# Life of a 985 Graduate Working at a Large State-Owned Enterprise in Beijing

I previously managed a 985 graduate who went to work at the grassroots level. After 5 years of work, she has Beijing hukou (household registration). I'm quite familiar with how people like her live.

She's an only child from a small county in southern China, graduated from a 985 university in Beijing, and joined a subsidiary of a large state-owned enterprise right after graduation.

She rented a one-bedroom apartment about 40 minutes by subway from her workplace—not in a subway-adjacent area, the kind where you need to bike/share-scooter for a bit to reach the subway station.

Monthly rent is 4,000 yuan. The apartment looks run-down on the outside, but she keeps the interior very clean. The landlord requires annual leases and adjusts rent accordingly (raises it), charging another agency fee with each renewal—totaling roughly 50,000 yuan annually for rent.

Beijing rents should have dropped by now, but incomes have also taken a hit.

Her parents in the small county can't provide a down payment. There's a self-occupied property back home, and even selling everything and combining savings, they can only scrape together 500,000 yuan. She has to save for a down payment herself. Young people dating also consider financial conditions.

Living alone without cooking, she spends around 3,000 yuan monthly on food delivery, socializing, commuting, phone bills, internet, and utilities—40,000 annually. She doesn't care much about fashion, usually wearing discounted Uniqlo, but loves gaming and travel. Her words: "This is all the fun life offers," yet these modest indulgences still cost 20,000 yuan yearly.

After tallying everything, there's little left over. She jokes that the purpose of working is to pay the landlord. There are plenty of her peers in the same situation.

Age 35 employment discrimination should ease up somewhat—because by then there's no industry left to save.