On April 21, 2003, after registration, written examination, interview, physical examination, review, and public announcement, I became a civil servant and reported to the County Industrial Information Bureau.
In the institutional reform a year ago, the original County Industry Bureau 1, 2, and 3 were integrated and reorganized into the Industry Information Bureau.
The auto parts factory where I worked was a county-owned enterprise, which was managed by the First Bureau of Industry, while the Second Bureau managed collective enterprises and the Third Bureau managed township enterprises. These were functional departments established in accordance with the planned economic model. Before and after this round of institutional reform, state-owned enterprises had basically completed bankruptcy, transformation and restructuring.
In order to establish an administrative agency that adapts to the market economic environment, the newly established Industrial Information Bureau has shifted to macro-level functions such as industrial planning, operation monitoring, enterprise services, information promotion, and industry supervision. At the county level, the more macro, the less real power.
I was assigned to the Township Enterprise Section of this bureau as a clerk.
During the time I spent at the auto parts factory run by my master Fu Hongjun, I was in a state of idleness. Apart from eating and sleeping, I was healing my emotional wounds.
My master got up early and worked late every day, devoting all his energy to the management and operation of the factory. I wanted to help him share some of the burden, but he only asked me one question: "Hongjun, is your ambition and interest really in this area?"
I cannot give a clear answer because I am in a state of hesitation and confusion, and I don’t know where the future should go.
I decided to go back to my parents' home in the countryside to stay for a while, away from the hustle and bustle of the world, and calmly think about my future.
My parents treated me like a child on vacation, asking about my well-being and caring about me every day. In their hearts, as long as their son can live in good health, they really don't dare to have too many extravagant hopes.
Every day, I would come to the small hill where I once sat side by side with He Yahui, feeling the gradually chilling autumn wind, watching the dead leaves swaying in the wind, and listening to the sad cries of the lone geese flying south.
The flowers shed tears when they feel the time has come, and the birds are frightened when they feel the separation. I missed my son more and more, so I said goodbye to my parents and returned to the "home" that I once knew.
Zhang Fangfang watched my son playing with mixed feelings and suggested that we get back together, but I politely declined.
When I returned to my master's factory, he gave me two reference books for the civil service exam and said to me, "Hongjun, you are a highly educated person. Don't be obsessed with your ego all day long. Think more about the responsibilities you should bear."
I followed his advice and entered the system through examination, which marked the beginning of my official career.
In that era, powerful people, including the second generation of officials, would not squeeze into the ranks of the civil service examination, because they had too many ways and channels to enter the system. Since 2011, the civil service system has been perfected, and all entrants have to take the examination, which has finally led to the current situation of thousands of troops crossing the single-plank bridge.
So the competition was not fierce at all at that time. My opponents included a large number of candidates with high school and technical secondary school education, and I almost achieved a dimensionality reduction attack.
On the day of the report, I was taken to the director's office and met the director Wang Yanshu for the first time.
She is in her 40s and has no official airs at all. She looks more like a neighbor's sister.
She asked me to sit down, personally poured me a cup of water, and briefly asked about my resume.
When she found out that I used to be an employee of an auto parts factory, she said to me happily, "So we can still be considered colleagues. I came from the auto parts factory and have worked my way up to where I am today, step by step."
She is kind and friendly, with bright eyes, and is a leader with great enthusiasm for her work.
She suggested that I should not be stuck in the office, but should go to the grassroots more often. When doing my job well, I should be good at discovering problems, thinking about problems, and solving problems from practice.
I gladly accepted it and had more respect and admiration for her from the bottom of my heart.
After more than a month of employment, she pulled me over to her side while we were having a meal in the cafeteria and said to me, "Hongjun, are you getting used to your job?"
I nodded, and she smiled with satisfaction, then said to me: "The city is going to conduct a survey on the survival status of township enterprises recently. The industrial management departments of each district and county will prepare a report. I have communicated with your section chief and think you are a suitable candidate. What do you think?"
I didn't expect that such a specific work arrangement would have to be personally handled by a director, who expressed without hesitation his determination to complete the task.
She nodded with satisfaction.
This is a work task that I took on entirely by myself after I applied for the job. Of course, I didn't want to mess it up, so I racked my brains to develop a work plan.
The first step is of course to go to the front line to get first-hand information. I chose Xiangzhen, where rural enterprises are relatively developed.
In fact, there are no township enterprises in the traditional sense of processing industry in Xiangzhen. Most of them are small-scale coal mines, and even the word "mine" is not quite appropriate, at best they are just "kilns".
In the early days of reform and opening up, individuals could not go through the procedures for coal mining, and most of these coal kilns were opened in the name of the township industrial company or the village. All of them belong to the township enterprise sequence.
The second step is to expand the scope of data collection to all townships in the county. This is because mining enterprises are obviously different from other production enterprises and are not very representative. I cast my eyes on township enterprises centered around agriculture, mainly some farm tool factories, canning factories, and wire spinning factories.
The third step was that I began to read a large number of academic articles on township enterprises to gain an objective understanding of the current status of township enterprises across the country.