China bankers replaced by tech PhDs as Xi sparks new fund talent war

In the quest for talent, venture capital firms are forced to get creative

One in five Chinese youths can’t find a job. Oliver Jiang has to fight off employers with a stick. When the first-time job-seeker posted his resume on a recruitment website earlier this year, his inbox exploded and his phone buzzed non-stop. The 28-year-old doctoral grad spent the following month turning away suitors -- including one that promised him 15 months of pay a year -- before landing his dream job at a $600 million investment firm.

Jiang is one of the chosen few in China’s rapidly evolving finance sector: a PhD in electric vehicle technology. This kind of methodical researchers steeped