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this article comes from: inside and outside, author: chen zijie yu liling, editor: cao binling fu xiaoling

"the salary in the finance industry has been cut by 50%, but i'm making twice as much as before..." when ajie saw the article on his wechat moments, he paused and silently clicked "like".

just because a similar situation actually happened to him.

last year, the year-end bonus of his investment bank was cut in half, and the news of layoffs caused panic in the outside world. not wanting to be in such a precarious situation, he worked late into the night for several months and finally switched to an ai company.

now, while his old colleagues are heartbroken because their salaries have been cut in half, he has received a 20% salary increase. last month, he was promoted to team leader. he has more than a dozen employees under him and has received job offers from headhunters one after another. he no longer has to worry about his job.

there are many young people like ajie who are flocking to the high-tech industry for "refuge". the fastest growing tracks in the number of applications from the class of 2023 are smart manufacturing and aigc.

while the financial and real estate industries are going through hard times, high-tech industries such as chip design and manufacturing, artificial intelligence, etc. are booming, with giants investing money, unicorns emerging, and wealth stories happening time and again.

trend chasers can change careers and get a pay raise,"no need to worry about buying a house after joining the company" and "one billion investment for a project" are not wishful thinking., throwing yourself into it is equivalent to getting a ticket to the next era.

even though there are crises lurking in the wind, young roller coasters will still squeeze in.

“after joining the company, you don’t have to worry about buying a house.”

when he walked into the job fair, eric thought he was in a vegetable market.

hrs from well-known companies would shout at the top of their lungs if there were any students from a certain school or major before they even set up their desks. if someone agreed, they would push him into the tent and start the interview without even looking at his resume.

eric originally majored in materials, one of the "four major pitfalls". even after completing his bachelor's and master's degrees, his employment prospects in his major were bleak. in the words of his seniors: he was earning an 8,000 yuan salary and just had to get by day by day.

but he never expected that the gears of fate would turn in the year he graduated.

after being sanctioned, my country's chip semiconductor industry expanded rapidly, with the scale of investment sprinting towards over 100 billion yuan, resulting in a talent gap of about 200,000 people.

this has turned the material science major from a "pitfall" into a "hot commodity". at the autumn recruitment fair that year, the material science major was prominently listed on the recruitment posters of many companies. no need to bother with consulting, just submit your resume to each company.

the salary is also very attractive, basically starting at an annual salary, and some companies even boast directly: "if you come here, it will not be a problem to buy a house in shanghai in three or four years.”

soon after the autumn recruitment, eric received many interview invitations, and his offer success rate was as high as 50%. he was almost overwhelmed by the choices, but he finally got the job on time with an annual salary of 290,000.

however, eric also emphasized that "this is not his own victory, but the situation is too good", after all, this iseven people who have nothing to do with my major are welcome.。

amber, who has a background in algorithms and has been immersed in the internet industry for many years, feels this most deeply.

before chatgpt came out, the internet market was reducing costs and increasing efficiency, and people were in a panic. even their core algorithm department was not immune to being "graduated".

but soon the explosion of ai triggered the "war of a hundred models", and major technology giants began to "grab talent" mode, and amber's company was one of them.

"our department alone has expanded from five or six people to more than a dozen," amber said, gesturing with her hands. not only have we recruited more people, but supporting resources such as gpu computing power have also been upgraded simultaneously.

as the department prospered, old employees like amber also received promotions: amber, who studied natural language, was directly promoted to team leader with a 10% salary increase, and other colleagues received similar treatment.

of course, this money is not given for free. since then, the workload has doubled, overtime has become commonplace, and i have to find time to catch up on the relevant knowledge of large model training, so there is no time to rest.

but she didn't dare to relax at all. on the one hand, she was afraid of being "beaten if she fell behind". on the other hand, she had received many calls from headhunters this year, trying to recruit her to well-known companies in the industry. she had to accumulate more chips for herself in order to get better conditions.

amber is not the only one who has such plans.almost everyone who has squeezed onto the ai ​​road is planning to “wait for the price to rise”.

zixi's underwater robot entrepreneurial project, backed by numerous patents, attracted more than 30 investment institutions to approach him as soon as the project was launched. it also attracted olive branches from government departments in many coastal areas, hoping that the project would be implemented in their areas.

"as long as you stay here, you don't have to worry about subsidies. you can make any requests." visiting from one place to another, zixi received the same enthusiastic invitations, which made him feel a great sense of accomplishment. at the same time, he also felt the urgency of "demand exceeding supply" in the industry.

this made zixi the one who controlled the pace. "no matter what, we are the relatively weaker party. only when they are anxious can they negotiate more favorable conditions for us."

however, seizing the trend of the times does not mean you can sit back and relax.

embracing the golden dream, walking into the night before dawn

"i suggest you not to come to our team," the senior brother said, and the lively atmosphere of the sharing session instantly cooled down a few degrees.

momo, who was sitting in the audience, also froze in smile. this senior brother majored in chip design, and started a business in the research field after graduating with a doctorate. he was chased by investors and fed with 10-digit financing. they were in the same research group and had already prepared themselves for success together, but they did not expect to be poured a bucket of cold water.

but the senior brother's next words resolved the awkwardness. it turned out that although he was so proud of himself, he was so anxious that he couldn't sleep every day.

they are just a little-known company with certain technical advantages in a very small field.the product had endless bugs and a very low yield rate, but it was still easy to get huge amounts of financing. this hot money made the seniors feel uncomfortable.

"there seems to be a lot of tall buildings in front of us, but we know that they may be castles in the air." the words of his senior brother gave momo an epiphany. after graduation, he did not choose a startup company, but joined a larger chip company.

however, when high-rise buildings are crumbling, large companies are also difficult to escape. the news of the dissolution of oppo's chip company is like pressing the retreat button for the industry, changing the fate of the passengers on this big ship.

momo recalled that two years ago, many chip companies in the industry allowed people to enter even if they had no relevant majors. now, having a bachelor's or master's degree in a 985 major has become the basic threshold, and competition experience and internship experience are also essential.

"at the beginning of the year, a headhunter suggested to me that i could consider changing jobs five years after graduating from undergraduate program or three years after graduating from master's program." but some time ago, he was told that the standard had been raised to seven years for undergraduate program and five years for master's program, and that the direction of job hopping had to be very consistent.

the pay for job-hopping is also plummeting. in the past, job-hopping would result in at least a 30%-50% salary increase, and doubling was not uncommon. now, job-hopping means the same salary or even a pay cut, and the level is declining at a visible rate.

“when i changed jobs in april, my annual salary was about 500,000. when i asked again in may, it became 450,000. in june, it was only 400,000."mo mo said helplessly. now no one dared to act rashly.

amber has been living in fear recently. if the project still does not make any breakthrough progress, their team may have to implement the "guang (cai) jin (yuan) plan".

although ai is already well known, most companies in the industry are experiencing a similar dilemma: investing a lot of resources and money but getting very little in return.

the large model that amber developed to follow the trend was not competitive enough and no one was interested in it in the market. later, the leaders put ai into the company's original business, but the result was also full of difficulties.

after several blows, the company's expansion pace has slowed down significantly. although computing resources are still being invested, it is no longer recruiting new employees.

zi xi also suffered a setback. once again, he was bidding with the winner. when he saw the winner's beaming face, he felt bitterness in his heart, but he still took the initiative to step forward and hold the other person's hand.

their current technology can already meet the requirements of most industrial-grade underwater operations, but the team size is less than 10 people, and they are still unable to compete with large companies when faced with large projects.

nowadays they can only do technical outsourcing for large companies and earn hard-earned money, but zixi is not discouraged and will spare no effort to promote his products whenever he gets the chance.

in his opinion,it takes time to implement technology, especially large-scale industrial applications, which are more difficult and long. what we have to do now is to "do everything possible to survive first"。

after enduring the darkness before dawn, perhaps the bright sunrise will greet him.

the big waves wash away the sand, waiting for the moment to shine

after the concept of "new quality productivity" was proposed, the ministry of education issued a new notice in july this year, encouraging colleges and universities to deploy majors in key areas such as integrated circuits and artificial intelligence to cultivate national strategic talents.

to many people, this was just an ordinary piece of news, but to zixi it was an opportunity for success.

"has the stock arrived today? can it be expedited?" he hadn't even finished processing the customer's message urging for delivery when he received three new orders. he was so busy that he could clearly feel the heat surging.

in the past two years, more and more colleges and universities have opened majors related to marine engineering, but there is no mature curriculum system yet, and there are large gaps in the field of teaching aids. teachers can only teach while exploring.

there are endless messages in the background of zi xi's account every day. in addition to students asking for guidance, many university professors and research groups also find him to discuss technical issues and purchase robot teaching aids.

"the stock was sold out on the way." zi xi introduced that the company's teaching aids business revenue last year was 500,000 to 600,000 yuan, which is a good result in this niche track, and the order volume this year is still growing rapidly.

if he can successfully obtain a new round of financing this year, he plans to recruit more marketing talents to cover major promotion channels, quickly take over the teaching aids market, and then invest the money in upgrading industrial robots.

after all, entering the market for industrial-grade underwater robots has always been his ultimate goal - data shows that the scale of my country's industrial robot market will exceed 70 billion yuan in 2024.

"the industry is changing too fast. if you don't seize every minute, someone will squeeze you out." zixi's team now gets off work at 11 or 12 o'clock every night, butthey don't feel tired, they just worry about not having enough time.。

so is the company, so are the people.

when i went to the company to get some documents on the weekend, i saw several newly hired top students from peking university, tsinghua university and 985 universities sitting neatly at their workstations and working hard. momo almost thought that today was a working day.

he remembered that there were clearly no tasks assigned to the newcomers this weekend. when he took a closer look, he found that their desks were either filled with papers or online courses in progress. his scalp tingled for a moment.

after the industry entered the critical period, chip practitioners also entered a dormant period. everyone was trying their best to be patient and study hard. momo fell asleep with the literature almost every day, because he knew that "now it's not luck, it's strength.”。

xiao zhang, who returned to peking university and tsinghua university for graduate studies, also tried desperately to learn how to "swim" before the next wave came.

after graduating from college, he worked in two large companies in the industry. he still remembers that when his supervisor received his resignation application, he was very puzzled: he was about to be promoted to the second-in-command of the department, why did he want to go back to school to start over when his career was on the rise?

moreover, the intersection of ai and security that he wanted to study had nothing to do with the electrical industry he was in, and the test was extremely difficult.

"i studied communications as an undergraduate, electrical engineering as a job candidate, and ai as a graduate student. is it worth it?" xiao zhang has heard this type of question at least ten times. even when he graduated from graduate school and was looking for a job, he was still asked by the interviewer.

but he had long discovered that self-taught computer courses could help him sort out projects more quickly in his non-software work, and the elective mechanical knowledge also enabled him to keenly discover design problems in the consumer electronics industry.

he realized that future fields such as autonomous driving and robotics will require generalists, and only those with cross-industry knowledge will be the winners.

now his judgment has come true: although he has not graduated yet, he easily got 6 internship offers with his "all-round resume", covering ai, semiconductors, algorithms and other fields. when his internship was over, the leaders promised him high salaries, hoping that he would stay after graduation.

but xiao zhang is not in a hurry to work. he is also preparing to study for a doctorate in robotics.when asked if he was afraid that his academic qualifications would be devalued, he said bluntly, "this is a false proposition for me."

(all characters in this article are pseudonyms. special thanks to blogger "beiyang xiaoban" for his support of this article.)