典当行业蓬勃发展 当铺招聘成难题

A 10 thousand yuan salary plus performance-related pay. As the industry continues to develop, many pawnshops hope to attract qualified evaluators with high incomes such as this.

However, Yang Jingkun, assistant manager of Huaxia Pawnshop says they still have difficulty in recruiting talented evaluators.

"The development mechanism for a modern pawnshop is to have its own brand and its own franchises. Insufficient talent has always been a problem. Currently we have 20 to 30 vacancies. Considering that our company is about to open more franchises this year, the staff shortage may be as high as 50."

Some insiders point out that the long-term nature of training staff is one of the main reasons as to why pawnshop businesses experience difficulties in recruiting staff.

Because pawnshop operations are relatively small within the Chinese market, there is no standard training and education specifically tailored towards this profession. Staff training is often provided by the pawnshop itself. It usually takes about 3 to 5 years to train a qualified pawnshop evaluator.

Chen Zhiwei graduated as a jewelry authentication major in 2005. She says she feels as if she has a lot to learn despite studying a related major.

"I only know the theoretical knowledge from books and I only get to see precious stones in the lab. As for watches, digital products, and other luxury goods, I only came to learn about these things after I came here to work."

An evaluator's opinion has a direct effect on a pawnshop's revenue. Take emeralds as an example. If the emerald price the evaluator gives is too low, customers will not do business with that particular pawnshop. But if the price given is too high, a fluctuation in the price of emeralds may lead to a loss for the pawnshop.

Chen Zhiwei says she often takes advantage of her spare time to gain more experience.

"I go to the wholesale market and retail markets to get experience after I get off work. In the evening, I also refer to my books to brush up on what I've learned."

With all her effort, Chen Zhiwei got promoted from assistant evaluator to a class one evaluator in two years. That means she's able to carry out appraisals on digital and gold products on her own.

In fact, there is no standardized classification for evaluators in the pawnshop industry. In the pawnshop where Chen Zhiwei works at, evaluators are classified into 5 levels.

"You are required to sit theoretical knowledge and practical experience exams to gain promotion. We are also required to write papers if we want to become class five evaluators."

Chen Zhiwei is now a class five evaluator. Her eventual goal is to become a chief evaluator. Hu Ping, chief evaluator of Huaxia Pawnshop says it may take Chen 10 years to achieve her goal.

"First, you need to have solid historical knowledge. You also need to know a lot about folk culture and the characteristics of artistic items from different ages. You can't evaluate an item if you don't have this knowledge of experience."

Hu Ping says that Huaxia Pawnshop has 16 franchises in Beijing but only their general pawnshop offers an artistic appraisal service. Hu is the only person within the company who is qualified to authenticate artistic items.

In 2011, 47 new pawnshops opened in Beijing, not including branch offices. Experts estimate that about 1,000 job vacancies are available within this field.

For CRI, I am Li Dong.