2020 Year in Review
Life - Changing Event
I got married this year.
Job Change
Due to my marriage, I moved from Shanghai to Nanjing, and my job also changed accordingly.
The first company I joined in Nanjing was Huawei. However, I only worked there for nearly two months. I joined on May 6th and left on June 26th. I don’t want to elaborate on the reasons for my departure. I’ll just record some of my thoughts during these two months.
One very strong impression I had at Huawei was the strong technological atmosphere. Everyone was focused on how to solve technical problems. There was a distinct contrast: in my previous company, during lunch breaks, colleagues mostly chatted about gossip, jokes, or just made small talk. But during my two - month stay at Huawei, even on the way to the cafeteria, people were discussing technical issues. I won’t discuss the pros and cons of this situation, but personally, I quite liked this atmosphere.
Another obvious feeling was that the technology stack was deep but narrow, especially among some colleagues who joined Huawei right after graduation. They were extremely capable in the work within the scope of their team’s responsibilities. Almost everyone could handle tasks independently. But once they needed to expand a little beyond that, they seemed to know very little. There were many ready - made open - source products and mature technologies that could be used as alternatives, but due to their lack of knowledge about these, they ultimately chose to develop their own. This situation has its pros and cons. The advantage is that team members are excellent in this niche area, can produce results quickly, are efficient, and have strong execution ability. The drawback is that they rely too much on the SE in the team (personally, I feel this role is similar to that of an architect). Once the SE leaves or is transferred, it is likely to have a huge impact on the team.
After leaving Huawei, I joined an overseas - funded enterprise in Nanjing, Trend Micro. Actually, before coming to Nanjing, I received offers from Trend Micro, Huawei, and several other companies. At that time, I rejected Trend Micro. After leaving Huawei, I called the interviewer from Trend Micro to ask if they were still willing to accept me. Fortunately, the interviewer said yes. Here, I would like to express my gratitude to the interviewer and the company. The interviewer, of course, is my current boss.
I’ve been at Trend for nearly half a year. Let me share some of my feelings about it.
Some time ago, I saw our company’s name on an online list of “955” companies. I was glad about this. Regarding this, I’d like to share my views. The “955” list should just indicate an attitude. It doesn’t mean strictly working from 9 am to 5 pm, five days a week. In fact, we work from 9 am to 6 pm. Also, it doesn’t mean our company is very relaxed. In a commercial society, I don’t think any company can keep its employees idle while maintaining a leading market position, high profits, and high growth. But Trend is indeed more user - friendly. Even during meetings, the CEO encourages employees to cultivate their hobbies in their spare time and emphasizes the importance of work - life balance. You can get a glimpse of the overall situation from this small aspect.
There are two other obvious differences.
One is the company’s trust in employees. For example, we use public clouds on a large scale. As far as I know, almost all R & D personnel can create the resources they need at will without approval, whether it’s for learning, research, or production - environment deployment. As long as you can reasonably explain the purpose of what you do. Compared with my previous company, this is really a world of difference. In my previous company, applying for a 2 - core 4 - GB server required the approval of the director.
The other is self - motivation. This is emphasized in all companies, but I feel that colleagues at Trend do it differently from those in other companies. First, at Trend, employees are encouraged to decide their own work. Leaders may play more of an advisory and guiding role. As long as you want to do something that is beneficial to the team and the company, you can talk to your leader. I think this may be an important reason why Trend is good at cultivating employees’ self - motivation. Second, from top to bottom, the company rarely issues commands in an authoritarian way. Instead, it often promotes work through a series of activities. Although this may be slower and may not work well for “slackers,” for those who are truly motivated and in need, the effect is better than authoritarian commands. Considering the “Pareto Principle” that 80% of the benefits are generated by 20% of the people, and those 20% are often the “motivated” people, overall, promoting work in the form of activities may have a better effect than issuing commands.
Investment
This graph shows the earnings and ranking of my fund portfolio on Tiantian Fund. This portfolio has been in existence for 506 days and I’ve been making regular fixed - amount investments. Currently, I invest about 2000 yuan per month. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with this return. I started getting involved in investment after graduating in 2017. Although the amount of money I invested has always been small, it’s an interest that I’ve been persevering with. I’ll write a separate article to explain this part in detail later.
Small Goals
At the beginning of 2020, I set a small goal for myself: to earn an additional 20,000 yuan in income, apart from my company earnings (salary + bonus) and investment income. Unfortunately, I didn’t achieve this goal in 2020. The reason I set this goal wasn’t just for the 20,000 yuan. I hoped not to be restricted by a single job. Although I didn’t earn the money, I spent quite a bit of time on this goal throughout the year and also gained something. I’ll write a separate article to talk about this in detail.