Job hopping was originally one of the common means for contemporary professionals to raise salaries, but in today's tough job market, many people have suffered salary cuts of up to 40% after job hopping, which seems to be becoming a new normal in the workplace.
Interview 丨Jonas, MK
Editor丨Sebastian
Source丨ELLEMEN (ID: ellemen_China)
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Job hopping was originally one of the common means for contemporary professionals to raise salaries, but in today's tough job market, many people have suffered salary cuts of up to 40% after job hopping, which seems to be becoming a new normal in the workplace.
Here are the stories of four people who cut their salaries and jumped jobs:
"In addition to the salary cut, I am also worried that I will delay my work by giving birth."
Fiona, 30 years old, based in Shenzhen, salary reduction: 35%
I have been in venture media for nearly 8 years, and the last company achieved a partner position and gave the so-called options, but this one has no meaning, it is replaced with money. The company was tough during the pandemic, there were several waves of layoffs, I wasn't laid off but I was owed wages for months.
At that time, the boss was very wary of me, a 30+ employee who was preparing to get married, and kept asking if I was going to have a baby, although after nearly 5 years of service, I was a little unbearable. At the end of last year, I applied for arbitration after leaving my job, and negotiated a return of my salary before the trial in March this year, plus two months of salary compensation.
Before all this trouble, I was ready to find a home, but I didn't expect to end up jumping ship, but I lowered my salary.
In half a year, I met with nearly ten companies, almost all of them were three rounds of interviews, and at the end of the conversation, most of the people were hinting to me that "I am worried about getting married and having children, and I will delay work", I think if the company is really worried about this, they should tell me at the beginning, three rounds of interviews are wasting each other's time.
Now there are a lot of opinions on the Internet about women having babies immediately after entering the company, and I have no plans to have children myself, but I just want to continue my career. Later, I found a friend with resources in the circle of friends to push inside, but when it came to the round of salary talks, the company's administration was the same as those companies in the previous ones, did not believe in my plan not to have a baby, repeatedly emphasized that there were risks, and used this as an excuse to press the salary, and the 25k monthly salary was directly cut into 16k, and there was almost no room for discussion.
After so many years in Shenzhen, I knew when to compromise and when to face reality, so I accepted this offer. I have reduced my salary so much and I am sincere, but the company wants me to devote resources to work, and the workload has not been less, but it has increased.
Two weeks after joining the company, after various contacts, I found that the company's infighting was also quite serious. The departments are still playing each other's work, you have no intention of running your daily life, you need to completely give up those legitimate needs as a woman, and even a great aunt is afraid to ask for leave.
On my day of employment, a female executive came to talk to me, roughly wanting to completely cut off my idea of having a baby (which I didn't) and draw me a pie. Alas, in the workplace, women are always embarrassed by women, and it is too cruel to married and childless women.
"Jumping jobs after 35 and taking a pay cut is not the worst."
MX, 35 years old, coordinate Jinan, salary reduction: 50%
I was looking for a home before the Spring Festival this year, when I heard rumors that the company was going to lay off employees next, and I decisively re-entered the job market. Many friends around have suffered layoffs, many of them take a month off after leaving, and it is much more difficult to find a job again, I want to learn lessons and take the initiative early, but once you enter the job market, you will find that many of the pay is particularly low.
Most of the positions on the recruitment platform are zombie posts, and it is hard to catch one, and basically have to accept the preparation of a salary cut of half. Those who grab positions with you can be said to be thousands of troops. Some positions have already been decided, and they are fooled into going to the interview just to accompany them. Regular companies are limited to 35 years old, HR background set conditions, more than 35 directly by the system automatically screened out.
Next, I was ready to change jobs, and joked with my friends that I would simply go to Zibo to dry a barbecue. Jokes aside, Zibo barbecue is not casual. The reality is that in addition to going to first-tier cities in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, the job you encounter is basically not as good as the last job.
I also considered a new first-tier city, and a few days ago I invested in a company in Hangzhou, with an annual salary of 45W before tax. I was very excited, but the interview was not passed, and then the human resources called me again, saying that my resume was very good, and I could see that my business ability was okay through the interview, but they needed not only to be capable, but also to be able to speak. So as things stand, you don't have a choice, you can only be chosen.
"Come out of the system, cut your salary and lie flat with your husband."
Lina, 30 years old, coordinates Guangdong, salary cut: 23%
After graduating from graduate school, I have been working as a teacher in a public school in Shenzhen. Frankly speaking, in the past few years, the treatment of teachers in Shenzhen was still good, because the money was given more, and it has always attracted people with doctoral degrees to apply.
But this situation has changed since last year, and our industry itself has arranged various tasks for teachers without any substantial incentives under the condition of salary cuts and teaching workload unchanged. After letting go, my work became more "consuming", basically no time of my own, comparable to the work intensity of the 996 factory.
So I discussed with my husband, or let's stop rolling in Shenzhen and go to other cities to see opportunities. It just so happened that he received an offer from a university at the beginning of this year, and the package was okay, and the pressure of scientific research was not great.
My husband still respects my opinion, because for me leaving Shenzhen to follow him means giving up an "iron rice bowl", it was not easy to get this preparation at the beginning, plus I also have an evaluation title, he felt that it was a pity to find a school outside the system in another city.
But I really don't want to roll up, I have a lot of physical strength in my twenties, I have some unrealistic expectations for the education industry, and I stay up late after the age of thirty, not to mention that the students are more difficult to bring one session after another, I just want to live my life well after work.
In addition to 23% less salary, there are also changes in education models that need to be adapted, the advantage is that it seems that there are more holidays, direct leaders are not as wolf as before, and the cost of living in second-tier cities is lower than that of first-tier cities.
As for whether it can really "lie flat", it may take time to test.
"After the salary cut, consider doing a side hustle in your spare time."
K, 27 years old, coordinates Shanghai, salary reduction: 20%
Since March last year, my last company has been laying off a wave of employees, and by the time I left the company, it had laid off 50% of its employees.
The whole atmosphere is that at the end of each month, everyone is nervous, because there are several places every month, and although I am not laid off as a middle-level employee, it is indeed more and more difficult to carry out the business. Originally, the work done by two people was pressed onto one person, there were new tasks anytime, anywhere, and because of the layoffs, the whole process became very irregular, and it could even be described as "chaotic".
I started looking at new opportunities about two months ago. Before that, the boss revealed that the company entered the "frozen salary" stage, and the promotion and salary increase were directly canceled, and I calculated that I could only find a way out by jumping jobs.
As a result, the headhunters contacted me told me that the market is not good this year, and I may have to adjust the expectation of salary increase and job-hopping. It stands to reason that I also have some resources in the industry, some companies even ask me to take a written test, the interview process is more complicated than before, and some HR directly showdown after the first round of interviews: Can I accept a salary cut?
Frankly, I didn't accept it at first, but when you listened to it too many times and had to compromise with reality. I also explained my bottom line, the premise of the salary reduction is that I will not work overtime casually, how much money to do how much work, otherwise why should I change jobs?
The company I'm about to join has given me a promise in this regard, and I roughly calculated that their annual package is about the same as the basic salary of the previous company, and the income is almost 20% without commission, which is the price I pay for the work-life balance.
It's hard to say whether this decision is the right one. I hope that in the future, with the time saved by not working overtime, I can have time to think about my side business.