Recording My 2022 Internship Job Hunting Journey#

First, let's talk about the results of this year's internship job hunting. As a 2023 graduate, I needed to find an internship at this time to get prepared for this year's autumn recruitment. This year, I applied to a total of three companies – ByteDance, Meituan, and Ant Group. In the end, I only received an offer for a summer internship from ByteDance. After the second round interview with Meituan, I was rejected, and after the HR interview with Ant Group, I was also rejected. Last year, I applied to Tencent, Meituan, and ByteDance, and ultimately only received an offer from Tencent. Comparatively, it seems like my skills haven't really improved over the past year, ha-ha.

As someone who participated in internships in 2021 and 2022, I feel qualified to compare this year's situation with last year's. To start with a conclusion, this year's headcount, or the number of job openings, has significantly decreased. The job hunt difficulty is much higher than last year - it's just incomparable. During the winter vacation this year, I was quite optimistic because I felt that the current situation wasn't bad. This misjudgment was mainly due to two reasons. First, at the end of 2021, many big companies had opened up channels for daily internships, with quite a few internship opportunities available, and the recruitment efforts were considerable. Second, although many companies were reportedly downsizing, the recruitment efforts hadn't decreased. Additionally, at that time, the pandemic was relatively under control, and there seemed to be some economic recovery momentum despite some negative news. So, initially, I didn't feel the urgency to find an internship, even though I had a fair amount of interview experience in 2021. I thought it would be better to prepare first. It wasn't until the eve of the new semester, which was the end of February, that I officially started preparing for the internship search. In fact, since I started my master's program, I had already inquired about which companies were recruiting daily interns for first-year graduate students and which companies had high conversion rates for second-year graduate students. So, I immediately reached out to an Alibaba employee for a referral, but unfortunately, I received the bad news that they only accepted applications from students from top universities, not from non-elite universities. I also asked some of my seniors and friends and found out that some popular companies like Alibaba, Alibaba Cloud, and DingTalk also did not accept non-elite students. This was a heavy blow for me, and I immediately realized that this year's situation would be extremely challenging. It seemed like finding a job this year would be very difficult. I started to feel anxious but things had to be dealt with step by step. During the following period, some companies even took extreme measures. Some departments pushed away non-elite interns who had already joined, while some core departments rejected students from non-elite universities. As of the time I wrote this article on March 25, 2022, Tencent's 2022 internship recruitment had not yet opened. These days, there has been much buzz about some companies downsizing, and it even resulted in the rescinding of job offers for 2022 graduates who had already signed contracts. For companies, rescinding a contract may only involve a mere 5000 RMB, but for the 2022 graduates, it means facing a hellishly difficult 2022 spring job hunt. One 2022 graduate shared his experience, mentioning that during the autumn job hunt, he casually submitted resumes and was interviewed by over ten companies, but this year, despite applying to many companies, he only received interview opportunities from one company.

This year is going to be tough. This can be inferred from the performance of Chinese concept stocks - the stocks of many listed companies have plummeted from their peak, some by as much as two-thirds. The bearish trend in the A-share market this year is also evident. The Federal Reserve is set to raise interest rates several times. Although these developments had been anticipated, when the Damocles sword finally fell, the pain was relentless. There are nearly tens of millions of graduates this year, and those who fail to secure positions in top companies go to mid-tier ones, those who don’t make it to mid-tier companies may end up in smaller ones, and those who don’t make it there might opt to take the postgraduate entrance exam or the civil service exam. And for those who had always intended to do postgraduate studies or take the civil service exam, they can retain their status as fresh graduates in the following years. It is likely that there have been news reports about approximately 3 million people failing the postgraduate entrance exam, and the number of civil service exam takers will certainly be even higher. If the situation continues to be this dire, the saying, "This year is the worst of the past decade, but is also the best for the future," might no longer be a joking matter. I came across a quote that deeply resonated with me: "The only technique for the postgraduate entrance exam: start early." Now it seems like this quote applies to many situations - job hunting, postgraduate studies, civil service exam, and so on. If anyone is considering the postgraduate entrance exam, I think it's better to have a backup plan in place - be prepared for the worst, otherwise, it might be an uphill battle.

Now, let's talk about my own experience, as this is a record of my internship job hunting journey. This year, I intended to apply to just a few companies and secure an offer for an internship. Even though this year is more challenging, my plan has not changed. Of course, mass applications are also an option. I know some classmates who applied to 8 or even 20 companies.

The first company I planned to apply to was ByteDance. However, the employee who was going to refer me was too busy to help me, so I ended up applying in the afternoon. Ultimately, I was snatched by the AI department once and then by the infrastructure department. An intern HR lady in the infrastructure department helped me out. Interns aren't making things difficult for interns, ha-ha. So, my resume stopped at the infrastructure department. Having said that, I've already got an offer, but on ByteDance's official campus recruitment website, my application status is still "resume submitted." The process for the department I voluntarily applied to has been stuck there. I have to say that ByteDance is indeed very efficient. If I go all in, I think completing all the processes within a week and a half won't be a problem. The interview process is also quite clear - a technical interview, an engineering interview, a lifestyle interview, and an HR interview for a casual chat, ha-ha. However, there was at least one algorithmic problem in each interview. From submitting my application on March 01, I received the offer on March 16. Since I only have this one offer, I'll get ready to go to Shanghai.

For Meituan, the written test is essential, because only after completing the written test can one proceed to the next step of the process. So, I participated directly in the first written test and wanted to expedite the process. Actually, the written test is quite luck-based because they arrange many rounds of written tests. They say that the difficulty of the second written test is clearly lower than that of the first one, so if the process doesn't start in the first week, it might be even more difficult to start later. But, of course, it's just a possibility. As for the interviews, the first-round interviewer is quite friendly, and the interview is basically like a chat with some questions sprinkled in. The interview style makes one feel particularly comfortable. The second-round interviewer is more serious and asks some offbeat questions without giving any hints, but the feedback they gave me in the end was quite good. Anyway, having interviewed at Meituan twice and getting rejected twice, there's nothing to be done, but I did receive my first thank-you letter in life.

Ant Group insisted that I apply, and it just so happened that ByteDance was about to finish their interviews as well, so I submitted my application. Ant Group's process is really fast. They called me to schedule an interview the same evening I submitted my application and sent me the written test questions. Of course, they rejected me quite quickly as well, hahaha. As for the interviews, my experience was quite good. The first-round interviewer asked a wide range of questions, covering front-end, back-end, and database operation aspects, but my knowledge is only superficial, so my performance in the interview was okay on the surface, but when it went deeper, I didn't really know what to say. The second-round interviewer was a senior figure, the interview was more like a chat, and they were quite jolly, but when I reviewed the interview later, I felt that my performance wasn't good. I felt that many things were not showcased, and I should have mentioned my relevant strengths. I shouldn't have focused solely on answering the interviewer's questions. The feedback from the HR sister during the HR interview was very insightful, and she also gave me a brief analysis of the current situation of campus recruitment and social recruitment. Actually, overall, everything felt quite good. I got rejected the day after the HR interview, hahaha, the process is fast, no need to waste time waiting. But I was rejected after the HR interview, maybe there are many top-tier universities in the talent pool and few headcounts, but there's nothing that can be done. Ant Group didn't send a thank-you letter, just a rather dry notification of the end of the process.

Looking back at my 2021 internship spring recruitment journey, I expressed my expectations for this year, "Hope my technical growth can be faster next year, and spring recruitment will be smoother, hahaha." I think I may have achieved the first part, but to be honest, the latter part didn't go smoothly. There were many obstacles, and I also didn't live up to the saying "If you're going to grind, start early." Now looking back, it's indeed a bit of a misstep. But people always need to have some hope. Even though this year's autumn recruitment may be a grind, I still hope for a relatively smooth autumn recruitment. Perhaps when I look back at this article during this year's autumn recruitment, the situation will be much better than it is now, hahaha.