Chinese graduates are riding out Britain’s job crunch by running errands for other expats. Some are earning a small fortune
Mark Lin had always dreamed of a career in the arts. As he finished his fine arts degree at a top London university in 2020, he began applying for dozens of roles at galleries, agencies and dealers across the capital.
But the British economy was still reeling after months of pandemic lockdowns, and Lin hit a brick wall. After weeks of effort, he had an inbox full of rejection emails but not a single callback – and he was rapidly running out of money.
That is when Lin decided to take a leap of faith: if no one would give him a job, he would create one for himself.
Lin, then 25, began posting on Chinese-language social platforms, offering to run errands for other Chinese residents in the United Kingdom – airport pickups, Ikea assembly jobs, or anything else that would earn him a bit of cash.
