After interviewing Huawei engineers, I discovered that it is not difficult to earn one million a year.

Industry theme: Information and communications industry

Career development direction: Artificial intelligence algorithm engineer (REC)

Corresponding majors: artificial intelligence, information engineering, electronic science and technology etc.

Introduction to big names

After working at Huawei for many years, Li Changlu discovered that interest is crucial to a person’s career choice and development. He said that true interest is to seek challenges and gain achievements. Feel, rather than avoid, stress. The more challenges there are, the more you want to rush forward instead of choosing easy things.

He is very happy to be able to provide help to students who want to enter the electronic information industry in this way and thinks it is a very meaningful thing.

The following are the key points of the interview:

NO.1

Zhibeixing: Please introduce your profession?

Li Changlu: I just When I joined Huawei, the job title was called big data scientist, but now it is more commonly called AI (artificial intelligence) algorithm engineer.

I am currently working on the application of artificial intelligence in the Internet, the "autonomous driving" of the Internet. As networks become more complex and larger in scale, we need to use artificial intelligence technology to provide better solutions - automatically maintain the network through programs and use network resources more efficiently.

Zhibeixing: What is your study experience and work experience?

Li Changlu: I graduated from Chongqing No. 8 Middle School. I was admitted to the Department of Electronic Engineering of Nanjing University, majoring in communications. The major was recommended by a high school teacher. The teacher believed that this major is good for employment and has high income. My graduate major is signal and information processing. During my combined master's and doctoral studies at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, I began to get in touch with and conduct research on artificial intelligence.

In the early days of my graduate school, I was responsible for the research of human-computer interaction systems, which happened to catch up with the advent of the mobile Internet era. The computing capabilities of various smart phones and mobile terminals were developed, and the behavioral data of the terminals constructed user behaviors. Models are very important, and the terminal also has a lot of content and data on user interaction with the content, so I gradually switched to the fields of data mining and artificial intelligence.

I joined Huawei as soon as I graduated. I have worked at Huawei for 6 years, and I have been doing work in data mining and artificial intelligence. However, they are all application-oriented research, and the research direction is based on the needs of the application.

NO.2

Zhibeixing: What do you think is the biggest motivation that supports you along the way?

Li Changlu: I think you should do what you like, really.

Although our industry is relatively popular now, the overall income level of the industry may be higher. But I didn’t expect it to be like this when I was doing it.

To be honest, I never thought about making a lot of money or anything. Moreover, in any technical direction, or even in any industry, it will not always develop upwards, and it is possible that we will not be able to make so much money in the future. But I will continue to work in this direction.

So the most important thing is interest. Interest is not about doing something comfortable. Real interest is where you seek challenges and a sense of accomplishment instead of escaping from pressure. The more challenging it is, the more you want to rush forward instead of picking up easy things to do. By doing this, you will feel more grounded and peaceful in your heart, and your spirit will be more positive and full of vitality.

NO.3

Refer to the North Star: In what fields can the electronic information major develop?

Li Changlu: In fact, there are many very hot fields now, which used to belong to the general direction of electronic information or signal processing, such as AI (artificial intelligence) image recognition, which is very popular now; Those who do voice work; even those in the field of chip semiconductors can be included in electronic information engineering.

Therefore, the electronic information engineering undergraduate major actually has many development directions. Only when you are a graduate student or higher will you choose some subdivided directions. Of course, there are also some who make their choices as undergraduates, such as joining a teacher’s project team, or participating in some subject competitions and innovation competitions.

At the same time, if you want to be in this industry, you must learn the basic courses well. This is very important. Only when you have enough energy to learn can you have higher pursuits.

NO.4

Referring to the North Star: Do you like your current job? What qualities of yours enable you to do your job well?

Li Changlu: I should say that I like it at least 80%. Because I like to study abstract things, which is a realistic problem, and summarize its elements and the logical relationships between them.

I participated in physics competitions when I was in high school. This is a way of thinking that will be repeatedly trained and enhanced in the process of physics learning.

The reason why I chose to compete in physics at that time may also be related to the thinking habits I have had since childhood. I like to get to the bottom of things and think about the logic behind things, the fundamental laws behind them.

So when I was in my second year of graduate school, I strongly requested my supervisor to change my current research direction. Before changing my direction, my life as a graduate student was very painful because I was not interested in my previous embedded research. Not interested, nor good at it. After changing my direction, although I was two years later than others and the pressure of getting a Ph.D. was very high, my overall mental state was different, because I became happier and more energetic after doing in-depth research in this field.

NO.5

Zhibeixing: In your industry, what majors do you prefer when recruiting students? What is the salary level?

Li Changlu: I think it mainly depends on business development needs.

For example, our department is responsible for the application of artificial intelligence in networks. We may need talents in traditional communication networks and some talents in artificial intelligence; if we are doing cross-research in school, we will also Required; including mathematics, some are also required. According to the work needs of each team, there is no saying which one the entire company will prefer. In fact, our company has all majors, from low-level chips and microelectronics to upper-level applications and ecology.

In terms of income, we generally only recruit those with a master's degree or above. The annual salary of graduates can be more than 30W when they first join the job. Of course, the upper limit is uncertain. For example, the genius boys reported before can earn 2 million a year, but they are all Ph.D.s.

We don’t recruit undergraduates very much because they still need some time to accumulate both theoretical knowledge and practical experience.

NO.6

Zhibeixing: What abilities are needed to develop in this industry?

Li Changlu: In the early stage, it mainly depends on your technical ability, and your skills must be solid.

There are still differences in the value orientation of R&D work at home and abroad. After you achieve a certain position in China, you must have an insight into the business value, and it will not be purely technical research.

All the research we do is directed towards business opportunities, so in the later stage you must have market awareness and ability to be able to discern business opportunities.

When doing research and development work, you must maintain curiosity, have judgment about new technologies, dare to try and make mistakes, and be the first to eat crabs.

NO.7

Zhibeixing: For students who want to work in this industry, what advice do you have regarding school and region?

Li Changlu: For electronic information, engineering schools such as Chengdu (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Tsinghua, Southeast University, and Huake are all very good.

As for artificial intelligence, Nanjing University is very good. It has the well-known teacher Zhou Zhihua and many outstanding young teachers. Some undergraduates from Peking University and Tsinghua University come here to study as graduate students.

In terms of region, super first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen are definitely better. Cities such as Hangzhou, Nanjing, Wuhan, and Chengdu are also very good. It will be helpful for your career development, technology accumulation, joining an excellent team, and understanding There may be more opportunities for outstanding colleagues, which will help your career development, technology accumulation, broaden your horizons and even increase your income level.

NO.8

Zhibeixing: What advice do you have for middle school students who want to pursue this career?

Li Changlu: My suggestion is that you should choose what you are interested in.

Don’t be interested because it makes more money, or because your parents, teachers, and neighbors are envious of you, but because you really like this thing. In fact, besides AI (artificial intelligence), besides electronics, there are many things that can produce good results, and the income is also very good, right?

Make your choice based on what you are good at and what you really like. You will not regard it as a burden to study, not to get high scores, but also to study for the sake of further education, and you will be willing to study. If you enjoy it, it will be particularly good. If you feel this way, I strongly recommend choosing this major.

Of course, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do it if you don’t have this feeling. There are degrees of matching between people and things. We don’t need to be too demanding about a perfect match. Choose a career that is reasonably suitable and embark on it. Digging into it in a down-to-earth manner is a good choice for most people. What's more, many times you need to overcome the initial painful adaptation stage. Only when you get started can you find that feeling of regretting meeting someone late. Interest is not always innate.

But if it is because of your parents, uncles, aunts, or teachers around you who think this thing is good, but you are not actually interested in it, you may even feel a little conflicted, uncomfortable, or have a big problem. mental burden. For example, if you only need to do this for half an hour, you need to rest for two hours before you can recover. But if you do other things, you can do it for 8 hours and only need to rest for half an hour before you feel comfortable. Then I think Think about it carefully.

When choosing a career direction, you should also consider larger factors. We must consider the development of human society, the development of the country's national undertakings, and our personal path of spiritual practice throughout our lives. To make your life worthwhile and have a goal in your struggle, your life is devoted to a larger trend or cause, and to exploration. This way you will be more resilient and calm when facing some hardships, grievances and setbacks.

After so many years, I still remember the opening speech of Principal Hao of No. 8 Middle School, which was to the effect that "your life should bloom like fireworks." We will always meet some such people on the road of life. They are very bright and will light up the starry sky of those around them. I am very lucky to have such teachers and classmates around me in middle school, who help me understand and love the world.

I hope that in your youth, you will meet the person who holds the light for you.

Special thanks to: Li Changlu