Want to know about Cui Shanshan, one of the founders of Baidu?

Cui Shanshan is the senior technical director of Baidu. Together with Guo Dan and others, she has formed a solid technical backing for Baidu. And summed up the so-called "Baidu" culture, technology changes life and integrates the fun of life into work. Now he is also a billionaire, holding Baidu options. Maybe you want to read the following article?

1At the end of 999, Li Yanhong came back from Silicon Valley in the United States with the idea and funds to be a search engine. Before coming, he contacted Liu Jianguo, who was in charge of Skynet search and later became vice president of technology, and set up Baidu Company. In order to recruit the first batch of engineers, they posted recruitment information on BBS in Tsinghua and Peking University. Cui Shanshan was then a graduate student of China Academy of Sciences. After seeing this post, she was attracted by the words inside and became one of the seven entrepreneurs of the company through the interview. At the same time, she also entered a student of Peking University, a student of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and a doctoral student of Jiaotong University, Guo Dan. Now, both Cui Shanshan and Guo Dan have become technical directors of Baidu. Speaking of that experience, they are still proud of their original choice.

There are many proud engineers like Cui Shanshan in Baidu, and they also have this capital. You know, in 2003, Baidu made a profit of 1 100 million. With the approaching of Baidu's listing, another super company in the Internet era will be born in China. Tang Aiping, general manager of Huabiao Company, who was bought by UFIDA140,000 at a high price, said sincerely at a dinner table: "In China, the technology company I admire most is Baidu, because they can drill technology so deeply and get such a big return in the market. For technicians, this is a great company. "

However, as a member of this company, Baidu's engineers are not only extremely excited about the possible wealth, but also in the ocean of technology is still their most pleasant thing. When Internet users can get the information they want by typing a few Chinese characters in a simple input box and searching, Baidu's software engineers may be busy perfecting a search algorithm or correcting the last bug of the new module to be launched soon.

The source of happiness

What is happiness? Baidu engineers have their own opinions, that is, to compete with a group of smart people and foreign first-class engineers. Encourage innovation and tolerate failure.

Walking in the R&D department of Baidu, from time to time you can see people sitting on other engineers' desks in slippers to discuss problems. What is pleasant is the collision of ideas. Chen Jingkai, now an architect, said, "I like talking with a group of smart people here, which can inspire a lot of inspiration. Maybe your idea is badly beaten here, but you can get unexpected gains and keep learning new things. " Because of this, Baidu's R&D department is short of people anyway, but it never lowers its requirements in recruitment. Cui Shanshan said: "If the level of newcomers drops, everyone may feel hurt." Before joining Baidu, Qi Yujie had accepted offer from several big companies, but later she heard that the translator of a book "Network Programming" that she liked very much was in Baidu. "I feel closer and closer." Now I have done many projects such as competitive intelligence system and post bar, and served as project manager.

Being able to compete with a global super enterprise like Google in technology is something that few companies in China can do, and few companies can provide engineers with such opportunities. Baidu did it. Cui Shanshan said: "Our products are used by so many people, and we have the largest market share in Chinese search. Everyone thinks that the best engineers are in Silicon Valley, but we are proud that there are such a group of engineers in China who dare to do such a thing and do it well. " She also reminded: "I don't know if you have noticed, but many search engines now provide the related search functions that Baidu first did and did for many years."

Failure and creation are always twins. In the fierce competition in the search engine market, Baidu has created a good working atmosphere for engineers. Chen Jingkai once took over the design and development of a distributed retrieval system, and the name sounds scary now. Mainly imitate the caching mechanism, like CDN, put the required retrieval results on the machine close to the user. This idea is very good, and the effect is obvious when the index database is not updated for several months. However, the user's retrieval is dynamic, and in the case of rapid updating, the running cost in practical application is too high, which may also limit other technical directions and eventually give up the project. However, Chen Jingkai was not depressed at all. Instead, he felt that he had learned a lot from it, and the company fully affirmed it. Mu Desheng, who has been in Baidu for less than two years, said: "What I like better in Baidu is that it will give you a chance to fail. Sometimes I give you a job, knowing that you may not succeed, but I still let you try. We all grew up in failure. "

In fact, for search engine technology, if the company culture does not encourage exploration and does not tolerate failure, it can only stand still in technology. Cui Shanshan explained: "Search engine technology is new and quite difficult. I'm afraid it won't develop so fast if we do it in the original way. Everyone should be creative, and a responsible person will take the initiative to do something that can or cannot be done. "

Mu Desheng is now designing a new retrieval architecture and developing an automated operation and maintenance system. This can reduce maintenance costs and labor costs. Mu Desheng said: "I actually have a great ideal, that is, our colleagues in the system maintenance department only need to receive letters every day, and all the maintenance work systems will automatically help them complete."

It is precisely because of these achievements and conditions that if you chat with Baidu engineers, you can feel confidence in them. Chen Jingkai said: "We never thought that anything could not be solved." Engineers who enter Baidu after graduating from school can generally feel that they are making rapid progress in technology, because they always need to do core technology here. Cui Shanshan said: "Technology needs to be cultivated slowly by solving problems. Just like playing basketball, if you play with Michael Jordan all day and beat him, you must have strong self-confidence. After Yao Ming went to the United States, he became more and more confident because he was playing with a big shark. "

However, they are also sober. In the eyes of technicians, there is never the best technology, and when looking at the problem, the shortcomings will be magnified. Chen Jingkai said: "If I compare with Google, I may point out many problems of Baidu technology. But I believe that Google engineers will see that we will have similar views. " Cui Shanshan said: "On the one hand, I am very proud to make such good technology and products; On the other hand, because we are in it, we are very familiar with the problems within the system and know that it is far from mature. "

You can choose technical management.

A technician of a famous big company once said: "Our company has done a great job in salary, company management, welfare and logistics support, but it is a great pity that we have not worked out the technical development route for technicians."

Baidu has prepared enough space for the development of technicians. As early as the company was founded, Liu Jianguo, vice president of technology, presided over the establishment of the technical promotion system for engineers. There are nine engineers in the technical route, and their salary is completely linked to their level. Level 4 or above, corresponding to management positions respectively. After an engineer grows to the fourth level, that is, a senior engineer, there are two routes to try: you can always concentrate on technology or you can choose to do management work.

Cui Shanshan chose the road of management, from engineer, senior engineer, technical manager, senior manager to technical director. Now, her job is to ensure that the engineers in her department can output with maximum power, and all the work involved must be managed by someone. There are still many people who choose to take the technical route and even make adjustments between the two routes. Sometimes it's like this: after a period of management, I feel inappropriate. At this time, you can return, only in-depth development of technology. Chen Jingkai has a quick mind. He said that he had been in management for half a year, but soon he completely returned to the technical route. Talking about that experience, he said frankly: "I personally don't like to promote something, the management is too trivial, and I still have a soft spot for technology." Yu Chen Min and Qi Yujie, who joined Baidu for more than four years, play the role of project manager. Mu Desheng, who has just been promoted to senior engineer level, looks like a college student. His shy words revealed a kind of confidence. He said, "Now I can choose both routes, and I will try to do some management things."

Baidu's technical rating is also very distinctive. There is a technical committee within the company, all of which are composed of engineers with technical level five. At present, this technical committee has nine members, but after a recent review, it is estimated that this group will be expanded again. Baidu has two reviews a year. As long as it reaches a certain level, its salary will rise to the corresponding level immediately next month. Cui Shanshan said: "Colleagues of the Technical Committee usually work with everyone. The level of every engineer is reflected in his work, and everyone's heart is discerning. What engineers like best is to make it clear in person and speak with strength. Many units pay attention to back salary and don't disclose it to each other. In fact, what engineers hate most is to guess what is behind everything. As a technician, his personality is generally straightforward. He won't pester his boss to talk about a raise today and ask him for a bonus tomorrow. If he is not satisfied, he won't complain, and he may just leave. Therefore, it is very important to evaluate professional titles and pay salaries openly and fairly. Baidu has done a good job in this regard, and practice has shown that the effect is very good and it has played a great role. "

Although the technical level is different, Baidu engineers never think there is a difference between jobs. Cui Shanshan said: "Baidu engineers are only responsible for the size of the scope, and there is no responsibility within the scope." We don't deprive every engineer of the ability to do things. Chen Jingkai said, "I, an architect, don't just do architecture, and other colleagues don't just write programs. We give everyone a chance to play. Baidu generally doesn't mention the word programmer, because there are no real programmers here. Programmers often refer to writing code and doing coding work with things designed by others. We are all engineers. From the first day you enter the company, you need to be a designer within the scope of your work. Because we are constantly exploring new technologies, no matter which direction we are in charge of, no matter who we are, it is impossible to just do coding, and we must spend considerable energy on research and experiments. "

Standing behind 1 100 million internet users

Every time I see a friend searching for his favorite music with Baidu's MP3 player, Chen Yumin is always excited. Cui Shanshan developed Baidu Snapshot a few years ago. Although other engineers are in charge now, every time I see acquaintances using this function, I will proudly tell them, "That's the function I developed." After each new function, Desheng will call his family at the first time and tell them the information. When recommending to friends, Desheng said: "I usually recommend them to set Baidu as the home page directly."

It is reported that by the end of this year, the number of netizens in China will reach1.200 million, and all these netizens in China will become users of Baidu. A software can have so many users. What could be more attractive to an engineer?