Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

As of 2021, China had 7.55 million programmers, ranking second in the world after the United States and accounting for about 1/10 of the world's 73 million programmers, according to GitHub, a free code hosting platform. They are elite and rich, and they are the symbol of China's new economic development. However, on the other side of the glory, they are also suffering from age bias in the workplace, stress and life balance in the workplace, and room for career promotion in the future.

Exporting yourself overseas has become a way for some programmers to find answers to their own puzzles. In a foreign country, they see the multiple attributes of Internet culture. However, going out to sea is actually placing yourself in a higher dimension of global competition, which is not the end of victory in life, but the beginning of a new round of fighting.

# 01 "No one asked my age during the interview." in the TV series "everything is fine", there is an impressive scene: "Su Mingzhe, the eldest brother who graduated from Tsinghua University in China and studied computer science at Stanford University, suffered layoffs at the age of 35."

This plot resonates with many people. The tangible or invisible age threshold of 35 is still in the real Internet workplace. Especially in the current workplace atmosphere, for those programmers who are not in the leadership position at the age of 35, this age does not mean "essence", but becomes an embarrassment.

According to a survey on the survival status of Internet people aged 35 and over released by BOSS Direct Employment in recent years, nearly 60% of programmers who have reached the age of 35 have made it clear that the workplace is unfriendly to 35-year-olds, and 75.9% think they have encountered the ceiling in the workplace.

Wang Hai, a programmer in a large factory, chose to emigrate to Canada at the age of 34 three years ago. Wang Hai has been in the domestic Internet industry for nearly a decade, working as a front-end, back-end, data and technical consultant. Although he considers himself one of the best employees in the company, he is still afraid of the 35-year-old law of the Internet industry.

"in China, companies would rather lay off more experienced elderly people and recruit new graduates, just as the new i5 is easier to use than the old i7." Wang Hai said.

At present, the 37-year-old has been working in an ordinary medium-sized company in Canada for a year, mainly engaged in embedded Linux related technical work.

Wang Hai admitted that he was very upset when he went out to sea at the age of 34. On the one hand, I couldn't even speak English well at that time, and the other was worried about whether there was a hidden 35-year-old law in Canada.

Later experience proved that Wang Hai was paranoid. In his eyes, the Canadian workplace has a high tolerance for age.

"I will never ask my age during the interview, and I have never seen an example of being rejected because of my age." After joining the job, Wang Hai found that among his colleagues were people in their 40s and 50s, as well as co-op (students who had not yet graduated), which has a wide age range compared with the majority of 20-year-olds in the country. It was only then that he began to reflect that his 35-year-old, who was rejected, was not a problem for the development of the industry.

According to the 2021 Survey report on the salary and Life status of programmers in China released by the China Network Information Center, programmers aged 35 and above accounted for only 9.4 percent of the total number of programmers in the industry in 2021, far less than the 42.5 percent of programmers aged 25 to 29.

Data source | Pulse Research Institute is 35 years old, which is the age when many programmers get married and become the mainstay of society. The instability faced by the workplace in this age range can easily lead people into chaos in life and bring social unrest.

Two months ago, the topic of 39-year-old factory employees being laid off and the inability to repay their mortgage loans reached the top spot; at the end of last year, Mary, a 45-year-old programmer, left a message on the Chinese government website that he did not have any interview opportunities, which once sparked heated discussion among netizens about the living conditions of "older" programmers.

Employees around the age of 35 are easily put on the attrition list. The common saying is as follows.

One is the theory of cost-effective. Some voices think that the ability of an employee around the age of 35 may not match his qualifications, and there will be an upside-down relationship between labor costs and abilities. Second, the theory of promotion. Large factories advocate flattening management, and the promotion channels are limited. The so-called older farmers work with young Houlang and may even be led by Houlang, which is considered to lead to an awkward workplace atmosphere and is not conducive to team management. Third, the internal changes of the big factory itself are fierce, stripes and business adjustments are frequent, and it is not uncommon for all team members to be disbanded.

However, some voices pointed out that although society cries for 35 years old, it does not mean that all programmers wear gold bells and iron cloth shirts that "should not be laid off" once they put on the label of 35 years old. after all, the nature of the job market pays attention to the law of ability and demand. it mainly depends on individual competitiveness. What society worries and cares about is that 35 years old is relatively easy to become a high-risk group to be laid off under the treatment of unreasonable professional age, which approaches the current public consensus and tends to worsen the expected management of workplace stability in the 30-year-old generation. causing widespread unease.

# 02 "the sense of relaxation that is not respected in China" is still popular in China. It comes from the long working hours that can be seen everywhere in the workplace, or a screw job, a competitive workplace, and a fiercely changing workplace environment, which makes many people physically and mentally exhausted. Going overseas may be a different way of living, which is the reason why some programmers choose to go to sea.

For Shen run, a 27-year-old businessman engaged in the AI industry, internal changes and fierce competition among domestic Internet companies are like shackles that make people want to escape all the time.

Shen run has worked in a big factory for more than two years. In 2022, his life ushered in two turning points. One is to receive the optimization notice from the company, and the other is to get the second master offer of TCD University (Trinity College Dublin, Ireland).

As early as 2021, Shen Run had the idea of leaving for the first time because of the frequent changes of leaders and the inscription of positions.

After two years as an algorithm engineer, Shen Run has changed four leaders, including the current company's CTO. "each leader will have his own different ideas and style will take a long time to get used to." As a programmer at the grass-roots level, Shen Runben did not want to involve too many complex relationships, but the management was unstable and people at the grass-roots level would be in a panic.

Catching up with the downsizing trend of Internet companies, Shen Run received the expected downsizing notice, but his heart was much more relaxed. Because in the past year, he has applied to a good school in Ireland in advance and learned about the local work situation.

Here is an episode: in the popular online INFP (Mediator Personality) test, Shen ran's test result was INFP-T: world-averse personality.

And Ireland became his choice to avoid the world. Although in the previous survey he found that AI is not doing well in Ireland, and his annual salary is directly halved from the current 450000 yuan in big domestic companies, this does not stop him from going out to avoid the world. Now Shen Run is enjoying the scenery of Ireland and preparing for entry.

Like Shen run, Fang Chun has given up his job in a big domestic Internet company and studied abroad. As a Baidu product manager, she always believes that she does not belong to the character of push others all the time. But in a big factory where the law of the jungle is the law of the jungle, if you don't force others, you have to carry it all by yourself.

Constantly optimizing staff reduction, witnessing the same group of colleagues working overtime dragged down their health, workplace sexism, all kinds of pressure, so that Fang Chun finally made up his mind to empty himself. The 30-year-old successfully applied to a school in a small city in the Netherlands (one-year master program). She plans to change the code in the next year to do a more suitable job in a more relaxed environment.

Network diagram | compared with the fierce workplace environment at home, overseas seems to give a lot of imagination to domestic programmers.

As the first full-distance employee to be recruited by the company, Wang Hai never has to go to the office to feel interpersonal pressure. Even colleagues who need to go to the office around Wang Hai can still choose to work from home under the premise that the epidemic in Canada has eased. 'The company doesn't seem to have any intention of changing the status quo, 'Mr. Wang said.

Wang Hai's only chance to have direct contact with colleagues every day is to organize a meeting. In addition, the company does not have specific requirements for the number of hours a day, but only requires 40 hours a week without affecting teamwork.

In the Canadian workplace, Wang Hai experienced a very different working atmosphere from that in China. He often sees people shouting in the work group, "I'm going to pick up the kids. I'll be right back."I'm going to make some coffee. I'll be right back."I'm going to take a car for maintenance. I'll be right back."I'm going for a walk and the dog will be right back." some people even say, "it's sunny outside. I'm going for a walk."

'This is a sense of relaxation that has never been seen in the domestic workplace and will not be respected, 'Mr. Wang said.

In the past 10 years, Internet companies have been called the new business card of China's economy. Many people think that as a Chinese programmer born in a big and powerful country of the Internet, going overseas is a blow to reduce dimensionality.

Wang Hai doesn't think so. He said that many differences between China and foreign countries are only due to the different environment for the development of the Internet. When he first came to Canada, for example, he was as curious as many people why there were no more convenient payment tools such as Alipay and Wechat. Wang Hai immediately learned that the difference comes from overseas regulatory policies with different emphasis, as well as fixed consumer payment habits, such as cash, cheques, bank draft,e- transfer, credit cards and so on.

On the other hand, domestic "volumes" often give people the impression that the company's projects are making rapid progress, while the pace of work overseas often gives people a sense of slowness. Wang Hai believes that the reason why there is a difference in feeling is actually caused by different working concepts and methods, and it is not possible to say who is high and who is low.

"for example, for a few small projects we have done, or even some minor changes, we need to spend a lot of time testing, communicating, documenting, and PRTI. In China, we may think that it is only a few hours of work, but if there is a problem, we will change it. We will work here for a week or two until we make sure that there will be no more problems."

Wang Hai said that most overseas companies also have promotion systems. If you want to do senior positions or even management positions, programmers need to improve not only their skills.

"however, what may be slightly different from that in China is that for programmers who do not want to roll up, there is also a relaxed environment for their skills, and the corresponding salary will increase with the increase of years and level. whether you want to climb the ladder depends entirely on personal pursuit, lying flat is not a mistake." Wang Hai said.

Going out to sea in # 04 is not the end of victory. Although you can start anew by changing the environment, it is not the beginning of a magnificent life. Especially for young and middle-aged people, many of them already have families in this age range, and the cost of going out to sea is very high.

In Wang Hai's eyes, his experience is hardly replicable. Especially for programmers who are over 35 years old, most of them need to consult their partner when going out to sea at this age. If they are married, they also need to bring a family with them. The difficulty rises directly to Hard mode.

After overcoming the difficulty of finding a job, Wang Hai's next step is long-term survival. At present, at the age of 37, he has to bear not only the personal burden, but also the expenses of his wife and children. And the cost is stressful, even if you live in London, Canada's 11th largest city. As a family of four, Wang Hai spends 4313.24 Canadian dollars (22601.3 yuan) a month, excluding rent.

On NUMBEO, a website that assesses study abroad and work destinations, Beijing's cost of living index is 46.23, lower than 100 in New York, 71.73 in London, and 66.23 in London, Canada.

Figure | cost of living Index in different cities in Canada, on the other hand, the reality is that, also affected by the epidemic and the global economic environment, US technology companies are also laying off a large number of employees, including FAANG, which many people want to go to.

In early September, US social giant Snap was revealed to be planning to cut 20 per cent of its workforce. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, plans to cut spending by at least 10 per cent in the coming months, in part through layoffs. Google also recently informed half of the employees of Area120, the startup incubator, that it needs to find other jobs within the company within 90 days, with a total of more than 100 employees in Area120.

For domestic programmers, the step of going out to sea is certainly not as simple as imagined.

In fact, for the domestic, from the relevant government departments in charge of industries to various places have issued a lot of policies to further develop the Internet industry, including programmers to provide a good development dividend.

Of course, whether to go to sea or not is the freedom of people's personal choice. At the same time, it should also be noted that in recent years, many policies have been introduced overseas to attract high-tech people, and the stage for those with ability is bound to be global.

The United States passed a relevant bill this year to waive the annual green card country restriction for foreign applicants with STEM doctoral degrees, in order to strengthen the core competitiveness of the United States. Britain announced on May 6 that all students graduating from the top 50 universities in the world can apply for High potential talents Visa (High Potential Individual Visa). Japan also announced not long ago that "foreign high talent visas will be relaxed." the so-called highly talented people refer to talents in academic research, expertise, and management. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said that "the era of striving for talent" has come.

In the context of this era, Chinese programmers actually put themselves on the dimension of global competition, and the difficulties they face cannot be underestimated. But one thing is clear: no matter where we are and where we go, people just find a better self in different time and space, and we all go the same way.

In the article, Wang Hai, Shen Run and Fang Chun are all aliases.

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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: true stories Research Room (ID:zhengulab), author: editor Chen Jialun | Gong Zheng

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