In previous years, when my senior brothers and sisters were looking for jobs, it seemed quite easy to me. But when it came to my turn this year, I realized that it was not the case at all...
Spring Recruitment#
In March, most internet companies start recruiting for summer internships. I also plunged into the campus recruitment competition with various talented individuals.
Thanks to one of my senior brothers who encouraged me to submit my resume early when I was in my sophomore year and told me about the daily internship opportunities at many companies. However, I was not proactive enough and ended up waiting until the second semester of my junior year.
Since the summer internship period is not long, I decided to focus on 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 beforehand and planned to achieve success in one go. However, I failed to even get an interview with Huya, Huanju, and Bigo, and my resumes were rejected one after another.
Afterwards, I revised my resume multiple times and then submitted it to ByteDance and NetEase, and I successfully received notifications for written tests.
"What is ACM mode?"
"Why is this question so unreasonable?"
"Why are the difficulty levels of the questions I did on LeetCode different?"
When it comes to algorithms, there are three types of people. The first type can solve problems without practicing much. The second type can solve problems with enough practice. And then there's me, the third type, who can't solve problems no matter how much I practice.
But the result was still the same. I didn't even get to meet the interviewers, and a month later, I received thank-you letters. It turns out that the clown was me.
Without much hope, I submitted my resume to Tencent and Alibaba, and unexpectedly, I got an interview.
The night before the Tencent interview, I could hardly sleep. It was my first interview in 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 is the WXG department, which is the WeChat Business Group, and it is known to be the most difficult.
Life has its ups and downs, and there's still an interview with Alibaba!
During the interview at Alibaba, I failed without understanding the principles behind the technologies and some basic concepts. The interviewer tried to make it less awkward by chatting casually with me.
Life has its ups and downs, but why does my life have so many downs?
Afterwards, 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 more, and then try again in the autumn recruitment to aim for top companies.
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 certain field, people, events, and things related to that field will be attracted to you. So, I set a clear goal for myself - "Get into a top company in the autumn recruitment" - and believed in it. I added the goal "Get into a top company in the autumn recruitment" to my Notion.
It seems that when you are desperate, you start to believe in superstitions.
Internship#
When I first arrived at the company, I followed the company's tutorial to install some internal tools. But then I was told that my workstation was not there, so I had to move again and delete the things I had just installed.
After settling down at my new workstation and 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.
Alright, it's time to start working! I want to write beautiful code, solve numerous bugs, follow good coding standards, and understand technical documents at a glance.
Clone the project: git clone xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Install dependencies: npm install
Done! I'm quite tired from running around today. I'll work harder tomorrow.
The next day, I started to feel restless. My colleagues were all focused on coding, while I had nothing to do. I felt out of place and realized that I came here to learn, so I should be more proactive.
"When can I start writing bugs?"
"You need to familiarize yourself with the project first."
Alright, I've worked hard today. Since the team leader said so, I'll work harder tomorrow.
The turning point came one day when I was idle and decided to help a colleague with a bug. Since then, I started receiving bug assignments. Later, I was transferred to a new project team and returned to the company headquarters with my team leader. The days of slacking off were gone forever. Oh, how I miss Huangpu!
As a frontend developer, I not only had to coordinate with the backend but also with UI designers.
While reviewing the UI of a project in Lanhui, I noticed a 404 error. I thought to myself, "How is this possible? Lanhui is owned by Sina, so it should be reliable, right?" As a member of the team, I felt a surge of determination and decided to report the issue. But as an introvert, I chose to ignore it for 5 minutes, thinking that maybe the UI designer would notice and fix it.
After 5 minutes, the 404 error was still there, mocking me. Unable to resist, I privately messaged the UI designer and found out that it was actually a default image made by someone else.
Two months passed quickly, and at the end of August, I resigned. I even had some unused time off. I went through the resignation process, handed over unfinished tasks to a colleague, said goodbye to my 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 something, and at least I had a real project on my resume, not just toys I made for learning or playing.
Alright, let's open up the job search platform and see if there are any referrals. "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 and felt that I wasn't fully prepared, but I had no choice but to submit my applications.
Tencent was always the fastest in processing applications, and I received an interview invitation the day after I submitted my application. Tencent was the first company I interviewed with in the spring, and now it was the first company I interviewed with in the autumn, although 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 I blurted out without thinking and made the interviewer laugh... Maybe it was because I made him laugh that he invited me for a second interview. However, I failed in the second interview.
The following days were long and filled with uncertainty. I often couldn't sleep due to anxiety and felt like a failure in the autumn recruitment. I lost count of how many companies sent me thank-you letters. I wish 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 reports, game news from Nintendo, Quora, and others.
I even dreamt one night that Xiaomi sent me an email, but when I woke up and checked, there was still nothing.
On the fourth or fifth day, I finally received an invitation for the second interview. After the second interview, it only took an hour for the offer to come. It was an offer that I was quite satisfied with, and we only talked for five minutes before they sent it.
The interview experience with Xiaomi was the best. The interviewers explained the questions I didn't know and then asked the next question. Even though my answers were messy, they summarized them in professional terms. I really liked this kind of communication.
Conclusion#
With this, my autumn recruitment journey should come to an end. I never expected that the flag I set months ago would go from "Doing" to "Done".
My senior brother said, "Come to Beijing, there are more opportunities here."
Now, it seems that 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 search journey 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.