The wave of layoffs in large factories and the talent shortage in the automotive industry

"I plan to resign." A neighbor Xu Min suddenly sent a sentence a few days ago.

At the beginning of this year, 31-year-old Xu Min was still a member of a cutting-edge technology project team of a major Internet company. In his opinion, the era of artificial intelligence is rapidly approaching.Unexpectedly, what came before artificial intelligence was the notification that the project team was optimized as a whole.

He did not understand, but had to accept the reality.So, among the many job opportunities, Xu Min chose to enter the auto industry. In his words, "This is a sunrise industry, at least you don't have to worry about being retired at the age of 35."

However, he didn't even need to wait until he was 35 years old. After only 3 months of training, he had to redo his plans for the future.It seems that there are not a few people who have the same experience.

The halo of Internet giants fades, and the wave of layoffs intensifies

Beginning in 2022, workplace people's belief in big Internet companies is rapidly fading.

The salary that used to be much higher than the average social salary, the perfect welfare and insurance system, the open working atmosphere, the countless benefits of team building, catering, and afternoon tea have allowed fresh graduates from prestigious schools such as 211/985 to start using the Internet in 2010. Dachang is their first choice for entering the workplace.

However, with the "996 Good News" in recent years, sudden death caused by deformed overtime, and frequent employee rebound and social controversy caused by anxiety at the age of 35, more and more people in the workplace have begun to wake up. The "employment model" of large Internet companies is showing an extreme tendency. .

At the same time, Internet giants such as Tencent, Baidu, Alibaba, and Meituan have started laying off staff.

In May of this year, Tencent started a new round of layoffs, involving Tencent Cloud, games, advertising and other businesses.Among them, the proportion of layoffs in Tencent's game business is about 10%, and in March this year, Tencent Cloud and the smart industry business group have already laid off a round, the proportion is about 15%.

According to a data released by "Netcom China",from July 2021 to mid-March this year,Tencent, Alibaba, ByteDance, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Kuaishou, Baidu, JD.com, NetEase, Weibo , Bilibili, Ant Group and other 12 companies have a total of 216,800 employees.

Although "Netmail China" emphasized that the total number of recruits in these 12 companies was 295,900, and the net increase in employment was 79,100, of which 11 companies recruited more people than they left. The ratio remains high, and it is catering to the "hidden rules" of "Internet giants are always 29 years old".

In the face of the impact of the epidemic, complex external situations and fierce industry competition, many companies have taken the initiative to respond. The core of the change is to shut down non-core businesses, reduce non-core categories, optimize agile and streamline organizations, and curb investment and control costs.And every change involves the flow of talents.

According to the "2022 First Quarter Internet People Flow and Retention Survey Report" recently released by human resources service provider Wucheng,the overall increase in job postings in the Internet industry is at the lowest level since the 2019 epidemic.Regarding the willingness of the next job industry, more than 80% of the interviewed Internet people said that they will still stay in the industry, but some people are not ruled out to make plans for their own future.

A report by another human resource service provider, Zhilian Research Institute, verifies this phenomenon.This spring, 6.3% of Internet practitioners expected to turn to processing and manufacturing when applying for jobs, an increase of 2 percentage points over 2019,which is closely related to the development of intelligent manufacturing and industrial Internet.

2022 is Li Qin's third year in the workplace. After being laid off, he took compensation for the easiest Spring Festival in years, but after the holiday, he had to return to reality and consider work.I want to stay in the Internet industry, but there are few job opportunities. "The companies that I followed before have no recruitment needs or suitable positions. On the contrary, there are many job opportunities in automobile-related companies."

Unlike Li Qin who was forced to enter the auto industry, Xu Min did so after careful consideration."Currently, the real estate industry is cold, and the salary of the Internet industry has peaked. It will definitely go downhill in the future. Especially since I am infinitely approaching 35 years old, my next job must be long-term." Xu Min said.The automotive industry, especially the field of smartelectric vehicles, has become his next development goal.

There is a huge net talent gap in the automotive industry, and many opportunities are waiting

The Internet industry has laid off a lot of people, but the automotive industry is deeply in the bottleneck of lack of people.

According to the "Report on Talent Demand Forecast for the Intelligent ConnectedVehicle Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") released by the Society of Automotive Engineers of China, there are currently about 72,000 talents in China's intelligent networked industry. Development and rapid development According to the forecast of intelligent network connection, by 2025, the demand for talents in this industry will be between 92,000 and 116,000. After deducting the number of graduates entering this field every year, there are still 13,000 to 37,000 people. R&D talent gap.

At the same time, a group of giant companies in the Internet and mobile phone industries have set foot in cross-industry car building, with a lot of money in hand, but suffering from no one.

Therefore, in order to compete for talents, mainly new power companies, they set off an "Internet-style employment method", offering more favorable conditions than mature or traditional car companies, doubled high salaries, higher-level positions, founders The option of the team, as well as more rights and wider display space, not only attracts talents with relevant car-building experience, but also attracts talents from the Internet industry to join this car-building tide.

According to the "2022Q1 Big Data Report on Employment Trends for Mid-to-High-end Talents" released by Liepin, the largest year-on-year increase in new jobs is carbon neutral; the growth ofnew energy/electric vehicles ranks second, at 120.09%; the Internet of Vehicles ranks second Third, the year-on-year growth was 57.40%; the growth of new jobs in new energy, energy technology, autonomous driving, chips/integrated circuits and new materials ranked fourth to eighth, respectively 49.52%, 48.96%, 41.92%, 37.07 %, 31.75%.

Among them, theaverage salary in the field of autonomous driving is the highest, reaching 390,500 yuan; the second is the Internet of Vehicles, which is 377,000 yuan; the chip/integrated circuit ranks third, at 310,900 yuan; the average annual salary of new energy/electric vehicles is 278,900 yuan Yuan, ranked fourth.

So, what kind of talent do they lack?

At present, the automobile industry has ushered in a major change unseen in a century. The automobile has shifted from the era of functional vehicles with internal combustion engines to the era of electric smart vehicles. The talents and knowledge capabilities required by the automobile industry have also changed accordingly.

The results of the professional distribution of intelligent networked R&D personnel in the "Report" show that more than 65% of talents are non-mechanical (including vehicle engineering majors), and the knowledge structure required by such R&D personnel includes but is not limited to programming language, operation Basic knowledge of systems, policy engineering, English, mathematics, computers, controls and automobiles.At present, computer majors account for the highest proportion of majors, followed by electronic information and automation graduates.

Ren Wanfu, a senior analyst in the automotive industry, pointed out in an interview with Gasgoo that with the popularity of intelligence, electrification, and interconnection, the automotive industry has experienced a trend of cross-industry integration, and the demand for cross-industry talents is getting higher and higher. Now, whether it is technical research and development talents, management talents, or high-skilled talents, a complex knowledge structure is required.

Recruitment in the auto industry tends to be rational, how long will it be lively for "grabbing people"?

There is an old saying in the workplace: change job for half a year, change career and be poor for three years.This may be the main concern that causes over 80% of Internet people to remain in the industry when choosing their next job.

But as Xu Min said, it is more important to choose a career direction after the age of 35, without breaking it.

He chose a new business department in Shanghai under a relatively strong traditional automobile company.In his opinion, the group has strength, has a promising business direction, and has enough salary and benefits, which is better than most of his friends who have changed careers.Until 3 months later, the contradiction gradually intensified, until recently there was a dialogue at the beginning of the article.

Summarizing the reasons:Enterprises intend to transform but act slowly, often with more than enough energy; leadership ideas are solidified, and the collision between traditional manufacturing and Internet thinking is always a lose-lose; the last and most critical point is that the salary in April was cut in half, and the reason is closely related to the epidemic .

When asked where he wanted to jump, he said, "I want to go to a potential new power company, at least not far from the Internet industry in terms of working atmosphere and thinking."

But in fact, 2022 for new power companies does not seem to be easy.

Recently, following the news that Ideal Motors had broken the contract with the fresh graduates, Xiaopeng Motors, which is also the "top stream" of the new car-making force, also followed closely.In this regard, Xiaopeng Motors responded that due to the adjustment of positions and performance optimization of some departments, the adjustment of a small number of fresh graduates and related employees will be involved, and they will continue to communicate and handle them properly.

Focusing on this year, after two years of repeated epidemics, the global economy continues to slump, raw material prices and lack of cores plague every company, and the automotive industry is even better.On the afternoon of May 28, He Xiaopeng, chairman of Xiaopeng Motors, publicly disclosed that the original price of 3.5 yuan for chips has now exceeded 3,000 yuan.

In this context, many new energy vehicle companies have announced price increases since this year to shift the cost pressure brought by the upstream.With the spread of the domestic epidemic in many places since April, some enterprises in the industrial chain and supply chain of the automotive industry have stopped production and production, logistics and transportation have been greatly hindered, and production and supply capacity has dropped sharply.No auto company can survive on its own.

Taking Lixiang Auto as an example, due to the impact of the epidemic, only 4,167 Lili ONEs were delivered in April 2022, a sharp drop from 11,034 vehicles in March, resulting in serious losses.

While it is not clear how long the impact of the epidemic will last, adjusting non-core business units and even breaking contracts for new students has become one of the options for ideal cars to control costs.What's more, a former ideal car employee broke the news that the driving intelligence perception department where he is located has been optimized as a whole.

At the same time, Xiaopeng Motors has also recently been reported to be undergoing a new round of organizational adjustments and layoffs, involving multiple departments. At present, several executives have changed. He Liyang, the vice president of Xiaopeng Motors in charge of overseas business, has recently resigned. .Although Xiaopeng Motors responded that the "substantial layoffs" were different from the facts, it admitted that "due to the adjustment of positions and performance optimization of some departments, a small number of related employees were adjusted."

This time, Li Auto and Xpeng Motors are just the tip of the iceberg of the entire auto industry.Due to the lack of cores, high raw material prices, and the reduced willingness to consume in the market due to the epidemic, more and more car companies are struggling to develop, and recruitment is bound to be further narrowed.

There was a joke that in the week that a major Internet company organized layoffs, the company was filled with headhunters and personnel of various companies, just to compete for talents.But today, the general economic environment continues to be sluggish, and it is difficult to judge when it will fully recover. The wave of layoffs in major factories has continued to rise again and again. The auto industry also needs to think about where to go instead of blind expansion.

For Xu Min and others, it will be more and more difficult to seek new opportunities.