Foreign Trade Insights: Career Dynamics and Collaboration Opportunities

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Unlocking Career Pathways: Exploring the Dynamics of Foreign Trade business and Opportunities for Collaboration

There is a question on CHINA-Zhihu:
Can I become a foreign trade salesperson just after graduation? 
What are the prospects of a foreign trade salesperson?
 
A foreign trade practitioner answered this question:
”If fresh graduates have relatively high academic qualifications and school starting points, and there are other relatively good choices, be cautious about entering the foreign trade industry.
The reason is that the ideal foreign trade industry seems to be high-end, with high income, and you can even be your boss, but the reality is very different from the ideal.”
 
Then, he gave an example:
 
“A new foreign trade newcomer who graduated from a 985 college majoring in international trade in 2020 and has just been working in foreign trade for half a year has only had one order in the past six months, and there are still a few more customers pending on transaction.
 
Now she is very anxious and confused, and she is planning to change jobs after the year. She doesn’t have a product direction yet, but she is determined to do foreign trade, and she plans to start my own company in the future.
 
She was able to place an order in half a year just after graduation, and she was able to explore it all on her own. Compared with other newcomers to foreign trade, she was already very good.
But I know in my heart that this little business is better than nothing. The most valuable thing is gaining experience and confidence.
 
I was so moved by her persistence in her profession and her enthusiasm for the foreign trade industry that I couldn’t bear to continue to persuade her to quit.
 
I suggested that she should seriously consider her career plan. If she is determined to do foreign trade, she should try to work in a big company.
There are risks in foreign trade, so you need to be cautious when entering the industry. “
 
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This answer is quite interesting. I think he only emphasized the pessimistic side and did not express the optimistic side.
 

The foreign trade industry in reality:

1. About the starting point is very low.
Basis:  to do foreign trade, you only need to know some English, but you don’t have to be very good.
Non-international trade majors can master the basic knowledge and processes required for foreign trade work in about half a year of hard work.
T said: Indeed, more and more tools have weakened the salesperson’s personal language skills.
  • Google pages have an automatic translation function.
  • We Chat has an automatic translation function.
  • TESS GIFT voice smart mouse and smart voice recorder can realize mutual translation in 115 languages, basically solving the problems of language listening, speaking, reading, and writing in foreign trade.
From this point of view, even a person with basic English proficiency can have no problem communicating with foreigners as long as he uses tools.
However, no matter how powerful the tool is, it is only an auxiliary tool and not the personal ability of the salesperson.
Senior salespeople are not only selling products but more importantly, selling their values, thereby establishing a solid business-based alliance with customers.
These things cannot be achieved with simple language auxiliary tools.
 Tools can help you realize shallow-level communication between people, but deep-level communication requires individuals to have a deeper mastery of the language.
 Therefore, tools are just tools and cannot replace people.
 You can observe that salespeople with high performance and good relationships with customers have good foreign language skills.
 
2. The income limit is not that high.
Basis: The career’s peak will be reached after working for 5-10 years. There are very few people who make millions of RMB a year, and most people still earn a salary of hundreds of thousands of RMB after working for many years.
T said: There is a career’s peak in any industry, and people with an annual salary of one million in any industry are rare.
 On the contrary, foreign trade workers can earn a salary of hundreds of thousands in 5 to 10 years, which is better than those employed in most industries. Because the annual salary of many positions is less than 100,000 RMB.
3. Foreign trade competition is becoming more and more fierce, and involution is very serious. If you are not careful, you will be eliminated.
Basis: In recent years, information barriers have been gradually broken down, it has become increasingly difficult to develop new customers, old customers have continued to lose, and overall profit margins have declined. As a result, small trading companies have struggled to survive, and some companies have been eliminated.
 At present, the trend of foreign trade business being concentrated in large companies is becoming more and more obvious.
T said: The breakdown of information barriers will indeed make it more and more difficult to develop new customers.
However, this means that the foreign trade industry has increasingly higher requirements for salespersons.
If you want to have a place in foreign trade, you must constantly improve your business level and personal qualities. 
This is a good thing for the entire industry, and it is also a good thing for improving individuals.
 When there is competition, there will be pressure, when there is pressure, there will be motivation, and when there is motivation, society will continue to develop.
 The undeniable reality is that the overall quality and professional level of today’s foreign trade business is much higher than that of salesmen ten years ago.
 
4. Income/effort will become increasingly unequal.
Basis: In the first few years of foreign trade work, as experience and customers are accumulated, income will gradually increase. This easily gives many newcomers to foreign trade the illusion that income will continue to grow. The reality is that you can only maintain your business and income if you can ensure continued efforts.
T said: This problem is similar to career bottlenecks. People must break through their bottlenecks to achieve further improvement.
This does not mean that only foreign trade salesmen will encounter this situation, people in other industries will also encounter it.
5. Marginal utility from rising income weakens.
Basis: Even if income is increasing, the marginal utility that income brings to people will gradually weaken. As age and income increase, we have to admit that many people consider things such as social status and identity, which simple income cannot give.
T said: This is a psychological problem that also exists among people in various industries. People are greedy and dissatisfied. This is human nature. 
 
6. Starting a company and being the boss is not as beautiful as imagined.
Basis: The entry threshold for foreign trade companies is low. Almost everyone can start a company after working for a few years and having certain experience and resources, resulting in an overwhelming number of small foreign trade companies.
Compared with larger companies, small foreign trade companies have fewer disposable resources, poor competitiveness, and poor risk resistance. As competition in the industry becomes increasingly fierce, it is still unknown how many years the company can survive.
 Moreover, the foreign trade industry has long processes and many links, and you will face various unexpected risks in daily operations. Once the business is in danger, you may lose everything. There will always be a kind of trepidation and a mentality of walking on thin ice.
T said: It is not easy to start a business in any industry, not just the foreign trade industry.
 
Small companies have their weaknesses, but they also have their strengths.
 
For example, in the year of masks, due to COVID-19, the products of some large companies could not be sold, and many factories closed in the first half of the year.
 However, some small and medium-sized foreign trade companies can survive because it is easy for them to make a U-turn. This product is not easy to sell, so they can just change it. Factories are asset-heavy enterprises, and it is not easy for them to turn around.
 
Regardless of whether you are a person or a company, as long as you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, use your strengths and avoid weaknesses, and maximize your strengths, you can succeed, find opportunities in the fierce social competition, and finally have your place.
In “Forrest Gump”, Forrest Gump is a mentally retarded child whose intelligence is lower than that of ordinary people. 
Most schools do not accept such students, but he can become a successful person in society when he becomes an adult, just like her mother before she died. What he said to him:
 “You took the talents God gave you to the fullest.”
7. General anxiety
Basis: The environment is unstable and uncontrollable, due to high competitive pressure, unstable customers, unstable performance, and unstable income. 
Risks are uncontrollable and unforeseen losses are inevitable.
T said: Anxiety is now a common problem in all walks of life. Its root cause is high competitive pressure and uncertainty about the future.
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Finally, we return to the case mentioned at the beginning of the article.
 In today’s fiercely competitive environment, many newly hired foreign trade salespeople only take a year to place orders.
 This recent graduate of 985 International Trade major was able to place an order within half a year, and there are still orders to be completed, which fully shows that she has done a good job.
 At the same time, it proves the importance of personal ability and personal quality in work. (Graduates from 985 schools are generally more capable than graduates from ordinary universities. This is an undoubted fact)
 If this salesperson who graduated from a 985 college has only worked in the foreign trade industry for half a year, she will feel that this industry has no future. All I can say is that you can try another industry. After half a year, you will find that it is almost the same as doing foreign trade.
 Because in any industry, it is impossible to skyrocket after just half a year.
 It is right to want to succeed, but please see the nature of success and the conditions required. 
Again,  work deeply with the industry for five years before discussing whether this industry has a future, please!
 
 Let’s encourage everyone!

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