“I sent out more than a hundred applications and got maybe 20 or so callbacks. Zero offers,” Carmen Chen, an American student who graduated from Tsinghua University said. “I thought I was ready. But reality hit me way harder than I had imagined.” Chen had wanted badly to stay on in China with her friends and connections after four years of undergraduate studies. As the Chinese economy slows, Chen had underestimated how hard it would be to find work.

Prof. Fan Hong specializes in city branding, national-image study, place branding, corporate communications and international communications

Whether you're trying to land an internship or your first job – or if you've just been laid off in our era of media upheaval – it's...