A "back wave" in the fault era

"It used to be said that the vehicle system was the cradle of automobile engineers, but now it seems more like a grave." This is the most impressive sentence after chatting with Zhang Zechang. As for why he made this statement, he may have to start with that important life choice when he graduated from undergraduate three years ago.

And behind this, there are also many students who have the same experience as Zhang Ze, and they are helpless and confused about the current fault era. The eager pursuit of traditional vehicle engineering graduates by major OEMs has long been covered up by the rolling wave of "electrification", but such a fault has not left enough time for the former to think about how to deal with it, leaving behind astonishment and helplessness.

From the automobile factory to the CBD

On the eve of graduation, Zhang Ze said, "It was the darkest time." After five years of studying hard at a cold window, Zhang Ze soon reached the graduation season when he was facing a choice, but he didn't expect that the employment situation he was facing at the moment was not as "friendly" as when he entered the school many years ago. On the other hand, because the growth of the whole automobile industry in China has slowed down significantly, the market position of new energy vehicles has started to rise slowly in this process, and the state support is also increasing. In addition, the importance of car networking, electronic architecture and even marketing services has become prominent, and it is inevitable that the employment "outlet" will turn around.

Fate seems to have played a huge joke on Zhang Ze, who entered Shanghai Head University with excellent college entrance examination results and studied the hottest vehicle major at that time. At the end of freshman year, I chose the direction of "engine" as my major with a high average score. Who would have expected to face employment in the end? The once "fragrant cake" has already become unremarkable. The demand for talents in traditional automobile majors by car companies is not as strong as it was many years ago, and the salary level of fresh graduates is also declining.

In such an embarrassing situation, Zhang Ze silently said with his head down, "Those students who were forced to choose electronic control or service marketing because of their poor grades after entering the school have become the hot cakes that car companies are scrambling to get. Moreover, those new forces that build cars are also in urgent need of fresh graduates with relatively low costs and major in service marketing to help them improve their brand voice as soon as possible. " The urgency of demand has also led to the compensation given to the former by the two companies, which has already surpassed that of the "top students" with traditional vehicle majors like Zhang Ze. For them, it is undoubtedly a huge blow, and the hard work of five-year undergraduate students has finally ended in this way.

therefore, Zhang Ze is faced with the second choice in his life, that is, to compromise with the status quo, to enter a traditional automobile factory that has long lost its former elegance, and to be an engine engineer who seems to be stable on the surface but actually falls into a development bottleneck? Or do you choose to continue your studies, change your major and enter other employment fields with higher "return rate"? He was lost in thought.

He thought of the summer just after the college entrance examination eight years ago, when Zhang Ze made the first choice that influenced his life. Zhang Ze and his family were undoubtedly pleasantly surprised when the inquirer reported a total score of 636 points on the phone. Because in such an inland city far from the coast, for most young people, the only way to "escape" is to change their life trajectory through the college entrance examination. At the moment, Zhang Ze has begun to fantasize about her future college life.

However, the question before him is which city to choose and which school and major to choose. "To be honest, in our small town in the northwest, whether children, parents or even teachers, the cognition and prediction of major choice and employment form in the next few years are lagging behind, so the reason that often contributes to the final result is whether the city is a front line, whether the school is famous, and whether the current employment and salary of the profession are considerable." Therefore, the vehicle engineering major of a 985 university in Shanghai became the first stop in Zhang Ze.

When I first entered the campus, everything was wonderful, and Zhang Ze quickly integrated into the group. And he also learned from some seniors who were about to graduate at that time, "Most of them have signed contracts with joint venture OEMs such as SAIC Volkswagen and SAIC GM, and their income is about 15-2. Some of them have also entered joint venture parts suppliers, and their income is also considerable." This makes Zhang Ze look forward to the future.

As vehicle engineering is a "major enrollment", Zhang Ze is about to enter a sophomore school. According to the average scores of students in the first two semesters, students are allowed to choose their own sub-majors. Among them, the hottest topics are: automobile structure analysis and safety, automobile system dynamics and control, and automobile modern design. Compared with marketing, automotive electronic control technology is not popular with students.

The reason is not difficult to understand. After all, at that time, the overall environment of the entire automobile industry still belonged to the "traditional fuel vehicle", and the focus and demand of most OEMs were still here, so the establishment of the school's professional focus followed the trend. Therefore, Zhang Ze, with a high comprehensive score, successfully entered the major of automobile power, focusing on the direction of "engine", thus having the subsequent experience of transformation.

Zhang Ze's experience is undoubtedly dramatic, from the expectation and joy at the first choice to the helplessness and unknowns at the second time. Fortunately, the final result was not bad. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to continue his studies and successfully entered another top university in Shanghai for a master's degree. He completely left the vehicle engineering that made him feel a little sad and chose the major of financial big data.

last year, in the "autumn move", he successfully entered his dream securities company and realized the transformation from "automobile factory" to "CBD". However, students who are so lucky like him belong to a minority after all. In this fault era, many fresh graduates majoring in traditional automobile can only be forced to accept a job that is different from their previous fantasies.

The dilemma in the fault era

Looking back, let's discuss what caused the above phenomenon. Deliberate, suddenly found that this seems like a dilemma. Because you can't completely shirk the responsibility to either of them. The "short board" of parents in Zhang Ze lies in their lack of awareness of the industry changes in the next few years when they initially choose. However, on the other hand, it is impossible to ask such a group of people who have been in the northwest border town for a long time to be so forward-looking.

Zhang Ze's own "shortcoming" lies in that when he chose to subdivide his major as a freshman, the main reference factor was only the generous returns that seniors got after employment at that time, and he also failed to predict the changes in the industry trend afterwards. However, it is still very demanding to ask a child who was only 2 years old at that time to be so considerate.

The "short board" between schools and OEMs is that the former failed to inform the students who are about to make a choice in advance in the face of the industry fault, while the latter can only be forced to accept such a rapid market transformation, and the sharp decrease in demand for traditional automobile majors has also caught them off guard.

However, from the perspective of transformation, both the school and the main engine factory have just become the victims of the fault from the "internal combustion engine era" to the "motor era", so the fault cannot be entirely borne by them. The curse that caused the dramatic experience of the freshmen majoring in traditional vehicles like Zhang Ze may only be attributed to the fact that they became the victims of education in the fault era.

At the moment, compared with traditional automobile talents, the non-vehicle engineering freshmen who apply for software and AI artificial intelligence are more popular. On May 26th, during the live broadcast of CCTV News, Tao Lin, Vice President of Foreign Affairs of Tesla (China), posted 55 positions for new graduates, including software research and development and product support. According to her, with the continuous promotion of the second phase of Tesla's Shanghai factory, Tesla China will recruit a large number of R&D personnel.

at the same time, with the arrival of the new four modernizations, the talent structure of the automobile industry is undergoing unprecedented changes. As early as two years ago, some enterprises stopped recruiting students majoring in vehicle engineering. FAW-Volkswagen said in September last year that due to the transformation and adjustment of enterprises, there will be no recruitment plans for students majoring in vehicle engineering and industrial design (body structure) in 22.

In any case, the wave of electrification transformation in the global automobile market has become unstoppable. What students, universities and automobile companies can do is to fully adapt to the change. Fortunately, the three have released some positive signals. At the student level, in order to "lightning" in advance, many people have already started preparing for the postgraduate entrance examination as early as their junior year, and continue their studies in the direction of intelligent networked cars.

at the university level, many head universities with vehicle engineering colleges have also set up popular majors that conform to the development trend of the industry. At the level of car companies, both new forces and established car companies are continuing to make efforts in the new energy market segment. Therefore, for those "back waves" that were slowly submerged in the fault era, their sacrifices were not in vain.

This article is excerpted from the cover story of the June issue of Automobile Commune magazine.

Wen/Cui Liwen

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This article comes from the author of Chejia, car home, and does not represent car home's standpoint.