niracler

Weekly Journal -> Bi-Weekly Journal -> Monthly Journal -> Bi-Monthly Journal. It's really quite a procrastination, and it's definitely not because I've been too comfortable playing games lately and don't want to write 🤣. As things pile up, writing the weekly journal becomes increasingly difficult to finish.

XX => YY#

I started looking for a job on July 25, and I have now been working in Xi'an for three weeks. My life has changed a lot in these two months, and the main theme of this bi-monthly journal is to record these changes.

Job Seeking => Employed#

As an engineer who once primarily used the Shell and Awk tech stack, I am now transitioning to Node.js backend development. Although I only did Node.js backend work part-time in my previous two jobs, it is still the only technology I can use to find a job.

Two years ago, I thought, "I'll wait until I'm ready to job hunt." After all, "the Shell and Awk tech stack is hard to find jobs with." But that in itself is a very difficult thing. Every day, working in a job that requires full commitment, I had almost no energy to do what I wanted after work. Coupled with rumors of economic downturns and the difficulty of finding a job, I became even more fearful.

Until the last straw that broke the camel's back appeared. After experiencing a 🍵-🦠 incident, I ultimately chose to resign. I realized that job only brought me pain. Since escaping was inevitable and the economic situation was worsening, the later I left, the harder it would be. So I resolutely made a hard landing and left that job.

This also led to me stopping for three months after leaving, essentially giving myself a summer vacation. Online discussions were filled with tales of the most difficult job hunts in history, and how one could only find jobs with a pay cut after leaving, along with endless overtime. Just thinking about these made my head hurt, so during that time, I decided to stop thinking and not think about anything, and just let three months pass. (In the end, it was my bank book that reminded me, and I had to get moving, as I might need to look for a job from August to November.)

For details, you can check my previous issues.

After I started looking for a job, I realized that my ignorance was much greater than I had imagined. My foundation in JS/TS/Node was weak, and I knew almost nothing about concepts like the onion model, the difference between type and interface, and the principles of promises. I struggled to answer questions about frameworks and libraries I had used during interviews.

So I could only accept my four years of stagnation and work hard to change. That period was very anxious; I even lost my appetite for meals, and the muscles I had built up from working out lost a few pounds. But it was precisely this "seeing the coffin and shedding tears" moment that suddenly made me wake up and focus. I reviewed foundational knowledge, interview skills, and algorithm questions in a 3:3:2 ratio around the clock.

Although the plan was good, in reality, I often became "obsessed" when I saw job postings, scrolling through BOSS Direct Hire until I couldn't stop, resulting in scheduling 14 interviews in a week, with my review time almost completely compressed. Especially since I applied to a bunch of small companies, even nationwide, the level of anxiety was beyond my imagination.

By the time I reached the tenth technical interview, I could finally clearly articulate my project experiences, and I finally broke through the first interview and entered the second. I kept silently reciting the [37% Rule](37% 法则 - MBA 智库百科 (mbalib.com)), and friends from big companies kept emphasizing not to go for anything below 1XK or to go for outsourcing. I can only say, doing the right thing is really hard, and in the end, I didn't meet the standards set by my friends from big companies and accepted the third offer. I directly came to Xi'an.

(This is the information from BOSS, just a little record.)

This article is just a stream of consciousness record, what else do you expect? How I became obsessed, how anxious and conflicted I felt about these things at that time, and why I chose this job in Xi'an—these can only be filled in and analyzed later. In fact, I wrote a job-hunting record during that time, but I felt it wasn't good, so I deleted it. I'll organize it and post it later.

Guangdong => Xi'an#

Wishes always come true in unexpected ways. I once said I wanted to go to a place with subways away from Guangdong. At that time, I was thinking of Shanghai or Hangzhou. The first step after resigning was also to travel to these places. But when I actually started job hunting, I found that finding jobs in the Yangtze River Delta was very difficult. Small companies required in-person interviews, and large companies had higher requirements for education and skills. So I also started applying to places like Wuhan and Chengdu.

Here's a brief overview of my current living situation:

1. Commute: The place I live is 2 kilometers from the company, a 25-minute walk, or 8 minutes by shared bike. The subway station is right at the entrance of the community, making transportation very convenient.
2. Roommates: My roommates are all quite nice; I can freely use their kitchenware, and the atmosphere is good. I even had a detailed chat with one of the guys for over an hour. However, there are some issues with the water heater, light bulbs, range hood, air conditioning, etc., and I reported them all for repair within two weeks.
3. Room: I rented a 33-square-meter room for about 10% of my salary. This room used to be a living room with a balcony, and it's really spacious, completely not a depressing room. (Unfortunately, it's not easy to take photos of it.)
4. Weather: The temperature here is similar to Guangdong, but once it gets cold, I’ll need to buy some jackets. I hardly wore a down jacket in Guangdong. (Finally, I can experience weather beyond summer, cold air, and the return of humidity.)
5. Food: There are various cuisines near the park, and I try different dishes every day. The chain stores in the mall are pretty much the same nationwide, so adapting is not a problem. It might also be because I’ve already eaten a lot in Dongguan, Shenzhen, and Zhongshan. So there’s no place I find hard to get used to.
6. Interpersonal Relationships: I’ve always been a cyber electronic person, a true two-dimensional camera, and I don’t have many ties offline, and even have more online relationships. So where I live doesn’t really affect me. (But later I can invite friends to Xi'an for tourism; I’ve become a pioneer for my circle of friends in Xi'an.)

However, there are fewer exhibitions, concerts, or technical conferences in Xi'an, which is a bit regrettable. (Speaking of which, aren't these the most important unexpected things?) One of the few benefits is that reality doesn't shine on me so harshly here; perhaps I can find some unique value in myself.

Anyway, if anyone comes to Xi'an to play, feel free to invite me for a meal or something.

(My company didn't send mooncakes, but my roommates brought some, thank you very much.)

Jack of All Trades => Specialist Mage#

Recently, I've been playing "Baldur's Gate 3," and my self-created main character is a bard. The reason for choosing this profession is simply that it’s too versatile—lockpicking, persuasion, healing, frontline combat, it can do it all. Although it’s not specialized, it’s worry-free, one person in the team can replace three. However, in a more industrialized company, they don’t need a specialist mage who can output and also has some handy skills to steal things. The company needs specialized talents focused on a single field rather than a jack of all trades who can handle small tasks.

How should I put it, it's like a carpenter who makes wooden chairs finding a job on an ergonomic chair production line. The carpenter's skills are actually on the technical leader's skill tree, but due to previously only being able to do small businesses, and lacking the cultural background, experience, and assets to open a factory and design a production line, the production line cannot offer him more salary than other workers just because he can "design and make a chair from scratch." In fact, he might even earn less than job seekers from other factories, at least they have experience working on the production line and wouldn't think about so many unnecessary things.

(A jack of all trades character, besides output, is useless but has flashy skills.)

Let me briefly mention some differences:

1. Different question setters: Finally, there are product managers; in my previous two jobs, it was programmers doubling as product managers. I would propose requirements to myself and then implement them. This feeling was really super insecure. Now, the psychological burden is much lighter.
2. PRs are reviewed by others: Previously, submitting a PR felt like playing a game of "Three Kingdoms" alone. The lord was myself, and the loyalists, rebels, and traitors were all me. I had to constantly imagine, "What if a senior engineer came to review my code?" Although it did improve a lot with GPT's assistance later, when the referee and the athlete are both myself, it easily leads to slow progress.
3. First time using breakpoints: Previously, I relied on print statements for debugging, but here I was directly guided to use breakpoints instead of printing a bunch of things every time.
4. No need to worry about CICD: These are operations-related tasks; I finally don’t have to worry about building and online environment issues, nor do I have to deal with server security vulnerabilities, certificate expiration dates, etc. It feels a bit like the comfort I had when I first started using Cloudflare. I just need to focus on code implementation.
5. More focused: I thought about my previous tech stack. It was a bunch of juggling acts, but not deep at all. Back then, shell, node, awk, and docker were all on the same level for me; I didn’t delve deeply into any one area.
   6…. There should be a lot more.

The work atmosphere is really great (you can tell the founder is an idealist):

1. Working hours: I arrive at the company at 8:45 AM, and I wait half an hour for someone to show up. I was teased for being "too early"; they usually start arriving around 9:20. Then by around 7 PM, most people have left (I leave at 6:50). After 8 PM, no issues are ringing anymore. I initially thought it was only like this on the first day, but after three weeks, it has been like this every day, and it’s a two-day weekend. (Finally free from the previous requirement of "full commitment to work.")
2. No daily reports: There’s a daily meeting at 5:30 PM to discuss our progress and any issues encountered.
3. Technical sharing: The technical atmosphere feels quite good; there’s a technical sharing session every other Wednesday afternoon for an hour. (That’s during work hours, and it’s almost up to 200 sessions now.) The knowledge base also has a huge amount of daily learning. It seems that if you write good articles and meet the criteria to post them on the company blog, you can even get bonuses. It feels like I can really study technology after work instead of spending all day writing business-related stuff. (Now, to keep up, I have to read at least five technical weekly reports every day.)
4. Employee turnover: It feels like they just lost someone and then hired me. It’s not the kind of company that constantly hires and has high turnover. (Even when I asked, everyone had partners; it’s really enviable.)

August was indeed quite hellish, but in the end, I finally found a good place to settle down (has the champagne popped early?~)

So, what’s the cost?

MacOS => Windows#

During the three weekends I spent in Xi'an, I did three things: ordered an air fryer for cooking, built a Windows PC to unlock more possibilities, and played a game of "Civilization 6" with an online friend. So today (this weekend), I started writing this article.

Why build a PC? Mainly to run large models (and of course, for gaming).

(Thanks to @lotu-2433 for helping me build the PC, I can play Black Myth: Wukong Civilization 6 on a huge map now.)

My Own Book#

During the job-hunting period, I made many "priced" self-introductions, constantly emphasizing my self-worth. However, the first task after joining was to write a simple article introducing myself, and this self-introduction, which has nothing to do with value, made me feel awkward.

How can one see the shape of the Earth from the Earth? After all, we are in it, often like looking at ourselves through a microscope, seeing only the wrinkles of life, but it’s hard to summarize ourselves with a single curve. I once wrote a self-introduction on xlog, and looking back, I couldn't help but mock myself: "Who is this?"

In fact, I have always dreamed of designing a worldview and characters like a novelist. Perhaps I should start with designing my own character.

(This is the MBTI result I tested at the beginning of the year; aside from I and O, the other tendencies are not obvious.)

In these three weeks, I have also made some records; perhaps these points intersect and have causal relationships, but I don’t want to delve into them for now:

1. Optimism that avoids reality: I inherited my mother’s personality, often naively thinking that I am lucky, but in reality, I am just foolishly optimistic. I have never seriously considered buying a car, a house, finding a partner, or getting married, always thinking that things will work out naturally. Four years have passed, and all that has increased is my age. (Identified as living in the moment, with no future plans)
2. Unreasonable expectations of myself: Is it called strong desire? Wanting to do everything but not doing anything well, as the saying goes, "the higher the eye, the lower the hand." Tool control should also reflect this personality. So, novelists don’t need to actually do it but just think about it; that’s the profession I long for. (Identified as fantasizing about being a comic book character)
3. Need to draft my speech: When communicating face-to-face, I pay too much attention to others' thoughts, leading to CPU overload and causing me to go off on a tangent. In my previous company, during 1-on-1s with my boss, I even needed to write a script in advance; once, I sent the script to the other party in advance and scared them. (Identified as lacking on-the-spot adaptability and being afraid of making mistakes, with too little offline life)
4. Not fond of trends: If I discover a work after it becomes popular, I probably won’t like it. Many times, I only start watching when the trend is about to die down. A goddess I really liked once repeatedly recommended that I watch "Kill la Kill," but when I finally watched it, it was already eight years later. I also wrote an article about related thoughts. (Identified as rolling with the crowd, only able to find obscure directions)
5. Like long stories: I don’t really like movies because they are too short; they finish too quickly, and many interesting points cannot be elaborated on. I have a habit of accidentally spending an entire night finishing a serialized manga that has been running for over a decade. That feeling is like taking a trip to a cyber world. (Identified as thinking of another world, but just thinking, not wanting to take risks)
6. Completely lacking a sense of money: It's hard to explain why; the reason should be related to the previous avoidance of reality and strong desire, combined with what I previously wrote about people X community X things, I feel like I’m becoming a consumerism-oriented blogger. (Identified as being influenced by the minority, easily controlled by the trend of buying things)
7. Talkative: Once I encounter a topic of interest, I can’t stop talking, and I welcome everyone to chat with me. (Identified as lonely, finding possible followers and starting to preach incessantly)
8. Like to create fun: I’m someone who rarely feels bored; my life is filled with my interests and hobbies, and there are so many things I want to do that I can only do them randomly. Perhaps my previous job made me so painful and conflicted. When I party with friends, I always think, why hasn’t it disbanded yet? My boss at home is still waiting for me to play. (Identified as living only in my own world, seeing only myself)
9. Rely on intuition to do things: Yes, I’m the kind of person who buys PC parts and thinks about assembling them without looking at the manual, even though it’s my first time. I do things every day with a "I think, I feel" approach. When playing games, I like to look at the best practice guides from the start and copy them. (Identified as having an empty head with no original thoughts)

In summary, I’m just a lazy person, fantasizing about getting the script of a comic book character. Before job hunting, when I heard various news about the difficulties of job hunting and the economic downturn, I always thought, I definitely won’t be like that, the fire won’t reach me. But in reality, I couldn’t express even a hint of what advantages I had during interviews. (Identified as an ordinary person)

(I started practicing calligraphy; this month’s random topic is practicing writing. I haven’t written in a long time, and after finishing two pages of writing practice, my hand went numb.)

👀 What Else Have I Watched#

📚 🎬 📺 Works#

🌐 Articles#

• “The air fryer is truly a great invention” ｜ Minority Member π+Prime - Hmm, I definitely didn’t order the air fryer because I read this article~~
• 【PC Building Guide】The best PC building guide on the internet, bar none_哔哩哔哩_bilibili - Also catching up on this.
• Raycast - Store - A lot more plugins have appeared since I last checked.
• Nx: Smart Monorepos · Fast CI - Trying out using monorepo.
• After renting for 6 years, I compiled this "Rental Guide" - Minority - An article from six years ago, but still these checklists.
• Chinese Physical Society Journal Network - The Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences established China's first internet server and website in April 1994.
• Introduction - JavaScript Tutorial - Wangdao - Starting to learn JavaScript.
• P5R: LIFE CHANGED | Major Breakthrough - P5R is a game I slightly brushed past; I intentionally avoided its content, wanting to leave an opportunity to play it.
• linuxmint/timeshift - I still haven’t figured out how rsync handles file modifications during synchronization.
• After supply chain poisoning, what choices do we have left? - Kagurazaka Tamamo
• Three Words SunGuts - YouTube - The content seems quite good, just in time to help me change some daily postures and bad habits in exercise.

Afterword#

Alright, I’ve finished writing, and it can be considered an account of the beginning of a new life. Will it still be incoherent? I wrote this from 9 AM to 10 PM.

(About what I tried after getting the air fryer.)