The author | Liu Huiying
Editor| Hao Qiuhui
Core ideas
Millions of annual salaries are a common scenario in the field of autonomous driving. At the same time, it shows that more capital and resources are pouring into the field of automatic driving, and the development of the industry is promising;
Autonomous driving companies are eager to need capital recognition, so that they have future commercial value, and urgently grab the golden window period, further promoting the talent premium;
The reasons behind the seemingly overheated window period and the unusually high-paying offer may be reasonable, but reasonable does not equal correct.
Autonomous driving related jobs are becoming "money-making" jobs.
Spring recruitment is imminent, the market of car companies, Internet companies and autonomous driving companies for the relevant talents to offer a very competitive salary, headhunters one after another phone "bombardment" has made many job seekers excited.
Doubled salaries, millions of dollars a year, equity incentives, treatment and salaries that were once the envy of young people, now seem to be within reach.
In the field of autonomous driving, more companies are still in the start-up stage or road testing stage. The entire industry is facing insufficient self-hematopoietic capacity and urgently relies on primary market financing. In such a development environment, why does the employer issue such a high-paying offer?
After communicating with a number of autonomous driving companies, Yiou Automobile found that behind the phenomenon of millions of annual salaries for fresh graduates, enterprises are actively competing for layout during the window of automatic driving development. At the root of this, the large-scale talent premium actually exposes the industry's great anxiety in the face of uncertainty about the future development of autonomous driving.
01 High salaries swept through autonomous driving engineering talents
On November 11, 2021, mushroom car association, an autonomous driving full-stack technology and operation service provider, opened the autumn recruitment of 2022 and released the "Double Hundred Talent Plan", that is, looking for 100 top graduates with annual salaries of 100W+; the other "Climber Program" is looking for 50 top doctoral students with annual salaries of 200W+.
"Our fresh graduates don't earn millions a million a year, but the average annual salary is definitely more than a million." Wang Rui, CEO of YOUDAO Zhitu, a commercial vehicle intelligent driving science and technology innovation company owned by SAIC, told Yiou Automobile.
"As a practitioner, the basic salary growth should be increased to 1.5 times to 2 times in the past, which will make people have the desire to move." Mr. X, product manager of NIO's intelligent driving cloud platform, told Yiou Automobile.
In mid-2021, a two-year WEILAI work experience, graduated from Shanghai Jiao Tong University with a master's degree, and with an annual salary of 1.6 million yuan, was promoted to Huawei's autonomous driving department through internal promotion.
Mr. X studied electronic information engineering in college and spent nearly five years working on big data and cloud. Mr. X's main job is to improve the tool chain of autonomous driving, that is, through data annotation and model training, to help the algorithm of automatic driving become "smart".
His Autonomous Driving System (AS) division currently employs about 350 people. Mr. X told Yiou Automobile that NIO's intelligent driving core algorithm division mainly began to build in August 2020, after Ren Shaoqing left Momenta to enter NIO, and then grew at an annual expansion rate of 1.5 times.
The salary double, close to home, in mr. X's words, it is such superior conditions that attract him to "go halfway out" and enter the field of autonomous driving. It is becoming increasingly common for people like him to pour in self-driving talent from all walks of life.
"Companies are hungry for good people at any cost." Zhang Tianlei, CEO of Mainline Technology, summed it up.
Yu Mengmeng, COO of Chasing Technology, has the same experience in recruiting talents: "Talents are very sought-after, and salaries are also rising, which shows that our track is very good." ”
Zhang Tianlei said that millions of annual salaries are a very common situation in autonomous driving. This phenomenon also shows that more capital and resources are pouring into the field of autonomous driving, and the positive signals continuously released by the industry in the process of development also make everyone think that the industry is very promising.
However, not all of the relevant positions of automatic driving can be "rain and dew".
Wang Shuliang, deputy general manager of Jimu Intelligent Technology, told Yiou Automobile that although the technical direction of autonomous driving is divided into perception, decision-making and control execution, the news of "hiring fresh graduates with millions of annual salaries" often only appears in the field of perception.
Wang Rui said frankly that the current attitude of enterprises to talents is "not only to dig people desperately, but also to strictly guard against death to prevent our people from being dug."
Because the accumulation of autonomous driving companies has not yet been systematized, many things are basically "following people", once the loss of key talents, it will cause technology to collapse, and many capabilities will flow outside, forming a situation of "fertile water fertile other people's fields".
Therefore, before the autonomous driving enterprise completes the systematic construction, talent is still the most important reliance on the development of the enterprise. In the field of autonomous driving perception, the dependence on talents is particularly obvious.
The development of perception sensing technologies such as vision, lidar, and millimeter-wave radar, as well as positioning and control technologies, helps autonomous vehicles see the world clearly and capture richer information about the road environment, so that they can operate smoothly, safely and reliably in different scenarios.
At present, as far as technological breakthroughs in the field of visual perception are concerned, through deep learning, based on rich road environment data, relying on experience accumulation to design and train deep learning network models to achieve rich scene coverage, thereby promoting the rapid landing of automatic driving.
In the market, if the candidate comes out of Baidu, Waymo and other self-driving companies, with intelligent driving mass production experience, it will be very sought-after. In the future, for the key areas of rapidly developing artificial intelligence such as visual perception technology, practitioners are also required to have relevant professional knowledge reserves and innovation capabilities.
Perception technology is advancing rapidly, and those who can keep up with technological changes are top scarce talents, and the price has increased as a result. Previously, there was Huawei's million annual salary to recruit "genius teenagers", and now more companies have been able to glimpse its rapid growth momentum through high-paying recruitment of reserve talents in the field of autonomous driving.
In fact, companies are paying for the current talent anxiety and future strategic layout.
02 Window premium is obvious, don't be "burned" by overheated tracks
Mr. X's most recent job hopping has brought his annual salary to nearly seven figures, which is also the envy of family and friends.
But that didn't soothe his anxiety, because almost every day, he was worried that if there was no large-scale application of autonomous driving, capital would no longer follow, and he might say goodbye to high salaries or even be laid off.
This anxiety, which generally spreads in the field of autonomous driving, is also the initiator of the talent premium.
Wang Shuliang said bluntly: "Based on the actual needs and market competition of the rapid development of the autonomous driving market, startups will also be eager to make themselves more in line with the future commercial value in the eyes of capital, so they will keep up with the demand of the investment field to seize time, and will promote the talent premium during the window period." ”
Many companies recruit high-paying talents, and in addition to finding talents with heavy money, there may be other purposes. Zhang Tianlei believes that enterprises are using salary levels to show their muscles to the outside, while also releasing their signal that they will open up all possibilities to pursue talents.
Startups can currently give self-driving talent a 30 to 50 percent salary increase above the market. After all, if the innovation and development problems faced by enterprises can be solved with money, then in the final analysis, it is not a big problem, Wang Shuliang told Yiou Automobile.
However, the problems faced by autonomous driving are changing with each passing day, and the creativity and professionalism of talents are extremely demanding, in addition to being able to overcome new problems, they also need to be ahead of their opponents in time. In Wang Rui's words, "This outlet will not give you the time to 'sharpen a sword in ten years', ten months may be too long."
Businesses' need for sustainability has led them to aim for more financing and higher valuations.
The trillion-dollar dividend "cake" in the industrial torrent also prompts entrants to run the ground first and obtain the entry ticket for future commercialization and scale possibilities, even if they lose money.
Everything that is abnormal seems to be being straightened out.
As everyone knows, the momentum of overheating has not only "promoted" the development of the industry, but also pulled out a lot of good seedlings.
Yu Mengmeng told Yiou Automobile that he knew some fresh graduates, who did not have strong abilities, but were hyped up by the industry to a high salary. Such a good seedling has just entered the society, can not realize their true level, will be "carried away by money."
Once the tide fades, they will be very confused and perhaps slammed to the ground by reality.
"Once you come here, you have no worries about food and clothing, how can you do a good job?" Wang Rui said bluntly that the recruitment of fresh graduates with an annual salary of one million is actually a price gouging, which will make personal development lose motivation.
The track is overheating and the premium is noticeable. The urgent need for commercialization has made many autonomous driving companies realize that it is no longer an era of PPT walking in the rivers and lakes, and capital has begun to be pragmatic. This also prompts companies to keep their eyes open and look for genuine talent.
For how to recruit people in the window period, what kind of people to recruit, Zhang Tianlei has a set of methodologies, in short: enterprises need people with "loyal quality, professional quality and entrepreneurial spirit".
He emphasized: "Character comes first at all times. If a person is kind and loyal, then he will not rush to make a quick profit in the process of moving things forward. ”
Good character is comparable to jade, and technology and business ability are carved on top of good jade. Zhang Tianlei hopes that candidates will not only come to make money, but also be able to withstand entrustment. On top of this, if you still have excellent technical strength and the spirit of going all out, then the cooperation will be smooth.
Coincidentally, Yu Mengmeng also attaches great importance to the plasticity of talents. She told Yiou Auto that there is a lack of professional talents in this field, and companies should look for young people with potential. In the eyes of Yu Mengmeng, the current salary is high and low is short-lived, and a person's long-term accumulation can accompany it all the way.
"A person has the parts that are visible above the iceberg, there are also the invisible parts under the iceberg, and the most important thing is to polish the things under the iceberg to make the iceberg more stable and longer-term to cope with career development." Yu Mengmeng said bluntly.
At all stages of enterprise development, strategically playing the talent card is a problem that enterprise managers need to think seriously from beginning to end.
In addition to salary, more options, equity incentives, flatter management models and a more elegant working environment have become the efforts of more and more companies to retain talents.
Yiou Automobile believes that slowing down the window period, avoiding quick success and short-term profits, and returning market competition to benign can the development of the industry return to benign. Both enterprises and individuals should have a clear understanding of their own and industry development, and avoid short-term competition hindering long-term development.
03 Can afford porcelain work, but also have to practice diamonds
In the industry, artificial intelligence has always been hailed by practitioners as the Everest of the technology industry. And autonomous driving, because it integrates almost all the technologies of artificial intelligence, is also known as the jewel in the crown of artificial intelligence.
But who can set this pearl well?
AutoX Told Auto automotive that talents with upward potential need to have a solid foundation in engineering and scientific research, close teamwork skills, and the ability to focus on research and development.
The simple four words of "craftsman spirit" test not only the level of technical personnel, but also the mind. Being able to really calm down and practice engineering capabilities such as code and algorithms, and be familiar with the most cutting-edge algorithms, in order to inadvertently get substantial improvement.
Yu Mengmeng, who entered the automotive industry in 2012, is now an entrepreneur in the field of autonomous driving. Along the way, she has gone from employer to employer, completing a major shift in her role in the talent market and meeting people at all stages of the industry.
Yu Mengmeng always believes that a person who is upright, kind, and modest, and has the ability to cope with changes and continuously learn, can become a talent in the true sense.
Wang Shuliang said that the development of artificial intelligence is still an empirical science driven by data and computing power. In addition to the basic mathematical and computer theory support, it is also necessary to design and train the network model through experience combined with the task, and constantly optimize and iterate the model based on the problems encountered in practice.
The progress of artificial intelligence also requires fresh graduates to be exposed to relevant knowledge from universities, and relevant practitioners have many years of experience in order to keep up with the pace of technological development in the future.
The heat of capital has not decreased, and the demand for enterprises has surged, which has had a chain reaction on colleges and universities.
In fact, artificial intelligence majors have become a must for major universities, and more powerful universities have even set up special artificial intelligence colleges, and the linkage between production, education and research is closer.
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Education, in 2019 and 2020, the discipline with the largest number of new filing majors by the Ministry of Education was artificial intelligence, and the number of new universities was 86 and 130 respectively. At present, 345 colleges and universities in China have opened undergraduate majors in artificial intelligence.
Taking Wuhan as an example, Wuhan currently has two universities with 985 universities, namely Wuhan University and Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Wuhan University and Xiaomi, Huake and Huawei have set up artificial intelligence centers and set up artificial intelligence majors.
In addition, Huawei has set up a data center in Wuhan, which can support the training of artificial intelligence models in universities. Domestic universities and corresponding local enterprises have also jointly established research centers and team groups.
As a "pearl-level" application in the field of artificial intelligence, autonomous driving is undoubtedly the most mainstream employment field for its professional graduates. Although there are still many problems that have not yet been solved, the application of L2-level assisted driving and the commercialization of L4 autonomous driving in some closed and semi-closed scenarios have given a shot in the arm for the global autonomous driving industry.
It is impossible to determine whether more problems were solved or more problems were created in the process of the birth of a new thing. But once the wheel of technological development turns, it is difficult to stop.
Things are man-made, and "people" are eternal issues.
04 Conclusion
Proper heat can promote industrial development, but overheating may only be left after the fire.
In the final analysis, the competition between enterprises is not only a dispute over technology landing, but also a dispute over resource integration. Whether it is a company or a candidate, it should not have an over-hasty mentality for its own development.
Precipitating technology and growing intently can we ride the tide and ride the wind and waves.
High salaries and high public attention are temptations. For those who are ready to participate in autonomous driving, maintaining caution and cultivating their ability and courage to ride the wind and waves in advance is a wise choice to ensure that the future can withstand the beating of the waves and smoothly land.
Yiou Automobile also believes that the development of the autonomous driving industry will eventually return to a reasonable state. Those who strive for excellence will also harvest the sweet fruits that belong to their own intensive cultivation.