Some of China's best known artists and directors came of age in the 1980s. Foreign diplomats were streaming into Beijing, bringing with them not only diplomacy but suitcase loads of foreign culture. Foreign music, movies, art and science filled those early Beijing back room rendezvous.  Many of China's more famous directors graduated in those years, Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige, both came of age in that time.

But for those managing businesses in China today, there was another important group from the 80s that we must familiarize ourselves with today: those who were born in the 80s. They are the twenty-somethings. They are our assistants, supervisors, and budding junior managers in our companies. Unlike the 30-somethings who went seeking the foreign work experience as being the more modern and advanced, these 20-something are more proud and confident. The Shanghai they know is state-of-the-art.

Those of them who work for us speak English fluently, have foreign friends, and some has traveled overseas.  They have been through the Chinese educational system, have never lived abroad, but yet some of them have never worked for a Chinese company.

They are young, bright, full of energy and life with the expectation that the best is yet to come. Just a few years out of school, their salaries are overshooting the 30-somethings despite their lighter experience, or sometimes because of it.

And yet as they mature, what models will they look to navigate their careers, their love life, or even their ethical choices as they blaze the trail into the New China. Not their friends, not their parents, not books on MBA, nor the slew of magazines on better skin and furniture design. No, they are doing it alone – and some are getting lost.

Profiles in Searching
Sarah is 27 years old and in her 5 years of working life, she has worked for 3 different foreign companies. Her resume is a 2-pager because she needs the space to put in her list of responsibilities for all the jobs she's held. She doesn't understand that no matter how good "I set up their accounting system" sounds, when you're at the company for only one year, you don't have a chance to see that accounting system come a full cycle.

She claims good reasons for leaving: better opportunity, dismal company, and always the better offer. Now she's applying to be the Finance Manager. When I point out that after two years in a company, she only begins to understand the problems. And that she can suggest possible solutions but she wouldn't know the outcome, not so soon. She gets angry at me for alluding that she should have stayed longer at her past jobs. "You don't understand what happened," she snaps back.

A few more interviews with similar spotty backgrounds later, I interview Stan. At 25, he speaks fluent English, and has worked for only foreign companies in his four years of working experience – both multi-nationals. And now he is interviewing for the position of a Finance Manager too. On the line for salary expectation, he wrote RMB 15,000.

 "Even if a company hired you at this salary it doesn't mean you can do the job. You'll hit a ceiling, your lack of experience will stop your career dead in its track!" Without meaning to, I blurted out, "You guys have no idea how to move your career forward."

I was only venting, but Stan's reaction surprised me. "Tell me how!" he snapped back, "tell me what to do." That's when I realize that he wants to do the right thing, he simply doesn't know what that is.

"You need a mentor, someone with more experienced in your field who will take you under his wings and teach you everything he know," I said the first thought that came to my mind.

Then it occurred to me, Stan does need a mentor. They all did. More than training, more than English lessons, this generation needs guidance and advice. But when they look to the previous generations, they find a void. For they are truly the first generation with unlimited possibilities. They are on the ground in the corporate world, navigating their careers in uncharted territories.

They are lost in another way. Up until now, the focus has been on doubling salaries and making a killing on the stock market, nowhere is there a place to discuss the ethics of conduct in business or in life.

Doing the Wrong Thing
Sunny started out as an assistant. She was good, diligent, and learned quickly. When an opening came up in the marketing department, I offered her the position. We raised her pay when the marketing manager left, and then raised it again a short time later. When a competitor offered an 80% increase, we knew it was time to say goodbye. We wished her well and threw her a party.

Upon arriving at her new job, she promptly used our confidential database to solicit clients for her new company. A friend believes she knew better, but I truly think she never gave a thought to right or wrong.

Terry illustrates this perfectly. An assistant that started without any basic secretarial skills, she went from not knowing how to keep files to setting up systems and procedures in the two years she worked at Kathleen's 5. She took these skills to a competitor and then for the next two years, she tried to recruit from Kathleen's 5. Once she actually came back to the restaurant "to say hello" while trying to convince a supervisor to make the move.

Last week I received an email from her, "I want to tell you that I've left the … company, and now I have a new job. I would like to thank you for everything you've taught me … and can you write me a reference letter?"

Kathleen Lau is the owner of Kathleen's 5 Restaurant & Events in the Shanghai Art Museum and the author of Riding the Dragon: A Practical Guide to Living in Shanghai. She is also the founder of that's Shanghai and that's Guangzhou and has been in China since 1995. See more of her writing in www.kathleens5.com. Email any comments to Kathleen@Kathleens5.com.