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According to the National Civil Service Bureau, a total of 3.033 million people will pass the qualification review for the 2024 civil service exam, a 133% increase over 2020. In the civil service exam boom, positions within the system have become "hot commodities". Topics such as "Stanford PhDs taking township civil service exams" and "Masters and doctoral students from prestigious universities flocking to small counties" have sparked heated discussions from time to time.

Why are more and more young people from small towns choosing to return to their hometowns to take the civil service exam? Compared with working hard in first-tier cities, what are the differences for young people returning to county towns to become civil servants? If it were you, what would you choose? The Paper invited Yang Hua, a professor at the School of Sociology of Wuhan University, to talk about the current situation in the system as he knows it.

Returning to hometown to take civil service exam

@Code is so hard to understand: If you don't consider promotion, returning to a small county to be a civil servant is a good choice for those who want a stable and comfortable life? But then I think that the social relationship in a county is far more complicated than that in a city...

Yang Hua:The county is a society of acquaintances and semi-acquaintances, with various relationships intertwined. Through twists and turns, you can always find the corresponding relationship. The social resources in the county are relatively single, mainly in the hands of the government or system (government, hospitals, banks, schools, enterprises), and the system allocates scarce resources, so the relationship within the system is very important, and everyone pays attention to making friends within the system. Therefore, those who can pass the civil service exam in the county, especially those who graduate from second-tier universities, are considered to be very powerful people, and the whole family, relatives and friends are very happy.

At the beginning, young civil servants do not feel the pressure of personal connections and face. When they reach a certain level, especially when they reach a certain position and have a certain amount of power, the pressure in this regard will come overwhelmingly. Therefore, the advantages of taking the civil service exam in a county are stability, family support, low consumption, status, and face; the disadvantages are that all kinds of personal connections will come up, which will make people feel pressured and force themselves to keep moving up.

@蔡进坤: What do you think about the fact that more and more college students have the traditional idea that "stability overrides everything" when it comes to employment choices, and civil servants have become the best choice?

Yang Hua:Choosing to apply for civil service examinations in the county is a better choice for graduates from general key universities and ordinary second-tier universities. It is difficult to gain a foothold in big cities, and it is difficult to work in coastal areas. Returning to the county to take the civil service examination is a third way, which is also possible. On the one hand, this can inject fresh blood into the county and activate the county society; on the other hand, they are also an important force with education, insight, and ideas in the system, which is very useful for improving grassroots governance and grassroots cadres.

@hshshs: Is the monopoly and inheritance of various resources in county towns serious? Why is this not the case in first- and second-tier cities? Is it because of policy differences, population quality, or other reasons?

Yang Hua:There are two aspects to this. On the one hand, county resources are too few and too single. There are more resources within the system and fewer resources on the market. Therefore, everyone wants to take control of the resources within the system or establish connections with the system in order to gain control of the allocation of the county's main resources.

On the other hand, children in the county system generally do better in college entrance examinations. Now in the central and western regions, after leaving the county to study in key universities in big cities, especially 211 and 985 universities, they generally do not return to the county. Therefore, the older generation in the county system also faces the problem of power and relationship inheritance, which provides an opportunity for children from ordinary county families to return to the county and reshape the county system.

Big cities are rich in resources, including institutional resources, market resources, knowledge resources, etc. One is that there are more, and the other is that the level of social acquaintances is not that high. Rich resources cannot be monopolized, so they can accommodate a lot of people and provide opportunities. Of course, big cities also have similar phenomena, but because there are many high-quality resources and inheritance is only a minority, it does not seem so obvious.

The road to success

@赞虚无: There are many voices online saying that you should never go to the county when taking the civil service exam, and that you have to be a "dragon and phoenix among men" to make it. What do you think?

Yang Hua:It depends on how you make it. If you think you can make it as long as you are promoted to deputy section-level cadres in the county system, then it is not very difficult now, although there are not many deputy section-level cadres in a county. Deputy section-level cadres in the county have the opportunity to be transferred and circulate among towns and departments in the county. They are middle-level cadres in the county and have a certain political status.

An undergraduate graduate is going to the county:

1. If you want to upgrade your rank first and then seek other options, it is recommended that you apply for township civil service, because there are relatively more township leadership positions, more than a dozen; and since 2000, townships across the country have been digesting the establishment numbers of the 1990s for more than a decade without recruiting new civil servants. Only in the past ten years or so have they begun to recruit new civil servants. In the next few years, a large number of township cadres in leadership and ordinary positions will retire, so the newly admitted civil servants will have a great chance of being promoted to township deputy positions.

2. If you think you are very good, have a strong test score, and have a suitable major, it is recommended that you apply for civil service positions in the following units in the county: the two offices, the Commission for Discipline Inspection (Inspection Office), the Organization Department, the Development and Reform Commission, etc. These units are visible to the leaders, and you will directly serve the county-level leaders, which is the main line of promotion. Promotion in these units will be relatively fast, and even if you are transferred, you should always stay in the main line units.

@伊丽莎白的鸭: What is the difference between the work content and nature of the public service system and the civil service system?

Yang Hua:There is no difference between what civil servants and public servants do at the grassroots level, but the main difference is the treatment, including economic and political treatment. Civil servants are the highest-ranking group in the grassroots system, with a high political status. Economically, their wages, treatment, and benefits are generally higher than those of public servants at the same level (rank). In theory, they can continue to be promoted. However, public servants lack political room for promotion. In the county, they can be promoted to deputy section chief at most, but the number of positions is very small. In the same unit, doing the same thing, such as going to the countryside, civil servants get car allowances, but public servants do not. Civil servants can serve as middle-level cadres, deputy section-level cadres, and section-level cadres, but public servants are strictly prohibited from serving as middle-level cadres. Even if they do corresponding things, they can only be called the person in charge, not the director.

Therefore, the transition from a career-based civil servant to a public servant is a change of status, which is very significant; if one is promoted to deputy section-level cadre, then both the status and the promotion are changed, which is considered a great honor. Such opportunities are rare, but counties and towns across the country have opened up. This is a good thing, and it should be institutionalized and standardized, which will be a good incentive for career-based civil servants.

"County Governance in a Great Country", author: Yang Hua, publisher: Oriental Publishing House, publication date: August 2024