Civil servants who leave their jobs are being welcomed in private sector

Yang Xingqiao decided to commemorate 10 years of being a public servant in a unique way－quit public service and join an internet giant as director of government affairs.

It was not a desperate choice, and Yang did not blame the anti-corruption campaign, underpayment or the slim hope of promotion.

"I was very happy with a government position, but I'd love to explore something new, somewhere else, and find a better me for the next 10 years," Yang said.

The career transition went smoother than expected. It turns out that private employers are eager to take on ex-public servants.

Yang was one of 12,000 civil servants who quit their jobs in 2015.

After years of offering secure lifelong jobs known as "iron rice bowls", China's civil service is losing some of its recruits, if not facing an actual brain drain.

Many blame rising public criticism of civil servants and a widening pay gap with the private sector.

According to a report by LinkedIn.cn, the Chinese language portal of the professional networking site, civil servants have stopped treating government jobs as a lifelong career.

"Driven by social and economic reform, as well as the movement toward entrepreneurship and innovation in China, more promising job vacancies are popping up from mature private firms and multinationals," the report said.

"China's recruitment and promotion procedures for civil servants have become more meritocratic. Now civil servants are a well-educated group of people with diverse backgrounds instead of plodding, inflexible ones," the report said.

"Companies hope to improve their government relations and better understand and follow China's policies and regulations by recruiting more of China's civil servants," it said.

One human resources staff member with a foreign-invested enterprise who wished to remain anonymous said an employee with experience in government can help a company take root in the Chinese market and better compete with local counterparts.

"We have paid much more attention to government affairs that have a direct effect on market entry, product registration and bidding," said the staff member. "For example, we are facing much more competition from innovative local players than before. Unhealthy government relations would put us in an adverse situation."

Wang Yixin, a senior consultant at human resources website Zhaopin, said most people working in the public sector have a skill set that is transferable and have a lot in common with their private-sector counterparts.