When my son started high school, I started paying attention to the gap between how Chinese university majors are described and what they actually lead to.
The problem isn’t that information is unavailable. It’s that the information exists in fragments: salary surveys in one place, career descriptions in another, hiring trends somewhere else. There’s no single place to look up a career, see the realistic salary range, understand how much AI is likely to affect it in the next decade, see which university majors actually lead there, and understand what skills are required.
So I built one.
What the Database Contains
The China Career Database covers 259 career paths reachable from a Chinese undergraduate degree. For each career:
Monthly salary range — based on public salary data for mid-career professionals in major Chinese cities. These are realistic ranges, not peak figures. A wide range indicates high variation across industries or regions; a narrow range indicates more standardized compensation.
AI disruption level — a five-tier assessment from “high disruption likely” to “AI-resistant.” This is based on the type of work involved: how much of the role involves pattern recognition versus complex judgment, how much is routine versus contextual, whether the role requires physical presence or can be done remotely. This is an assessment, not a prediction — but it gives a framework for thinking about which fields are more and less exposed.
Required skills — the technical and non-technical skills that matter for entry and advancement in the role, based on what Chinese employers actually ask for in job postings.
Which majors lead here — the undergraduate programs that most commonly produce people who enter this career. Some careers have a clear path (accounting from finance majors). Others are reachable from multiple directions (product management from engineering, economics, or design backgrounds).
The Cross-Linking
Each career page links to the major pages for the degrees that lead there. Each major page links to the career pages for the roles it commonly leads to. The database is bidirectional.
This matters because the question a high school student faces isn’t “what career do I want?” in isolation — it’s “if I choose this major, what careers does that realistically open, and what careers does it close?” The cross-linking lets you trace that path in both directions.
Why 259 Careers and Not More
I limited the database to careers reachable from standard undergraduate programs at mainstream Chinese universities. This excludes careers requiring graduate-level specialization as the primary entry path (academic research, most medical specialties), careers requiring vocational training rather than university degrees, and careers specific to niche industries without broad applicability.
The 259 included are the careers that a majority of Chinese university graduates will actually enter or could realistically enter with their degree.
An Honest Limitation
Salary data gets outdated. The figures in the database reflect mid-2025 market conditions. The AI disruption assessments are based on current technology — the landscape will shift. I’ll update the data periodically, but any snapshot has an expiration date.
Use the database as a starting point for research, not as a final answer. The structure of the information — what to compare, what questions to ask — is more durable than the specific numbers.
Built Around the Gaokao
The database is built specifically for the Chinese education context: it assumes Gaokao performance determines which universities are accessible, and that the major chosen at university significantly constrains the career options that follow. These are the real constraints that Chinese students face.
Browse all 259 career paths — salary, AI risk level, required skills, and entry degree: [China Career Database →](https://ordinarymantrying.com/tools/careers/)
Which career field do you think has the largest gap between how it’s perceived and what it actually pays in China? The data surprised me in a few places.
Free Tool
259 career paths in China — salary range, AI disruption level, required degree, and growth trajectory.
China Career Database →
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