Author|Chen Mo
Editor|Jiang Yue
WeChat public account: chief person view (ID: sxrenwuguan)
01 Escape
Young people are "running away from the pail" of architectural design institutes.
New energy, ESG, computers, smart cities, finance, medical care... They have changed careers in a variety of fields, but they just don't want to stay in the real estate industry anymore, "poor and tired, and they don't see the future yet."
"Two-thirds of my young colleagues at the design institute have already changed careers, and of the remaining one-third, many are preparing to change careers." Xu Ruirui, 25, said. She studied architecture and then worked for three years in two municipal architectural design institutes in the Yangtze River Delta.
Of the four people in her undergraduate dormitory, one went home to become a teacher, one was doing personnel work, and she and the other turned into code farmers. No one remained in the architectural design industry.
More than half a year ago, 25-year-old Li Yi resigned from a municipal architectural design institute in a southern provincial capital. Three years after graduation, this is his second job at an architectural design institute. Previously, he also worked in a residential architecture design institute.
At that time, the municipal architectural design institute was laying off employees, and the leader gave him two choices: go to the field headquarters; Leave. Li Yi took the initiative to choose to take the compensation and leave. He was determined to leave the architectural design industry once and for all.
Picture: Stills from "I, leave work on time"
After his resignation, two or three more young designers from the institute resigned.
"I can't stand the high intensity, low wages and internal friction of the design institute work. The elderly will not voluntarily leave their jobs because it will be difficult for them to find a job again, but young people will. Li Yi said.
After a year of work, the 23-year-old Xiaoqi also resigned from a residential architecture design institute in a coastal city in the north.
"The industry has declined, let's find a way out." A friend advised her so.
The feeling of escaping the architectural design institute is so urgent that sometimes the efforts of young people to cross the line are so desperate.
The work of the design institute is very intense, and it is often exhausted after work. But because he couldn't find the direction to change careers, Xu Ruirui once fell into confusion and anxiety, and often lost sleep at night.
In order to relieve anxiety, starting in 2020, every sleepless night, she went online to teach herself to code.
Later, she signed up for an offline computer class and began to learn to do projects.
The desire to learn new knowledge and change her destiny helped her survive the most confused period. Xu Ruirui learned Olympiad when he was a child, and his logical reasoning ability is very strong. She found that computer code seemed very advanced, but when she learned it, it was actually very simple.
As long as you work hard enough, it is possible to break the state of "interlacing like a mountain". Now, Xu Ruirui has successfully jumped into a financial state-owned enterprise and become a code farmer.
After resigning from the design institute and taking a two-month break, Li Yi began to look for a job. From the beginning of the job search to the time he found a job, it took him more than half a year.
He wanted to find a job related to brand marketing. Because it was a career change, he put his figure to the minimum. In more than half a year, he submitted more than 800 resumes, and the concept was rejected by 95%. There are two reasons for rejection: professional incompliance and experience incompatibility.
There were few interview opportunities, so he cherished them. As long as he was notified for an interview, even if it was a small company, he would go.
One day, he saw a medical company hiring. He submitted his resume, but there was no response.
"I really wanted to change careers, so I sent a big paragraph to HR on the recruitment website, telling her that my major might not be too suitable, but I had done my homework in this field before and was very eager to get an interview."
HR agreed to his interview. Later, he got a job related to content operations and marketing.
Xiaoqi feels that her graduates are lucky to at least find a job like a design institute. In previous years, when the real estate boom, many colleges and universities opened architectural design-related majors, a large number of students were enrolled, Xiaoqi's school alone opened architecture, urban and rural planning, landscape design, landscape architecture, interior design majors, a grade of about 250 people, "80%-90% are in the design institute."
When the real estate market cools, the market can no longer digest so many people. Xiaoqi said that when the school recruited in 2023, he did not recruit a single fresh graduate from the design institute where he was before, and "no matter how good the results are, don't want them."
02 Getting better or poorer?
"It is said that the Internet industry is suffering, but we are much more bitter than the Internet industry. The Internet industry is happy at least on the day it is issued, and we are still unhappy when we get to the day we send money, and we are even less happy. Li Yi said.
When Xu Ruirui first started working, the leader talked to her and told her that girls are very suitable for architectural design. The older the design industry, the more delicious it gets, and when you just graduate, everyone's salary is very low, but in time, when a certain stage comes, the salary will rise, everything will be fine, and all the hard work is worth it.
Pictured: Stills from "Breaking the Elite"
"Not really." Xu Ruirui said.
With the downturn of the construction industry, many young people find that their personal experience and the leadership say are increasingly different. I am not getting better, but poorer.
Before officially joining the Residential Architecture Design Institute, Xiaoqi interned here for a year. After the internship expired, she was close to graduation, and because she still had several options, she was hesitant to sign a contract with this design institute. This was known to her intern leader at the time.
"We are already a very large company in the province, and it is not as good as going to a small company than with us." The leader told her that a colleague who joined last year could get a monthly salary of 7,000 yuan after becoming regular, and there were tens of thousands of yuan in year-end bonuses.
"At the time, I did believe it." Xiaoqi said.
Later, she found out that the money she got was only enough for her hard life.
She has to work for a year to become regular, and before she becomes regular, under normal circumstances, her monthly salary is 4,000 yuan. But soon after joining the company, the design institute began to cut salaries. At the very least, she only got 2820 yuan a month.
Pictured: Xiaoqi's salary received in June 2023.
The money was delayed for more than half a month
Because she is from the city, she does not need to rent a house, and although the family conditions are good, she is still very economical during that time, except for daily food and drink and transportation expenses, in terms of clothes and cosmetics, she almost stops.
In the first residential architecture design institute where Li Yi worked, his monthly salary was 4,000 yuan before tax, and after deducting five insurances and one housing fund, he received more than 3,000 yuan, and the year-end bonus of the first year was 10,000 yuan.
The provincial capital city where he is located is an Internet celebrity city, the price is not low, rent more than 1,000 houses a month, save some three meals a day to save more than 30, every month Li Yi is moonshine, need more than 1,000 subsidies from home, "equivalent to family money for me to work."
He jumped to a municipal architectural design institute in the spring and summer of 2021. The month he left, his salary at the residential architecture design institute increased by 500 yuan. But soon after the Evergrande thunderstorm, the real estate industry cooled, and the residential building design institute cut its salary again. Not long ago, Li Yi chatted with his former colleagues who were still here, and found that their salary was still 4,000 yuan before tax, and from 2021 to now, not a penny has risen.
The salary of the municipal architectural design institute is higher than that of the residential architectural design institute, and Xu Ruirui can get 6,000 yuan a month. But the local house price has exceeded 20,000 per square meter, which is not a high income in comparison.
In the construction industry, there is also a large income, that is, the year-end bonus.
But year-end bonuses are also becoming less and less. Xu Ruirui recalled that when he interned in 2018, his monthly internship salary was 2,000 yuan, and he could get a year-end bonus of 6,000 yuan at that time. In the second half of 2020, I jumped to another municipal architectural design institute, and the year-end bonus for half a year was 2-30,000 yuan. In 2021, the year-end bonus will be reduced to 10,000 yuan.
Later, the company did not issue another year-end bonus.
"After working so hard for so many years, I feel that my learning has been in vain. After working for two or three years, people in other industries around you are earning higher and higher, only your income is still falling. Xu Ruirui said.
The benefits are also pitiful. In the 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival, Xiaoqi's design institute gave each employee a holiday gift that was a cooked goose that was ready to eat out of the bag.
In the Spring Festival, even such small benefits were gone, and "the leader just let everyone go home for the New Year."
In the design institute, more and more young people are beginning to have a sense of industry crisis.
When leaders started drawing pies again, saying that the older the construction industry was, the more delicious it would be, young people began to feel indigestion and felt that they could no longer eat these cakes. They believe that the previous generation has eaten the dividends of the times, occupied a high position in the workplace, and is a vested interest, and its preaching belongs to "standing and talking without back pain".
"We have no happiness with this industry, only shared suffering." Xiaoqi said.
Picture: Not long ago, the PPT at the graduate student orientation conference of the School of Civil Engineering of Tongji University caused heated discussions. PPT compares civil engineering-related majors with the Internet industry, and asks students to correctly understand the relationship between salary and income, work input, and time dimension
The leader of the design institute once told Xu Ruirui that the company recruited you to train you, and it was already very good to pay you a salary, "When we were looking for a job, we had to work in the company without a salary."
At that time, Xu Ruirui scoffed in his heart - the company gave himself a meager salary, which was not even enough to live on his own.
She feels that leaders rely on this statement to make employees feel that the company treats them well and has to work hard for the company. If everyone thinks the company is too bad for them and they all leave, there will be no one to work.
Whenever she saw the news that some architectural design institutes mistreated employees and stopped paying salaries, her leader would go to the department's WeChat group and tell everyone: "Now the employment situation is so grim, other design institutes are like this, we still have salaries, very good." ”
"He just wants to tell you that the outside world is very cruel, and you are staying in this den." Xu Ruirui said.
At this time, no one in the group replied.
"In the current environment, it is difficult for the elderly to change careers, and they can only stay in the design institute until they are old, but in this way, the ascent channel for the young people who remain will be narrower, and the future will be less visible." Li Yi said.
03Extremely deformed overtime culture
"Everyone says that the Internet is the most ruthless overtime, but the design institute is the one who works the most overtime. You may not understand how hard we work overtime. Li Yi said.
In the design institute, a default rule is that there is no overtime pay for overtime.
The longest overtime work, Xu Ruirui left work at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. "Even if you work overtime until 2 a.m. and the work is not finished, you have to come to the company early in the morning the next day. There may only be one day in a month when the work is completely finished, and I can not come to the company in the morning. ”
Under normal circumstances, Li Yi works from 8:30 to 9 in the morning and leaves at 9 or 10 in the evening. In the week of his first job, he worked three days over seven days, "basically coming home at 1 or 2 a.m."
Drawing with a computer requires picking details, staring at the screen for a long time is very eye-consuming, for a while, Li Yi's eyes are particularly painful, go out to eat during the lunch break, see the sun, he feels dazzling. "I feel like a vampire who can't see the light."
Pictured: Stills from "Breaking the Elite"
When he couldn't stand it, he lay on the table for a while. It was work time, and he felt that he had only been lying on his stomach for 5 minutes, and the leader came to pat him on the shoulder: "You are here to work, not to rest." ”
After sitting for a long time, he had a herniated lumbar disc.
In fact, a lot of overtime in design institutes is a deformed habit left over from the rapid development of the industry.
For example, in the field of residential design, Party A's real estate developers pursue high turnover and attach great importance to timeliness. Li Yi heard that in order to seek speed, sometimes a certain piece of land has started construction, and the drawings have been drawn, and the details have not yet been cut. In this case, the designer is a tool person who simply modifies a set of templates, does not need to be creative, does not need to consider beauty or not, as long as there is the ability to "mass production". But even in mass production, the workload is very large, and overtime is inevitable.
"Our design is the same." Li Yi said that in this case, the designer's sense of achievement is very small.
In the field of municipal architectural design such as urban renewal, rural transformation, and wetland parks, Party A is the government. "The leader may not even know what he wants, you have to guess." Xu Ruirui said.
In addition, different leaders have different opinions, and the "wind direction" varies from period to period. In order to satisfy every level of leadership, a plan often needs to be revised multiple times. A young male colleague of Xu Ruirui designed a bridge, and after more than a dozen drafts, it was finalized, but more than a dozen drafts were changed before construction. Finally, the male colleague had collapsed, so he found a version of the previous design and changed it and submitted it.
And the dozens of editions between the first edition and the final adoption of this edition are not considered workloads.
Some overtime is because the market is getting smaller, and everyone has to grab the cake - in the past, being a designer of municipal architectural design was easier and more expensive than being a designer of residential architectural design. But since 2021, with the problems in the real estate industry, more and more design institutes that previously did residential buildings have poured into the field of municipal architecture to try to get a piece of it, which has led to more and more rolling in the field of municipal architectural design and more and more overtime.
Li Yi found that after being immersed in the deformed overtime culture of the design institute for a long time, not only leaders will feel that overtime work is taken for granted and justified, but employees will also feel the same, and even self-PUA will appear.
Pictured: Stills from "Apocalypse"
One day a month after Li Yi joined the Residential Architecture Design Institute, the leader told everyone: "This Saturday and Sunday, everyone will work overtime together. Li Yi was very resistant to overtime, so he found an excuse to say that there was something at home and did not go to overtime.
On the following Monday, an old man from the design institute took the initiative to tell him: "The leader is not happy to see that you do not work overtime, don't do it next time." If there is a schedule for the weekend, talk to the leader on Monday. ”
Hearing these words, Li Yi felt very desperate - in the working environment of the design institute, employees who worked for a period of time would automatically regard Saturday and Sunday as their working hours. Once someone is found to be rebelling against overtime, they will see it as an outlier.
As a young man, Li Yi really couldn't accept this, and he didn't want to become like this in the future.
Sometimes, leaders will also take advantage of employees' sense of responsibility and guilt to make people dare not take frequent leave. Typically, when an employee takes time off, the leader assigns his work to other colleagues.
Once, when working overtime until after 12 p.m., a colleague of Xiaoqi in his thirties suddenly became unwell and told the leader that he couldn't breathe. The leader let him go first, and then divided his work between Xiao Qi and several other people who did not leave.
"There is a very delicate atmosphere within the design institute - once a colleague takes leave or resigns, other colleagues will be nervous, afraid that this person's work will fall on their head, and they will have no money for more work. So if you take more leave, your colleagues will have an opinion about you. Privately, people also feel guilty: 'If I take time off, my colleagues who have a good relationship with me will have to help me with their work.'" The leader is actually happy to see everyone like this. Li Yi said.
Because he couldn't bear overtime, Li Yi cried once. It was also the only time in his life that he cried.
It was a New Year's Eve holiday. At that time, Li Yi asked a friend to go out to play, and the leader suddenly called and asked him to send materials to other places. He explained to the leader that he had made arrangements, but the leader said that he had to go.
"At that time, I felt that my life was not in my hands, and it was very uncomfortable, so I cried." He said.
"One has no communication and connections, two has no money, three has no time, it feels like I'm stuck in a cocoon and can't get out." In an extremely depressive environment, Li Yi said that he seemed to have become a machine, and his spirit was about to go wrong.
He would rather be a cleaner, at least a cleaner who is relatively free.
04
After changing careers
When parents are told that they want to quit the design institute, young people often get opposition.
For a while, because he couldn't bear the pressure of work, Xu Ruirui worked during the day and called his father at night to cry. Dad always advised her: "The company is training you, don't give up this opportunity." ”
Xiaoqi's parents are also opposed. "They feel that it is not easy to find a job now, and it is difficult to have other industries, so it is better to stay here first." And the parents of Xiaoqi's colleagues also persuaded their children in this way.
But when the last straw fell, the young people finally decided to leave.
Xiaoqi has always had the idea of studying abroad, but she is too busy with her work in the design institute to prepare for studying abroad. So she started looking for part-time opportunities.
It just so happens that a sports brand foreign company is hiring part-time jobs. After two rounds of interviews, Xiaoqi was invited to a high-end yoga studio at this foreign company. By the sea, she lies on a yoga mat and meditates listening to music. At that moment, she suddenly had an idea: why did she who loved to travel during her studies no longer have the energy to travel after working in the design institute? Why do I keep repeating the work-sleep-work cycle, and never relax?
At that time, she thought that whether she could get this part-time offer or not, she must resign from the design institute.
The last straw that prompted Xu Ruirui to change careers was her father's illness - during the new crown pneumonia epidemic, her father triggered the underlying disease due to the new crown. Seeing his father's physical condition, Xu Ruirui clearly realized that money is very important and can no longer go on like this in the design institute.
And Li Yi made a decision because one day, he found that he led his wife to give birth, and the leader only went back for one day, "holding the computer over, holding the computer back, and then going to work."
Pictured: Stills from "Apocalypse"
He didn't want to live that kind of life.
After changing careers, their income has increased, and it is not small, and their workload has decreased a lot.
Li Yi has a good basic salary in the medical industry, and the commission is calculated separately, and he has weekends off. After work, he had his own life and finally had time to cook.
Xiaoqi got a part-time offer from a foreign company as she wished. This job is relatively free, working 4 days a week, 24 hours a week, earning more than twice as much as when she was in the design institute, and the company also gives her social security and medical insurance. Because it is a foreign company, Xiaoqi found that the company will not let employees work for one more minute, and when the point comes, the leader will urge them to leave work.
After switching to a financial state-owned enterprise to work as a code farmer, Xu Ruirui got a five-figure salary for the first time, which was twice the salary of the previous design institute. The working hours of this job are from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm, leaving work on time and weekends off. If you work overtime, there will also be overtime pay.
Contentment and flattering are the deepest feelings of young people who come out of the design institute.
"I was wondering what kind of blessing I had in my last life to find this job." When she got her first month's salary, Xiaoqi was particularly moved. Interestingly, after learning about her work intensity and income, her parents, who were originally opposed to her resigning from the design institute, changed their opinions: "This new job is good, do it well!" ”
"Now I suddenly feel that my whole state is so happy! Earn so much, don't be afraid of running out of money to spend. Xu Ruirui seemed to have fallen into a honeypot. In her view, the financial industry has been clamoring to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and is also cutting wages, but compared with the construction industry, the financial industry is "a thin camel bigger than a horse". When she was a frugal child, she could only save up to 3,000 yuan a month when she was in the design institute, and now, she can save 10,000 yuan a month.
In fact, it was precisely because of the financial industry's cost reduction and efficiency reduction and salary reduction that Xu Ruirui had this job opportunity - a job that previously paid more. But after the salary cut in the financial industry, it was difficult for the company to recruit a special match, so she was able to come in.
However, Xu Ruirui also clearly realized that in this new industry, he who was not from a professional background does not have much room for improvement. Her current work is related to data analysis. Among her current colleagues in the department, the lowest academic qualifications are all masters, and many are doctorates. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in architecture, her background is somewhat weak. Here, it is quite possible that she has always been a low-level migrant worker.
But compared to her days in the design institute, she is already content.
"The people around me who jumped out of the design institute, no matter what industry they jumped to, felt happier than when they were in the design institute." Li Yi said.
Perhaps only young people who have changed careers from architectural design institutes can have such a deep feeling. For the first time in their lives, they have learned so deeply what it means to choose more than to try.
Another feeling also emerged, and that was anger.
Even now, as long as he thinks of his first job, Li Yi will still be very angry - he can't understand why his salary at that time was so low and the work intensity was so great.
Now, as soon as he sees the three words "real estate", he will have the feeling of being bitten by a snake and afraid of the well rope for ten years.
After resigning, he immediately deleted the CAD, SU, AI and PS software related to design in his computer. "This industry has hurt me so badly that I don't want to go back."
"The PUA of the design institute will make you think that everyone is like this. But when you come out, you realize that this is not the case, it is that you stay in that environment all day, and you don't have time to understand the outside world. Xu Ruirui said.
Picture: Stills from "I, Get off work at the point"
Of course, this can also be a form of survivorship bias, after all, not all career changers can successfully find a high-paying job.
Xu Ruirui once wanted to jump ship to do Internet operation work, but found that many of these jobs were also low-wages and intense. And those high-paying operation positions, some have to work three shifts, stay up all night from time to time, and after a few years, people's bodies may collapse.
At the same time, there are still many young people who are still staying in the design institute.
Some of them still believe what their leaders say, that they will get better as they get older, or that the real estate industry will get better after a while.
Some people bought houses because their parents hollowed out their families and helped them buy houses when housing prices were high.
This creates a strange circle: housing prices are too expensive - houses cannot be sold - design institutes cannot get money - employees are cut in salaries.
And because they have a mortgage, even if they cut their salaries, they dare not go.
It takes time to find a good job across banks, and if they don't pick up, they may cut off supply.
"One of the cruel things is that the leader will pay attention to your family, and if he knows that you have a mortgage, he will give you more work." Li Yi said.
A former colleague of Xiaoqi works in a design institute. He bought a house, was paying off his mortgage, and the design institute was cutting salaries and laying off employees.
Sadly, his house is still in ruins.
Once, Xiaoqi returned to the design institute to get the certificate of resignation, met a 50-year-old chief engineer, and the two began to chat.
The chief worker has enjoyed the dividends of the era of rapid real estate development, his wife is a full-time housewife, and his children are attending an expensive school. He bought a house, the mortgage has not been paid off, and after the salary reduction of all the staff of the design institute, he only received 6,000 yuan a month, and he could not make ends meet.
When he heard about Xiaoqi's income from his new job after changing careers, the chief worker asked, "What job?" Do you think it's okay to go at my age? ”
Xiaoqi has worked for more than a year, and her income is already higher than that of this chief engineer who has worked in the design institute for more than 20 years.
(At the request of the interviewee, Li Yi, Xiaoqi, and Xu Ruirui are pseudonyms)