The escape plan of a 28-year-old programmer began with delivery.

? ID：business-data school (id: business-data)

Wen | Huang Xiaoyi

Do programmers really have a 35-year-old spell?

There are many discussions in Zhihu, Maimai, Xiaohongshu and Tik Tok. Some people say that they are "discriminated against when they are looking for a job at the age of 40"; Some people think that "there will be no good technology", and the answer is inconclusive.

On the short video platform, many programmers walked from behind the scenes to the stage to tell their unemployment experiences and age anxiety. Li Bao, a former employee of Baidu, was one of them.

I have been doing self-media videos for 4 months. On July 13th, an interview video of Li Bao-the topic that 39-year-old employees of a big factory were laid off with a monthly mortgage of 15,000 yuan rushed to the top of hot search, and his story triggered another wave of discussion on the way out for middle-aged programmers.

"I originally chose a big factory because I wanted to escape the 35-year-old laid-off Kaner, but I still didn’t escape."

Anxiety is still spreading, and Kobayashi and Ruixin, who are not yet 35 years old, have begun to plan ahead.

Kobayashi began to use his off-duty and weekend time to deliver takeout and run errands, and shuttled between the traffic in Shanghai. This physical activity unexpectedly brought vitality to Kobayashi; Ruixin began to pick up private jobs that had not been done for a long time. The company was not right, and he was still carrying a mortgage. He was tortured by private jobs and posted that programmers should not take private jobs. Now he is starting to return to his old job.

According to the Survey Report on Programmers’ Salary and Living Conditions in China in 2021, the proportion of programmers aged 22-24 is as high as 11.2%, that of programmers aged 25-29 is as high as 42.5%, that of programmers aged 30-34 is as high as 31.8%, and that of programmers aged 35 and above is only 9.4%, less than 1/10.

According to the newly released "Investigation and Analysis Report of Graduation Season in 2022", IT technology is the mainstream position for graduates to choose employment. For a long time, high salary has been tempting young people to flood into the code farming industry.

On the one hand, the entrance is crowded, on the other hand, the opportunity for promotion is narrowed, and many middle-aged programmers caught in it are eager for transformation in anxiety.

People outside the city want to go in, people in the city want to go out, and most of the ways to go out start from sideline business.

01

Take-out delivery on the sideline is actually "really fragrant"

Kobayashi, 28, has been a programmer for seven years. He started as a small farmer with a monthly salary of 4,500 yuan and worked his way to a development supervisor with a monthly salary of 31K. Recently, he has another identity-a takeaway.

Although there is no experience of being "graduated", Kobayashi has seen too many news that the 35-year-old+employees of large factories have been optimized, and it is inevitable that there will be concerns. 35 years old is like an unknown shadow. "We don’t know if we can still work on code when we are 35 years old."

"It is said that programmers are all takeaways? Then try it. " Because of the overwhelming play on the Internet, when Kobayashi wants to do some sideline business to make money, the first thing that comes to mind is to send takeout food. Kobayashi took delivery as an attempt, and did it first. "In order not to be caught off guard by the sudden arrival of unemployment, when you are young and have time, you should try to explore ways to make money."

From the easy-to-use "flash delivery" to the time-sensitive takeaway, it took more than a month to try.

"Because I won’t work overtime, I will send it to the evening from Monday to Friday, about 7 orders a day, and send it all day on weekends, ten to twenty orders a day."

▲ The picture comes from the Internet.

The price of a single ticket ranges from 10 yuan to 30 yuan. After running for one month, Kobayashi saved 5777 yuan in his rider’s account. He was very surprised. "It turns out that I can earn so much money by sleeping late and fishing before. Although it’s hard, it’s just fitness after writing code every day."

Kobayashi posted his experiences on social platforms, which attracted many comments. Someone calculated, "An average of 1 hour in 42 yuan is not as good as private work."

But Kobayashi doesn’t think so. Although the original intention of starting this sideline business is to make money, it’s not just to make money.

"I’ve been a programmer for 7 years, and I’ve been typing code, which is really boring." Kobayashi wants to experience a different life and find some inspiration from other places.

In Kobayashi’s view, programmers are immersed in technology, and with the increase of working years, the quality of other aspects will deteriorate.

"For example, the ability to express in public, dealing with problems in black and white, staying up late and working overtime are not well managed, and they are generally slightly fat and sub-healthy." Kobayashi said, "Because the salary is not low, I tend to be content with the status quo. Generally, I don’t want to take risks to start a business. If I want to work in this business for a long time, I will study as soon as I have time, and I don’t have time to think about other sideline businesses."

Different from programmers’ lonely code words, on the way to flash, different businesses and customers have surprises and accidents every day. As an extrovert who is increasingly afraid of society, Kobayashi is less and less afraid of society, and he is full of vitality in Little Red Book.

"After sending it for a while, I tried the US group takeaway, which was more profitable but easy to make mistakes." Well written procedures, but not necessarily good takeout. It is easy to make mistakes when you are in a hurry. Kobayashi missed the meal, was blamed by the customer after the meal was wet because of the rain, and did not take pictures after the delivery. Finally, the customer lost the bill and complained, and he was deducted more than a dozen pieces from the bill.

But Xiao Lin’s mood has not been affected. Unlike code arranged step by step, life allows bugs to exist.

The rider’s work makes Kobayashi feel full of experience, and there is a comfortable "working environment". Every day, riding a small electric donkey and blowing a free wind, he feels more comfortable than sitting in an office.

"I also know that this is because I don’t need to rely on takeaway to support my family, and the pressure is relatively small." Judging from the positioning of sideline business, flash delivery has well met Kobayashi’s demand for outdoor activities. "Because I don’t want to take code private work, but there is no other way to make money, I will continue my desire to make money first."

The experience of running errands for more than a month has increased Kobayashi’s vision outside the office and made him more familiar with the environment in various places in Shanghai. "Maybe one day he will be triggered by a certain scene, someone, something or something and think of the idea of making money." Kobayashi’s idea is quite optimistic. "To take a step back, even if you set up a stall one day, you can know where it can be placed and where the crowd is big."

There are not a few people who agree with Kobayashi. Some netizens asked him, "How can I join the test in Shanghai? I usually sit for too long and want to get some extra money after work."

The 35-year-old anxiety of "Kobayashi" is both age anxiety and career planning anxiety. As a sideline, they mostly want to escape the cycle of involution in the code.

02

There is no way out for the money-saving madman who picks up private work.

Some people are looking for a way out, and some people have no way out.

Ruixin is 33 years old this year, catching up with the best decade of the Internet and catching up with the lonely winter.

"The peers around us are generally anxious. After all, they are promoted upward, and there are few management posts. Non-management posts will give priority to young people with good physical fitness." Ruixin consulted a 35-year-old friend early. "He was also very anxious at first, but later he gradually got over it and found a company that supports the elderly. His salary was upside down, but he also recognized it."

Transformation management is also a way, "but there are not many successful transformations." Ruixin said, "Many programmers like me are not suitable for doing business because they talk less and work less."

"In short, keep an open mind and keep learning. There are also 35-year-old colleagues around me. Many people will be very stubborn at this age. "

▲ The picture comes from the Internet.

In recent years, when the Internet environment was not good, Ruixin’s department was frequently optimized. He stopped doing private work for a long time and recently began to take over.

Ruixin clearly feels that the employment market in Guangzhou this year is not good. A friend changed his job, but he hasn’t found it for two months. Although you can’t be rich and free, you still have a mortgage of 20 thousand every month because of your age. "It is more important to deal with risks at this moment." Ruixin added.

Ruixin also mentioned that the main business and private work are not well balanced. Doing private work is a short-term and quick mode, and it can be accepted. Over time, the thinking mode is easy to become rigid and is not a long-term solution.

The most tiring thing about taking private jobs is that it is difficult to communicate with Party A. "How do you collect money? What is the deposit? How to determine the interim payment and the final payment? Demand docking is difficult to align, from product design to UI module. The other party may not think clearly, and there is nothing, so it is easy to wrangle. "

"Suffering for a month, earning one or two thousand yuan, you can do it when you are short of money." Ruixin concluded.

In Zhihu, there are 29,000 people watching the column "I want to earn extra money: how programmers take private jobs"; In the programmer community CSDN, there are more than 10,000 posts related to private work.

Kobayashi also took over the private work for a period of time. He summed up four main categories: projects recommended by friends of the project manager, projects outsourced by his old employer, rewards for helping others solve problems, and taking orders on crowdsourcing platforms such as code market. "The unit price of crowdsourcing orders is extremely low. If there is no open source code directly, you must not pick it up, otherwise you will work hard and earn a few dollars."

For Kobayashi, the best is the project outsourced by his old employer, which can be completed in 10 days for 30 thousand yuan, but such a good project with high unit price and short time consumption often cannot be sustained; Secondly, it is a private job recommended by a friend. It takes two months of spare time for 20 thousand yuan, and the unit price is not high. "Because they also want to take some commission," Kobayashi explained, "I am not too embarrassed to bargain."

Writing code at work, writing after work, and writing on weekends, Kobayashi mentioned that he was crazy about making money for a while, but later found that if he kept picking up, he could not afford it physically and mentally.

Kobayashi received the order in the yard market, with a reward of 7,000 yuan, and there was an app at the front and back of the package. "I have done similar projects before, and I thought it would be fine to change them slightly, but when I talked about the demand in detail, I found that it was quite different from the ideal, so I didn’t continue to cooperate in the end."

In Kobayashi’s view, it is unrealistic to take private jobs to improve skills. "For veterans, it is just repetition. For novices, this is not the best way to improve themselves, but a short-term way to make money." Lin added, "If you really like programming, you can play and earn some extra money at the same time, but for me personally, life is all about writing code, which is too difficult."

03

Programmers who don’t want to be bosses are not good employees.

Zhihu has an old post, "As a woman who doesn’t understand technology, the programmer’s husband wants to start a business. How can he share his worries?"

Gao Zan replied, "Thank you for inviting him not to start a business."

The 32-year-old Wenyou shared her story in Zhihu-how she changed from a game developer to an entrepreneurial boss.

"After working for 8 years, I have copied countless copies of the source code at hand. I feel that I have the technology and I want to do something." Wenyou said, "There are definitely not a few programmers who share my thoughts. At that time, I thought that technology was the key to success, and nothing else was important."

But it turns out that Wenyou’s idea is all wet.

Wenyou first found a marketing partner. "One person is in charge of customers, the other is in charge of technology, and I develop more according to each other’s wishes."

At first, Wenyou developed a DNF plug-in. They cooperated very successfully and made a fortune, but later they stopped updating and withdrew from the market because the risk was too great.

They started to develop the second project-taobao guest Software. "The initial effect is good, and the net profit income is about 5-10w per month." According to Wenyou, the company’s revenue is increasing every month.

▲ The picture comes from the Internet.

Because I feel that my technology is good, Wenyou began to consider strengthening investment in the technology sector.

"At that time, one of my development friends was forced to join, and the partner in charge of the market was not willing, saying that the company did not need more people to join, but in the end it would agree."

Perhaps it was Wenyou’s stubbornness that cast an unpleasant shadow on the cooperation. After a period of time, the partner proposed to hand over the project to him, and Wenyou carried out his stubbornness to the end. "I think I can come alone, there are products anyway."

But in fact, without market support, there will be no customers, and soon the passenger flow will decline. Wenyou, while doing it alone, held back his strength, and constantly upgraded and added new functions to taobao guest’s software by benchmarking competing technology, but ultimately failed to save the tide.

"No matter how well the function is developed, it is really impossible to find customers, and the project will naturally collapse in the end." In the whole process of the resumption, Wenyou believes that his own problem lies in technical arrogance.

"The reason why I succeeded for the first time was not because of my technology, but because of the market resources of another partner. At that time, WeChat exploded every day, and hundreds of fans joined in a day, even if they sold air, they could make money. "

"I have never jumped out of my own strange circle. A programmer’s strange circle always feels that technology must be advanced and products must be perfected before they can go online. It took me nearly two years to jump out."

Speaking of entrepreneurial experience, Wenyou frankly mentioned, "If you are ready to start a business, you haven’t quit your job yet, try not to quit first."

"In the early days of starting a business, there will be no income. Don’t imagine that the financial resources will be rolling in after starting a business for half a year. Squeeze toothpaste and put all your spare time at work into the data collation of starting a business, integrate resources, analyze the market and find customers. Don’t rush to develop products. "

With the increasing uncertainty of the main business, people’s desire for sideline and entrepreneurship has increased. No matter Kobayashi, Ruixin or Wenyou, they are eager to find a broader world outside the programmer’s career.

On the way to develop sideline business, they are worried about middle-aged unemployment, take responsibility for their lives, and are somewhat unwilling to accept the ideal of the status quo. Maybe they are no longer young, but they can still be young and continue to set off.

– FIN –

Nancaihao creator of the year 2021

Netease Technology Top10 Author in 2020

Top 10 Influential Creator of Titanium Media 2021

Top10 Author of Sina Technology and Finance in 2020

Received Baidu Baijia Kunpeng Plan, Tencent Stars Plan and Today’s Headline Qingyun Plan for many times.

This article first appeared on WeChat WeChat official account: Business Data School. The content of the article belongs to the author’s personal opinion and does not represent Hexun.com’s position. Investors should operate accordingly, at their own risk.