Transferred from: Xiao Yinfan's architectural notes
Note: This article is based on personal practical experience, if the expression is not rigorous or the point of view is incorrect, please correct, the author must take it seriously, to prevent misleading others.
I am very glad to have such an opportunity to share with you how I successfully went ashore step by step from a layman in the examination of the public through "Xiao Yinfan's Architectural Notes". My sharing is mainly divided into the following parts: personal introduction, work experience, some suggestions, why to take the public examination, the journey of the public examination, the preparation strategy for the public examination, the selection of the public examination, and fan Q&A
01 Personal introduction
I may be older than all readers, because I have been working for 5 or 6 years, maybe because of this age, our cognition and experience are still very different, but there are definitely things in common. When I took the college entrance examination in 2010, the engineering industry was very popular at that time, so the architecture major was almost the highest score in the admission majors of any school. In 2015, after graduating from the bachelor's degree, I studied for a graduate degree in an old eight school, during which I also interned in design institutes, public institutions, and real estate.
02 Work experience
After I graduated with a master's degree in 18 years, it was the peak of the real estate industry at that time, so I also followed the trend and joined a central enterprise real estate as a management trainee, and then, I have been working until now, because of some personal needs in the work, I have also participated in the national examination, the provincial examination, the career preparation examination, etc., and I have been preparing for the exam for three years, and I was successfully admitted to a central ministry this year.
(1) Design institute experience
Because I am a professional master's degree, I have had an internship in the Chinese Institute for nearly a year during my graduate studies, during which I have also done many large-scale project plans and construction drawings, including: residential complexes, schools, etc. In fact, in retrospect, the intensity of the internship in the design institute was very high. It was a golden age of architecture, with a variety of projects one after another, which allowed newcomers to get started quickly, and it was probably the most stressful time for me, but it was also the time when I learned the most. Many of the current professional skills, such as the control of architectural design and some of the professional knowledge relied on in real estate work, were also learned through that stage.
In the autumn of 17 years, I also wanted to find a job in a design institute at that time, so I also interned in the provincial planning and design institute in my hometown, and participated in some projects of overall planning, urban design, and beautiful countryside, so at that time, I thought that my understanding of this industry was relatively comprehensive, and finally, according to my personal interests and the actual situation of the industry, I chose to join a central enterprise real estate.
Next, I will talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the work of the design institute.
First, the advantages
First, there is still a certain merit in working in the design institute, now many social media evaluation of the design unit is too negative, the design unit provides us with a wealth of opportunities to learn and grow, we do the design in the student days many times this landing is not strong, you design things can not continue to deepen, only through the design institute such a real docking with Party A and the planning department, in order to improve their professional ability and problem-solving ability, so as to enhance their core competitiveness, Only by training this ability solidly can we have more opportunities to choose in the future work.
Second, working in a design institute has a clear career path. It is actually very flat, you go from an ordinary designer to the chief designer, to the professional leader, and then to the deputy director, director and so on, which may be equivalent to you being in charge of some business to become a deputy director, director, etc., and you can get a note of architecture and registration of urban regulations in your work, and then, conduct a job title review, as your personal career development path, so the development path of the design institute is still very clear, and you can plan yourself well.
Third, in the era when we graduated, the first year offer salary of the design institute could be 20W, so in the golden age of real estate, the business volume of the design unit was very stable, and there was a particularly interesting thing at that time, there was a lot of spillover business, what is the spillover business? That is to say, there may be some private work, at that time I spent two weeks with the same door to complete a small private work, at that time a person also divided a few thousand yuan, in the student days, it was also a lot of money, at that time there was still a certain income channel for design.
Second, disadvantages
First, the work intensity is high. There is no doubt about that, because our projects are tight and complex, and long hours of overtime and intense work will become the norm. During my internship in the design institute, I may go out at 6 or 7 o'clock in the morning and go home from the unit at 8 o'clock in the evening, and I have to take some work home to continue to deal with it, including my real estate company.
Second, the market is shrinking and the industry is involuted. Now we also know that the real estate industry has gradually declined, so this limited design business volume, so that we design units to invest more services, more energy to meet the needs of the owners, which has caused the design institute's professional sense of honor and social identity gradually declined, in the eyes of some laymen even understand our designers as assembly line workers, especially like our architecture, not like structure, HVAC and electrical professions, many laymen can not put forward a lot of suggestions, but, It's easy to be questioned about our building, no matter which unit you report to, anyone can talk to each other, and anyone can give you advice on your plan. Therefore, in order to cope with an increasingly complex design demand, we must continue to improve our capabilities, but now this income is indeed very small, and there may be a design unit that pays a salary for a month and deducts social security or even negative situations are real, not uncommon.
Third, the closure of the upward channel. Why is the upward channel closed? Although the career path of the design institute is clear, it is based on the large number of design projects on the market. You can use these programs to improve your abilities and professional titles. However, competition and resources in the industry are currently limited, and it is often difficult for us to get promotion and promotion opportunities.
This will also happen in many of the compounds we work with, including some university design institutes. If you have a good relationship with the main leaders or you work for a long time, you can get high-quality commissioned projects (good work), and if you are a newcomer, you will often be sent to participate in some project bidding or some free program design work in order to expand your business. In the case of limited design business, this situation will be caused, many designers will be in the grassroots positions for a long time, unable to really give full play to their talents and values, career development to really learn knowledge and ability, that is, those years, in the past few years, if you do not get a certain promotion, to a certain position, then you will fall behind.
(2) Real estate experience
After graduating with a master's degree in 18 years, he joined the real estate company and was exposed to many business models, including residential development, industrial park development, and development agency construction. First of all, I choose to take the public examination is not the current work unit is not bad, I must praise the former employer, he gave me a long time to grow up in the workplace, the stage to play his talents and an extremely relaxed growth environment, so, I suggest that fresh graduates must cherish the opportunity of the first job, just like Chairman Mao said, "take a long-term view", that is, you should not be limited to your job, your first job is noisy and must be cautious of employment, fresh graduates can join a state-owned background of the central enterprise, it is still very beneficial to you, Central enterprises have a sound training system, unlike private enterprises, many of our students in 18 years also joined some private real estate management trainees, and they have changed 3 or 4 jobs in the past five years. You have not experienced a systematic training, maybe you feel that your salary is improving, but this salary increase is accompanied by the development of the industry, not that you have made great progress personally, so you must be cautious in choosing a job!
I would also like to share some views on engineering companies and investment companies that want to join this kind of state-owned background.
First, in fact, the market fluctuations or business quality in this area are relatively stable. Because now the government does not dare to blindly hand over many projects to some private developers and private construction units. Just like in the recent land auctions we have participated in, this phenomenon already exists, and the government still favors powerful state-owned enterprises to be responsible for the development of the project.
Second, there are many opportunities for job promotion. On the one hand, your ability will be greatly improved, because in a unit like my current one, I have experienced a variety of job training since I joined the company, and finally worked in the design management position for more than four years, so the diversity of work will allow you to accumulate rich experience and improve your career value. A regular large company has a healthy job promotion system, so you can continue to get job promotions and make a big difference in your income and job fulfillment.
Third, the sense of work is very satisfying. Like my company, he will provide a broader platform, and you will gradually train you to become the backbone of the company's business through continuous improvement and exercise, from the past workplace novice may to a certain big brother pull you a hand. And in a certain field and a certain aspect, the suggestions you mentioned through the company's platform are weighty, and you can provide constructive suggestions for the development of the industry, which is actually quite good, and it is very rewarding.
The above is based on some of my experiences working in design institutes and real estate companies.
03 Some suggestions
I would like to give you a little advice.
First, technical literacy is important. Because our professional technology is our core competitiveness, if you learn this and do related work, it is not that you have to do how good you are, but if you don't understand anything or are completely no different from laymen, I think there is still to be improved, because, only with excellent quality, you can gain the respect of colleagues and peers. In the future, this is also where your personal core competitiveness lies.
Second, maintain multi-domain capabilities. I can't say that I do architecture, I don't know anything but architecture, I don't understand the problems of the site, I don't understand the planning of the building, I don't understand the landscape, or I can't understand the drawings of the road and municipal administration. In fact, we can broaden our cognitive boundaries through internships, job rotations and other forms, not to limit ourselves to a certain field, but to enhance our comprehensive ability, so that in the future you will have more diverse choices and make your life path wider and wider.
Third, maintain a continuous learning mentality. Because life is not a 100-meter race but a marathon, don't give up personal learning at any time, and don't hope that you can solve all the problems in life once and for all and find the ultimate answer to life through an exam or a job, because people's concepts are always changing, so you have to keep learning, just like I may have worked for many years, recently, I am still trying to learn some programming-related problems, including some AI office software, which I think are still very helpful, It can also bring some emotional value of its own.
04 Why take the public examination
You may be more interested, that is, your job is so good, your rank is not low, and the salary is okay, so why do you want to take the public examination? My main reasons for taking the exam are the following aspects:
First, the decline of industry identity. As I mentioned earlier, with the changes in the market, the industry continues to roll in, and our status is getting lower and lower, which will cause the service attitude of the design unit to be low and low. Let's just say that you deal with the government, you are the Party A of the design institute, but the government is the Party A of the real estate; Or in the process of dealing with home buyers, the market is the first party of the property.
Moreover, if you have participated in an internship, you will know that whether you are in an engineering company, a real estate company or an urban investment company, design is always a relatively low-status position. Because everyone may throw the pot at you, about the on-site project is not good construction, he can find you to design the problem; Marketing and the house is not easy to sell, and you can also find problems from your design; The cost of the project is high, and the design can also reduce the cost to me. This will cause our sense of industry identity to be lower and lower, and there is another thing that I have been touched by recently, because recently some peers have jumped to the new energy industry, when they mention that they are from a real estate company, he has two cognitions of you, the first is that your ability is more systematic, and the second is that they will look at you from the perspective of the refugees.
Second, the follow-up of personal growth is weak, and the bottleneck of career development has emerged. Because I haven't worked in the design unit for a long time, but my personal feeling is that if you haven't really experienced the design of various buildings, the drawing of various construction drawings, and the coordination and cooperation of various majors, it will cause you to have weak personal growth and lack of stamina, and I have also done it in this company, which is equivalent to the role of deputy manager of the functional post, and the bottleneck of career rise has appeared, because the whole department is very young, and you don't have much room for further development. And most importantly, although you may feel that you are more stable today, the pressure on the industry will rise. You use a fence to keep the pressure out, and this inner anxiety of losing your job is with everyone, whether I'm 30 years old or other colleagues in the workplace.
Third, look forward to new experiences in life. Whether we are 20 or 30 years old, in fact, from the perspective of life, life has just begun at any time, everyone wants to see the scenery outside, want to see a higher stage, and live in a different way. Wouldn't it be better to change the environment yourself? Therefore, it was decided to take the public examination.
05 The journey of the public examination
I would like to briefly share with you some of the problems I experienced in the previous exam.
In fact, I went through three processes for the entrance examination: ignorance at the beginning→ to inevitable success later→ and finally successfully landed unintentionally.
In 2021, I made a brief preparation, and at that time I applied for a 400:1 position in the provincial department that only recruits architecture, and finally scored more than 140 points, between 20 and 30, and I did not enter the interview.
In 2022, I first applied for the management committee of a career editor and passed the paperwork, but in the end I gave up on my own. The reason why I gave up was because I thought I could get better, so I didn't go in the end.
After that, I participated in a position in a prefecture-level city, the competition was very fierce, and then I really realized for the first time how fierce the competition in the public examination was, and the scores of the first, second, and third places in the written test were less than one point, and after the interview, the gap between the three was only a few tenths of a point. At that time, I thought that my interview ability was relatively strong, and I thought that I was stable, but I was actually overturned by the second place, and I did not succeed in landing in the second place in my comprehensive score, so I failed again.
In 2023, I actually had to give up at that time, because my family and career were relatively stable, and I didn't want to continue to challenge the public examination. However, because there is a particularly good position, it is from a national ministry. However, it seems that the competition is quite fierce now, because the people are very good. At that time, after passing the written test and entering the interview, I found that everyone was very good, and the people who entered the interview were all from the old four schools, but fortunately, the written test score was relatively high at that time, and I scored 88 points in the interview, and finally I was successfully admitted and got what I wanted.
06 Preparation strategies for the public examination
The examination is actually simple and simple, but there are still a lot of twists and turns in it.
First, job selection. When choosing a post, it is okay in the provincial examination, and generally this major is clearly architecture, but in some places, such as in Zhejiang, including in the national examination, some may involve specific professional codes, such as this year, some positions clearly require a master's degree in architecture (professional code 0813). Then, in recent years, there are many positions that require you to have the same bachelor's and master's majors, and there are many more restrictions, so you need to study specific issues when selecting a job, including the application ratio, work location, treatment, etc.
Speaking of treatment, here is a science popularization for everyone. Directly related to the amount of treatment is the unit level, when you sign up, you will see that some units say that the first level of the chief staff and below, the fourth level of staff and below ... This reflects the level of the unit and the rank of the fixed post. The level of "fourth-level chief clerk and below" refers to the highest level you can set after you are admitted to this unit, but it does not mean that you are a fourth-level chief clerk after being admitted, and the unit leader needs to comprehensively consider your academic qualifications, work experience, etc., and finally determine your rank based on these.
Second, the timing of registration. I suggest that you wait and see first, don't report too early, if you are determined to win or you have to go. From my experience, the timing of the registration is still the deadline is beneficial, for example, your position in the registration deadline on the report of twenty or thirty people, in the end, the number of applicants is estimated to be fifty or sixty people, forty or fifty people of the exam, your chance of being admitted is still quite large, if you score 135 points in the national examination, the entrance is still relatively stable, but if it is 100 people, 200 people to report the position, this is actually you have to have luck and strength, the strength must be very strong, luck has to stand on your side.
Third, about the test, the essay, and the interview.
Some of the positions (very few) may also involve some professional and technical aspects, but I think there are two points that I can talk to you about:
The first one is called the time difference. What is the time difference in the practical test test? Everyone knows that this test (whether it has 135 questions or 110 questions) is completed in less than two hours. But then in the process of taking the exam, I saw that many masters have some exam skills, that is, as long as the paper is issued, the invigilator will let you flip through the test paper to check whether there are any mistakes, mistakes and omissions, at that time, I saw many people with their fingers on the paper, and then I realized that there is about three ~ five minutes between the test paper and the official answer. These three ~ five minutes can not answer the questions, but if you use it skillfully, you can solve 3-5 questions, which may cause uneven time. The second one is called question order. You should combine your personal habits to create a suitable order for yourself, and make your test reach a very stable state through repeated practice of the set of questions.
The interview will examine your appearance, but the typical thinking of the interview question is actually to find problems, solve problems, and respond to emergencies on the spot. If I encounter a question during the interview, I suddenly feel very confused and don't know what to say, but this is not a problem, because in the three interviews I attended, the focus was mainly on "form over content". You think, the examiner has been listening for a day, they are so tired that they don't even know what you're talking about, you just bombard it with your elements, and the points of the answer to the question fit the question, don't lose yourself because a question won't be.
After the interview is passed, there is a one-year probation period, during this one-year probationary period, we can not float, we must remember that the original intention of their official examination is to "serve the people", to perform well, and finally turn to the positive grading, such a complete examination and landing process, in fact, it is still quite long. I applied for the national examination in October last year and only joined the company in July this year. And then. In October, this year's national examination will be taken again, and it will take more than half a year for the national examination to complete the written examination and interview political examination. For the provincial exam, the provincial exam may be a little faster. The joint entrance examination generally takes half a year to register in January, take the exam in March, interview in May, and join in July.
In fact, the examination is still a person's comprehensive quality, a person's background, after determining the goal, you should insist on working hard, in the current situation of the report ratio of hundreds to one, three days of fishing and two days of drying nets to prepare for the exam is difficult to go ashore. Because I am preparing for the exam on the job, my study time is relatively fragmented, so the amount of questions I brush is relatively large, but the effect is not as good as that of your students. In two or three years, I brushed 2.4W questions in FB APP alone, and I probably brushed more than 5000 offline, and the total amount of brushing questions should be 3.5w, you can take my brushing amount as a reference, although I have gone through a lot of detours, but this brushing amount according to my communication with others should be brushed to at least 1w, there may be a qualitative change.
For the line test, when we need to establish a systematic cognition, we can strengthen and deal with it skillfully through a large number of brushing questions. The essence of the test is not to test whether you can complete all the questions, but whether you can get more points in a limited time, it is a stress test, and I also have 10 questions in the 24 national exams that I don't have time to do.
I would like to share a little experience with you in this aspect of brushing questions before the exam. Maybe you usually do a lot of questions by yourself, and you feel that you are already very strong, and you are afraid of being strong, but it is still necessary to increase the density of brushing questions before the exam, for example, in the five days before the exam, I brush one set of questions a day, or even two sets a day. Because I didn't usually brush the questions this year, and then I started to do it two or three weeks before the exam, and at the end of the day, you will feel like you have formed a kind of muscle memory when you go to the exam room. On the one hand, if you dare to choose, on the other hand, if you dare to choose the right one in the future, you will meet the exam in the best condition.
The journey is long, and there is only struggle. Having said so much, it may be a bit messy, I think the most important thing is to master the basic test-taking skills and participate in the exam as much as possible, "study in the exam", please don't work behind closed doors, I practice so fiercely at home, I think I can definitely be admitted to the exam, even if it is a thousand people I can also be admitted, this is unrealistic, we must abandon the mentality of "finish the work in one battle", only by participating in the exam more, can you not be surprised, play your level.
In the context of the current employment difficulties, the probability of going ashore and the probability of being admitted to a good position is not very large, so you have to take the exam more, and fresh graduates must cherish their opportunities as fresh graduates, "choice is often greater than hard work", because I have worked for many years, although the position I can apply for now is not three unlimited, but the competition is not much worse than the three unlimited.
07 Examination for public selection posts
First, scientific selection. Let's start with "grassroots work experience". You may see that many positions in the national examination now require more than two years of grassroots work experience, what is grassroots work experience? To put it simply, those who can pay social security are counted (private enterprises, state-owned enterprises, central enterprises, public institutions, and three branches and one support).
Because our personal development is closely related to the platform, if you are a civil servant in the township, maybe the upper limit of your career is a first-level chief clerk, and it is very rare to be promoted to a first-level chief clerk, and it is very difficult to do it only if your work performance is very good; If you are at the county level, there is still a high chance of being promoted to a first-level chief clerk; If you are in the city or the provincial capital, you can rush to the first-level researcher; If you are in a ministry or a provincial department, then the second-level researcher may be the per capita level at the time of retirement.
Second, the public examination can not be "for the sake of going ashore and ashore", we still have to choose carefully, now many positions are service, after you are admitted to a post, basically it will take five years to leave, so we try our best to rush to a best position that they can be admitted. Because everyone's thinking is changing, maybe when you were a student, you thought to yourself, "Just get in, you can get in," and you can get a job within the system. Now the job of a civil servant is not so easy. Because my family also works in the government, the service requirements are getting higher and higher, and there is still a certain work intensity, so you must carefully consider the choice of position, not only to do what you can, but also to do your best.
Third, we must have a sunny mentality. The professionalism of administrative work is not so strong, although we are majoring in architecture, but the work may be doing meeting minutes, PPT reports, and doing this account every day, which is very common, so we must have a sunny mentality, since you choose this road, you still want to do very professional things, it is not very realistic, appropriately reduce their professional feelings.
At the same time, we need to take a correct view of the issue of treatment. This treatment may be very good in some places, such as Shenzhen and Zhejiang, where the salary is high, but from the perspective of the region of the country and the trend, the treatment of civil servants has been gradually aligned to achieve "sunshine salary". On the one hand, it may be a tax issue, and on the other hand, it may be a land finance issue.
How can you simply determine the treatment of a certain area? There is a simple way, if you are a civil servant in a certain county, the treatment is basically the same as the average salary level of your county, if you are a civil servant in a certain city, then the treatment is the average salary level of the city. In the case of ministries and commissions, the salary is equivalent to the average salary level in China, and the salary of civil servants in Beijing is higher than that of civil servants in ministries and commissions; In addition, you can also search on Xiaohongshu, and now there are many bloggers who will break the news about the salary in various regions.
Finally, I would like to send you a passage from Mr. Lu Xun.
"May the young people of China get rid of the cold air, just go up, and do not have to listen to the words of those who give up on themselves. Those who can do things do things, and those who can speak up can speak up. There is a heat, a point of light, just like a firefly, can also shine a little light in the night, do not have to wait for the torch, if there is no torch in the future, I am the only light. ”
I believe that in the future, whether you go to a design unit, a development enterprise or a government agency, you can be a promising young person, radiate your own light and heat, illuminate the future of yourself, your family and society, and if you are interested in joining the public service, I also hope that you can always remember your original intention of applying for the examination - to serve the people.
08 Fan Q&A
01 How long did it take for seniors to prepare for the exam before going ashore?
I myself have been preparing for the exam on and off for three years on the job. It's actually quite difficult to stick to it, because the time at work is very saturated. Now, no matter which company you are in, the assessment is very strict, such as writing weekly reports every week, and monthly assessments every month, and then, all projects are carried out at the same time, and the work pressure is quite high, and it is more difficult to prepare for the exam while working.
02 Which is more advantageous, undergraduate or graduate examination?
From the examiner's point of view, there is actually not that much difference, because there are not so many positions that require graduate students in the provincial examination. In the national examination, there may be more positions required by the ministry for graduate students, and if you can be admitted to the civil service when you are an undergraduate, there is not much need to take the public examination after the postgraduate examination. It depends on your personal pursuit, if you are not very good in undergraduate, you are admitted to a very good graduate school, and you have the opportunity to enter a prestigious school, it is another discussion situation.
03 What is the difference between a master's degree and a master's degree?
Let's talk about it based on my understanding of the master's degree in architecture, because I have a brother in the same unit who is a master's degree in the old eighth school, and I just know a little bit. On the one hand, the position of recruiting a master's degree will often write the required professional code very carefully, and the master's degree set by default in the public examination position is a master's degree, so it has caused a very embarrassing situation, you have no position to apply for a master's degree, and even you can only apply for your undergraduate position.
Finally, to sum up, most of the master's degree can be examined, but there are not as many master's degree as master's degree exams. If you can take the master's exam, you will definitely be able to take the master's exam.
04 How to choose between entering the system and entering the enterprise?
The world is indeed constantly changing, just like when we were looking for a job, if you can join Evergrande and Sunac, it will be a good unit. However, in just a few years, there have been earth-shaking changes, so it is better to make a choice based on your own judgment.
First, to enter the enterprise to choose a relatively stable company, for example, now you look at China Shipping, Poly, China Resources, its asset-liability ratio is very low, there is a lot of cash on the account, the potential risk of this kind of company is not so big; Second, you see if the company has a sound training system. There are some companies, there is blind expansion, will present a disorderly state, like a certain large, a certain park, before taking a lot of land, each city has its own company, has its own set of teams and values, when you go to the interview, can you feel that the company is very standardized? In addition, you have to see whether the company's personal training of you is based on the long-term, and whether it is really cultivating you with the attitude of cultivating a company's successor with your own mentality.
In addition, if you want to join the system, just do it as soon as possible, don't be like me, although the ministry I am currently taking the exam may be useful for seniority grading, but the age is indeed relatively old.
The preparation time varies from person to person, but if you have a good talent, it will take at least six months to a year. If you want to go ashore in 3 or 4 months, unless there are a lot of job restrictions. If there are hundreds of people signing up for the position, it will be difficult to go ashore without six months to a year.
05 Do I want to apply for an interview class?
This also varies from person to person, because I was in an interview class at the time, but after a few days, I quit. Because I feel that the level of the teacher is not as ideal as I thought, and the level of my teammates in the class is not very high. If the level of the candidates in the class is not very high, and the level of the teacher is not very high, it is equivalent to asking you to do the prescribed actions and giving you a pressure training in a specified time. However, people often still go to the interview class, here, I mention my own experience, if you have a high score in the written test, don't apply for that kind of very expensive. I was able to score 88 in the interview, and I think it was mainly because I was based on my own precipitation. I usually organize a lot of things, I also like to read, after brushing the interview questions, I will ask my wife to practice with me every night, do a few questions every night, or take a mobile phone to shoot a video of yourself, anyway, to put it bluntly, it is a process of more accumulation and more practice, I believe you can do well through these ways.