Author | Mr.K Editor | Emma
Source | Technical Leadership (ID: jishulingdaoli)
Just when the whole world was expecting post-00s to "rectify the workplace", embarrassing things happened. Young people with resumes in one hand and graduation certificates in the other hand suddenly realized that they might have been fooled. With the current situation, it is difficult for them to even enter the workplace. You have the nerve to let us "rectify" and kill people, nothing more.
It's not easy for young people this year. How difficult is it? Just look at the data on the "unemployment rate of urban youth labor force aged 16 to 24" in the first four months of 2023: the youth unemployment rate was 17.3% in January, 18.1% in February, 19.6% in March, and 20.4% in April However, these "new highs" were hit one after another, and the people who made the hits panicked. And everyone knows that this is just a superficial figure. College students who are still in school are not included in the list of unemployed persons. . Therefore, we can reasonably infer that after June and July, there is a high probability that the youth unemployment rate will soar again.
Whether it is the recent rise of "Kong Yiji Literature" or the emergence of "reading is useless", it is just "difficult" to write the same word in N ways. For young people who are just about to enter the society, it doesn't matter whether they take off their long gowns or not. It doesn't matter whether they have ideals or not. It is the kingly way to find a way to survive first. What a painful and real understanding.
01
How hard is it to get a job? You may not be able to deliver food
Tell me about two examples from Brother K.
One is a friend's child who graduated last year. When he read media reports, he described the employment in 2022 as "hell" level, so he didn't dare to "end up". Instead, he chose to study at home for the postgraduate entrance examination. Later, I failed the postgraduate entrance examination. I wanted to stick to it for another year and continue to be a graduate student, but seeing the situation this year, my friends and family began to feel uneasy. Compared with last year's employment situation, this year's situation has not improved at all. Instead, it is a posture of "there is no hardest, only harder". If this trend continues, even if the child is admitted to a graduate school, he still does not know what kind of situation he will face after graduation. If it’s still not good, or even worse, wouldn’t it be a mispayment of precious time in the past few years, plus the 35-year-old “tiankeng” in the workplace, after graduating from graduate school, after a few years of tossing, you may fall into the “pit” again. No matter how you think about it, it's not worth it.
So my friend and family used various relationships to help the child find a job in the community in March. I wanted to let the children do it first, and then look for development opportunities later, but I didn't expect that some time ago, enterprises and institutions in various countries had a "cleaning tide". A friend's child was "cleared" before he was fully familiar with the job.
In recent months, my friends and family began to worry about their children's work again. Hundreds of resumes were submitted, and there were few opportunities for interviews. The relationship has also been entrusted a lot, and most of my friends waved their hands and shook their heads when they heard this. When you find me, I can only say that you should try your best to help your children pay attention to job opportunities. Faced with such a situation, what can Brother K say.
Another example is a young man in Brother K's circle of friends. He is also a young man who has just started working for a few years. He used to work in the real estate industry. About 2 months ago, I saw him posting in Moments, saying that he was going to try a takeaway. In the past two days, I saw a circle of friends posted by him again, "Remind friends who regard being a rider as the end, personally test it, this industry is also very complicated, it is not easy to eat enough..."
Brother K fully believed that what this young man said was true. According to statistics, the total number of courier brothers of all types in the country is nearly 13 million. What a concept, almost one in every 100 is for express delivery/takeaway. Brother K also thought of a piece of news some time ago, saying that if he wants to be a takeaway rider for a certain platform in Guangzhou, he needs to send money and entrust relationship management. Regardless of whether this news is true or not, it reflects that the rider profession, which is the "final retreat" of many professionals, has been swept up.
02
Why are young people being laid off?
According to data released by the China Employment Research Institute and Zhaopin Recruitment, as of the fourth quarter of 2022, the CIER index of college graduates has been below 1 for five consecutive quarters, which means that in the job market for college students, the labor demand continues to be less than the market Labor supply and job market prosperity are low.
In fact, without looking at the data, everyone can feel the current unfriendly employment environment, even young people cannot escape the impact. Think about those large and small factories that lay off employees every now and then, the average age of their employees is only 26 or 7 years old, aren't those optimized young people the right young people? Why today, these young people who are far from the "35-year-old crisis" are so unpopular in the workplace:
1. Big environmental impact
The environment of the past two years is hard to describe. Three years of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, Sino-US trade frictions, etc. have caused various impacts on important domestic industries such as real estate, finance, foreign trade, and manufacturing.
Taking real estate as an example, with the changes in the economic cycle and the regulation of macroeconomic policies, the real estate market has obviously entered a downward cycle. The operating conditions of a large number of real estate companies are worrying and even thunderstorms have triggered a series of deep reactions. According to data, every increase of 100 million yuan in total output of the real estate industry can stimulate a total of 351 jobs in various industries; in the construction industry, which is highly related to real estate, every increase of 100 million yuan in total output can stimulate a total of 635 jobs in various industries people; the financial industry, which is also highly related to the real estate industry, can stimulate a total of 511 jobs in various industries for every 100 million yuan increase in total output. According to data from Wind Consulting, in 2020, investment in real estate development will create more than 115 million jobs. This is only an industry that is highly related to the real estate industry. If the decoration design, home appliance and furniture industries are included, the number of direct and indirect employment that can be driven will be even more.
Looking at the situation of foreign trade, according to relevant data, in November 2022, the use of heavy foreign trade containers in my country decreased by 9.7% compared with the same period last year, and the number of empty foreign trade containers increased by 23.73% year-on-year. The accumulation volume has hit a new high since the outbreak. Since 2023, although the country has introduced policies at various levels to stabilize exports and protect foreign trade, there are still "some happy and some sad". Behind these figures are also related to the employment market and the number of people employed.
2. Industry impact, various layoffs and closures
In addition to the general environment, the downturn in various industries has also directly affected the employment choices and employment prospects of young people. According to relevant data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from the perspective of industries, young people under the age of 35 accounted for the highest proportion in these industries, reaching 64.6%. It is as high as 70.4%. In some large factories, the average age of employees is only around 26 or 27 years old.
Now, the most serious layoff optimization is precisely the IT and Internet industries. It is more intuitive to look at a few sets of data:
According to the financial information released by Tencent for the first quarter of 2023, as of the end of the first quarter of 2023, Tencent Holdings has 106,221 employees, compared with 116,213 in the same period last year. 10,000 employees.
Similarly, Alibaba’s total number of employees at the end of the first quarter was 235,216, and at the end of 2022, this number was 239,740, which means that Alibaba has reduced by more than 4,500 people in three months.
Others such as Byte, Baidu, JD.com, and Meituan have also seen layoffs of different scales. Such information can be seen by simply swiping the mobile phone news, which is not new at all.
In addition to the IT and Internet industries, waves of layoffs and bankruptcies in other industries are also commonplace. I heard a story from a friend who works in HR. She posted an administrative assistant position on the Internet and received nearly 1,000 resumes in two days. Among the people who came for interviews, except for fresh graduates, they asked other people who had left their previous jobs. 30% of the reasons are business closures, and 50% are company layoffs. Frankly, the showdown is over, the world is like this, and everyone has nothing to taboo or pretend.
4. The number of college graduates hit a record high
Many people know that there are 11.58 million college graduates this year, a record high. What is the concept of these 11.58 million people? It is larger than the total population of countries such as Sweden, Greece, and Portugal. If we count the non-graduate students who did not find a job in previous years and those who were laid off and unemployed, the number of new jobs this year will be even more shocking.
So recently there was another news that many graduates from prestigious schools, including 985 and 211, in addition to the enthusiasm for postgraduate entrance examinations and editorial examinations, quietly started a "postponement trend", trying to delay their own admission by actively failing courses and other means. I hope that through this method, I can not only avoid the introversion pressure of employment, but also maintain my "fresh graduate" status in the future.
Behind these "scheming" operations, it also reflects the helplessness and worries of young people in the face of a severe employment environment. But you can hide for a while, but you can't hide for a lifetime. Who can guarantee that the overall employment environment next year and the year after will be better than this year? But this cannot be blamed on young people. Under the premise that graduates hit new highs every year, the capacity of the job market has not been correspondingly improved. Someone made statistics on the Internet companies that accept the most young people. From July 2021 to mid-March 2022, the 12 leading companies represented by Tencent, Ali, Byte, and Meituan have a total of 29.59 recruits. 10,000 people, after deducting the total number of 216,800 resignations during the deduction period, the net increase in employment of these 12 major Internet companies is only 79,100 people. worth mentioning.
So, can young people not think of ways and rack their brains for their own future and future? Although they also know that some methods only treat the symptoms, not the root cause.
03
Under the wave of layoffs and salary cuts, how do young people respond?
This topic becomes a bit heavy if we talk too much. Brother K, as a former young man and someone who has experienced in the workplace, would like to give some advice to young people:
1. Adhere to long-termism
Everyone knows how important core competitiveness and a moat are to a person's development in the workplace. But many people don't know how to build their own competitiveness and moat. If you are not talented, but mediocre like most people, then Brother K tells you that the best way to build a moat of your own ability is to insist on long-termism. Believe in the power of time, gain a foothold in an industry, and make yourself an expert in a certain field that surpasses most people in 3 to 5 years with the mentality of being one of the best. Many so-called successes may be discovered after breaking apart and crushing, but it is just a reward of time. And compared to the "impetuousness" of young people, long-termism is also the best antidote.
2. Keep your feet on the ground and enjoy the moment
In the face of life, you can never aim too high, and you can't be full of complaints. The most important thing to do is to do everything well at hand, be down-to-earth, and live well in the moment. The same is true for employment. Don’t complain that you have not caught up with the good times and missed the trendy period. Instead, you should realize that every era has opportunities in every era. Although the Internet industry is in a downturn, there are still new energy, electric vehicles, Emerging industries such as software localization, high-precision manufacturing, and AI are worth learning and trying. These emerging industries may all contain new era dividends. Whether you can seize the future depends on how you grasp the present.
3. Lifelong learning and continuous upward growth
Brother K watched a video in which a few college students tried to set up a stall for the first time. There was a banner in front that said "College students set up a stall, don't put it badly". Although these college students did not do anything innovative or remarkable, their spirit is very moving.
No matter when, never set up a stall or lie flat. Young people should always maintain the spirit of learning. Whether it is learning workplace skills, professional knowledge, or learning new ways of making a living or crafting skills, they should open their minds and accept it with an open mind. It’s not bright in the east, but it’s bright in the west. If you can’t do it here, you can do it there. Maybe one day your new knowledge and experience will become a booster for you to make breakthroughs and even settle down.
4. Go with the flow and be an active pessimist
The famous management scientist Jim Collins put forward the famous "Stockdale Paradox" in his book "From Good to Great". This theory mainly explains how we should psychologically face the present situation And the future: full of confidence in the future, but also face the cruel reality. If you are only blindly optimistic about the future and the present, you will be mercilessly slapped in the face by reality; if you lose confidence in the future and are full of dissatisfaction with the status quo, you will lose motivation and sink.
In the current employment environment, young people especially need to have the status mentioned in the "Stockdale Paradox". Facing the reality, you can go with the situation, cherish the work if you have a job, and do a good job seriously; if you don’t have a job, try to improve yourself, and look for a job without being humble or overbearing. Be a determined, relentless, positive pessimist.
5. Create your "personal development system"
The more uncertain the period, the more certain things should be. For individuals, the most certain thing is their own "personal development system" that no one can take away. That is to consciously build a personal brand, establish a development model of "capability + personal brand + platform", be good at using platform resources, combine with its own characteristics, and cultivate the ability to move away from the platform at any time, no longer for layoffs, optimization, and reemployment and other problems, to realize the true sense of professional freedom.
6. Use the "barbell strategy" to develop multiple incomes
Taleb put forward the famous "barbell strategy" in "Antifragility", which is used to describe the dual strategy of adopting conservative strategies in some fields and taking certain risks in other fields. The core of this strategy is to win the survival and development opportunities of the whole through partial "trial and error", so that the whole has a stronger anti-fragility.
How should young people use this strategy to achieve personal "anti-fragility" in an environment where employment is difficult? A very simple and realistic one is to find a way to develop your second career and make your income structure into a "barbell" with two ends (asymmetrical) instead of a "hammer" with only one end.
Hu Lan, a talk show actor that everyone is familiar with, is a typical representative who makes good use of the "barbell strategy" in the workplace. At the beginning, Hulan had her own company, and occasionally talked about talk shows when she had time, but she didn't expect to stick to it and it was very well received. Later, his company was merged, and he faced the choice of starting a new business or finding a new job. But Hu Lan had the confidence to make the third choice, to speak talk shows full-time. Later, it became known as Hulan.
We are not necessarily all Hulan, and we all go to talk shows. But please believe in yourself, there must be some part of your potential that has not been fully explored, find a way to find it, and use it as a counterweight on the other end of your "barbell".
7. Exercise
Physical health is 1, and everything else is 0 after 1. Everyone knows this. But between knowing and doing, sometimes there may be a galaxy. In this regard, young people should not just sit and talk, but act, exercise well, and form healthy living and eating habits. Don't overdraw your health needlessly, and don't risk your life for money desperately. You are still young and have many opportunities, but your health is irreversible. Only with good health can we have a bright future full of possibilities.
Eileen Chang has a famous saying, "Be famous as soon as possible", but Brother K even agrees with another "early", and you must lose money as soon as possible. For young people, whether it is a loss in life or in the workplace, it is a good thing to experience it early, and it will become wealth in the future. Therefore, even in the face of today's employment pressure and life pressure, I still believe that young people can turn "dangerous" into "opportunity" and get through it smoothly. After all, there is no failure in youth, only temporary failure, no big deal. Finally, send this sentence of the French novelist Dugal to all young people: "I love young people, they help me not to grow old too quickly."
Profile
Account owner introduction: Mr.K , Huang Zhekeng, a well-known IT management expert in China, the founder of "Duwu Hill" consulting, and the founder of the official account "Technical Leadership". The author of the best-selling books "The Way to Cultivate a Technician" and "The Top of Technology Management". He once served as the technical VP of Yiyao.com, the technical director of Yihaodian, and the CTO of Haier's agricultural e-commerce. Share individual growth, team management, enterprise digital transformation, and technology reviews.
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