In previous years, when my senior brothers and sisters were looking for jobs, it seemed easy to me. But when it was my turn this year, I realized it was not the same at all...
Spring Recruitment#
In March, most internet companies start recruiting for summer internships. I also jumped into the campus recruitment competition with various talented individuals.
Thanks to one of my senior brothers, who urged me to submit my resume when I was in my second year and told me about many companies offering daily internships. However, I was not diligent enough and ended up waiting until the second semester of my third year 😅
Since the summer internship period is short, I decided to only apply to internet companies in Guangzhou (which turned out to be a very wrong decision because there are very few internet companies in Guangzhou).
As a naive newcomer, I didn't have the intention to practice and wanted to achieve success in one go (but that would be a joke if I failed). I directly submitted my resume to Huya, Huanju, and Bigo, but I didn't even get to see the interviewers and my resume was rejected.
After that, I revised my resume multiple times and then submitted it to ByteDance and NetEase, and I successfully received a written test notification.
"What is ACM mode?"
"Why is this question so unreasonable?"
"Why is the difficulty level different from the questions I did on LeetCode?"
When it comes to algorithms, there are three types of people: those who can solve problems without practicing, those who can solve problems with practice, and those like me who can't solve problems no matter how much they practice.
But the result was still the same. I didn't even get to see the interviewers, and a month later, I received a thank-you letter. I laughed at myself because I realized I was the clown 🤡
With little hope, I submitted my resume to Tencent and Alibaba, and surprisingly, I got an interview.
The night before the Tencent interview, I could hardly sleep. It was my first interview in my life, and it was with Tencent. My weak heart couldn't handle the pressure, and I couldn't contain my excitement either.
After the first interview, I checked the process and found out that I failed 😭. Later, I learned that Tencent's department in Guangzhou was WXG, which is the WeChat Business Group, and it was known to be the most difficult.
Life has its ups and downs, and it seemed like there was still hope with an interview at Alibaba!
During the interview at Alibaba, I failed without understanding the technical principles and some basic concepts. The interviewer tried to make it less awkward by chatting casually with me. It was really embarrassing for them 💀
Life has its ups and downs, but why does my life have so many downs?
Later, I realized that I was not an ordinary person, but a super rookie. After discussing with my senior brother, I decided to intern and learn things first, and then try again for the big companies during the autumn recruitment ✋
While scrolling through Weibo, I came across an interesting law called the Law of Attraction, which states that when you focus your thoughts on a particular field, people, events, and things related to that field will be attracted to you. So, I set a clear goal for myself - "Get a job at a big company during the autumn recruitment" - and believed in it. I added the goal "Get a job at a big company during the autumn recruitment" in Notion, even though I thought it was silly to believe in such superstitions.
Internship#
When I first arrived at the company, I followed the company's tutorial to install some internal tools. But later, I was told that my workstation was not there... So, I had to move again and went to Huangpu. I realized that I couldn't use the tools I had just installed, so I deleted them in frustration 😤
After arriving at my workstation and briefly getting to know my colleagues, I received the project's address and some documents. I also managed to get a cup of milk tea from our team leader, hehe.
Alright! It's time to start working! I want to write beautiful code, solve numerous bugs, follow good coding practices, and understand technical documents at a glance!
Clone the project: git clone xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Install dependencies: npm install
I did it in one go! Well, I'm tired from running around today. I'll work harder tomorrow 😋
The next day, I started feeling restless. My colleagues were all focused on writing code, while I had nothing to do. I felt out of place and frustrated. But I reminded myself that I was here to learn and needed to be proactive!
"When can I start writing bugs?"
"You need to familiarize yourself with the project first."
Alright, I've worked hard today. Since my team leader said so, I'll work harder tomorrow.
The turning point for me to stop slacking off came one day when I helped a colleague with a bug. Since then, I started receiving bug assignments. Later, I was assigned to a new project team and returned to the company headquarters with my team leader. The days of slacking off were gone forever. Oh, Huangpu, my Huangpu 🤧
As a frontend developer, I not only had to work with backend developers but also with UI designers.
While reviewing the UI of a project in Lanhuhu, I noticed a 404 error. I thought to myself, "How is this possible? Lanhuhu is owned by Sina, so it should be reliable, right?" As a member of the team, I felt a surge of determination and courage. But as an introvert, I chose to ignore it for five minutes. Maybe the UI designer would notice it and fix it?
After five minutes, the 404 error was still there, mocking me. I couldn't resist anymore and privately messaged the UI designer, only to find out that it was intentionally designed as a placeholder.
Two months passed quickly, and at the end of August, I resigned. I even had some unused days off. It was frustrating! After completing the necessary procedures and handing over unfinished tasks to a colleague, I said goodbye to my two team leaders and colleagues and left. These two months were more fulfilling than I had imagined. My team leaders and colleagues were friendly and took care of me (I've lost count of how many cups of milk tea my team leaders treated me to). I also learned some things, and at least I had a real project on my resume, not just toys I created for learning or fun.
Alright, let's open up the job search platform and see if there are any referrals available. "4399 Autumn Recruitment Last Chance"... Wait, it's already the last chance?!!
Autumn Recruitment#
As I mentioned before, when I opened the job search platform, I realized that it was already September, and it was the last chance for autumn recruitment. Companies like Xiaomi and SF Express had already finished their written tests 😨
I started to panic, feeling unprepared. But I had no choice but to submit my applications.
Tencent was always the fastest in processing applications. I received an interview invitation from them the day after I submitted my application. Just like in the spring recruitment, Tencent was the first company to interview me, although this time it was in Shenzhen 🤔
"Do you have any other advantages or strengths that I haven't asked about?"
"I don't have anything special. I feel like I'm lacking in many areas."
I should have talked more about what I had reviewed, but my mind went blank, and I blurted out something that made the interviewer laugh... or maybe it was because I made him laugh that he invited me for a second interview. However, I failed the second interview 😂
The following days were filled with anxiety and sleepless nights. I felt like a failure in the autumn recruitment, and I lost count of how many companies sent me thank-you letters. I wished the HRs knew that my inbox could receive offers, not just thank-you letters.
Every time my phone rang, I checked my emails, hoping it was an invitation for the second interview from Xiaomi. But it was always Alibaba Cloud Security Weekly, game news from Nintendo, Quora, and others.
!#@&#@(&@#(@@#&**&^&@@# (It's so frustrating!)
I even dreamt one night that Xiaomi sent me an email, but when I woke up and checked, there was nothing.
On the fourth or fifth day, I finally received an invitation for the second interview. After the second interview, within an hour, I received an offer. It was a salary package that I was satisfied with, and we only talked for five minutes before they sent me the offer 😋
The interview experience at Xiaomi was the best. The interviewers explained the questions I struggled with and summarized my answers using professional terms. I really enjoyed this kind of communication.
Conclusion#
With this, my autumn recruitment journey comes to an end. I never expected that the flag I set a few months ago would go from "Doing" to "Done".
My senior brother once said, "Come to Beijing, there are more opportunities here."
Now, it seems like I will be moving to Beijing after graduation. In the coming days, I will complete my graduation project, finish my studies, recharge myself, and enjoy the remaining time of my university life.
This article is just a personal record of my job hunting experience in 2021. I hope it can be helpful to you, and I wish you all the best in finding a job that you truly love and becoming the person you want to be.