Choice in job market is a luxury, not sure if it's only a China thing. But most fresh grads will end up with whichever company who'd hire them in whatever role they offered.
The OP also mentioned the low retention rate, behind that, it means that for young people, they may start in a low pay job, but there will be tremendous amount of chances for new opportunities elsewhere after a few years of work experience. There will be less BS in the interviews, and ~50% of pay raise each time (sounds familiar?). After try and errs, there's a chance you'll find a fair-paying job with reasonable workload and non-toxic workspace, they call it landed (Shàng Àn 上岸), comparing to the endless Sea of Suffering(Kû Hâi 苦海).
The work culture seems bizarrely counter productive. Where is real value being generated? It’s a bit puzzling in some ways. I’m somehow assuming that the dysfunction described in the piece is way downstream from a lot of messed up communist party broken political economy and socialization stuff.
The OP also mentioned the low retention rate, behind that, it means that for young people, they may start in a low pay job, but there will be tremendous amount of chances for new opportunities elsewhere after a few years of work experience. There will be less BS in the interviews, and ~50% of pay raise each time (sounds familiar?). After try and errs, there's a chance you'll find a fair-paying job with reasonable workload and non-toxic workspace, they call it landed (Shàng Àn 上岸), comparing to the endless Sea of Suffering(Kû Hâi 苦海).
They have the hope for the future.