I thought about it,
and said:
Yes.
(I)
A few days ago I went with my girlfriend to rent an apartment.
Because we as a couple were renting a two-bedroom,
the Lianjia guy naturally asked whether we’d consider a one-bedroom.
Based on the principle that you implement things better when you know the business needs,
I told him I’m a programmer.
Sometimes I want to work late at night,
and my schedule is offset from my girlfriend’s,
so that’s the reason we’re renting a two-bedroom.
The guy was very curious when he heard I’m a programmer.
He asked: “What do you programmers do?”
I thought a bit and told him:
“For example, the website you use to upload room photos,
that’s developed by us programmers.
For example, the apps on your phone that need to update from time to time,
those are made by programmers.
For example, WeChat, King of Glory, or even your phone OS,
they’re all made by programmers.”
The guy got more curious:
“So you’re ‘in IT’ then.
I heard from my friend,
that if you ‘do IT’,
you can train for three months
and find a job with a salary of ten thousand a month.
Is that true?”
(II)
The guy saw the dumbfounded look on my face,
and he told me:
“After the new year, all the customers I’ve received have been in IT.
A while ago there was an entry-level college grad from Hunan who came to Shanghai,
two of them rented a 9000-yuan apartment.
Just after the new year,
there was also a couple,
the guy was a fair bit older than the girl,
also in IT,
the two of them also rented at seven or eight thousand.
A while ago there was another customer,
one person renting at five thousand,
had only been there a month,
(didn’t even want the deposit back),
and went off to Alibaba in Hangzhou…”
Me: “Uhh…”
=_=
I thought about it,
seeing the guy so curious,
and also out of self-interest — me exchanging industry knowledge with the guy,
the guy might tell me how to rent cheaper —
I seriously explained:
“What you’re saying, train for three months,
make ten thousand a month, definitely has some probability of happening.
What we do might get called ‘doing IT’,
but that’s actually a very large career range,
and there are all sorts of situations.
For instance, maybe some wealthy enterprises are doing informationization.
Such enterprises don’t lack super-specialized technical talent,
they need people who are excellent in many aspects.
Maybe your communication, collaboration awareness, business ability are all great.
Then you seriously attend a training,
you acquire the ‘IT’ skill,
just like attending English training or excavator training. Same logic.”
The guy thought about it.
He said yeah, makes sense.
(III)
The guy said Lianjia is going through a reform.
Everyone has no base salary,
purely surviving on commissions.
“Do you know,
when I first came to Shanghai in ‘16,
just wearing a suit and tie,
standing on the street, people would ask me about buying houses…”
The guy reminisced fondly:
“Many of my coworkers,
didn’t even finish high school.
In ‘08, ‘10, they started doing this.
Long since bought houses and cars back home,
now also working in the store.”
Crosstalk requires one person to set up and one to deliver,
so I sighed: “So awesome huh.”
The guy also sighed:
“Yeah.
But now every night I can’t sleep,
every day when I wake up there’s only money going out,
no money coming in,
do you understand that feeling?
I just want to understand how the internet industry is,
if there’s a chance I’ll do it when I go back home.
What’s hot right now?
It’s the internet.
This is the internet-plus era.”
I was conquered by the guy’s earth-shattering, industry-piercing, fact-grounded speech,
not knowing what to say to keep the topic going.
(IV)
When you don’t know what to say, switch back to the main topic.
What’s the main topic?
The main topic is training.
OK, so let’s continue talking with the guy about training.
Knowing the guy was actually seriously considering training,
I thought about it,
and told him more of what I know:
“Uh, let me tell you everything I know.
But because I’m not in the training business myself,
what I say might all be wrong.
First, seriously attending IT training can definitely lead to finding a job.
Like you said, this is the ‘internet plus’ era.
Society has a big talent gap for IT.
For example, the electronic locks we just saw,
the bike-sharing that emerged in the past two years,
the mobile payments everyone uses,
all of these involve automation, all need engineers.
Second, what kind of job you find varies.
Because ‘doing IT’ covers a lot of stuff.
I can’t specifically elaborate on this,
but you should know that often ‘doing IT’ faces machines,
which is traditionally considered very dull work.
Those who can’t adapt, many of them work miserably.
Finally, training itself, the effect varies by person.
Some people might train a few months
and learn a lot,
opening a door for themselves.
But some people might train a few months,
and the only thing they learn
is that they themselves aren’t suited for ‘doing IT’.
So because I don’t know your specific situation,
I can’t give you specific help on this matter.”
After listening,
the guy fell into a buffering caused by the info overload.
I thought a bit more,
and gave practical advice:
“To be honest, if you want to know more about this,
my suggestion is this.
Ask around in your hometown,
or among any close IT friends you have.
They definitely know you better, know your hometown’s specific situation better,
and the suggestions they give
can definitely be followed through more easily.”
(V)
After chatting all the way with the Lianjia guy,
when I got home I also couldn’t help but sit down and fall into the topic of “industry choice”.
I thought about the moment I myself chose my industry.
It happened the moment my dad filled out my university application form for me.
Back then in senior year, when I took the Tsinghua early-admission exam,
I had to fill out three preferred majors before the exam.
While filling out the form I was extra happy,
as if I’d already been admitted.
At the time I really liked watching the architecture show “Dream Building World” and the car show “Top Gear”,
so Tsinghua’s first, second, third choices were Architecture, Civil Engineering, Automotive Engineering.
Later, taking the Hua Yue exam, I was too lazy to fill out the Jiao Da form again,
so I had my dad do it for me.
My dad looked at the form and told me: “Jiao Da lets you fill out five choices.”
Probably playing games at the time, I said: “Just fill it out however you want.”
So my dad correspondingly filled out: Architecture, Civil Engineering, Automotive Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering.
I looked at the five choices and told my dad:
“I feel like I already wrote programs for six years in middle/high school,
I probably don’t want to write programs going forward.”
And I swapped the fourth choice from Computer Science to the English department.
But then the teacher in charge of Jiao Da’s major assignments,
probably seeing I had studied OI,
directly assigned me to the fifth choice: Software Engineering.
To this day I really appreciate this teacher for not indulging my little caprice.
Sometimes I sigh with my teammates:
actually the biggest role of the few years of formal CS education
is letting you know whether you like this industry or not.
The lucky classmates have this clear,
and continue in the industry of their college major;
some classmates after four years
realize they don’t like this major/industry,
and immediately switch careers.
Just like the Lianjia guy asked:
“I heard if you train in IT for three months you can make ten thousand a month.
Is that true?”
If I were asked again, I’d tell him:
“It can be true.”
If pressed to say one more thing, I’d say:
“As long as you stick to working in an industry you love,
you may run into difficulties and setbacks,
but one day you’ll get a better life because of your own diligence and courage.”
I hope the guy can find a career he loves,
and dedicate his life to it.
(End)