Overseas study no longer paying off

who invested in an overseas education are having to lower their salary expectations once they return home to Shanghai.For as a growing number of Chinese study abroad and employers place more value in relevant work experience,returnees say their foreign experience is not being taken into account.A survey of more than on 2,100 returned overseas Chinese commissioned by the British Council found that most expected a salary ranging from 3,000 yuan (US$455) to 8,000 yuan a month. Of these, 42 percent people anticipated a starting salary of 3,000 yuan to 5,000 yuan. And 27 percent expected between 5,000 yuan and 8,000 yuan.

In comparison, the average monthly salary for domestic college graduates stood at 2,321 yuan last year.However, many employers say they would only offer overseas graduates the same salary as their domestic peers, because companies now put much more emphasis on relevant working experience.Employers give no preferential treatment to us, 'the returnees,' said Roger Yang, a postgraduate of Durham University in Britain.He was among the 400 people attending a job recruitment fair launched by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Consulate-General yesterday.Yang's family spent around 200,000 yuan on his education in Britain but he doesn't believe this has given him an edge in the job market.Firms treat us just like ordinary job seekers, he said.Grace Fang, a human resources worker at KPMG, said:We value job seeker's real abilities.Some 229,300 Chinese studied abroad in 2009, compared with 39,000 in 2000.