Sporting in chic satins, formal suits or casual T-shirts, 135 university graduates gathered at a reception in Lakeview Hotel in Beijing, Saturday afternoon.

As pop music played, the new graduates chatted freely and fervently, showing no signs of awkwardness or shyness, though most of them met each other for the first time.

They were at “Small World, A Party” abbreviated as SWAP, held by the Commercial Association of Young Elite (CAYE), a nonprofit and nongovernment organization initiated by a group of young men in 2009.

Except for a few who will continue to study in the U.S. or Britain, most participants at the party received offers from big companies with high salaries.

Over 100 university graduates gathered in Lakeview Hotel in Beijing. [Courtesy of CAYE]

"I received an offer from Unilever China, and my salary would reach 9,500 yuan (US$1,468) a month, almost the highest among the graduates in our school," said Lei Ting, a young woman from the Beijing University of Chemical Technology.

But her salary might not be the highest among SWAP participants. "We have some CAYE members whose highest salaries can roughly reach 600,000 yuan to 1 million yuan a year," Gao Maoxiang, one of the founders of CAYE, said. Most of them are working for investment banks or starting their own businesses.

"The participants we chose for today's SWAP are those active in social life and graduated with good job offers."

They graduated from China's prestigious universities--including, Tsinghua, Peking, Renmin and Beijing Foreign Studies-- and are employed by a number of world-renowned companies, such as, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and KPMG. Most are 22 or 23 years old.

"I'll work hard in the marketing sector and hope to be a brand manager in the future," said Lei, a young woman from China's southwestern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. She decided several years ago to put down her roots in Beijing. "I started to send my resume out for internship when I was a sophomore. When I received no replies, I would go to the companies and recommended myself." She was rebuffed once by SIEMENS, but that neither dampened her enthusiasm nor changed her resolution. During her four years on campus, she interned with five companies, including, Johnson & Johnson, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Nestle.

Lei is no exception among the graduates. Zhang Wei, a graduate from Renmin, said: "I got used to making my own decision when I was young and my parents seldom stopped me from doing what I like. Nor would they persuade me to do what I dislike." She is employed by a private financial institution.

Wearing a decorative brown hat on her thick hair, Zhang looked fashionable and cute. Despite her look, she is strong and decisive. "The learning curve in our company is precipitous, but I enjoy the challenges. I can attend important meetings as a junior and negotiate with the CFO of the other companies."

"The experience of working in this company is tremendously precious," she said. "I can learn a variety of things, like accounting and legal consultation, and follow the decision makers' logic." Unlike some of her peers, she said she knew what she wanted since entering college.

The graduates speak fluent English and command financial knowledge, which are advantages in the highly competitive job markets such as Beijing.

"I think students' majors decide a lot in the job market," said Poplar Yang, a teacher of politics in the Communication University of China (CUC). "Equally talented students who learned more theoretically could not find decent jobs in Beijing."

Li Fang, a CUC student who recently earned her master's degree, said, "I'm a postgraduate in political communication and tried to find a job relevant to my major but failed many times." Li sent out many resumes and took many exams, but the job results were always disappointing. She once refused an offer that promised to pay about 3,000 yuan a month. She said that was too meager to live in Beijing, where it costs her 1,000 yuan to rent a small apartment. "But now I am more flexible," she said. "I will consider each offer more carefully and even knock on the doors of employers to recommend myself."