Recently, the topic of "post-90s" and "post-00s" young people who are keen to "engage in side hustles" has frequently appeared on social platforms. Set up stalls to sell things, feed pets, do self-media, and go to the store to work part-time...... Between going to work and going to work, more and more young people have new choices.
Why do these young people start to be keen on side hustles after work? Recently, the reporter conducted an investigation into this phenomenon.
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Young people are keen to "engage in side hustles"
Luo Qian, 26, currently works in marketing for a private company in Xi'an High-tech Zone. Recently, like other young people, she has also started a side business after work and holidays, setting up stalls at the subway entrance to sell flowers, helping people feed small pets, and sometimes doing self-media, which is very busy.
Luo Qian said that she did a side hustle after work mainly out of love, because she usually loves flowers and plants, so she came up with the idea of selling flowers, and went straight to the subway entrance and overpass to sell flowers around the stalls after work, which can be sold for one or two hundred yuan a night, and the business will be better on weekends and holidays, excluding costs, and the monthly income is thousands of yuan. Since she has fed two pet cats, she has helped colleagues and friends take care of and feed pets before, and now more and more people are looking for her to help feed pets, and the income is relatively considerable.
"The income is too low, and I chose to engage in a side hustle in order to increase my security and enhance my ability to resist risks." Zhang Xiaoqiang, a 24-year-old guy from Anhui this year, opened a music studio in Xi'an with his friends a few years ago, but the studio could only barely maintain due to the slump in business. Every tourist season, he is good at photography, and he works part-time as a photographer in several Hanfu museums, taking pictures of tourists who come to the ancient city.
Referring to the original intention of "engaging in a side business", Zhang Xiaoqiang said helplessly that in the past few years, affected by the epidemic, the company's benefits have been average, except for rent, living expenses, etc., it is a typical "moonlight family", and it is also helpless to choose to do a side business.
The "2023 China New Flexible Employment Report" points out that how to regulate the development of new flexible employment is an important proposition in the era of digital economy. With the development of the digital economy, the "side hustle fever" is becoming a buffer zone in the process of career change for young people.
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Be wary of being "cut leeks"
Many sideline practitioners did earn money in the "second career", but there are also many young people who have stepped on the pit in the "sideline business" and have been cut "leeks".
Tang Jiujiu, who currently works for a state-owned enterprise in Xi'an, told reporters that since he was in college, he often used weekends and holidays to make purchasing agents, and his income was very considerable, and he also earned the "first pot of gold" in his life. After graduation, he still insisted on doing a side hustle, but due to the rapid development of the Internet in recent years, the profits of the purchasing industry became less and less, so he changed his career to start self-media.
Tang Jiujiu said that although he had the experience of "doing a side hustle", he was still attracted by the high-paying majors advertised on the Internet, and spent more than 3,000 yuan to buy the class only to find that the content was very basic, and there was a situation of "wrong goods", which did not help him substantially.
In the interview, the reporter learned that as more and more "post-90s" and "post-00s" poured into the sideline market, the publicity advertisements of new media operations and video clips on the Internet attracted many young people to pay.
In the interview, Li Wenhe, the person in charge of Xi'an Langtu Times Photography School, said that in recent years, there has been a significant increase in young people who come to the school for training and study. He believes that it is necessary to strengthen the ability to screen the advertising advertisements on the online platform to avoid hot-headed "pits".
Bai Genxing, a member of the Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and director of the Tang History Research Institute of Shaanxi Normal University, said that the overall education level of young people in the "post-90s" and "post-00s" is high, and they pay more attention to personal needs.
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To achieve "primary and secondary balance"
"Young people should have adequate planning and risk coping skills before engaging in side hustles, and the government, society and families should also pay attention to this phenomenon." Jiang Quanbao, a distinguished expert of the Provincial CPPCC Talent Pool and a professor at the Institute of Population and Development Research of Xi'an Jiaotong University, suggested that government departments should formulate more flexible and inclusive entrepreneurship policies, continuously optimize the entrepreneurial environment, and provide more entrepreneurial opportunities and support for young people. For families, young people should be encouraged to respect and support their choices.
Shui Yanan, a researcher at the Institute of Sociology of the Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the "sideline fever" set off by young people shows that with the rapid development of the digital economy and platform economy, new employment forms provide more new employment opportunities for young people; On the other hand, it also reflects that in the current workplace environment, some young people have occupational crises and career anxiety, and hope to enhance their competitiveness and anti-risk ability through side hustles.
Shui Yanan suggested that young people should take a correct view of the side business, achieve a balance between the main and side jobs, stay rational, don't be coerced by "side business anxiety", and choose a side business on the premise of doing a good job in the main business. When choosing a side hustle, don't blindly trust marketing claims on social media and be wary of high returns, get-rich-quick, and zero-threshold traps. Young people should formulate a long-term career plan, pay attention to vocational skills training and knowledge reserves, improve their ability in the main business, and use the main business to drive the development of the side business, rather than putting the cart before the horse.
(At the request of the interviewee, Wen Nei Luo Qian, Zhang Xiaoqiang, and Tang Jiujiu are pseudonyms)
Reporter from all walks of life Li Yanling/text
The picture comes from the Internet