Recently, Xu Dandan, CEO of Lagou, stated on his social media account that employees laid off from big tech companies are demanding a 30% salary increase when looking for new jobs, saying they have been spoiled by the industry.
Xu also said that salaries in the internet industry have peaked. In the past, high salaries weren't due to strong ability, but because a large amount of capital was pouring in. Now, the industry's bubble is about to burst.
Currently, the internet industry is the top choice for young job seekers, mainly due to high salaries. A salary report released by Lagou in March 2021 showed that the average internet salary at the start of 2021 reached 15,600 yuan, leading young people to have overly high expectations for their income.
Recently, as the internet market adjusts, some young people from big tech companies have started moving to traditional industries.
This creates a serious conflict: these young people transitioning from internet companies have overly high income expectations, putting enormous pressure on ordinary employers, far exceeding what they can offer.
Therefore, young people from big internet companies need to have a rational and objective understanding of themselves. Fully knowing oneself is key to continuous development.
1
Even 985 fresh graduates and even master's students can no longer escape.
Internal transfers are the thunderclap before the storm.
First, the formal review email was withdrawn—not just for Song Qian, a 985 fresh graduate, but for all her colleagues in the innovation business team of that big tech company who were about to end their probation and become regular employees.
Even though business and projects were still advancing steadily.
But HR's notice was that due to business adjustments and layoffs, they were arranging internal transfer interviews. If you pass, you get transferred; if you fail, you're out.
A premeditated decision, at least in Song Qian's view.
This was early last December. A month earlier, HR had already stopped recruitment for the business team.
From March 2021, when she started interning in HR as a senior, to graduating from a 985 university and formally receiving an offer as a sales support, Song Qian witnessed the new business team grow from 0 to 1 in just nine months, expanding from 10 colleagues to over 200.
After slamming on the brakes, internal transfer was the last buffer and dignity left for this new team.
But in Song Qian's eyes, it was just an excuse. After all, until the last second before the interview, Song Qian didn't even know what position she was being transferred to. The business of the position she interviewed for had nothing to do with her previous work. "Our HRBP and their HRBP communicated, gave them my resume, and then arranged the position."
Song Qian felt the company's ultimate goal was to cut fresh graduates with less than half a year of work experience. "Since I don't have much work experience, and the big boss didn't want to keep me, I felt I probably wouldn't stay." But she didn't know where to look for a job either, "Because I've worked less than half a year, and I'm not in a technical role."
In mid-December, the shoe finally dropped. Song Qian was told by HR that she didn't pass the internal transfer.
Almost the entire business team was laid off. The difference was that younger colleagues with two years of experience mostly succeeded in transferring. Only Song Qian, a fresh graduate, and an older colleague in the group failed the transfer interview. Song Qian's mental defenses collapsed, and she just wanted to cry at her desk.
Reality is cruel. Even 985 fresh graduates can no longer be spared, nor master's students.
At the end of last year, Li Jianxin, a marketing management trainee at a new consumer giant, was laid off for "not producing enough for the company." This company once offered a large number of spring recruitment positions for fresh graduates. Within half a year, these young newcomers lost their jobs. "Their faces are really funny," Li Jianxin said.
Li Jianxin had a premonition. Two months earlier, she saw the first fresh graduate laid off by the company. At that time, she didn't realize this wave of layoffs would sweep the entire company, because that classmate was assigned to a relatively obscure position with no mentor, no work, and was eventually fired for "bad work attitude."
In November last year, the company began laying off core business unit colleagues. Li Jianxin finally felt the company's "plan." She felt it was unfair but also held onto luck—maybe it wouldn't be her.
Until early December, her supervisor found her and another fresh graduate in the group. The day she was notified, Li Jianxin felt relieved—after a long time of not knowing where to go, she finally got a definite answer. She even comforted her reluctant supervisor, saying it wasn't his fault but the company's.
Later, the supervisor, who had worked for 10 years, resigned directly. He had never seen such massive layoffs or fresh graduates being let go. He told Li Jianxin that the firing of the two fresh graduates was the last straw.
The workplace environment is no longer what it used to be. Chen Meng, a global career planner working at Lagou, said that in the past, fresh graduates had mentors to guide them. But now, mentors themselves are anxious and need to protect themselves. When a team's headcount needs to be reduced, newcomers with no background are the easiest to cut because it costs nothing.
In October 2021, when her supervisor notified her of the layoff, Li Rui seized the opportunity to ask if she could still participate in campus recruitment.
The answer was no. Three months earlier, after graduating with a master's degree from a 985 university, Li Rui had just joined the core department of this internet unicorn company through the 2021 campus recruitment.
It was too sudden. Li Rui was stunned. She realized that with only three months of work experience, she would have no advantage in the job market. She could only keep giving herself psychological cues: "Don't think about this. Accept the facts quickly. You must not break down inside. If you do, the road ahead will be even harder."
For Li Rui, the most important thing was to figure out what to do next. She asked her supervisor if he could refer her. He didn't refuse, telling her to revise her resume and send it to him.
Everything changed overnight. The anxiety and insecurity that once only plagued 35-year-old workers quickly spread to young newcomers. Even fresh graduates from top universities with degrees from 985 and 211 schools can be entangled by organizational restructuring, failing probation periods, and business adjustments, leaving a gap in their otherwise shining resumes.
Over a million postgraduate exam candidates who passed the national line are making their final sprint.
2.
If I get a big tech offer again,
should I take it?
"Achieve something before 35 so you can prepare for the 35-year-old layoff." After receiving a big tech offer, Yin Mengwan, a graduate student at a top 30 US university, has already planned for her "35-year-old crisis."
However, she didn't expect to have to prepare for unemployment right after graduation. Yin Mengwan joked that maybe one day, while still in school, her project department might be cut, and she'd have to find a job again. Last year, the internet industry was still talking about salary inversion for fresh graduates.
Even with an offer in hand, she couldn't help but plan: if she got laid off, what would be her fallback? She started intentionally looking on Douban for groups of past graduates looking for jobs. These groups gather students who missed campus recruitment but haven't found jobs yet, sharing experiences and companies that still consider non-fresh graduates.
Even if it only adds to anxiety. "Just in case, if a black swan event happens, or if a grain of sand from the times falls on me, I can quickly find relevant information to prepare anew," Yin Mengwan said.
Colleagues around Tan Song started hinting they were looking at new opportunities. Tan Song knew the situation was not optimistic.
In September 2021, after a three-month internship, Tan Song, a 2021 graduate from a 211 university, finally got a return offer from a big tech company but decided to study abroad instead.
At that time, the company wasn't as unpredictable. He simply wanted to improve himself, since his department never hired campus recruits and required high work ability and stress tolerance.
But around November, e-commerce hit a bottleneck. The company's Double 11 performance was not ideal, plus stocks of major companies were falling.
Colleagues who had been working for a few years would sometimes discuss with Tan Song whether they should go abroad to study. Not to mention students who got return offers after summer internships in their junior year. "Some interns might return to the company, only to find their department is gone. Where they'll end up is unknown."
In March this year, a few days before Tan Song left, his entire team was dismantled by the company. The team members went to different places. He couldn't help but wonder: if he gets a big tech offer again, should he take it?
His nearly one year of work experience at a big internet company didn't feel good. "Especially in e-commerce. It's clearly hard to produce something meaningful. A lot of work seemed pointless."
Tan Song didn't know if his choice to study abroad was correct, but he decided to stay away from the internet for a while. At least he could think about the industry from an external perspective and reflect on himself. He only hoped that his improvement abroad in one year could outpace the domestic rat race and headcount reduction.
Yu Zhouzhou, a 2022 master's graduate in economics from a 985 university, interviewed for three rounds of an internet campus recruitment position but got nowhere. She had hoped to convert last summer's internship into a full-time offer at a big tech company. But the interviewer was extremely arrogant, not making eye contact during the entire hour-long interview. The company told her the position went to a social recruit.
Yu Zhouzhou found that even if internet spring recruitment is still open, most positions are for technical roles. Her resumes often sink without a trace.
Career planner Chen Meng also believes the current environment is unfriendly to campus recruits. More and more companies have reduced campus recruitment headcount. She observed that due to economic uncertainty, the internet industry has become more rational about growth. Even job changers find it hard to get a 20-30% salary increase.
Now, seeing the frequent changes at big tech companies and "embracing change," Yu Zhouzhou decided not to aim only at big tech. She turned her focus to state-owned and central enterprises. "Maybe a stable job is better."
After failing the internal transfer, Song Qian also decided to think about whether she was really suited for the big tech industry.
Now, she finds that people who once encouraged her to take risks have changed. An older sister told her that if she could find a stable state-owned job or get a government position, that would be fine. Her mother also felt guilty, thinking that if she hadn't pushed her to work in Beijing, maybe this wouldn't have happened.
Song Qian suddenly felt relieved. "I don't necessarily have to stay here," she said, letting go of her obsession with big tech.
She decided to find a stable job in the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai area. "If my yearning for big tech was 100% when I graduated, now it's 40%."
Fresh graduates participating in social recruitment—
It's not easy, but they made it through.
To survive in a cruel and uncertain workplace, what can newcomers with less than a year of experience rely on?
"If you have some hard skills and can truly stand on your own in a field, then others will need you," Chen Meng analyzed. "Today's young people might have job-hunting problems, but do they really have no chance?"
The night she was laid off, Li Rui couldn't sleep until 4 a.m. It wasn't a good time to find a job. Golden March and Silver April were still a while away, and the market was flooded with laid-off workers from the tutoring industry with work experience.
She didn't know how long her savings could support her in Shanghai. To survive, she prepared to accept a salary cut.
But she also knew the most important thing was to organize her work achievements and put them on her resume. "A good resume is the key to a new job," Li Rui said. "You must write it well and highlight your results. It's quite important."
Of course, Li Rui had strong abilities—during her three months at the previous company, she achieved 100% of her OKRs and exceeded her goals.
A week later, Li Rui was hired by another big tech company without a salary cut. She shared her experience on social media, and someone commented, "Fresh graduates participating in social recruitment—it's really not easy."
"But I made it through," she said. The layoff experience made Li Rui more positive. She felt she wouldn't encounter anything sadder than being laid off within three months. It also made her more aware of the uncertainty at big tech. "I'm always prepared. If I get laid off again, I can update my resume anytime."
Li Jianxin had a similar experience. She used to be an idealist, full of hope and anticipation for the company. Until the layoff happened to her, she realized the world isn't as good as she imagined. She's just a worker. "People are the knife, and I'm the fish," Li Jianxin said. "But it's not my fault."
She didn't plan to switch industries and continued to do brand marketing. For Li Jianxin, the most important thing was to take action. She threw herself into job hunting, feeling that at least she could learn something from talking to interviewers.
Ten days later, Li Jianxin successfully got an offer from a small-to-medium-sized new consumer goods company.
"What is an iron rice bowl? It means you can eat wherever you go, having a skill that is truly yours. That's the real iron rice bowl," a primary school student said in an interview.
Li Jianxin felt aligned with that student's thinking. The layoff experience taught her that only by extracting real growth from a work experience can it become truly yours and add value.
Wang Wantong is a veteran when it comes to layoffs.
Everything stopped in August 2021. The "double reduction" policy was implemented nationwide. Wang Wantong, who had worked in ByteDance's K12 project for two years, began her job search.
Initially, it wasn't smooth. Wang Wantong "didn't know where to apply. Jobs with slightly higher pay had requirements she couldn't meet, and jobs she could reach paid too little." She couldn't accept a significant salary cut. She set a range: "Originally I was making 10,000. After 2-3 years, making 10,000 or at most 15,000 is fine. I'll just do more interviews."
She decided to apply broadly to increase resume exposure. With a minimum salary standard of 15k, she interviewed at over 20 companies, covering almost all industries: gold sellers, insurance, funds—just about everything except medicine, she said, because that requires qualifications.
"Leave the decision to others, wait for them to come to you to boost your courage, increase your confidence by rejecting them"—Wang Wantong used this method to build her mental resilience.
Even when interviewers challenged her, "How much dividend does your industry have? How much premium?" "Every industry has dividends. No matter where I am or what I do, my bottom line is this price. Hire me if you can afford me," Wang Wantong retorted decisively. "If you want to put me down, sorry, we don't talk about this."
This process lasted nearly three months. Wang Wantong ultimately chose an outsourcing position at Kuaishou with a monthly salary of 15k.
Was this a blind choice? Wang Wantong denied it. She hoped to get exposure to advertising and deepen her understanding of user growth. More importantly, she wanted to eat at Kuaishou. "To be honest, if Kuaishou didn't provide meals, I wouldn't go. Having meals gives me a sense of security, you know?"
Wang Wantong didn't plan to stay long. She decided to switch industries after learning what she needed.
Industry changes made her realize that all industries have life cycles. A month and a half later, an IoT company caught her eye. In her view, logistics will never be eliminated. Its form can change, but it won't disappear because "society always needs it."
The interview process was also confrontational. When faced with unreasonable questions, Wang Wantong decisively pushed back. Surprisingly, her supervisor appreciated this. During salary negotiation, she became even more decisive and confident: "Annual salary 300k. If it's lower than that, I won't consider it."
In early December, Wang Wantong received an offer. This sudden career "turmoil" ended with an industry switch.
This girl deeply understands the importance of "cross-industry ability." "You need to have the ability to switch industries. If the company goes under, can you jump to a company in the same industry for a different role? If the entire industry is wiped out, can you jump to another industry?" Wang Wantong said.
The good news is that youth and potential are still the biggest assets.
When every industry is volatile and full of uncertainty, Wang Wantong feels the only thing she can do is improve her abilities, so she has the capital to switch industries. "No need to worry about choosing the wrong industry or whether it will fail. I think it's unnecessary."
Indeed, for fresh graduates, being laid off is harsh. "Entering the workplace and being treated like this might seem unfair," career planner Chen Meng said. "But don't be fragile. You're already a working adult."
(Except for Chen Meng, all names are pseudonyms. Thanks to Danru and Levis for their contributions to this article.)
Source: NetEase Tech