It is not easy for car companies to ruin offers, and it is not easy for fresh graduates

New Weekly

2024-05-16 11:03Posted on the official account of Guangdong New Weekly

Author | Ari

Edit | Anfield

题图 | unsplash

Tesla is on the hot search again, this time not as a new energy vehicle brand, but as an employer brand.

It has been a month since Musk announced a 10% global layoff on April 15. In proportional terms, more than 14,000 employees will be affected one after another.

However, the number of migrant workers affected may be more than that.

On April 24, the topic of "Tesla was exposed to breaking the contract with fresh graduates" appeared on Weibo hot search. It is rumored that Tesla has withdrawn its offer letter for all fresh graduates who have not yet joined the company. New Weekly has checked with Tesla on the matter, but has not received a response as of press time. However, on social media such as Xiaohongshu, many fresh graduates revealed that large-scale cancellation of offers exists.

On May 7, according to Shell Finance, Tesla once again started a new round of layoffs, and posts of laid-off employees continued to appear on the Internet, just like the realistic version of "The Annual Meeting Can't Be Stopped!" 》。

"Lots of money? Layoffs are widely advanced! (Photo/"The annual meeting can't be stopped!") 》）

In the face of a huge wave of layoffs, the abandoned fresh graduates seem insignificant. For example, at the same time as the news was exposed, some netizens were not very sympathetic, and only left a fluttering comment: "Young people are always easier to find a job than people over 35 years old." ”

The joys and sorrows of human beings are not the same, and the sufferings of social animals are uneven.

But only those who have personally experienced school recruitment in recent years know that the first step from the ivory tower into society is indeed difficult. Everyone tells college students that "the first job is important", so they try to catch up with the wind, but they never think that the giant wheel of the times is turning rapidly, and not everyone can "go ashore".

Two-way travel, limited number of places

In the eyes of this class of college students, new energy vehicle companies should be a new outlet after the Internet giants.

On social software, most of the big factory badges, afternoon tea and various benefits that used to envy others are now from new energy vehicle companies. The high-praise posts of those job bloggers often list the titles of "Double Non can also enter a new energy factory" and "It is recommended that liberal arts students rush to new energy", telling the myth of turning the tables against the wind.

According to the statistics of Liepin.com, among the top ten tracks with the largest year-on-year increase in new positions for fresh graduates in 2023, new energy ranks second, second only to AI large models. In addition, among the ten new tracks with the largest increase in demand for master's graduates in 2023, new energy vehicles ranked first, with a year-on-year increase of 151.06%.

It seems that fresh graduates and the new energy industry are going both ways.

This "rush" also happened after "Tesla was exposed to break the contract of fresh graduates" appeared on the hot search - at that time, many new energy car companies quickly threw olive branches and expressed their willingness to accept fresh graduates who were broken contracts.

Coincidentally, at this Beijing Auto Show, Lei Jun, the founder of Xiaomi, was also "recruiting talents". (Photo/Weibo)

The official recruitment accounts of some car companies posted multiple posts and comments on Xiaohongshu, saying that they "took in heartbroken college students who were broken by Tesla". Yang Xueliang, senior vice president of Geely Automobile, even reposted the news @Geely Recruitment, saying: "Good thing, take action, we accept people, and everyone can directly submit their resumes!" ”

Indeed, it is more important for fresh graduates who have broken their contracts to find a new job as soon as possible. It's just that after more than half a year of job hunting, I finally went ashore and returned to the original point overnight, which inevitably has a big gap.

And the situation of other companies to treat fresh graduates is really as good as the olive branch thrown today? At least, in the eyes of those college students who have been "back-adjusted" in reverse, everything is doubtful.

Being interviewed by HR is often the first step to being laid off. (Photo/"The annual meeting can't be stopped!") 》）

For example, less than a month after saying it would accept fresh graduates, Geely quietly started a new round of layoffs.

Recently, fresh graduate Jiayue finally got Geely's offer to become a regular, and seeing that she was about to graduate, her school admissions colleagues who had joined the same class were suddenly laid off, which inevitably made her frightened.

At an awkward time, this hesitation is only magnified.

After all, participating in campus recruitment is a long and lonely marathon, although you don't know many people, but no matter where you run, at least you can meet people who walk side by side. And if you haven't landed on the eve of graduation, as you can meet fewer and fewer companions, and the lonely moment is too long, the desire for the end will only become stronger.

Xiao C, who graduated from a university in Singapore, has applied to more than 130 companies, which is very common for fresh graduates when looking for jobs. Almost every time you apply for a company, job seekers need to fill in their resumes from the official website, start with a written test, go through 2 to 3 rounds of interviews, and finally issue an offer, which can be as fast as one or two weeks or as slow as four or five months.

Such a "neurological" personality test, you may come across at least ten times during the job search process. (Photo/Little Red Book)

She complained: "The recruitment websites of some companies are too bad, obviously they have uploaded the attached resume, and the system analyzes it with one click, and I have to refill it by myself paragraph by paragraph, which is a waste of time." ”

Many companies ask candidates to take a 1 to 2-hour written test immediately after submitting their resume, which is called a "sea pen" by college students, and it also includes a personality test with the exact same content. Another fresh graduate interviewee said: "Because the results are not shared, these tests have to be repeated every time they apply, which makes the application very inefficient." ”

After going through the above links, it is still possible that you will not meet a real interviewer. Little C was impressed by BMW's AI interview, she is an engineering student, and it is difficult to answer questions such as "how do you overcome difficulties at work". "It's a bit like Baguwen, and it's all about the same content. It took a lot of effort to prepare, and there was not always a result, so I gave up when I met the AI interview. ”

An AI interviewer. (Photo/Screenshot of a fast-moving consumer goods foreign company's application applet)

The reason is that in front of a large number of job seekers, companies have plenty of room to choose, even if it is a new energy outlet that claims to have a lot of demand for graduates.

A former employee of a new energy vehicle company told New Weekly that he had helped his boss screen resumes for school admissions last fall. At that time, a position in the department had only been open for 3 days, and HR had already helped screen out candidates from non-QS100 and non-985/211 universities, but he still needed to go through more than 2,000 resumes.

This means that the number of places that can "go both ways" with major new energy manufacturers is also limited. Graduates who can get an offer are the best among their peers.

Even if it is a tuyere, there is a hidden crisis

It is true that in recent years, major new energy factories have taken advantage of the wind and have enough strength to pay benefits to workers. Some companies come with 15 days of annual leave, a well-designed gift box for the New Year's holidays, a monthly snack gift package, various subsidies, not to mention real money in-house car purchase discounts.

But without the filter, these fledgling companies aren't perfect.

In a highly competitive industry, workers cannot escape the "involution". (Photo/"Tokyo Women's Illustrated Guide")

During the whole school recruitment process, Xiao C delivered five or six new energy vehicle companies, on the one hand, because of her professional counterpart, and on the other hand, she also believed that the prospects of new energy were better.

However, she didn't choose this industry in the end.

Xiao C interviewed a very popular new energy car company, but it was already in the final session, but the interview was canceled 15 minutes before the start. "After all, there was a National Day holiday between the previous round of interviews, and I can understand that they may have found a suitable candidate, but HR didn't take the initiative to inform me, I asked it myself."

Later, Xiao C got an offer from a position in the direction A of Li Auto. Two months later, HR contacted her and informed her that she would be transferred to direction B in the same position, and she agreed. After another month, the previous HR had left, and the new HR came up and asked her if she was willing to change her work location from Shanghai to Beijing, but this time she did not agree.

"I think they're changing too quickly and it gives me a very turbulent feeling. And after I received the offer, I communicated with other classmates and heard that they were breaking the contract. Because there are some other interviews one after another, I will take this offer as a guarantee, and my mentality will be better. ”

When an offer is withdrawn and the job hunting season is missed, graduates are naturally very anxious. (Photo/"School Reading Girl Etsuko Kono")

It is worth mentioning that Xiao C's encounter is not the most poignant. On social media, Li Auto withdrew its intention offer and even "lightning protection posts" of the tripartite agreement abound.

Adam graduated from 985 University and G5 University in the UK with his undergraduate and graduate degrees respectively, and won more than a dozen offers in the 2024 autumn recruitment. After weighing up, he chose the latter between Li Auto and a bank. "There are considerations for stability, but it is also difficult to ignore the fact that in the past few school recruitments, there is a 'record' that destroys the intention of the offer, which reflects the chaos within the organization."

Of course, Adam also said that the ideal time to break the contract is earlier, generally from January to March, at least leaving a certain buffer time for fresh graduates.

Even if you join an enviable new energy factory, when someone asks online "which car company will regret it", the answer is often "every one".

Which big factory worker has not unlocked the "achievement" of overtime? (Photo/"The annual meeting can't be stopped!") 》）

A school recruit at a new energy vehicle company told New Weekly that although he could only officially join the company and sign a labor contract in June 2024, his department required him to start an internship at the end of 2023.

This requirement is not unique. Jiayue has also been an intern at Geely Automobile for 8 months, "I was promised that I could become a regular, and I came." During this period, her salary was more than 3,000 yuan per month, and she didn't get off work until 10 o'clock in the evening when the project was busy.

Now, with the layoffs of the same school's admissions colleagues, Jiayue began to hesitate. "In case I am laid off after I pay social security, my status as a fresh graduate is gone, and I don't have enough work experience, it will be difficult to find a job." But everything is still uncertain, and she is not sure whether to start submitting resumes again.

Working in a large new energy company is not easy. (Photo/"Tokyo Women's Illustrated Guide")

BYD, which is also a major new energy manufacturer, used to be a friendly existence of "click to send an offer" in the eyes of 985 college students, and many people chose it for better development prospects. However, now, if you search for posts related to "BYD's resignation" on the Internet, the slogan of "learning to help win", the work and rest of 896, and the performance appraisal of the elimination system similar to the last place have also persuaded many people to quit.

Although there is no news of contract breaking or layoffs, BYD is also implementing "cost reduction and efficiency increase". Some students of the class of 2023 said that BYD had promised to give school students a monthly housing subsidy of 1,000 yuan for five consecutive years, but now it is only the second year, and the amount has been cut by 600 yuan.

The promises given by the tuyere industry are beautiful, but there are always some details that will make fresh graduates realize that even the tuyere has a hidden crisis.

The new energy scuffle, the torrent washes away ordinary people

In fact, whether in the new energy industry or not, there are more or less "non-martial" recruiters.

Recently, Komen Medical, a well-known medical equipment manufacturer, was revealed to have withdrawn the tripartite agreement of all fresh graduates, and gave each person a compensation of 5,000 yuan in accordance with the agreement.

Another fresh graduate who got an offer from a management trainee of a foreign bank also told New Weekly that he had broken his contract because he was an international student and there was no tripartite agreement, so he could not even get compensation.

On a well-known job board, someone compiled a list of companies that had broken contracts. (Photo/Screenshot of Niuke.com)

Envision Power, a battery technology company in the upstream of the new energy vehicle industry chain, announced the requirements for postponing employment to the fresh graduates who have signed the contract. Quite a few graduates posted about it. In the comment area, someone suggested that they hurry up and find the next home: "Last year, Xinhua III also postponed my employment for three months, and I was laid off after I joined the company. ”

Among similar news, Tesla is just the most conspicuous one, and only well-known enough companies will be on the hot search. What is surprising is that the new energy automobile industry on the tuyere has become a frequent appearance of corporate layoffs and contract breaks?

In recent years, the price war of new energy vehicles has been continuing. At the beginning of 2024, many brands such as Tesla, Leap, Nezha, and Lynk & Co have invested heavily in promotional activities. In April this year, Li Auto released its first model of less than 300,000 yuan. NIO and Xpeng Motors will also launch sub-brands with car prices of 250,000 yuan, 150,000 yuan or even lower, respectively.

The price war for new energy vehicles is still ongoing. (Photo/Unsplash)

At the same time, the profit margin of the automotive industry is gradually declining. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, the profit margin of the automotive industry from January to March this year was 4.6%, which is slightly lower than the profit margin of 4.9% for industrial enterprises as a whole, and is also at a historically low level. You know, in 2015, when new energy vehicles were just starting, the profit margin of the automotive industry was as high as 8.7%.

Especially compared with fuel vehicles, although electric vehicles are growing faster, they are losing more money. What's more, when the track is flooded with too many players, the blue ocean has long since turned into a red ocean. While burning money and fighting, new energy manufacturers have to try their best to "reduce costs and increase efficiency".

At this time, for enterprises that want to stop losses in time, giving priority to cutting fresh graduates has become the most trouble-saving and money-saving plan.

Before they officially stepped into the society, the fresh graduates had to be taught a lesson in reality. Someone sighed: "Carefully consider the company that has just started in the past one or two years, it is best to find a reliable and stable company, and it is okay to have less money." ”

Obviously, as long as you can put down your posture, everything will have a "replacement", and a mere job is no exception.

Among the new energy vehicle brands that are fighting in turmoil, it is still unknown who can stay in the finals. Xiao C also said that since the future of these companies is still uncertain, graduates can apply for jobs within their ability, "it is good to have a class".

Life is a wilderness. (Photo/"The annual meeting can't be stopped!") 》）

Fortunately, even when the spring recruitment is basically over, there are companies that are willing to open recruitment again, giving fresh graduates the opportunity to start again. In early May, a fresh graduate who had been broken by Tesla told New Weekly that he had found a job at another new energy vehicle company.

In recent years, the "sweet and sweet" in the eyes of fresh graduates has gradually changed from FMCG foreign companies and real estate to Internet and new energy manufacturers, and the tuyere has been changing. And ordinary people in the torrent of the times can only work hard to seize the opportunity, hoping that they are the lucky ones who can catch up with the wind.

*Names of interviewees have been changed

Proofreading: Meet

Operations: Ono

Typesetting: Chen Yi

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