Chapter 476: Talent Placement

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Hou Jinli was just one example.

There were many people that had the same experience as him, and they stood downstairs at the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study while holding the same dreams.

Tens of thousands of resumes were screened, and there were less than a thousand that received invitations to come for the interviews.

And only one-fifth of the people could pass the interview.

Regardless, everyone here had an equal opportunity.

It was up to them to grasp that opportunity.

Of course, other than formal researchers, there were also positions like assistant researchers, associate researchers, etc., waiting for them.

Even though the compensations from these positions weren’t as attractive as that of a formal researcher, most people were willing to work here regardless of the role.

There was only one reason why.

Because this was a Nobel Prize winner’s laboratory; if they were to put in the same amount of effort in their scientific research here, there would be more opportunities here than any other research institutes in China…

…

Yang Xu was the recruitment gatekeeper.

Lu Zhou was confident in Yang Xu’s abilities; therefore, he left this matter to him. He only briefly reviewed resumes that weren’t in the field of materials science, such as physics and mathematics.

These people were treated differently than those applying to the material science research institute. For researchers in the fields of mathematics and physics, Lu Zhou asked them to attach a research project application.

If they passed their interviews, the corresponding research project application would be considered as a thesis proposal. After being hired, their thesis proposal would also be accepted.

After they wrote their conclusion report, they would graduate from the internship.

Therefore, compared to the resume, Lu Zhou paid more attention to the research project applications.

He could extract many things from the thesis proposal that he wouldn’t be able to extract from a normal resume, such as the applicant’s experience in applying for research funding, etc…

While the Institute of Computational Materials was hiring 200 people, the yet to be established physics research institute and mathematics research institute would only hire around 20 people each.

Rome wasn’t built in a day; the same applied to the Institute for Advanced Study. Cultivating talents couldn’t be done overnight, and rapid expansion wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

Even though Lu Zhou had a rough idea of how to copy Princeton, he was still in the process of figuring out the specifics.

He hoped that in the midst of this trial and error process, he could find an ideal way to build his research institute.

This wasn’t an easy task, but it was worth a shot.

After three days of interviews and screening, the list of formal researchers was finalized.

Surprisingly, other than the 200 formal researchers, there were more than 500 PhDs that were willing to stay as research assistants.

After the expansion, the Institute of Computational Materials had transformed from a small 20 formal researcher institute to one of the largest materials science research institutes in the country.

Of course, this was only judging by the number of staff and equipment; it wasn’t by the number of theses or research results produced.

With the talents and equipment in place, as long as the Nobel Prize winner led the team, excelling in the latter two was only a matter of time.

However, that was the future. Now that the people were hired, the placements of talents became another problem.

The city council at Jinling paid great attention to the construction of the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Even though they didn’t send any direct payments, they basically gave the Institute for Advanced Study a free piece of land for the accommodation of their employees. The land was next to the major university; it was in a high-tech industrial developmental zone.

However, the new piece of land had just finished their apartment bidding, and it would take at least a year before the apartments could be handed over to the institute.

On the side of the Institute for Advanced Study, starting from January, the PhDs that passed their interviews would have to come over and start their new job.

“Just rent a place for the time being,” Lu Zhou said. He was at a conference when he talked about this problem. He thought for a bit and said, “Until the construction for the employee accommodation is completed, formal researchers will be issued a 2,000 yuan monthly renting subsidy. This should solve the housing problem.”

The average rent of houses near the university was around 3,000 yuan per month, so a 2,000 yuan housing subsidy was quite generous. As for the assistant researchers and other positions, they would receive around 1,000 yuan per month of housing subsidy.

However, in this case, the Institute for Advanced Study would have to spend more than a million yuan a month just on housing subsidies.

Yang Xu shook his head and said, “Making all of them rent outside is a hassle. It’s difficult to manage and the housing market isn’t good near the university. If they find a place far away, transport will be a problem.”

Lu Zhou: “Do you have a better plan?”

Yang Xu smiled mischievously and said, “I do have a plan… But it depends on you.”

Lu Zhou: “Depends on me?”

Yang Xu looked away and said, “I think the faculty accommodation at Jin Ling University has been built…”

Lu Zhou: “…”

He immediately knew what Yang Xu was thinking.

Obviously, Lu Zhou had to ask for this favor in person…

…

The next day, Lu Zhou visited Principal Xu at his office at Jin Ling University. While chatting, they happened to talk about the few problems the Institute for Advanced Study was facing.

Lu Zhou was hesitant about whether or not he should ask, and he didn’t know how to phrase it. However, Principal Xu was one step ahead of him.

He smiled as he said, “That’s easy. Since the faculty accommodation at Jin Ling University has just been built, it’s still empty. If you need, I can lend you two buildings.”

Lu Zhou: “This… isn’t appropriate, right?”

“Nothing is inappropriate.” Principal Xu smiled and said, “You guys are working on an important national project as well as an important city council project. Not to mention, you guys have also helped us quite a bit before, so lending you two apartment buildings is no big deal.”

Even the chemistry department laboratory building was lent out for two years, so lending them the two staff apartment buildings really was nothing.

Furthermore, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study had a close connection with Jin Ling University, and they had been cooperating on scientific research projects.

And more than that, the real reason Principal Xu didn’t hesitate before making this decision was because of the one billion USD scientific research engineering project.

What did one billion USD mean?

That meant almost seven billion yuan.

Forget about Jin Ling University; even the highest funded university in China, Shuimu University, only had annual funding of 5.79 billion yuan 1.

Other laboratories could take on research projects for Lu Zhou, thus taking a piece of the billion dollar fund.

With the strength of the physics department at Jin Ling University, they would be able to take on many research projects.

In contrast, they only had to temporarily lend out two staff apartment buildings.

It wouldn’t be a big deal even if they never take back the buildings.

Lu Zhou saw how clear-cut Principal Xu’s answer was, so he didn’t try and decline.

After pausing for a moment, Principal Xu said with a smile, “Oh yeah, since you’re here, I want to ask you for a favor.”

Lu Zhou said, “What?”

Principal Xu smiled and said, “The Jinling University’s Annual Person Award Ceremony will be held in a week!”

Most of the good universities had their version of the Annual Person Award where the selected ones were all geniuses among geniuses. It was quite a prestigious award. The Annual Person Award Ceremony was one of the major university events.

In principle, one person could only win this award once. However, Lu Zhou remembered that he seemed to have won it twice; once for his undergrad, and once for his master’s.

Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly and coughed. He then said, “It’s been so long since I graduated, you’re not going to give me a prize, right?”

Principal Xu smiled and said, “You’ve already won the Fields Medal and Nobel Prize, and you’re still concerned about our little prize?! We’re not giving you a prize, I just want to ask if you have the time to give the young students at Jin Ling University a medal or something.”

Oh, I’m supposed to give out prizes…

There were too many people calling him that tried to give him awards, so the thought of receiving another prize almost activated Lu Zhou’s conditioned response of rejecting the prize.

“Not concerned, just used to it.” Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly and said, “Okay then, just let me know when the time comes.”

Principal Xu nodded and said, “Okay, thanks in advance!”

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