Lien openly admits that when he was interviewing to work at Midea Group that he had his own preconceptions about what it would be like. “At first, I imagined I would be working in a factory, but I visited HQ and realized it was modern office with lots of facilities.”

“But what really excited me was that the company wanted to help me to develop my skills and improve myself. I was asked to help update the HR system, which let me experience an area of work I’d not explored before, and I was put in charge of the weekly culture talks, where we discussed topical issues together and also invited colleagues to share their experiences,’ explains Lien.

One of the most important areas that Lien became involved in was campus recruitment. With Midea Group constantly expanding their business portfolio into new exciting fields such as robotics and IoT, reaching out to the next generation of global talent was more important than ever. It was an area that Midea Group had already made progress in, but with Lien onboard they were ready to take it the next level.

“Before I became involved, Midea Group was recruiting graduates through online channels, but had yet to really explore on-campus recruitment. We started to research the top ranked universities that would be the best fit for the type of graduates we were looking for and from there I reached out to their career officers,” explains Lien.

The response from the universities was overwhelmingly positive and Lien quickly built-up strong relationships. It was not long before Midea Group was heading onto campus to join career fairs and host events of their own. The students had many questions about Midea Group and made Lien realize how important it was for him to go onto campus.

“Students are often surprised to discover that Midea Group have business all over the world in all sorts of fields. They aren’t aware of the work we do in robotics and IoT or that we are working on huge projects to help build airports and football stadiums. So, it’s really important for someone like me to go in there and help them know that we have a lot of demand for all kinds of different skills.”

By going into the universities, Lien has also come to understand what is typically most important to graduates. “The students are not really fussed about what their salary is going to be. They are more interested in how we are going to help them develop their career. So, we try to focus on the training programs we deliver when graduates come into the company.”

As well as offering first-class training programs for fresh graduates, Lien also has another ace up his sleeves that not many companies recruiting on campus has.

“The Midea brand is sponsoring Manchester City, which gives us a unique opportunity to reach out to students with tickets and prizes. We are able to encourage students to sign up to events and activities by offering them a chance to win a lucky draw. Everyone knows Manchester City so having that association gives us a stronger presence.”

As Midea Group grows, Lien can see campus recruitment only becoming more and more important. “Global expansion is important to our businesses and we need the kind of people with international skills, cultural skills, language skills, and those soft skills that can be hard to define but are so critical.”

In the meanwhile, Lien will continue to do what he does best. “It’s my job to introduce foreign cultures to Chinese people and to introduce Chinese culture to foreign people. My role is building bridges between all those groups and during my time here it has led me to visiting our colleagues all over the world including Thailand, Egypt, Germany, Italy, and UAE.”

Lien pauses for a moment as if reminded of all the places he visited and the people he met. He smiles and says as if almost speaking to himself, “Yeah, working at Midea is alright, isn’t it?”