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Nanjing's 'Six Little Dragons' Are Outsourcing Giants, Not AI Labs

When it comes to the "Hangzhou Six Little Dragons," I believe everyone is familiar with them.

It refers to six high-tech enterprises in Hangzhou focusing on cutting-edge fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, and game development, including:

Recently, while surfing the internet at home, I actually stumbled upon a so-called "Nanjing Six Little Dragons" list.

That's not all.

Some enthusiastic netizens even placed them side-by-side with the Hangzhou Six Little Dragons list.

Now, no comparison, no shock. When I saw it, I nearly spat out the chrysanthemum tea I had just drunk.

The list of these six companies compiled by netizens is:

I have to say, sometimes everyone just understands things without saying them aloud.

For example, even if no one knows or has ever heard of the six companies above, judging just by their names, you can probably guess what they're about.

The comments from netizens in the section were brilliant. These aren't the Six Little Dragons of software; they're clearly the Six Little Dragons of Outsourcing Avenue.

As a programmer who has lived and worked in Nanjing for many years, I have deep feelings about this.

Indeed, the IT companies in Nanjing seem a bit hard to describe in a single phrase.

Because there are relatively few original, homegrown high-tech IT companies that have sprouted locally. Most cases are R&D centers (or branches) set up by large companies, so the technical atmosphere is certainly not as thriving as in first-tier cities.

Moreover, there are particularly many outsourcing companies here, especially software outsourcing companies. We even have a dedicated software outsourcing park in our area; think about that.

It's no exaggeration to say that when programmers look for jobs in Nanjing, as soon as they log onto the BOSS recruitment app, they are basically surrounded by these IT Six Little Dragons. Think about that again.

Within this list, there are two companies of relatively large scale and visibility.

The first is Chinasoft, without a doubt.

Chinasoft can be said to be one of the elder brothers of the domestic software outsourcing industry, with approximately 80,000 employees and an annual revenue scale of up to 17 billion RMB.

Moreover, Chinasoft's business footprint is indeed very large, with key deployments in 70 cities domestically and internationally, and it owns self-owned R&D bases in Beijing, Xi'an, Shenzhen, Nanjing, and other places.

When mentioning Chinasoft, many people's first reaction is its deep binding with Huawei.

Indeed, Huawei is one of Chinasoft's relatively large partners. Similarly, this close cooperative relationship has allowed Chinasoft to gain a significant share in fields like telecommunications and government-enterprise digitalization.

Within Chinasoft's system, one can often see a very typical, standardized approach.

Its processes are relatively standardized, and its systems are very complete. For fresh graduates or those wanting to switch careers into IT, it can be considered a good training ground.

However, in recent years, Chinasoft has also been desperately trying to transform, attempting to shed its pure outsourcing label, investing considerable effort in AIGC and the HarmonyOS ecosystem.

In Nanjing, for example, there is Huawei's Nanjing Research Institute, so it's perfectly normal for companies like Chinasoft that can interface with Huawei to set up R&D bases in Nanjing.

The other company is iSoftStone, which is also very famous in the market.

If Chinasoft above represents steady and solid progress, then iSoftStone gives the impression of rapid expansion.

Although iSoftStone was founded a few years later than Chinasoft, its development momentum has been very swift.

According to data from third-party institutions, iSoftStone's market share in the IT services market has already been among the top, even taking the lead in some years.

iSoftStone has always given people the impression of being large and comprehensive. Its headquarters is in Beijing, and its employee scale has even reached 90,000 people.

iSoftStone's IPO once injected a shot of adrenaline into the industry. Its business lines cover the full lifecycle from consulting to IT services, encompassing many aspects such as finance, energy, intelligent manufacturing, ICT hardware and software, and intelligent products.

Besides these two relatively large companies, the others, such as Hoperun and ArcherMind, are local Nanjing outsourcing companies doing many projects for Huawei. ThunderSoft mainly works on intelligent terminals, IoT, and automobiles, often acting as a vendor for car companies. As for Faba Information, I'm not very familiar with it; those who know can share in the comments.

Every time the word "outsourcing" is mentioned, perhaps many people scoff at it. Here, I'd also like to share some of my personal views and feelings about outsourcing.

Honestly, I have never worked inside an outsourcing company, but I have worked with many staff from outsourcing companies, participating in projects together.

I remember a long time ago when I worked at a telecommunications company, our team, as the so-called client, worked with outsourced employees for about half a year on a core network sub-project for the company.

To be fair, our entire team was very friendly towards the outsourced colleagues.

I've seen things online like outsourced staff having to return money after grabbing a red envelope in a group chat, or being reminded to watch their manners and not steal snacks. That's a bit too outrageous and exaggerated; such things never happened in our team.

The atmosphere of working together daily was also quite harmonious. Everyone chatted, joked, and ate meals together; there was no difference in how we got along.

However, there were indeed some differences.

For instance, the color of the lanyard on their work badges was different from ours, which was noticeable at a glance. Also, the daily tasks were somewhat different.

I remember that some packet capturing tasks, testing tasks, and labeling tasks for the project were all handed over to the outsourced colleagues to complete. What we needed were the results and reports.

Furthermore, access permissions for the project document library and code repository were indeed different. Core project code and documents were indeed not open to the outsourced colleagues.

Apart from that, I didn't feel there were many other differences.

So, as programmers, how should we view these outsourcing companies?

It's like a besieged city: some outside want to get in, and some inside want to get out.

Every time outsourcing is mentioned, many people's advice is not to join, to avoid it at all costs.

But there's a prerequisite here: the question of whether to choose only arises when you have a choice in the first place.

It's undeniable that outsourcing companies do have their shortcomings. The two most criticized points are the career ceiling and the lack of a sense of belonging.

But in the current employment environment, we have to admit that outsourcing companies also play the role of a reservoir for the IT industry.

After all, not everyone can get an offer from a major internet company right after graduation, nor does everyone have the courage to take a gamble on a startup.

For some programmers with average educational backgrounds, average technical foundations, or those who have just switched careers, outsourcing provides another option.

And if you are currently in outsourcing or considering joining one, I'd like to say a few words from the heart:

First, do not treat outsourcing as the endpoint of your career, but rather see it as a springboard or a transition.

If you can't get into a big company right after graduation, or if you have no better choices in first- or second-tier cities, outsourcing can provide you with an opportunity to engage with formal project processes (provided you enter a proper outsourcing firm). We can also view it as a special career waystation.

Every day there, you must ask yourself: What have I learned? Has my technical skill improved? Has my vision broadened?

Second, you must be wary of the comfort zone.

Many people who stay in outsourcing for too long might fall into a mechanical work mode of just drawing a salary, which seems comfortable but is actually very dangerous.

Pay attention, you must utilize the resources you can access to learn the project's technical architecture and business processes, and find ways to enhance your core competitiveness, not just to complete your work hours.

Finally, what I want to say is, whether you are a formal employee at a big company, striving in a small team, or quietly working hard in an outsourcing company, what ultimately determines the height of your career is not the company name on your badge, but how much technology you know, how much business you understand, and how many problems you can solve. What do you all think?

Alright, let's stop here for today. I hope this can provide some inspiration. See you in the next post.

Note: This article has been included in the GitHub open-source repository "Road to Programming" https://github.com/rd2coding/Road2Coding, which contains self-study roadmaps + knowledge point compilations for 6 major programming directions (positions), interview points, my resume, several hardcore PDF notes, as well as programmer life and reflections. Welcome to star.