Programmer 1v1 Interview Series Episode 12: Ordinary People Have No Core Competitiveness

Hello everyone, I'm Shuangyue. Author of wangEditor, former senior frontend engineer at Baidu and Didi, elite lecturer at Muke, PMP, and author of Frontend Interview Pie.

I've been running a series called "Programmer 1v1 Interviews" where I chat via WeChat voice or text, you share your situation and doubts, and I give advice. The following is the main content from the 12th interviewee (no private sensitive info), shared for your reference.

Basic Info

• Male
• City: Shenzhen
• Marital status: No
• Education: Bachelor's
• Years working: 5
• Company size: Medium
• Currently employed: Yes
• Role: Previously frontend, now both frontend and backend
• Industry: Product packaging

Our tech team is small, only 3 people, all doing full-stack development. Work is currently stable and salary is reasonable. No signs of layoffs yet, but also no more hiring.

AI programming tools are all paid out of pocket, but luckily the workload is light, so monthly costs are low. The boss doesn't understand tech; he just assigns requirements and expects us to implement them ourselves.

What Is My Core Competitiveness?

Human instinct seeks certainty and safety, so people always want core competitiveness. Like the ultimate martial arts in wuxia novels, one move defeats the enemy. Jin Yong's novels satisfy people's fantasies, which is why they are loved by many and also criticized by many.

Throughout history, some have exploited this to make money, telling you they can give you core competitiveness and then selling you things. People always believe what they want to believe and are willing to pay for it, especially in chaotic times when everyone is anxious. It works every time.

Actually, ordinary people have no core competitiveness at all. Every one of us who gets up in the morning to squeeze onto the subway, bus, or electric bike to go to work has no core competitiveness, without exception. If anyone had any, would they be squeezing onto these morning commutes?

So stop seeking some core competitiveness. What you have, others have too. Everyone is ordinary, we are all frontline workers.

The so-called competitiveness is nothing more than a portion of people seeing an opportunity earlier than others, or being led into a field, entering it early, enjoying some of the dividends, or occupying a position early.

For example, the earliest batch of people who learned Vue ten years ago all smoothly found jobs early on, and even got promotions and raises later.

Now, the earliest batch to shift to AI + full-stack have better competitiveness within their companies, or are more likely to find jobs if laid off.

That is also a kind of competitiveness, but it's absolutely not exclusive to any individual, nor will it last forever. Eventually it gets diluted across all practitioners.

Personal Advantages Under AI Programming

His communication skills are decent, he expresses himself clearly, and his ideas come across well.

He summarized two soft skills in his work:

• Proactive problem-finding ability
• Communication skills

I think these two skills will continue to increase in value in the AI programming era.

AI is just an efficiency tool. It is passive; it needs a driver. It cannot proactively find problems, nor can it proactively communicate.

On the contrary, if you have these two abilities, you will amplify their value with AI's help.

For example, use AI to discover more problems and solve them in time. Or, with clear communication, AI development becomes more efficient and features become more stable.

He also mentioned that during this period of using AI programming, his technical breadth has increased a lot. This corresponds to his soft skills.

Don't Ask for a Raise Yet

He just worked for 5 years, in the golden development period of his career. It's normal to want a raise. But in this environment, don't think that way yet.

Never mind the current bad environment. Under normal circumstances, to raise your salary to 30K+, you'd have to go to a big company. Small and medium enterprises rarely offer that, unless you're a technical leader or something.

Now big companies are almost impossible to get into, especially through general social recruitment. This has nothing to do with personal ability; they are cutting staff and shrinking hiring.

So don't obsess over a raise. Don't set that as a goal for now; thinking about it is useless.

Focus on the present. Ensure your competitiveness within the company so you don't easily lose your job. And if you do get laid off, find a new job quickly, which also requires daily accumulation of projects, skills, and resume content.

Right now there's only a 3-person tech team, and the boss is not in a technical role. This is actually a great opportunity. He could lead this 3-person team, introducing technical standards, processes, and review work. That is workplace competitiveness.

Finally

Their backend uses C# and ASP.NET. I advised him to quickly fill in his full-stack capabilities, in two areas:

• Quickly supplement the full-stack knowledge system, third-party services, and technical breadth.
• Don't limit yourself to the C# stack. Learn Java as soon as possible. C# and Java have many similarities, so it will be quick to learn.

A stable job and income are the most important things.