After 8 Years of 'Do What They Say,' a Shanghai Front-End Engineer Faces a 5-Month Job Hunt

Hello everyone, I'm Shuangyue. Author of wangEditor, former senior front-end engineer at Baidu and DiDi, elite instructor at MOOC, PMP, and author of Front-End Interview School.

I'm currently running a "Programmer 1v1 Interview Series" where I chat one-on-one via WeChat voice or text, listening to your situation and confusion, and giving advice. Below are the main contents from the 8th interviewee (no sensitive personal information), shared for your reference.

Basic Info

• Female
• City: Shanghai
• Marital status: Married
• Education: Bachelor's degree
• Years of work: 11 years
• Company size: None
• Employment status: Unemployed for 5 months
• Role: Front-end
• Industry: Bank tooling operations and maintenance development

She had been at this company for 7-8 years and was laid off in April this year, receiving severance.

The front-end team had 6 people, and half were cut. Back-end layoffs were fewer. The operations team also saw significant cuts.

The 7-8 Year Comfort Zone

I initially guessed that during these 7-8 years, she likely hadn't achieved much and hadn't kept up with technological advances in her spare time.

She confirmed that was true. She just went to work and did whatever was asked. She used whatever the company used, and rarely looked at tech after work.

Why? She said it was because she didn't like technology, so she couldn't muster interest. This is a serious misconception.

Most people find it hard to continuously like a thing or a person, especially after 10+ years of work. Who can still love their job? Isn't a job just a tool to earn money? It's already good enough not to hate it. People who are proactive at work and actively learn in their spare time aren't necessarily doing it out of love or interest. It's just a way of doing things. Only by doing this can you maintain your professional competitiveness. That motivation is sufficient; you don't need to fully like something to do it.

She seemed to give a reasonable reason, but in fact she was rationalizing her own laziness. That's human instinct.

Why She Was Laid Off

If the overall environment had been good, she could have quietly kept working, just like the past 7-8 years. But the environment isn't good. Six front-end devs had to cut three, and she was one of them.

She said that in a bank tooling tech team, the importance of front-end roles is inherently lower than back-end, because front-end just builds pages and doesn't need to understand the core business. PMs often go to back-end folks to discuss requirements; front-end is just a tool, do the work.

I've said this in articles and videos long ago: in most cases, front-end is not as advantageous as back-end, whether technically or in business terms.

Of course, she said PMs also want all programmers to understand the business; front-end isn't excluded from discussions. But that's optional, entirely up to one's initiative. Unfortunately, she isn't a proactive person and prefers to passively accept assigned tasks. So after 7-8 years at the company, she never grew into a responsible role.

She was just a grassroots developer, getting older, not proactive. It was foreseeable that the layoff would come to her.

After the Layoff

After being laid off in April, she started preparing her resume and projects, but her approach wasn't quite right. She wanted to carefully go through all her projects again, rewrite them herself, and also review interview questions in exhaustive detail, going deeper and deeper.

She spent 1-2 months preparing and still wasn't done. Then at the end of June, the summer break started. She has two kids in primary school, so she went to take care of them.

After two months of summer, in September she started preparing again and submitting resumes, but the results weren't good. She got only one interview invitation. Now it's mid-October, and she's still unemployed, unsure how to proceed.

Her post-layoff arrangement mirrors her work style: rushed at first, but lacking clear goals and planning.

She should have spent 1-2 weeks preparing in April, then submitted resumes, started interviewing as early as possible, and solved problems on the fly while interviewing, in parallel.

It's not like a few years ago when you could study for 1-2 months and hit up big companies for promotions and raises. Now it's a situation where there's more supply than demand. Strike early, seize any opportunity, and even just having a job is good enough.

I detailed a review plan with her. First, take one week to review "八股文" (common interview rote questions) and just cover the most frequently asked ones. Then rewrite her resume, making sure to include full-stack development and AI programming, and submit resumes as soon as possible.

The Older Female Programmer

She's around 35, a mother of two, and laid off, making it hard to find a job. Naturally, she wonders: Should I continue as a programmer? Can I find a new job?

If you're not a programmer now and want to switch into programming, I'd certainly advise you: don't come; find something else to do.

But you have a bachelor's degree, have been deeply in this field for 10+ years, and have no other skills. Although in some difficulty, isn't it too early to give up now?

My advice to her: keep looking until next spring, May. If she still can't find a suitable job, then give up. But even if she gives up at that point, she won't regret it later in life.

In the current environment, finding a job also relies on luck. Give yourself more time to try your luck; maybe some opportunities will come?

I feel that as long as she uses the right approach, keeps applying, and doesn't be picky about job or salary, she should be able to find something decent.

Summary

We talked for about 2 hours. Her final feeling was: clear goals, clear plan, now it's time to act.

Sometimes that's how it is. The principles are all there; you know how to do it. But you need a trigger to get yourself started.