It's hard to find a job! I interviewed 50 companies before I found one.

Salaries are shrinking, and the lives of people crossing the border are at a crossroads!

Resignation interview and job hunting ... are words we are all very familiar with. However, since 2022, the majority of cross-border people generally feel that the market conditions this year have changed a lot. Not only has their value shrunk, but the interviews that should have been normal have also become a big test of life!

"I finally found a suitable job after interviewing more than 50 companies in more than a month." According to feedback from many employees, after voluntarily resigning, they thought finding a job would be a very easy thing. However, several months later, they still could not find a job they liked.

Some companies, during the interview process, although they had a good chat with job seekers, ended up with nothing. Some companies started with a closed-book exam, which was complained to take more than half an hour just to write the answers, and after working hard to finish the answers, there was no follow-up ...

Industry insiders analyzed the various phenomena and said that, overall, cross-border companies have been much more cautious this year. Not only have they not expanded blindly, but they have been reducing the size of their cross-border teams. The demand for cross-border positions has decreased, and the job recruitment market is in oversupply. In addition, the general demand for recruitment by cross-border companies has greatly increased, so it is understandable that job seekers are finding it difficult to find a job.

On the one hand, it is difficult to find a job, and on the other hand, the salary is declining. Since the beginning of this year, many operations personnel "don't know what the commission is", relying on the basic salary every month, facing the terrible sales every day, either have a mental breakdown, wondering why they have worked for several years but still have nothing; or they have the idea of ​​quitting, I want to change my career, I want to take the civil service exam, I want to get a certificate; or they go the road of working alone...

At another turning point in life, every cross-border person has made his own choice!

I interviewed with 50 companies before I found a job. The market conditions have been worse since the beginning of the year?

"I'm leaving my job next month, so I looked at job opportunities on recruitment software and found that it's really hard to find a suitable job now. When I chat with the companies I'm interested in, it always ends up in nothing for various reasons. Last year, when I updated my resume, many companies came to me." A cross-border person said that he regretted submitting his resignation application before he officially resigned. He felt that changing jobs this year was equivalent to losing his job. Many companies seemed particularly promising, but the other party didn't even give him a chance to interview.

At the beginning of 2022, many cross-border workers found that their value had shrunk and it was difficult to find a job. This situation has continued to this day. Judging from the feedback from current cross-border workers, complaints are endless!

" After I resigned at the end of May this year , I took a month off and started looking for a job . I started looking in July until now, and I found that there are only a few companies with recruitment needs . Not only are there no new companies emerging, but the salary is generally lower than expected, and I am unwilling to settle . " An operator said that before leaving, he thought the salary would be the same as in 2020 or 2021 , but the situation changed drastically . The salaries offered by recruiting companies are basically not high.

It can be seen that workers have to spend more time to find a suitable job, and the salary level has dropped. This means that if job seekers want to find a job that meets their needs, they have to interview more companies.

It is understood that some people interviewed 8 companies in just one week; others interviewed no less than 50 companies in about 2 months... During the entire job-hunting process, many people said that their psychological process had undergone the following changes:

Before leaving : Have enough food in hand, and you won’t be worried;

First day after leaving the job : I am finally free;

One week after quitting : I haven’t had enough fun yet, so I won’t look for a job yet;

Two weeks after leaving the job: This kind of life is a bit panic , the surplus food is not enough, find a job quickly;

Three weeks after leaving the job : my resume has been ignored, it’s hard to find a job, and the future is bleak;

Four weeks after quitting: I haven’t found a job yet and I’m feeling stressed and anxious.

Employees who voluntarily resigned have encountered difficulties in finding jobs after "running away", and many employees who were laid off have suffered misfortunes one after another.

"My friend has been looking for a job for nearly two months, but was fired before he had worked for the new company for a full month. Now he is looking for a job again!" Similar situations are not uncommon. Another operator was laid off twice in a row. It is understood that he caught up with the company's layoffs at the end of April this year. After being fired, he immediately joined a small company. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt after just two months, so he had to start looking for a job again.

From the perspective of job seekers, operations account for a large proportion, but there are also many product developers. Many operations people think it is difficult to find a job, and product developers are also encountering obstacles everywhere, and the difficulty of finding a job is even greater than that of operations.

An industry insider believes that such voices are not without reason. This year, many companies have serious inventory backlogs. The main theme is usually to clear inventory, which means that companies do not need to develop new products, so there is no need for development positions. Some companies have unsatisfactory results from developing new products, so they just want to keep the old links, and development positions have once again become the first target for layoffs. Even if these companies have the need to develop new products, in order to reduce costs, they let operations take on the development work.

Whether they resigned voluntarily or were laid off involuntarily, the process of finding a job is very difficult. Will these people's "next job" be better after finding a job? It is reported that many workers did find their favorite jobs after resigning, but there are obviously more voices that "the next job will also be a pitfall."

"I have changed jobs three times from the beginning of the year to now. In my first job, I had to attend several meetings almost every day, but I quit after a month. In my second job, I had no products to work on, so I was persuaded to leave by the company. In my third job, it is difficult to get products done, and I am suffering now." said one of the employees.

Coincidentally, another employee also said that although he had been picking and choosing for nearly a month and finally found a company that looked good, he lost the desire to continue working there after seeing the store and products as soon as he started working.

Regarding this phenomenon, an industry insider believes that changing jobs now is nothing more than jumping from one pit to another. In most cross-border e-commerce companies that have recruitment needs, stable and good links are maintained by old employees, and these employees will basically not change. After the new employees enter, they will most likely have to solve the "difficult and complicated problems" left by the previous employee, or clear inventory; some of the companies that have recruitment needs are start-up companies. Many start-up companies do not have many things perfect, and employees will not have an easier time after entering than in their previous company.

Why is it so hard to find a cross-border job this year? Many operations managers were "tricked into asking for experience" during interviews

Why do workers find it particularly difficult to find cross-border jobs this year?

The first factor that comes to mind is that there is an oversupply of cross-border employees now, and companies are in a dominant position. Faced with too many employees, they have more choices.

"After chatting with colleagues around me, I found that almost all of them are reducing their teams, and they will only start hiring when there is an explosion in sales of a category." Cross-border people generally feel that the overall sales growth rate of platforms such as Amazon is slowing down, and profits are shrinking and it is difficult to make money. Faced with the unknown market conditions, they no longer engage in cross-border business or have reduced their investment ratio, and the demand for cross-border employment has dropped sharply.

This does not mean that they have no recruitment needs at all, but the demand for recruitment has increased, and they want to find better employees with a lower budget. Therefore, although many companies have reduced recruitment needs, they are still conducting interviews, with the goal of finding better employees through comparison. " I have interviewed several companies recently, and I feel that they are very selective and ask very detailed questions . " An employee who is looking for a job said that due to the market, the competition this year is indeed more intense, so that he is now under great pressure.

For job seekers, an ideal company is one that has good product resources, strong autonomy in operations and promotions, less work, more pay, and is close to home; for companies, they consider the input-output ratio and profit more , after all, only by making money can one survive.

A cross-border boss said that the company is in urgent need of truly capable operators. This capability does not only refer to operational capabilities, but also reflects the execution, endurance, carefulness, mentality and adaptability of doing things. In fact, he does not put the age of employees first in the recruitment process, but pays attention to the resume and achievements of job seekers, and how much value they can bring to the company. "It is difficult to easily replicate the work experience of employees. We welcome employees who can analyze problems, grasp the main contradictions and core, and create profits for the company."

Another recruiter said that job seekers feel that there are no suitable companies, and he also feels that he cannot recruit suitable employees. "I am located in Wuhan, and I have an account that urgently needs to recruit people, but I have been recruiting for almost a month and still haven't found a suitable candidate. The overall environment is not good, and the company does not want to blindly recruit an unsuitable person." The recruiter also said that in addition, many people seem to have little experience and average ability, but their expected salary requirements are not low.

In any case, it is a fact that it has become more difficult for cross-border employees to find jobs this year.

On the one hand, it is difficult to find a job. On the other hand, employees have discovered during the job search process that although many companies have job openings posted online, they are not recruiting anyone at all. They just want to gain experience and resources through interviews, or use interviews as a way to communicate about industry operations and understand the latest market conditions.

" There are too many companies that use experience as a tool . They ask you to do some questions first, and then they ask you all kinds of detailed questions . It's a completely ineffective interview. " An operator said that when he went to an interview at a company, the other party gave him a test paper on Amazon operations, which had questions like the following:

Please give examples of Amazon’s 40 traffic entrances;

What are the websites for off-site advertising? What are the effective methods for keywords to be on the homepage?

Now you want to quickly increase keyword weight, choose which ad to run, and why?

What is the general process of developing and creating a new product, and what are the key points?

What are the common operating methods used by big sellers and small sellers? List more than 5 commonly used ones?

What are the 10 regular and 8 unconventional methods to combat copycat sales ?

When listing performance is not good, what can we do to improve performance and gain profits?

Please use the value chain strategy to give examples of how to surpass competitors in product operations?

After seeing this "test paper", the operator started answering the questions seriously without thinking too much. After finishing, there was basically no follow-up. Looking back now, it is very likely that he was tricked.

Regarding the phenomenon of answering questions in interviews, many operations staff said they had encountered the same problem before. After completing the test paper provided by the other party, there was no follow-up. "Although it is not ruled out that some companies want to verify the operation level of job seekers in this way, it is true that many companies are just trying to gain experience."

In addition to the written test, there are also many "pitfalls" in the interview process. Many operators have deep feelings about this:

There are many junk companies in the cross-border industry, and during the interview process, they started asking about the specific hot products of the previous company.

During the interview, the sales manager asked me how I usually achieved sales results. I answered the HR question while typing frantically.

As soon as I went in and reported the company name , I didn't expect that they were particularly interested in my previous company and didn't ask anything about my situation.

…

"I have interviewed with several companies, and they asked for my store link right from the start. I politely declined at the time, but I didn't expect that they would send me WeChat messages to ask for it later. I decisively refused and blocked them." An operator said that this company is trying to steal the fruits of other people's labor under the guise of recruitment. This practice can no longer be described as shameless. I hope all interviewees will remain vigilant and pay attention to identifying the intentions of the recruiting company. Don't waste too much interview time on such companies, and leave as soon as you find something wrong.

Different from blatant experience-trading, some companies do not really have any recruitment plans, but they will still post job vacancies on recruitment software, and then use interviews as a way to understand the latest market conditions.

"When I was interviewing at a company, after asking about operations, the other party also started asking me some other questions, such as how fast the artists at my previous company were at making pictures, how long did it take to make a set of pictures, how was the commission calculated, and how was the performance of the AliExpress department?" The operations department said that the company asked a bunch of miscellaneous questions and seemed very interested in him, but there was no movement after the interview. Although the other party wasted his time, it should not be a loss for them, as they can use the interview process as a communication and exchange on industry operations, and at the same time complete the HR's own KPI tasks.

The impact of the decline in recruitment demand among cross-border companies on employees

It is true that recruitment demand still exists but has declined.

When the market conditions are not good, cross-border e-commerce companies naturally begin to downsize in order to survive. They either stop hiring or reduce employee salaries. This affects job seekers, not only making it difficult to find jobs, but also causing fluctuations in salary and mentality.

As for salary, as we all know, the salary structure of operations is a base salary plus commission model. Overall, the base salary of most operations has indeed dropped compared to 2020, and the commission is also miserable. According to feedback, the chances of many operations getting commissions every month are almost slim:

I can only get a basic salary and can't even think about commission .

I have been receiving the basic salary for half a year without realizing it. If nothing unexpected happens, I will get it steadily until the New Year .

I entered the industry in March last year and am still receiving the basic salary . Should I carry buckets or not?

Before April last year , I could earn several thousand yuan in commission every month , and even more than 10,000 yuan during the peak season . After that, the store either had no profit or was in a loss-making state ...

When the epidemic first broke out, the situation of the majority of cross-border employees was very different from what it is now. Riding on the market dividend, their value was soaring, and their basic salary and commission almost reached a level that outsiders envied. However, for many people, the core of success at this stage does not entirely lie in themselves. After the dividends fade, a decline in income is inevitable. Employees who are accustomed to high incomes will inevitably not adapt to this sudden change, and even become confused, and sometimes begin to doubt whether they "know nothing."

"Although I have several years of work experience, Amazon's platform policies are changing every year. My previous work experience is becoming less and less adapted to the current pace of launching new products. I don't know how to promote products without brushing orders, and I feel like I can't do anything except brushing orders." Many Amazon operators feel that in the process of cross-border e-commerce's transition from wild growth to intensive cultivation, the rules of survival have changed, and what they have learned before seems to have been abandoned by the times. It feels that the cross-border e-commerce work in the past few years has been in vain, and everything has returned to the starting point.

"Confusion and hesitation" is actually equivalent to a crossroads in life. Many people make another choice during this period. The options are to continue working, work alone or change careers.

It is understood that many employees now do not want to go to work, but do not have the courage to work on their own. Although they have registered for business licenses a long time ago, they still do not know what products to make and are still hesitating about going it alone. After comprehensive consideration, they finally choose to "go all the way" on the road of working.

There are still many people who have made up their minds to finally go it alone. "I am nearly 30 years old, and I feel that I have age anxiety. I personally feel that the end of the cross-border e-commerce industry is either management or going it alone. My personality is not suitable for being a manager, so I have to make up my mind to go it alone." A solo seller believes that in the short term, solo sellers rarely make money right from the start, and basically they have to collect payments and replenish stocks in a cycle. However, in the long run, although going it alone has to bear greater psychological pressure, it is still much better than working for others.

There are also many people who choose to change their careers, including leaving cross-border e-commerce completely and changing from operations to service providers. According to the editor, taking the civil service exam or becoming a teacher is still the most desired destination for cross-border people. After some efforts, many people have successfully "landed". Among the huge group of people who changed their careers, there are still many people who have not left the cross-border e-commerce circle. They believe that cross-border e-commerce still has great prospects, but the jobs they are engaged in have no prospects, so they changed from wish operations to Amazon operations, from Amazon operations to independent station operations, from product development to product operations, from operations to service providers...

For the majority of employees who choose to continue to stick to cross-border e-commerce, age anxiety and a sense of being replaced are nowhere to be found. In a certain competitive environment, only if they have great competitive advantages will they not be swayed by various factors.