When only a few days of military training were left, the recruitment for the Student Union of the School of Business Administration officially began.
During the lunch break, Chen Pingjiang received a call from Zhai Fei, the deputy head of the School Student Union's Public Relations Department, who asked him to come over to go through the motions.
You can always trust our Comrade Xiao Chen's ability to network.
He had been busy with various social engagements during the military training, from his class to his instructors, and also with the heads of several departments in the Student Union.
Don't think of the Student Union as such a grand place, especially the school's Student Union.
Everyone is from the School of Business Administration; they are all classmates, even from the same class.
Basically, knowing one person means knowing a whole string of people.
Even before the Student Union started recruiting, Chen Pingjiang was already on excellent terms with several deputy heads from the Disciplinary Department, Public Relations Department, Arts Department, and Publicity Department, making them all his defeated opponents at drinking tables.
Several departments also extended olive branches to Chen Pingjiang, but he personally preferred the Public Relations Department.
The Disciplinary Department had its advantages, it could check dorms for showing off; the Arts Department and Publicity Department could help him meet more girls, but the Public Relations Department was most suitable for Chen Pingjiang and the easiest to achieve results in.
In a word, the Public Relations Department is about raising sponsorships; it's the God of Wealth's money bag.
If the school's Student Union wants to host an evening party, or if other departments want to organize an event, they all need money.
Where does the money come from?
Beg for donations from various shops.
So, if a certain officer in the Public Relations Department can secure a large amount of sponsorship by themselves, they are truly a "god-tier" existence, equivalent in status to a super sales champion in a company.
A regular salesperson in a company can probably chat and joke with their superiors, a senior salesperson can be like brothers with the boss, but if you're a super sales champion, you can shit on the boss's head, and the boss will still praise your good digestion.
In later years, a certain educational institution that transformed into a live-streaming sales company saw its CEO try to fire his super sales champion.
The next day, the company's stock price plummeted by a quarter, wiping out tens of billions in market value, and he himself was eventually sacked.
The big boss even had to swallow his pride and beg the sales champion to come back.
When Chen Pingjiang arrived at the teaching building, there were many freshmen lined up outside, all wearing military training uniforms, though some cunning ones wore casual clothes.
Among them were also Chen Pingjiang's classmates; upon seeing Chen Pingjiang, one girl looked particularly surprised.
Although they had only known each other for about ten days, Chen Pingjiang was considered a prominent figure in his class.
He had high prestige among the boys, who mostly listened to him, and he was also very familiar with the instructors.
Now, their instructor occasionally asked Chen Pingjiang to lead the class and shout slogans when they went to the restroom.
After waiting for a while, it was Chen Pingjiang's turn to enter the classroom.
In the first row sat three men and one woman: Department Head Cui Yuqi, and three deputy heads, Zhai Fei, Sang Xuegao, and Sui Yuan.
They were all uniformly dressed in black suits, looking quite professional.
Zhai Fei and Sang Xuegao had both interacted and dined with Chen Pingjiang before, and they were also his classmates.
Department Head Cui Yuqi was a junior student, and as for Sui Yuan, according to Zhai Fei, she was a "power-obsessed official-wannabe" with a strong desire for power.
Whether Zhai Fei was naturally like this or had just mingled too much with bosses in society, he exuded a slick demeanor.
When he saw Chen Pingjiang enter the classroom, he even gave an ambiguous wink.
Student Union interviews typically consist of two rounds.
The first round aims to screen a large number of applicants, and the second round is mostly a formality; as long as the performance isn't too bad, candidates generally won't be eliminated.
The first round of interviews was divided into two parts: self-introduction and answering questions.
Such questions included:
"How do you view the Student Union?",
"How much do you know about the Public Relations Department?",
"Talk about your strengths."
Chen Pingjiang answered with ease, neither being high-profile nor low-profile.
Finally, it was Sui Yuan's turn to ask questions.
After glancing at Chen Pingjiang's resume, she asked,
"What do you think your shortcomings are?"
"My shortcoming is that I tend to overthink things; if I can't complete a task for work or study, I genuinely can't eat or sleep,"
Chen Pingjiang replied with a "shortcoming" that wasn't really a shortcoming.
A typical interview would usually end here; it was just a formality, not a real company interview.
Unexpectedly, after hearing Chen Pingjiang's answer, Sui Yuan's expression darkened, and she said in an unfriendly tone,
"Classmate, the question asked you to summarize your shortcomings, not to praise yourself. If you haven't summarized your own shortcomings, it shows you don't understand yourself."
Chen Pingjiang frowned upon hearing this.
It was no wonder Zhai Fei called her a "power-obsessed official-wannabe" with a strong desire for power.
In a small Student Union interview, she was putting on airs, maintaining a poker face, speaking in an affected manner, and completely scrutinizing Chen Pingjiang with the posture of a superior.
Zhai Fei's face next to him changed.
Just two days ago, he had confidently guaranteed that the interview was just a formality.
Now, anyone who wasn't blind could see that Sui Yuan was deliberately making things difficult, which made him lose face.
Chen Pingjiang was not someone easy to deal with either:
"My answer is based on my self-understanding. If you don't know me, how would you know that I haven't summarized my shortcomings?"
Sui Yuan was accustomed to putting on airs and maintaining a certain posture when holding meetings with her subordinates.
Suddenly encountering a freshman who dared to talk back, her expression immediately changed.
Cui Yuqi, sitting in the middle of the group, was stunned.
He was naturally a soft-spoken, peace-making "nice guy" type.
Sui Yuan often spoke sharply to him, and he also found Sui Yuan's habit of setting rules for freshmen troublesome.
But he hadn't expected Chen Pingjiang to completely lose his temper and talk back directly to Sui Yuan.
For a moment, the classroom became quiet.
If Chen Pingjiang had the same perspective and understanding as other freshmen, he probably wouldn't have dared to retort.
Having lived once more, he knew too well what these damned Student Union deputy heads and heads amounted to—nothing if you pissed him off.
This wasn't Chen Pingjiang showing off; the Student Union itself had a lot of work.
Freshmen basically came in as free labor, euphemistically called "exercising abilities," but in reality?
Most deputy head positions weren't about who was more capable, but who could endure the most.
As long as you could endure more than other officers and participated in more activities, you could generally get elected smoothly.
Outside the campus gates, what Student Union president or head? Nothing.
Did you think you were the Student Union of a C9 university?
Years later, one might even find it childish in retrospect.
The worse the school, the more arrogant the Student Union, the greater the addiction to power, and the more power-obsessed individuals there were.
Zhai Fei and Sang Xuegao, enjoying the drama, covertly gave Chen Pingjiang a thumbs-up while suppressing their laughter.
Sui Yuan, however, couldn't back down for a while, as she had never encountered such a defiant freshman.
Good old Cui Yuqi stepped in to mediate:
"Uh, well... thank you, Chen Pingjiang. If you pass the preliminary interview, we will send you a message."
Chen Pingjiang nodded, walked out of the classroom, and saw several heads lined up, eavesdropping.
The eyes of those people looking at Chen Pingjiang were full of admiration.
They thought, "He talked back to a sophomore senior, how cool!"
Sui Yuan's voice came from inside the classroom:
"I don't agree with this person. How can we carry out work by recruiting a freshman who is so undisciplined?"
(End of Chapter)
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