A Tribute to My Three Years of Graduate School Life#

I haven't finished telling my story at Shanke yet. After my four years of undergraduate life, I started a new three-year graduate school life at the university. So, welcome to continue to step into my world.

Let's go back to June 24, 2020. After we all went home that day, my university life officially ended. Then, I had a new summer vacation. Usually, I wouldn't just sit around during my summer break, so with the help of Teacher Lu, I went to Weihai Guangrui Electric Power Technology Co., Ltd for an internship, mainly engaged in power data analysis-related work.

Here, I met Sister Sun and Brother Chongxing. They are both outstanding individuals and very enthusiastic. They treated me very well, and I also learned a lot here. I found that Weihai is really a nice place. The environment is excellent, the temperature is quite pleasant, and it's very close to the sea. After all, I am from Rizhao, so I feel a sense of hometown here, and the physical sensation is very good. During my time at the company, we never worked overtime, starting at 8:00 am and finishing at 5:30 pm. The company even arranged an apartment for me to stay in. I could even walk to work directly, which felt great. As we were dealing with power-related business, we also went to Jinan to attend a power trading conference. It was my first time in Jinan, and I truly felt how hot it was.

Happy times are always short. Two months later, I started school again and had to resume my student life on campus. At the same time, I was very reluctant to leave. Especially, Sister Sun and Brother Chongxing treated me so well. In the end, they even took leave to accompany me on a trip to Liugong Island. Later, I found out that Brother Chongxing didn't even have time to attend his daughter's dance competition just to accompany me to Liugong Island. This touched me and made me feel very guilty. I am very grateful for the joy they brought me.

As September arrived, it was the day we all returned to school. On that day, one thing left a deep impression on me: I was informed to go to the A4 building for enrollment, but when I got there, no one was around. Later, I found out that the enrollment location had suddenly changed to the Yuloka Square, which left me feeling lost. Unfortunately, we didn't get assigned to the A4 dormitory. We were assigned to the A8 dormitory, which meant that, except for the boys in our class, everyone else had bunk beds, but we had them. But our dormitory had its own bathroom. However, there were some significant issues with the bathroom. It didn't have an exhaust fan, and I felt that there was a problem with the drain pipe under the sink. Especially, the bathroom was on the side of the corridor, so we couldn't open the window for ventilation. As you can imagine, the smell was quite strong, and every time we opened the door, the whole dormitory would smell like a toilet. As for the bunk beds, it was not too bad.

When I first started my first year of graduate school, I was very distressed. I felt that my score of 375 in the graduate entrance examination was a loss. Looking back, why did I choose to pursue my graduate studies at my alma mater? Considering my university experience, I think I was already quite diligent. I've worked on projects in technology, handled both front-end and back-end development, and set up my own servers. I've also been involved in business negotiations for projects. Although these were outsourced projects, they held significant value for a university student. However, in the second half of my junior year, I had to start looking for internships. I was ambitious and applied to Alibaba, but unfortunately, my resume didn't make the cut. That's when I began to reflect on where I went wrong. Of course, there were many problems, which I won't go into here. I came to a conclusion then, that I wasn't skilled enough in technical depth. But by then, it was already late, and it would be difficult to enter a so-called big company without an internship. So, I made a decision to take the graduate entrance exam, which is essentially an exchange of time for opportunity. Because I'm not a gifted prodigy, I need a lot of time to understand certain knowledge. Then I planned my life as a graduate student, with the ultimate goal of joining a large company clear in my mind.

During the first semester of my first year of graduate school, I felt that my life was very dull because my research topic wasn't clear, and I had to read a lot of papers to find the direction of the topic, which was also a preparation for graduation. Although I was a professional master's student, Teacher Lu's requirements were generally strict, so it was better to publish a paper. So, in the first half of the year, I read a lot of English papers, which made my head tingle. It was quite tiring to read them every day, but I had to do it for graduation. I didn't feel much joy in my life. Most of the classmates I knew had graduated, and I didn't know the new ones. Most of the time, I was doing research and not attending classes together with the university students. I had very few opportunities to get to know others. However, during Christmas, lx even gave me an apple as a gift.

During the winter vacation of my first year of graduate school, I let loose, but I hadn't forgotten my goal. I had started looking for internships. My first goal was to intern at Tencent during the summer vacation of my first year of graduate school because I had researched it thoroughly. Tencent was open to first-year graduate students for internships, and there was no distinction between summer and regular internships, which suited my current situation very well. So, on March 1, I started applying to Tencent. Of course, I also applied to Meituan and ByteDance. By then, I had already written many blogs, about three hundred and seventy of them, so my performance during the interviews was quite good. In the end, I successfully obtained an internship offer from Tencent.

Although I got the offer, I still have to continue studying. After all, until I got the offer, I hadn't even determined my research direction yet. Doing research is tough. Still, I found myself reading papers every day, especially English ones, which made my head spin. Finally, I settled on my research direction. After finishing my last exam on July 12th, I could finally prepare for my internship at Tencent. The final exam schedule kept changing, but in the end, the date was set for the start of summer vacation. It was my first time flying, and to avoid getting lost, I arrived at the airport before 4 o'clock. I had to go through the whole process of getting my boarding pass, checking my baggage, and going through security, which took an hour. Then I sat at the airport feeling bored. The airport's Wi-Fi was so slow. Originally, my Shenzhen Airlines flight was scheduled for 19:50, but it was delayed for an hour and didn't take off until 8:50. The China Eastern Airlines flight next to us, which was supposed to leave at 17:35, hadn't even arrived when I boarded. This was my first time flying, and boy, those tickets were really expensive, costing me 1312 yuan. I was looking forward to it, but I ended up getting airsick. It was terrible. I won't be flying unless absolutely necessary in the future. When we landed, the plane made some really big turns, almost like drifting, and the landing jolted me. Additionally, we boarded using an air bridge, but getting the shuttle bus after landing was exhausting. Shenzhen Airport is quite large, and it was quite a hassle to collect the checked baggage. I must give a shout-out to Shenzhen Airport for their really clean restroom. I stayed at a classmate's house for a night first, and then we went to visit Dapeng Peninsula. Afterward, we both came to the unanimous conclusion that the outside world is too dangerous, and we should just stay home on weekends, hahaha. Tencent provided seven days of free hotel accommodation, so I stayed with lzf for two nights first, and then moved to Shenzhen New Hao Fang Hotel.

The days of internships at Tencent were really enjoyable. I was the only intern in our group, so I had no one to goof around with, and ended up feeling a bit lonely. Welcome to intern and work at the Tencent HQ. The benefits are quite good, but the atmosphere really depends on the specific team. Setting aside the department and looking at the team, it's not very accurate to talk about the atmosphere. Each team has its own situation, but overall, the atmosphere at Tencent HQ seems pretty good. The human care aspect is well done. Firstly, the desks are quite spacious. There's a guy across from me in the client team who has three 27-inch screens and an iMAC, which shows that there's plenty of room for whatever you need. The company-provided computer mostly depends on the mentor's application. Mine is an i7-9700/16G*2/1T SSD+2T HDD/RTX 2060 6G, and there's also a 27-inch 4K screen. Interns usually just have a desktop computer. I work on the Kexing side. There are two cafeterias in buildings C and D here, with a total of three floors, and a variety of food options. Additionally, breakfast is completely free, and lunch doesn't cost much. If you leave after 8 PM, you can get a supper voucher by swiping your card. Now it should be completely free. Of course, if you live nearby, you can leave work at 6 PM, swipe your card at 8 PM for a stroll, and still get a supper voucher. And it doesn't have to be Kexing; you can use the supper voucher at any Tencent building. It can basically be used to offset dinner. Basically, if you're well-stocked with supper vouchers, you can go to Daoxiang to eat at the first-floor restaurant in C3. I've only been there twice, when the leader treated us, ha ha. The environment on the Kexing side is quite good aside from the traffic. The most irritating thing is that the handwashing water is warm. It's too luxurious. There's also hand towels next to it, so you have to dry your hands after washing them, ha ha. Because there are so many people here, the elevators are quite crowded and you usually have to line up. There are plenty of bathrooms in the company, making it very convenient to use the restroom on the clock. Additionally, there's wifi in the restroom, so you don't have to worry about not having internet access. So far, I've participated in two competitions and got two free cultural shirts, unfortunately, they were just short-sleeved. It's a shame there were no pants; then I could have had a whole set. Maybe because of the holidays, this month I received an email from the company about a mooncake gift box, which seems to be quite valuable, with lava mooncakes in it. I also received a fruit card. Speaking of which, I think I missed out. A classmate sold the fruit card for over 100 dollars, but I activated it too quickly, ha ha. I couldn't resell it, so I can only use it to buy some fruit to ease my regrets. At the beginning of each month, you can experience various business services for free. This includes discounts on game point cards and memberships. It starts at 10 AM, with a limited number available. These things can only be used by yourself. Even if you use these point cards to buy skins and give them to others, you will receive a warning email. You can also buy a certain amount of Q coins at half price. In any case, the experience is good, and the "freebie monster" is online. At Tencent, only interns need to clock in. In reality, as long as you don't forget, you can clock in anytime, anywhere. The company is located in Nanshan District, and I live in Baoan District. I can clock in even though I'm in a different district. You can even clock in at midnight. I once got the second check-in, ha ha. If you forget to clock in, you can ask for approval from your leader for a makeup check-in. Your internship salary is calculated based on this. In reality, as Hao Ge told me, coming and going here is very free. If I remember more benefits later, I'll add them. Oh, the shuttle is another benefit. There are shuttles all over Shenzhen, so as long as you're in Shenzhen, you can take the shuttle to and from work. It's just a bit time-constrained. Additionally, there's a gym, free tooth cleaning, and quick haircuts, and many other things. Speaking of Shenzhen, let's mention a few advantages randomly. Shenzhen is full of tall buildings, the subway is well-connected, and the cost of living isn't as high as I imagined, maybe because I live in the urban village, and I haven't realized it yet. Let's also randomly mention a few drawbacks. It's crowded since the area is small and has a lot of people, there are frequent traffic jams, and it's hotter than Qingdao. Shenzhen is a very young city. Basically, you hardly see many older people on the streets. Even in the urban village where I live, the proportion of older people is very small. Shenzhen is indeed very young, but it's a kind of young that makes me feel a bit terrified. Those who have devoted their youth and contributed to the GDP in Shenzhen are eventually abandoned by the city. People always grow old, and in the end, we too will become discarded batteries here because Shenzhen always has an abundance of young people. A lot of office space in Shenzhen is approved by the government, so you can easily see office buildings under construction. There's a newly completed building around my urban village, and it's advertising for rent. However, the land for residential use approved by Shenzhen is very limited. I can't help but think that this is just to maintain property prices and drive out the gradually aging migrant workers. The primary and secondary education in Shenzhen seems to be lacking. I didn't see many primary and secondary schools when I took the shuttle. However, Shenzhen University is just south of the company. Compared to Qingdao, where I often see middle and high schools when I take a car, but I just took a quick look, and not many comments can be given because I've only been in Shenzhen for a few months. There might be a lot of primary and secondary schools concentrated in Baoan or Futian Districts, but it's relatively rare in Nanshan District. Speaking of Nanshan District, this area is basically a gathering place for internet factories. Many well-known companies are here. I don't usually go out much, but the Tencent, Ali, Baidu, ByteDance, Lenovo, Coolpad, ZTE, and Thunder offices are all around here. Whether they are branch offices or not, there are many offices here. It really is a great place to work. Speaking of work, it seems like there's just work in Shenzhen, no life. Everywhere is full of people hurrying back and forth, all apparently busy going to work. You can see this from the subway on weekends. The subway on workdays is really packed, but on weekends, there are available seats in the subway. It seems that there are still quite a few people like me who come out from various places. The most irritating thing about Shenzhen is that there are no non-motor vehicle lanes. Pedestrians, electric bikes, bicycles, and motorcycles all share the same narrow, crowded road, making it very inconvenient. This matter is quite unreasonable. Even our 18th-tier small city of Rizhao knows to have separate lanes for non-motor vehicles, yet Shenzhen, such a large city, doesn't even have one, it's quite unreasonable. As for the work CBD and living in the urban village situation, I think every city has it. There is a strong sense of disconnection. However, overall, Shenzhen is still acceptable, except that it's too hot. After all, coming here is just for work; there's no sense of belonging.

After my internship ended, it was already the end of September. I just happened to be heading home for the National Day holiday in October, so I took a plane directly back home. The airfare for this trip home cost me 1037 yuan, which is three hundred yuan cheaper than the fare from Qingdao to Shenzhen. It seems like my hometown of Rizhao is the better choice after all. Surprisingly, I didn't feel too airsick this time. It's not easy, huh? After returning home, I stayed for a few days and then had to start preparing to go back to school. During this period, the pandemic management wasn't as strict. As long as there were no major outbreaks, it was still possible to travel back and forth.

After returning to school, I resumed my research work. I need to delve deeper into the research on malicious software detection, combining disassembly, decompilation, and natural language processing techniques. I want to express special thanks to my classmate lch, who taught me how to disassemble, insert hooks, and reverse-engineer. Boy, this is indeed a very complex job. However, I managed to complete the entire process and carried out a lot of reverse engineering work on computer viruses. Now I can start writing my paper. I've basically done nothing in the past six months, just focusing on research. Half of my master's degree has already passed. Now let's take a look at the snow on campus.

As the second half of my second year of graduate school begins, I find myself needing to start looking for internships again. However, the current job market is simply terrifying. Compared to last year, the difficulty of finding an internship has increased several times. I just want to apply to a few companies and secure an offer for an internship. Although this year is more challenging, my plan remains unchanged. Of course, I can also do some mass applications. I know some classmates who applied to 8 or even 20 companies. Looking back at my internship spring recruitment journey in 2021, it ended with expectations for 2022, "I hope my technical growth will be faster next year, and the spring recruitment will be smoother, haha." I think I might have achieved the first half of this, but the second half, to be honest, didn’t go as smoothly. There were obvious hardships, and I didn't fulfill the "study early if you want to study" principle. This time, I applied to ByteDance, Meituan, and Ant Group. In the end, I only received an offer from ByteDance. It's quite interesting that because the staff member who had referred me was busy and didn't respond to my application until the afternoon, I got sniped by the AI department once and then by the basic infrastructure department. It was a HR intern lady who fished me in the basic infrastructure department, following the principle of not making it difficult for fellow interns. My resume ended up stopping there. I have to admit, ByteDance's efficiency is really high. If I went all-in, I think it wouldn’t be a problem to complete the entire process in just a week and a half.

As someone who participated in internships in 2021 and 2022, I feel I have some qualifications to compare the situations between the two years. Let's start with the conclusion: the number of openings in 2022 has shrunk significantly compared to the previous year, making it much harder to find a job. In the winter of 2022, I was still optimistic because I thought the current situation was not bad. However, two main factors led to my misjudgment: first, at the end of 2021, many large companies had opened up daily internship channels, offering a considerable number of daily internship positions and recruiting with a significant force. Second, although many companies were rumored to be downsizing, their recruitment efforts did not decrease, and at the time, the epidemic control situation was acceptable, giving the impression that the economy was beginning to recover. Despite some negative news, it seemed to be within expectations. So initially, I wasn't in a hurry to find an internship. Although I had a lot of interview experience in 2021, I still wanted to prepare well. It wasn't until the eve of the new semester, at the end of February, that I officially started preparing for an internship. Since the beginning of my graduate studies, I had already inquired about which companies were recruiting daily interns for first-year graduate students and which companies had a high conversion rate for second-year graduates. I first went to apply for the internal referral at Alibaba, but I received some bad news: they only recruit students from Project 985 and Project 211 universities, not those from other universities. Then I asked my senior and some friends for information, only to find out that companies like Alibaba, Tencent, and DingTalk were not hiring students from non-elite universities. This was a huge blow to me. I realized immediately that this year's situation would be exceptionally tough, and finding a job would be very difficult. I started to panic, but I had to take things step by step. During that time, some companies even took extreme measures, some departments persuading interns from non-elite universities, who had already started their internships, to leave. Some core departments even set restrictions on candidates’ undergraduate universities. During that time, there was a lot of discussion about layoffs in some companies. Some even revoked offers for the 2022 graduates who had already signed their contracts, perhaps for the companies, revoking the offer only meant canceling a 5000 yuan contract, but for the 2022 graduates, it meant facing difficulty in the 2022 spring recruitment. Here, there's a 2022 graduate who came forward to talk about their experience. They mentioned that during the 2021 autumn recruitment, they had interview opportunities from over a dozen companies just by casually sending out resumes. This year, after sending out many applications, they only received one interview opportunity.

2022 will be a tough year. Looking at the Chinese concept stocks, it is easy to see that many listed companies' stocks have taken a nosedive, some even halving or losing up to two-thirds of their value compared to their peak. The A-share market has also seen a noticeable decline. Meanwhile, the US Federal Reserve is planning to raise interest rates several times in a row. Although these developments were anticipated, when the sword of Damocles truly falls, the pain is still hard to bear. There are nearly tens of millions of graduates this year. Those who cannot secure a job in top companies will try for mid-tier companies, those who fail in mid-tier companies might end up working for small companies. Those who still have the intention of pursuing further studies or taking public service exams can retain their status as fresh graduates. By doing so, they can also accumulate experience for graduate school or public service exams in the following years. I believe there have been news reports of around 3 million people failing the graduate entrance exam this year, and the number of public service exam takers will only increase. If the situation continues to be this challenging, the saying "this year is the worst in the past decade, but it will be the best in the future" may not be just a joke. I came across a saying that touched me deeply. The only trick to passing the graduate entrance exam: start early. Now, that saying seems to apply to many situations—finding a job, taking the graduate entrance exam, taking the public service exam, and so on. If you plan to take the graduate entrance exam, I think it's best to have a backup plan and be prepared for the worst. Otherwise, you might end up struggling relentlessly.

Back to the second semester of my postgraduate degree, after receiving the internship offer, I was planning to intern in Shanghai. However, due to the well-known situation, it was impossible to go to Shanghai at that time. Thus, I started my online internship from April 18, 2022, until July 26, 2022, when I finally started my on-site internship in Beijing. During this period, although I was interning, I didn't go to the lab, and Professor Lu didn't oversee me either, haha. Originally, I was supposed to intern in Shanghai, but due to the fluctuating epidemic situation, especially the recent surge in Shanghai, I was concerned that if the situation dragged on for a few more months, I might have trouble returning to school, given that I still had to work on my thesis and graduation was looming. Fortunately, our team had options to work in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou, so I ultimately chose Beijing. After arriving in Beijing, I lived in Huilongguan. Speaking of Huilongguan, I have to mention my friend Hetongyang, who is obsessed with spending all his time at Baidu and hardly ever returns to the apartment, which makes him the reigning king of avoiding responsibilities, wouldn't you agree? The distance from Huilongguan to Zhonghang Square is considerable, according to Amap, it is 12 kilometers. The main challenge was that short-term rentals near the company were extremely hard to find, except for those with deep pockets. So, I decided to forgo the accommodation allowance and settled down in Huilongguan.

As this wasn't my first internship, many things had become routine for me. My internship experience at ByteDance was quite busy, especially since our team was short-handed, and as an intern, I took on a lot of responsibilities. The perks were almost on par with Tencent, but they provided free meals here, and as interns, we were given Mac laptops. However, I still prefer Tencent's desktop computers with a 27-inch 4k screen and a 2060 graphics card, which are simply amazing. Due to the intense job market pressure in 2022 and the possibility of converting my internship into a permanent position at ByteDance, I engaged in various activities during my time in Beijing. The final defense involved facing a panel of 11, which was quite thrilling.

Fast forward to the second semester of my third year of postgraduate studies, I had to leave Beijing to attend the mid-term defense and work on my thesis. This mid-term defense was quite peculiar due to the new policy introduced this year, which hadn't existed before, and it caught my professor's attention, prompting a recall. Otherwise, I would have continued working in Beijing and enjoyed a few more company meals and my 24-inch screen. I have no idea how long it will take to complete my thesis, as originally, I only needed to publish a general paper to graduate. However, I ended up publishing an SCI paper, even though it was in a lower-tier journal. Balancing the internship and thesis writing was quite a challenge. The larger thesis will undoubtedly prove to be even more challenging, and I'm not sure how I'll meet the graduation requirements. Our school may not be top-notch, but the academic standards are indeed stringent. Once I complete the major thesis, I'll likely have to resume working to sustain myself.

Since there was an outbreak in Beijing at the time and the school prohibited us from returning, I went home first. Later, we were allowed back to school, but upon embarking on the journey, the school informed us that we would have to undergo quarantine. Even though I had been in a low-risk area for two consecutive months, I was still sent to a cabin in Qingdao for quarantine, which was rather unexpected. This one-size-fits-all policy in Qingdao required everyone returning from outside the city to undergo quarantine, not just those from outside the province, including my city, Bengbu. The only good news was that it was not a self-funded quarantine, but it still felt quite inconvenient. The living facilities here are quite complete, but the sound insulation is extremely poor. I can hear every word when my neighbor speaks, and the person next door has been on the phone constantly, making it difficult for me to sleep at noon. Moreover, the board cabin is poorly insulated. Since it's still autumn and the temperature difference between day and night is large, I need to switch on the air conditioner for cooling at noon and heating at night, which is quite torturous if there's no air conditioner. There have been new cases in Qingdao recently, and students returning to campus today and tomorrow have been detained and are not allowed to return. The cabins are almost at full capacity due to the significant number of close contacts, leading to a significant decrease in overall operational efficiency. Meal delivery is delayed, and I'm starving. Additionally, the requirement to wake up at 4:30 AM for nucleic acid testing is simply unbearable, especially when coupled with the delayed meal service.

I almost had a tough time on the first night. The cabin has poor sound insulation, and I couldn't stand it. I couldn't determine if it was the neighbor, downstairs, or across, but someone was playing a game until 2 AM. I usually fall asleep by 9 PM, and being kept awake was frustrating. Furthermore, I was woken up at 3:30 AM for nucleic acid testing, which was absolutely excruciating. It's the weekend, and I didn't have to go to work, so I turned on the TV. Typically, I only watch children's channels, so I happened to catch the movie "Boonie Bears: The Wild Life" released during the 2022 Spring Festival. This is perhaps one of the best movies I've seen in recent years, including last year's "Boonie Bears: The Wild Life." The settings are fresh, and the plot is rich. The fight scenes in this "Return to Earth" edition were also quite impressive. The most noteworthy features were the innovative settings and plot, which outshone many science fiction films. It's possibly the only worthwhile film from the 2022 Spring Festival, although it's still fundamentally a children's animated work, and its logic is not particularly rigorous. Nevertheless, it's still an excellent film. Speaking of which, the "The Guardian of the Village" series of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf is also quite good. It's not as tight as a movie due to the dragging plot and various bloopers, but it's still a decent animation. A few years ago, "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf" might have seemed somewhat childish and embarrassing, but over the past few years, it has evolved into an outstanding animation. While these animations may seem a bit juvenile for both adults and children, they're just right for someone like me, who still has a bit of a child at heart.

Slept for over an hour amidst the roar of the game host on the second night. Got woken up again at 1:30 a.m., which was really annoying. Finally, around 2 a.m., he stopped playing and got ready to sleep, which allowed me to finally get some rest. BUT, around 2:30 a.m., I was called up to do a nucleic acid test, it was really killing me. Everything else here is bearable, but not being able to sleep soundly is really uncomfortable.

Originally, today's notice said we could leave directly. But after checking the list, it turns out I'm considered a high-risk area resident. It seems that high-risk areas are now directly divided by city instead of district. So, I still have to wait for the nucleic acid test results in the afternoon before I can leave, probably around five or six o'clock, it's torture.

Finally, I returned to school. Since I returned to school, I've been doing nucleic acid tests every day for over two weeks. And there are so many people at the school, it's really unbearable. Let's be honest, if there are really any cases at the school, then the time of the nucleic acid test is when it's most contagious, it's a real congregation, just take a look at the picture and you'll understand. The exit is here, and the line behind twists around several circles. Several thousand people are squeezed into this small square, and I took the photo before class, more people will come over soon, it's unbearable to see.

After that, let's look back. From July to October, it's time for autumn recruitment. This year's autumn recruitment is really torturous. The visibly weakened economy has caused all companies to quickly lower their expectations for the future. The result is that all companies are unwilling to expand further, and are basically contracting their businesses, which means they are laying off employees. This is the case for not only the big companies, but also for small companies. For the class of 2023, this is simply a nightmare, of course, many from the class of 2022 are also suffering. The 2022 class experienced the best recruitment season, but also the largest influx of graduates as well as a wave of contract breaches. Speaking of contract breaches, for companies, it means a penalty of around 5,000 yuan. For new graduates, it means missing the spring recruitment and not being able to find a job for quite some time. As for the class of 2023, they are experiencing the worst autumn recruitment in recent years. The situation regarding contract breaches is hard to say, considering there weren't many offers to begin with, so it's not exactly mass contract breaches.

What is the actual situation of this year's autumn recruitment? Just have a look at the data: At Bytedance, the headcount went from 8,000 in 2022 to 3,000 in 2023, reduced by over 60%; Meituan, from 10,000 in 2022 to 5,000 in 2023, halved; Baidu, from 80,000 in 2022 to 2,000 in 2023, a 75% cut; Honor, from 4,000 in 2022 to 2,000 in 2023, a 50% cut; Tencent, only hiring 500 people in 2023, a 93% drastic cut compared to 2022. The actual situation may be even more brutal, because these are just nominal headcounts, it's still unknown whether they will really hire so many people. If the above data is not shocking enough, let's take a look at a review report for a blind box position at Lilith: Lilith is considered a decent middle-sized company, famous for games like "Sword and Expedition." The blind box position at Lilith received a total of 10,811 resumes, 68 students made it to the final interview, and 3 of them eventually received an offer. Although not all positions are like this, it's enough to give a glimpse of what's happening. For example, it's been rumored that after NetEase's backend campus recruitment opened, they received 20,000 resumes in just one day, and then NetEase took down the position. Maybe not everyone cares that much about these big companies, and thinks that there is fierce competition there, but the reality is that this situation is like a domino effect, even big companies are struggling, let alone mid-size and small companies. Most ordinary people will be affected layer by layer. Of course, there are also relatively powerful companies this year, such as BYD, which adds a touch of brilliance to this bleak autumn recruitment. Following the advice "the only skill for taking the postgraduate entrance exam: nothing else, only take it early" heard earlier this year, now an adage for the autumn recruitment is heard: "Sharpen your knife in case it's needed, a master of chopping wood. Can't find a job after completing a master's degree."

Let's talk about my own situation. For me, this autumn recruitment has been extremely brutal. I applied to 32 companies for autumn recruitment, and if I count the confirmation at Bytedance, it's 33 in total. I got interview opportunities from 10 companies in total, either hanging at the resume stage or being eliminated in the written test for the others. I made it to the final round for a total of 6 companies, and finally got 5 offers. This year's situation is indeed very bad, it's not at all comparable to finding an internship. Last year, I applied to three companies for an internship and got an offer from Tencent, this year I applied to three companies for an internship and got an offer from Bytedance, SF, Ctrip, Pinduoduo, and 360 for autumn recruitment.

Next is the winter vacation in the third year of postgraduate studies. From the winter vacation to the entire second semester of the third year, although I returned to school, I was still doing remote internships, and also had to write the thesis. So, the coming life is still very dull, mainly just working and writing the paper. Overall, it's still very painful, there's not much time, it's all just relentless hard work. Of course, fortunately, I had an SCI published earlier, so writing the thesis is relatively easier, of course, not that easy, after all, 97 pages have been written, a total of 63,164 words, revised back and forth several times, and finally I successfully graduated.

In fact, I always felt that the three years of postgraduate studies were not as exciting as my time at university. Maybe it's because I was too busy, either busy writing the paper or interning, feels like I spent two years writing a paper, and the other year and a half was all internships, of course, a lot of that time overlapped. This made me very tired all the time, couldn't come up with many new ideas, of course, it's also possible because I didn't take many photos anymore, so I didn't leave as many memories. Summing up my postgraduate years, it feels like I've only done a few things: financial independence, got internships offers from Tencent and Bytedance, published an SCI, 55,000 users and 15,000 daily active users for Shanke Xiaozhan, got offers from Bytedance, SF, Ctrip, Pinduoduo, and 360, and graduated successfully.

On the 17th, the school held the graduation ceremony. We also had the degree awarding. I'm very thankful to Teacher Lu for nurturing me. We finally graduated, it was really not easy. Also, to all my senior and junior schoolmates, I hope we can work hard together and graduate successfully.

Finally, in the second semester of our third year of graduate school, we all successfully graduated. My roommates, who had been with me for three years, were all ready to leave. Jiaojiao left early on the 18th because he needed to go a long way to teach children. Ruibao left at noon because he needed to catch a train at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I left at 3:30 in the afternoon because I needed to go back with Chao Ge. Dudu left at four o'clock. He was the last one to enroll and also the last one to leave. Thus, we all left our little nest of three years, and our graduate school life came to an end.

Our dormitory was just like it was three years ago when we first moved in—brand new but empty. It awaits the next group of students who will spend many wonderful moments here, build deep friendships with their roommates, and embrace challenges and growth. Here, they will chase their dreams, full of infinite possibilities and hopes for the future. We can imagine that in the near future, this place will be filled with laughter and the vitality of life. When that day comes, we may reminisce about this peaceful time and reminisce about this tranquility and peace.

At this moment, I can't help but think of the inscription on the archway in Area B, which is an encouragement for all:

Being learned in literature, Gathering and studying the books of the world, how enjoyable it is to educate all kinds of talents from all over the world. From the time of study, neither idleness nor negligence is allowed. Both domestic and foreign talents grow through diligence and hard work.

Upholding the truth, Exploring the principles and thoroughly understanding human nature, achieving virtue for the people and reaching the ultimate goodness. Observing things to gain knowledge, cultivating one's moral character, managing the family and achieving unity, and benefiting the Chinese people. When the water is full, it overflows; when the moon is full, it wanes. The wise are like flowing water. Being tolerant makes one great, without desires, one is strong. A mountain becomes high because it remains straight.

Years have passed, It should be a good time, and good scenery is illusory. Even if there are a thousand moods, who can I share them with? --- 2023.06.18 15:37.