To be honest, I had been invited by quite a few headhunters to apply for this program, but I never responded to any of them. I treated those messages as spam and just deleted them. However, when I received the invitation from Xin Li, I noticed that her wording made me feel very comfortable—it was polite, professional, and genuine. And to be frank, I am someone who is genuinely interested in collaborating with overseas enterprises and institutions; I'm always open to exploring various opportunities. So I decided to reply to her.
I remember it very clearly—because of the time difference, we had our video call at 11 PM Beijing time. Yes, even though that was well past her regular working hours, she stayed online from home just to accommodate my schedule. That left a strong impression on me and made me feel that she is a truly dedicated and responsible headhunter.
After she walked me through the background and details of the program, I didn't set my expectations too high. As a foreigner, I knew almost nothing about China's talent evaluation system, and I always thought that national-level programs like this were far beyond my reach. But Xin Li's introduction gradually made me realize that this might be an opportunity worth taking seriously. She didn't overpromise or exaggerate anything; instead, she gave me a very objective assessment of how my background matched the program's requirements, and she was upfront about how competitive the selection process would be. Her down-to-earth and honest approach actually encouraged me to give it a try.
The document preparation phase was, frankly, quite tedious. There were so many supporting documents to gather, and I kept putting it off for a long time. Even though Xin Li had many other candidates to follow up with, she never got tired of checking in on my progress. Because of my own work commitments, it took me nearly three months to finally compile and send her the complete set of materials.
After submission, came the long wait. I tried to keep a calm and level-headed attitude about it, because I knew the acceptance rate wouldn't be very high. But I also told myself—if I take this step, there is a chance; if I don't, that chance will always be zero.
Throughout the entire cycle, Xin Li stayed in touch consistently. Even when there was no substantial progress to report, she would send me brief updates from time to time, just to let me know that things were still moving forward. That meant a lot to me—just knowing that someone was keeping track of my case gave me a great deal of reassurance.
Right now, I'm still waiting for the final news. Of course, being selected would be the best outcome, but even if it doesn't work out, this experience has already given me a much deeper understanding of China's research environment and talent recruitment mechanisms, which I believe will still be valuable for any future cooperation down the road.