Some lessons learned from resigning from the system

I finally got up the courage to resign from the system, looking at the children who are about to join the workforce with great ambition, I thought of me five years ago, also so full of expectations for the work and future and full of enthusiasm. What I am about to meet will be an unknown field, full of risks and challenges of society. Here I review the pits I stepped on and the places I didn’t pay attention to, hoping to do some tips for my younger siblings, to do a good job in career planning, and to complete the transformation from student to society.

I am a master of science and technology in finance, and now I have been working in a financial institution for five years. At that time, the unit (hereinafter referred to as unit A) recruitment is very good, I gave up other offers to come to unit A. After that, I started my career in the system. After that, I started my career in the system.

The first day I arrived at the unit, I had not yet shed the youthfulness of the students, the leader said to me in a serious voice: “Everyone is very good, but young colleagues must start from the very basics. “I remembered my parents’ teachings to me, into the system unit to work with their heads down, careful in their words, and put down their stature. I didn’t think the various jobs still far exceeded my expectations. “The first year you young people just do the basic work” …… I could not help but be surprised first. After that, I found that I no longer have anything to do with bonds and stocks, market fundamentals, financial statements, macroeconomics, replaced by inspection, audit, confidentiality, writing, sending documents, changing documents, checking drafts, party building, group building, booking conference rooms, setting up seat cards, preparing materials, speeches, not forgetting the beginning, adjusting the format, setting page numbers, checking typos, studying carefully “please XX Comrade read, read and study, read and approve, handle, expedite, attach great importance to” the spirit of the instructions ……

The system is a machine, each person is a screw. With the deepening of the degree of internal volume, the original secondary school students to do the work now need students from Peking University and Tsinghua to do, yes, if your school is not good enough even the door of this system units can not enter. Leaders are actually sometimes saying “how much talent is wasted in the system”. Admittedly, I have been on the road of serving leaders for five years. The first year was still in the process of adaptation, the second year and the third year in the fear that I was going to be buried in the anxiety of being eliminated from society and in meaningless work, of course followed by the epidemic, which made me stumble even more.

I finally decided to get out, which was not what I wanted, much less my original intention of coming to Unit A at that time. Once again, the social reality gave me a cold blow. With cfa, my resume is still sunk in the sea, after all, so many years away from the market, has long been wasted all kinds of knowledge. I was really desperate and relied on my seniors to recommend a few units, and when I looked at my resume during the interview, I sighed together, “Too bad, your education and software strength are perfectly fine, they are top. But your work experience can not match any work, this is hard” “you come to me is also to give you according to the freshman count” “although you are in the system, but what resources you can bring us, we recruit you and freshmen, in fact, there is no essential Even if you graduate from Peking University, we will still hire people with more experience.” ……

All these once again made me realize the cruelty of society. I faced a significant drop in wages, facing the psychological gap around the same group of students who have grown rapidly in their positions to become the backbone and even brought up their own teams. Sometimes I often joked with my classmates: “If another group of state-owned enterprises are laid off, I must be laid off.” Although it is a joke, behind it is really inexhaustible bitterness.

But it doesn’t matter, I have chosen to start over. I am still here to review what I did not do well, to give students some reminders.

I. Some of the mistakes that were made

  1. fail to understand that high selection standards are not the same as high parenting standards

Many times people offer to compare more look at how the unit, but in fact more important is how you are in the position. The unit is certainly also very important, but understand that what is out of your unit, become your own thing, which is your self-worth to improve. According to the situation in the current internal volume, a flock of students from Peking University and Tsinghua University are flocking to the system or part of the institution, they select people with naturally high standards. As the leader said what positions have to have to do the most basic printing and copying and scanning documents, just now it is the turn of your Peking University people to do it. Do not uphold the student thinking that what place is difficult to enter must be a good unit, better look at the unit in which you are engaged in the work and the unit to train you.

  1. Failure to establish a clear career plan and an effective connection between life paths

I didn’t know to go to internship until after my bachelor’s degree, and with my background in science and technology, I was able to enter financial institutions more smoothly. But I never knew my career plan, or in layman’s terms, where my “cool spot” was. There are students with similar backgrounds to mine who are aiming for fund manager positions to focus on secondary markets, and there are also those who focus on programming skills to become very good financial modeling experts. (Of course, they work under a lot of pressure and competition.) And I lacked such planning, so naturally I felt at that time that it was difficult to get into any place. At the same time, many colleagues who came to unit A rushed to get married and have children, and quickly finished their life events and then engaged in the subsequent career. Admittedly, I lacked all kinds of planning for long-term life and family.

  1. failed to correctly understand the core of the work content of the system is to write official documents

Although unit A is in contact with the market, but does not prevent this is an institutional institutions. The system is to write official documents. To be honest, I had never been exposed to this before. And my students who have developed quite well in the system are always aware that they have to write official documents and accept the current state of work. Every day in ” high “” close “” deep “” practical ” “improve” “consolidate” “enrich” “steadily increase” in the choice back and forth, the leader and then your put the word sentence The leader then turns your word sentence into a word sentence, usually changing it 10 or so times is normal, but of course the final change may be back to the original. Constantly guessing the meaning and thinking of the leadership, guessing at each other, but also can not understand the specific content.

All students who want to go to the system may want to ask themselves three questions.

1) Can you accept to write every day according to the tone of the People’s Daily, Seeking truth, or high school politics

(2) can accept like taking care of a baby as a meticulous service leadership, improve the political position, all kinds of learning activities

3) Can you accept to do a kind of work for a long time until retirement, and you can see your ability slowly deteriorate, while the students around you are active and have a calm heart

If one of these three problems you said you can not accept, then carefully consider your choice.

  1. failure to effectively understand the many other implications of being “in the system”

Inside the system and outside the system are two completely different sets of logic, and the two sides do not recognize each other. It is difficult and difficult to jump from outside the system into the system when the system does not recognize what the system is doing.

One is that the system (except for a few professional positions) is a de-competent place, although I studied finance, but I went to the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Science and Technology no problem at all. Because it is to write official documents, the implementation of leadership intentions.

The second is that the entire thinking of the system is 10 years later than the society, into here you are completely away from the market, many leaders do not even know what is called ETF, what is called the registration system, and older leaders even Excel screening will not. The overall thinking is also very old, young people put forward a new point of view new ideas, the leadership will be because they have not heard or to seek stability and directly pass.

Third, this is a place where loyalty is greater than ability, and many promotions rely on not how strong your ability, but how much you know how to behave and grasp opportunities. Schools (especially Peking University) in the cultivation of critical thinking, innovative thinking is simply the system’s taboo. A leader personally said, your people at Peking University is too difficult to manage, high-minded and arrogant, and so many ideas, just do it. Many highly educated people in the system can not stay, is because they see the ability than their own poor people have been promoted instead, can not swallow this breath.

Fourth, there are many by-products of the system, such as “non-essential not out of Beijing”, mandatory vaccines, various approvals, for people used to the free and lazy environment of Peking University is simply put on a tight band.

Fifth, don’t ever want to overestimate the degree of Peking University, which does not have a very good reputation and is mostly known as lazy, exquisite self-interest, etc.. At the same time, as long as a master’s degree, whether it is Peking University, Western University, or Northwestern University, no matter what university is “master’s degree”, even a worse university master’s degree is better than a Peking University undergraduate, and by the same token, a worse university doctorate is better than a Peking University master’s degree. This is why people in the system must want to go to a doctorate in the workplace, no matter what school or what profession has more water, is to doctor this title.

Six is to get used to a lot of things that you simply before it is difficult to accept, whether it is financial state enterprises or manufacturing state enterprises, what to do is not important, the important thing is the carrot pit and location. So in order to solve the position and treatment, there are often outsiders directing the insiders. Administrative leaders transferred to do research, legal leaders transferred to manage human resources, office secretaries out of programming, are very common phenomenon.

  1. planning lags behind, lack of understanding with the market

Originally I envisioned that out of the system can get a lot of information and contacts, but also exercise the rules. However, from the system and then out of this road has long been a thing of the past.

One is the increasingly stringent regulation of those in the system has a lot of industry ban.

Secondly, many market institutions have been early jumped out of the system of the leaders filled, most of their business offices have a wealth of regulatory experience, the young can not compare.

Third, we are too small, not at all in touch with the policy, may come to you is to read a word of policy, away from the policy development, understanding policy is too far away.

Fourth, the so-called network is false, others recognize the unit, not you as a person.

We often have a survivor bias misunderstanding, see Ren Zeping and other bigwigs from the system experience for many years and jumped out think that this can also be the path of their own development. I do not know, this is a survivor bias, every one wants to go so, but there must be a variety of enrichment and opportunities to achieve their present achievements.

II. Some Suggestions

  1. listen to both parents’ and teachers’ advice

The owner’s family in a first-tier city, even so, the concept of parents (including many other parents of the same age) is still mostly the best system, long live the system. Must take the civil service, not to go to the institutions, and then not the central enterprises, not really local state-owned enterprises can also. It is true that, for parents who have experienced the reform and opening up, the wave of layoffs and other storms, the system is synonymous with happiness and stability. They have not been exposed to what is called private equity, what is called PE, what is called VC, for the parents’ point of view, listen to both is clear, because most parents must want their children stable, early to start a family and get married and have children, after all, parents in now I am the age I have learned to speak, but also tossed what ah.

For teachers, most teachers have never been to the market to walk around, let alone looking for a job. Their career advice for students is mostly hearsay rather than personal experience, so their advice also has great limitations, I have to say that the market does not need to teach and research, much less publish papers, so their experience and advice is not very meaningful. Of course, if you want to do a PhD and find a teaching position, another story. It is recommended to find more brothers and sisters who have been working in the past two years to consult the job-seeking options, and more to communicate with older industry professionals to plan their life path.

  1. deal with the relationship between coursework and internship work

The owner belongs to the kind of people who have been studying well, undergraduate good brush performance points bailout finance, master good reading paper and teachers to do research assistance, has been the teacher’s eyes of the “good students”, took a lot of scholarships. However, all this until I found myself living in the ivory tower in the summer in the first year of research. The workplace will not look at your grades your publication your research, but more at your internship experience. I started to do internships from my second year, and my teacher even deducted my scholarship for this reason, because I didn’t read my paper properly and went to internship. It is true that there is a serious disconnect between academic and practical education in China. Many teachers have not turned around in their thinking and “prevent” students from going to internships through the curriculum and other means. With today’s internships all requiring students to be present four to five days a week, students are forced to skip their internships. But it has to be done in order to work. I am very much against universities turning into vocational training schools, especially with such good academic resources and top teacher allocations at BYU. Some students dive headlong into internships, and although they find good jobs, they are not left with many youthful regrets. So it is most important to balance the two.

Make effective use of your student status, experience, think and try more, find the path you like and want, think hard and desperately, and the sooner you figure it out, the better.

  1. You must have a long-term vision, not because of the immediate benefits

When looking for a job, it is recommended that you should think about the path of your own career development, and think about what added value this job can bring to the next job, or even the next job. Of course people’s goals are also changing, but must be put in the long term. In the work to less than the value, inconsistent with their own planning to the end can only be “to cope with the work”. The system has a magical magic, just in the people still have some heart, slowly smoothed out the edges, the pursuit of less and less, and in the end is the child’s policy to protect the degree and the position of branch cadres. People are also slowly stabilized. So must be long-term planning, if you find yourself not resting on your laurels people must make a decision early, can not hesitate, because after a few more years, the market is really no one wants. Of course, I am also very opposed to take the account and run this strategy, which will only leave a very bad impression of the admissions unit exquisite egoist of Peking University, more will be pitted out of the division. The circle is very small, and leaving a bad reputation in a place is not good for your future development.

III. Some insights

  1. the vast majority of people do not know what they like, what they are suitable for, just a screw in the crazy operation of society

After going to work, I realized that work is really just a job, and as I get older, my enthusiasm for life fades, and in the end everyone is desperately trying to work, get married, have children, buy a car and buy a house on a programmed path. Many people don’t know what they want, let alone what suits them. It’s nothing more than being constantly wrapped up in the glow of society and moving forward. In fact, the vast majority of people at your school are also like this, just living their lives in general and not knowing what they want. There are very few people who really find a career they love, work hard for it, and live happily.

  1. make friends and make good connections

When I wanted to change jobs, my own resume was almost lost in the sea. I am really grateful to my classmates, only by their recommendation can I better go to the interview and written test. In my most painful time, it is also a variety of classmates and close friends for my psychological guidance, encouragement, support me to bravely leave the system, to pursue what they want. There are many seniors who came out of the system and told me that they have experienced my journey. Clothed in a glamorous name, get neighbors and parents and colleagues envious eyes, but every day doing meaningless work. Want to go out and find themselves unable to accept the reality of having to start all over again, not to mention the inability to adapt to such fierce competition, even their own school recruiting had not been able to see the unit back, completely unable to imagine that they had reigned in the entrance exams and become the top people into Peking University …… But they all did, tried. Many brothers and sisters have been giving me psychological encouragement to bravely take this step.

  1. life is a long road, be content with what you have

There are only four topics in life: education, career, family, and life. We have already achieved a high score on the first question, you can not expect every topic is a high score, there is a high score in the four questions is a human being. We are all too small to want everything. Now there are many people doing ” freedom of wealth ” dream, please give up these unrealistic fantasies, to do a happy ordinary people is already very good.

The first time I was in the middle of a college entrance exam, I thought I would be able to go to the university. 7 years ago, I was graduating from my bachelor’s degree and taking pictures with my classmates. 5 years ago, I chose this unit with great ambition, but I didn’t think I would be able to sleep every day after that, thinking about the hardships of work and the fear of being abandoned by the social tide. My epitome is actually the sadness of the inner volume, so that students from Peking University and Tsinghua University to do a secondary school student can do the errand courier, to serve the leadership, to check the typos and format of the document, that the taxpayers’ money really hit the water. This is the sadness of education, when learning is reduced to a supporting role, frantically looking for internships in order to a job, and even some of the top institutions internship written “try to full attendance, do not take time off for thesis and academic” …… This is completely out of the essence of university education, but still students tend to rush to it. This is more the sadness of the society, the system of institutions do not allocate resources to the most valuable places, but let a lot of capable people buried in the form of paperwork, every year is still boasting how many Tsinghua and Peking University students they have hired, to show their “high” for the public opinion. Sometimes I think of the junior high school will recite Han Yu’s “horse said”, “Although there are a thousand miles of energy, food is not enough, not enough strength, talent and beauty does not appear outside, and want to be with the regular horse and so can not get, and seek its ability to a thousand miles also?” In retrospect, a thousand years later, the problem still seems to exist.

I mourn its misfortune, angry at its incontestability. I have taken a lot of detours and stepped on a lot of potholes, which boils down to the lack of career planning and clear development goals, serious student thinking, and lack of awareness of society. We lacked vocational education, and we lacked a bridging course from students to society, and I spent so many years to make up for it. But it does not matter, I am only 29 years old, there is still capital to start again, say to yourself that it is okay, start again from the beginning.

In the end

I am not saying that the system is useless. I also have many friends who work well in the system and are doing very well. The system also has its unique advantages. There are also many problems outside the system, many students want to take the civil service. I am trying to say that there is no such thing as a “good job”, it’s more about what works for you. Everyone’s discipline background, interests, personality traits, family conditions are different, looking for a job is exactly the process of understanding yourself is to match yourself, I wish every student can find a job that suits them.