After 21st Century Business Herald launched this discussion topic on Weibo at the end of October, the number of participants in the discussion reached 11,000, and it was once on the Weibo hot list, with more than 200 million readings.
This question caused the Internet people behind the computer screen to take a breath. At the age of 35, many professionals should have gradually embarked on a watershed in maturity, but for Internet people, 35 is a watershed in their careers.
As a labor-intensive industry, all aspects of the Internet industry include product design, research and development, operation, marketing, maintenance, customer service, etc., and all require the blessing of human resources. Under such realistic conditions, the company naturally tends to be young and energetic, and the most important thing is the young group who can accept overtime.
Under the general trend, some people choose to stay in large factories, desperately improving their core competitiveness, and try to be able to play their irreplaceability; some people choose to quit in the industry and go to a relatively small company to lead a team; however, more Many ordinary practitioners who laugh at themselves as Internet migrant workers will inevitably encounter the pain of transformation.
If you are in a period of professional confusion at the age of 35, you might as well take a look at how other people make choices when facing the special age of 35. There are not too many vigorous stories. Ziquan chatted with some so-called "abandoned by the Internet" beaters, and suddenly realized that it was not all sadness. Many people conveyed an attitude: feel damn good!
Bulma, 39, former product manager of automotive platform
After graduating from university, I worked as an editor, channel supervisor and product manager in Autohome, Aika Auto and Sohu Auto. This is a relatively normal path in the Internet industry. After leaving Sohu, I went to an insurance company as an administrative manager. This was also my last "check-in" job.
Frankly speaking, I don't like this job, just because there are friends there and I happen to need "a job." It is true that work is a lot easier than Internet companies. If I am not so fanciful, I will probably work there until I retire.
When I joined the company for a year or so, I invented something related to blockchain and sports. Let me call it "something" for the time being, because it was not put into market operation in the end. At that time, the leader wanted to apply for an invention patent in the name of the company, and then give me full power to be responsible for market-oriented operations, and said that he would give me a bonus.
At that time, I was relatively simple, and I thought it was pretty good, so I agreed without thinking about it. However, this bonus has not been followed. Later, I went to an intermediary to ask about the market value of this invention. The other party said it was worth 5 million to 8 million. After I heard this, I was particularly unwilling to do so, and I ran to the leader to mention the invention bonus several times.
I don't know if it annoys him to ask him, but his attitude has turned into a 180-degree reversal. In the company, he put on small shoes for me many times in the company, and forced me to resign. I am a northern man. I have always been very stubborn. I immediately went to apply for arbitration and filed a lawsuit with the company for half a year. Although it ended in an arbitration and settlement, I didn’t want to stay in this company for a second. Take advantage of the situation and fired me.
At the moment I was fired, I didn't feel depressed at all, but felt extremely relaxed. I was a person who yearned for freedom, but because of the so-called stability, I have been in the workplace for 17 years, and finally chose to leave in a way that outsiders did not seem to be decent. I do not regret my original choice. Although I spent half a year in the window when I was unemployed at home, it also made me start to rethink my life and what I want.
Encouraged by my friends, I chose to become a cross-border e-commerce business. For me, this is a "perfect career" that can balance my life and work. In fact, I have been involved in cross-border e-commerce during my university years. Experience, so it’s handy to restart this business.
What I didn't expect was that my cross-border stall shop encountered this year's epidemic soon after it opened. My business direction is "outdoor sports" again. My new life has encountered challenges again. Many people say that my fleeting years are unfavorable and that my life has experienced ups and downs. I don't think so. All the good and the bad are waiting for you in the corner of fate. Since the rampage doesn't work, I will change the direction, so I started to sell "crafts". Fortunately, my small workshop still doesn't fail.
Now every day I send my son to school at 8 am and pick him up from school at 4 pm. I feel that I have not lived happily in the past nearly 40 years. The money is indeed not as much as before, but it is happier than before.
So, how can it be so scary to be laid off at the age of 35? If you can move forward, you can move forward. If you can't, you can change your life. Don't take it as a terrible thing. No amount of money can buy me the joy of riding an electric bike with my son.
Xiaowei 35-year-old former technology reporter of the Party News
After graduating from Communication University, I worked as a reporter for a well-known party newspaper in Beijing for four years. This profession did not bring me much sense of accomplishment, but it gave me more and more confusion and pain: I did not understand at the time that as a reporter, I could not go deep into the grassroots of the civil society and experience the pain hidden under the skin of society. , Then what is the meaning of being a reporter?
During the years I worked there, passion was gradually eroded. Because of various policies and system restrictions, I could not even agree with the articles I wrote. How could I expect such reports to be liked by readers? After struggling for a long time, I finally got the answer. Since my pen can no longer fight, I might as well give up. I rethink where I can put my ideals. I don't know why the shadow of the court popped up in my mind. I was enthusiastic and confronting the ugly.
This scene was repeated in my mind, like a silent movie, so I resolutely submitted my resignation application and decided to switch careers. After studying at home for nearly a year, I successfully passed the judicial examination and became a lawyer in a law firm. The whole process went smoother than I thought.
I originally thought that this was the end of my life. On the contrary, my life was beaten back to the original point because of the profession of "lawyer". In a new field, everything has to start again. When I first became a lawyer, my colleagues called me "Reporter Wang". Even though I knew they were joking, I still felt uncomfortable. If I can't "reporter" to tear this label off from my body, it will be in the hearts of others. , I will never be a qualified professional lawyer.
This is really a long process of seeking approval from others. I worked harder than before, writing articles about legal analysis in my spare time, participating in the sharing of professional knowledge in our firm, and sharing my own experience in legal research with colleagues. During that time, I felt that I was making rapid progress every day, something I rarely experienced when I was a reporter.
In the end, the label was indeed torn off by me, but after five or six years in this industry, my mentality has undergone some changes, that is, to accept the past self and all past experiences, and I slowly re-labeled the reporter. On my body. I am living in perfect harmony with the self in the eyes of others, the self in my eyes, and the self to whom destiny belongs.
I recently read a book called "A Hundred Years of Life". I agree with a point stated in the book: "With the development of science and technology, people’s lifespan can be extended to 100 years in the future. When we use the number 100 When I was planning my career, 35 was already very young."
So I never think that 35 years old is a person's middle age, but should be a person's most energetic youth. At this time, we have experienced enough things and have the capital to choose a new life. An experience is actually a gift to the future life.
Yuki 32 years old, original Internet market PR
In the years when I was doing marketing PR at Sogou, I once led the team to win the company's CEO award, but I often feel bored.
Once, the company cooperated with Jiangsu Satellite TV's "One Stop to the End" program to promote the robot developed by Sogou on the program, but because of a mistake in the handover process, the project almost messed up. I took a group of people to Nanjing overnight to solve the problem. With our remedy, the cooperation was successfully advanced. But I am not very happy, and the sense of accomplishment is not strong. Although the whole thing was thrilling, in fact, I understand that it is nothing more than trivial things that are not well connected and too unchallenging, as long as a reliable person can do it.
The fixed position and the programmed work make me feel that I am just a small screw in this fast-moving company, but if an enthusiastic person becomes a cold screw, what meaning and value is there? ?
Seeing that he is about to enter the 35-year-old when Internet people are eliminated, he is living with the anxiety of being "replaced" at any time. After wandering for more than a year, I still decided to resign to find the meaning of life. Rather than being content with the status quo, I hope that I can always be positive and enterprising. "Living and learning to grow old" is my ideal state of life. It would be better to help people in this process.
Water fitness, this project came out of my whim, because I like it very much, so I decided to do it. The main development is water paddling, but also some derivative projects such as water yoga and water dance. When we first did this, we encountered many difficulties, such as how to push this emerging project to the market and how to overcome the fear of water among the Chinese people. This is still in the stage of exploration and resolution.
Although there are many obstacles, it is very new. In our country, no one else is doing it except me. The national policy also supports it. I think the development prospects are still good, so I have never given up. People say that I’m bluffing and do what I think of. In fact, I don’t think there is anything wrong with it. If my entrepreneurship fails, it at least proves one thing. At the age of 32, I still have the courage to break through the routine.
Now my entrepreneurial project is almost 4 years old. Facts have proved that it fits well with me who is bluffing. It can be predicted that I will be eliminated at the age of 35 and I will definitely not be happier than I am now. If possible, I hope that when I am 80 or 90 years old, it will still accompany me. This is an irreplaceable thing.
I even started to look forward to 35 years old. I want to say aloud to 35 years old like Jolin Tsai: "Feel damn good!"
At last:
In the torrent of the times, we little individuals are interpreting different stories in this world. The sorrows and joys of individuals are not in line with the progress and decline of the times, although the times will bring us some fluctuations from time to time on the spiraling road. But how much impact will this change have on us?
The protagonists of the three stories shared by Self-Quadrants actually don’t foresee what they will look like in the future when facing every choice. Whether they are passive or active, supported by someone, or fighting alone, they seem to have found their own. position.
Destiny will not treat any individual who is serious about life. I hope that you who are anxious at the age of 35 can also find a new view of destiny.