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Text / Zhao Zhefeng

According to the survey data of Zhilian recruitment some time ago, more than 60% of respondents believe that it is more difficult to find a job this spring festival than in previous years. Why is it difficult?

In 2021, with large-scale layoffs in education and training, real estate, Internet and other industries, the supply and demand of the job market reversed sharply. At the same time, with the addition of factors such as the record high number of efficient graduates (breaking tens of millions for the first time), the economy entering a downward cycle and the outbreak of the epidemic, many job seekers fell into the situation of “difficult to find a job” this spring, and the incumbents no longer jumped to try to “change jobs”.

In the face of unprecedented competitive pressure, migrant workers call “gold, silver and four disappeared”.

However, in such an environment, practitioners in the automotive industry are particularly special. With the help of technological changes in the industry, their value soared in this year’s job market and became a “sweet pastry” competed by major enterprises for a time.

There are three macro reasons for this phenomenon.

1、 The demand for talents has increased greatly

According to the data of pulse talent think tank, among the new economy industries with the largest number of new jobs in 2021, the new energy vehicle industry ranks second, with a year-on-year increase of 365%.

2、 There is a serious shortage of supply

The “new four modernizations” have put forward new requirements for automobile talents, and the industry needs a large number of compound talents with “both software and hardware”. However, the current situation is that there are not enough talents in automobile enterprises, and the talent training system of automobile major in Colleges and universities is relatively backward. Talents transferred from industries such as the Internet can not adapt to new roles in the short term.

3、 Mismatch between supply and demand

According to the revelation of new energy vehicle talents released by pulse Research Institute, the positions with the largest demand in the automotive industry in the first half of last year were R & D positions such as perception algorithm expert, AI platform technology expert and deep learning engine framework R & D Engineer. However, the posts with the largest delivery volume are non R & D posts such as project management, HR and business development, which are divorced from supply and demand.

The above three reasons have caused the extreme shortage of talents in the automotive industry.

However, only from a macro perspective is far from enough to show how “hungry” enterprises are for talents.

So next, we will focus on the micro, combined with the real stories of auto practitioners who have recently had job-hunting experience around the author, to explore the deep reasons behind this phenomenon and interesting details, as well as the challenges and uncertainties they will face. Talking about how to double the salary, Wang Hua’s tone was full of stories.

Wang Hua: wages haven’t increased for several years. They doubled directly after job hopping

Company change: traditional automobile enterprises → large automobile suppliers

Job change: Engine Engineer → new electronic architecture development

Wang Hua, 28, majored in vehicle engineering, entered a domestic vehicle enterprise to engage in engine R & D after graduation in 2016.

During his college years, vehicle engineering was still a popular major. Although the salary after graduation was not comparable to that of the Internet industry, it was at least stable.

However, no one expected the “cold winter” to come so suddenly. In 2018, the sales volume of China’s passenger car market fell for the first time in more than 20 years. Later, we all know that it will continue to decline in 2019 and the epidemic will attack in 2020.

This has frustrated year-end bonus in Wang Hua’s past years. He has been tucking up to the author for more than a few years, and make complaints about the salary. “This year the company has lost hundreds of millions of dollars. The year-end award is definitely not going to be a success.”

However, all this has been completely changed with the rise of new energy vehicles and the transformation of the “new four modernizations” of the industry.

In 2021, the sales volume of new energy vehicles in China soared by 1.6 times year-on-year. Wang Hua, who has a keen sense of smell, soon found new opportunities. It was also in that year that Wang Hua began to contact electrification related projects in his work and self-study relevant knowledge and skills in his spare time.

For this transformation, Wang Hua explained that “we can clearly feel that the industry’s demand for traditional energy talents is decreasing, so we made a decisive transformation while we are young and have strong learning ability.”

After a period of precipitation, finally in March this year, Wang Hua ushered in a great turnaround in his career. The new unit is a large domestic automobile supplier, in which he is responsible for the development of electronic architecture power domain. As for salary, he told DoNews that “it has almost doubled compared with before”.

As for the overall job-hunting environment this year, Wang Hua said calmly, “as long as you have an engineering background, it’s easy to find R & D positions. Just like some liberal arts positions, such as administration and project management, some enterprises are laying off staff. But like project management, it can often be taken over directly by engineering, so there is a great demand for technical R & D personnel.”

Although there are a few people who double their salary after job hopping like Wang Hua, today’s talents in the automotive industry are indeed “appreciating” rapidly. Hr of a car company once told the media that “even for the most common posts, the comprehensive salary increase (cash + stock) can reach 50%, and there are also those who offer twice the salary for software related posts.”

The reason is that in addition to the “imbalance between supply and demand” mentioned above, the competition from large Internet manufacturers and technology companies has further raised the value of talents in the automotive industry.

Zhu Mingrong, President of the automotive talent Research Association, previously pointed out that “the competitors that a new energy vehicle enterprise has to face are not limited to the automotive industry. They have to compete with big manufacturers such as Google, apple, Microsoft, Huawei, Alibaba and Tencent. It is difficult to break through without strong attraction.”

Although the former owner didn’t give Wang Hua rich material returns, he was grateful for his previous work experience. “My understanding of cars, development processes and the relationship between upstream and downstream industries was accumulated in my previous work. At that time, a basic knowledge framework was formed. If I didn’t have previous work experience, I wouldn’t find my current job.”

This also explains why the above-mentioned “talents transferred from the Internet and other industries to the automotive industry are difficult to meet the demand in a short time”.

Zhou Rui: car companies “kill crazy” by robbing people. They have to be professional

Employment change: a fresh student majoring in engine has signed a contract with a new power car enterprise

The “new four modernizations” not only makes the existing car enterprises have more talent needs, but also makes a large number of new brands rise, such as Tesla and “Wei Xiaoli”.