candidates, but clients to bring her orders.
The golden period for post-hospital recruitment had passed, and in the past two months, apart from a private hospital director's contract she secured for Longweihe's operation at the hometown chamber of commerce's spring gathering, Lin He hadn't secured any new clients. There were very few orders from existing clients.
The overall situation in the headhunting industry is worse than last year. The pain of losing Xingtan has not diminished but increased.
"Have you thought about it?"
Lin Yao hung up the phone with Li Xuan, his expression turned from joy to seriousness, and asked Li Yan.
"Yeah, I also talked to Sister Wei. She said she understood." Li Yan dodged a glance.
He resigned, saying that something happened in his hometown and he had to go home to deal with it for a while.
"Why resign? Just take a leave of absence, or take unpaid leave. Your social security will be paid. You can come back after the matter is settled."
She and a few of her colleagues had signed a standard confidentiality agreement, without a strict non-compete clause. If he joined another headhunting firm, taking part of the talent pool with him, it would be a loss. He had worked with her for two years, and they had a certain affinity.
"I'd better quit. I'm not sure how long I'll stay in this line of work, and I'm not sure I'll ever be in this line of work. The market is low on mid- and senior-level mobility right now, and people are more cautious about job-hopping than before. There's only one position for each person, and there are fewer openings. If there's an opportunity, I'd like to switch to working as a client."
He currently has few orders and can't remember how many calls he's made seeking new leads. The headhunting budgets of those HRs are shrinking, while the headhunting resources are increasing. He can't get in on the small platform of Lin He. He can't expand his own business, and Lin Yao doesn't have any orders to assign to him for the time being.
"I'm sorry, boss..." He drooped his face and blushed.
After graduation, he worked in administration for a vaccine pharmaceutical company for two years. His work had nothing to do with human resources, and Lin Yao taught him step by step. Lin He was in a difficult situation at that time, and he felt psychologically burdened when he proposed to resign.
Lin Yao was naturally unhappy. Seeing through his words, he knew that he would most likely appear in other headhunting companies soon.
In the evening she called Long Weihe to talk about this.
"He wouldn't be looking for this excuse to switch jobs to another company. Don't just turn around and go to a competitor. Can you find another one?" Long Weihe was packing her luggage, preparing to go on a business trip tomorrow.
"Don't look for it anymore, let it go first."
The business has reached a bottleneck, and the people working with her can't make any money. She doesn't know how to retain them, and she can't blame others for leaving.
Long Wei hadn't finished packing her luggage when Huang Yun entered her room. "When will you be back? Will you be able to catch up with me?"
Back home, Long Weihe's grandfather had fallen and was hospitalized, and his grandmother needed care. Both were in their eighties and nineties, and Long's father couldn't take care of them all by himself. Huang Yun, with both elderly parents and young children, was struggling to care for both, so she had to go back for a while. She'd bought a ticket for the day after tomorrow.
"It's still in time. I'll be home the day after tomorrow night and take your place. Lin Yao will take care of him."
She rarely travels for business, only a few times a year. This time, Yan Bin, the candidate for director of the private hospital Zhuo Rui, was working at a tertiary public hospital in another city. He had three video interviews with the recruiter. Of the two recommended candidates, the recruiter had the highest opinion of him, and both parties were interested in meeting in person for a more in-depth discussion. Since the other hospital was busy and unable to meet for the interview, and the recruiter was in a hurry to hire the person, she went to meet him to discuss the matter before making further arrangements.
The next day, it was Qian Duoduo's turn to go to the kindergarten for morning check-up. The school doctor followed a set of procedures: first taking the temperature, then checking the throat, and then checking the palms and backs of the hands.
Recently, there has been another round of high incidence of rotavirus, hand, foot and mouth disease, influenza and other diseases in kindergartens, and the school doctor is conducting strict morning inspections.
"Qian Enming--" the school doctor shouted at the hollow wall.
Long Weihe's heart tightened, and she waved her hand from the group of parents craning their necks to look inside, "Here—"
Being called out meant there was a problem. She was most afraid of failing the morning inspection, and had her products "returned" several times. Every time she was "returned," her plans for the day, and even for the next few days, were completely disrupted.
"Your throat is very red and you have inflammation. Drink more water and be careful." The doctor said loudly during the morning examination.
"good!"
Reassured, she urged the people inside, "Drink more water! Lots! Remember to drink more water!"
As long as Qian Duoduo doesn't get sick, she thinks nothing is too bad.
There was a child's sharp cry at the entrance to the park, attracting the attention of everyone on the other side of the wall.
The little girl, who looked about the same age as Qian Duoduo, held onto the railing tightly, crying and shouting, "I don't want to go! I want to go home... I want my dad to come home!..."
This kind of scene always happens during the first few days of school. Now that they have been in school for almost three months, it is rare to see children refusing to go to kindergarten.
A woman in her fifties pulled her inside, her sobs intensifying. Perhaps her heart and hands had softened, she stopped trying to persuade her and stood there, bewildered. Just as she was about to give in and take the girl back, a teacher rushed over. Experienced, she grabbed the girl's small backpack, offered soothing words, and quickly carried her inside. She showed no mercy.
She couldn't see the child's face clearly, but she saw the poor little thing moving more violently on the teacher, its two long, thin braids tied high up swaying in the struggle, and its crying extending from the door all the way to the inner corridor, and it did not stop for a long time.
Qian Duoduo had experienced this once or twice when she first started kindergarten, and she had just made up her mind and forced him in. If she hadn't been cruel, it would have happened a few more times.
The children on the playground gathered in groups to go into the classroom, and a group of parents also left. Only then did she catch a glimpse of Qian Pingtao on the other side of the wall, more than ten meters away.
Qian Pingtao saw her early, even earlier than the mother and son.
"We agreed not to interfere during normal times. Why are you here at this time?"
"I'm on a business trip to Singapore. It'll take a month. I'll be at the airport soon and come say hello. I just want to see him."
He was carrying an extra-large suitcase, as if he was going on a business trip.
"Duoduo said you were on a business trip today too?"
Qian Duoduo talked to him on the phone last night.
"Um."
"Where are you going on business?"
"Out of town."
"The airport? Together?"
"Different paths."
The car stopped across the street. She was in a hurry and a car came without slowing down. He subconsciously pulled her elbow from behind and said, "Be careful!"
She shook it off.
"I need to change an MD, stationed in South China. Does anyone have any recommendations? I'll talk to the HR department." He followed.
She paused, glanced at the passing cars on the road, then looked back at his face. "Thank you. None of my candidates match you."
They used to be colleagues. She was six years his junior and had been with him since her internship, a relatively early marriage and early childbirth compared to her colleagues. She later resigned to avoid the long-term impact of them both being in the same company, so one stayed while the other left. He had just been promoted to head up sales for the South China region, and with some power under his belt, he began to dole out favors.
Getting in the car, she remembered what the doctor had said during the morning checkup and rolled down the window. "Next time, be careful with what he eats. He always gets a sore throat when he comes home."
Qian Duoduo told her that he had never cooked a single meal. Every weekend when he took people out, they would eat either McDonald's or pizza from morning till night. Huang Yun had cursed him behind his back, saying that a man couldn't even light a stove and make noodles for his children, as he lived such a horrible life.
She met Lin Yao at the subway entrance. Lin Yao was going to take her to the airport and then drive her car back.
"The cost of this deal is too high. Yan Bin, the vice president of a large public hospital, has to move to another place. There are many requirements and he is in another place, so there are many uncertainties." Lin Yao got in the car.
"I think Li Huaigang is more suitable, but unfortunately he and the boss don't have the same magnetic field."
Another candidate, Li Huaigang, was based in Guangzhou and was the vice president of a tertiary hospital. Long Weihe had contacted him through a friend at the Medical Insurance Bureau. His condition for switching to a private hospital was a month's annual vacation. The boss, upon hearing this, accused him of low emotional intelligence for asking for vacation before the offer was even made. She was unwilling to interview him and said she shouldn't consider such candidates in the future. So they gave up.
In the afternoon, Lin Yao went to the kindergarten to pick up people.
Qian Duoduo's class filed downstairs and sat on small stools outside, waiting for the teacher to call their names and hand them over to their parents. He craned his neck to see Lin Yao, whose butt was swaying from side to side on the stool.
"Miss!"
He ran over and had already set his eyes on the bag of food in her hand.
"Who is this kid you always talk about, Sisi? Point him out to me." She handed him a cup of custard yogurt with a straw.
"She was making a fuss today and was picked up at noon."
"I have an exam tomorrow, so can we get to kindergarten early?"
"Hmm." He felt strange, bit the straw, looked up and asked, "You are still taking exams at your age?"
"Aha—you think I'm old?" She bounced away, pretending to be angry, and then she was really angry.
"It's just that the exam is a little old. Everything else is fine."
I don't know where he gets his logic from.
Tang Ruifen shares his logic. She says that at her age, if she doesn't do what she should do, her pace is all wrong.
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