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Introduction
Hello everyone, I am Ke Yan.
Have you ever thought about how much your annual salary will be in 10 years? You can think about it, then scroll to the end of the article to leave a message and come back to read.
No matter what your answer is, whether you have a practical plan or not, I believe after reading this article, you will have some new ideas.
Many friends on the public account are college students, without much concept of future career paths. Today, this article will share the career growth path of embedded engineers and their corresponding salary situations.
This is actually a summary of my observations over more than ten years of work experience. The article may be quite long and dry, but I still recommend that you patiently read it to the end; it will definitely give you a lot of thoughts and inspiration regarding your career.
Types of Companies to Choose From
First, I have made a distinction of several types of companies you can choose after graduation.
[Traditional Business Small and Medium Enterprises]
For example, R&D companies or research institutes in various household appliances, electronic instruments, medical, power grid, military industry, etc. These could be small workshop-like companies with a dozen or dozens of people or companies with a couple of hundred employees that have their own factories. The bosses and colleagues may be older, and the personality and management style of the company are relatively traditional.
This type of company is generally sales-driven, either the company has relationships to sell products, or the products are relatively mature. The technical requirements are not high, and the pay is not much; you can get hired after completing a few simple projects.
[High-tech Small and Medium Enterprises]
These are startup companies with very new technologies, such as autonomous driving, blockchain, AR/VR, robotics, AI large models. The bosses of these companies usually have worked at international companies or large domestic firms for many years, are young, do not have a paternalistic attitude, and the company’s management is relatively flat.
Of course, not every company that engages in these technologies can be considered high-tech. To identify them, you can judge from the core team background, number of patents, financing situation, and R&D investment ratio, the more impressive or the more there are, the better.
In recent years, our country has been supporting innovative small and medium enterprises, with a management interim measure for cultivating high-quality small and medium enterprises.
They will recognize so-called “specialized, refined, characteristic, and novel” small and medium enterprises, with some rigid recognition standards:
You can check the government websites of various provinces and cities; they publish lists of selected companies every year. We can look here for suitable jobs.
For example, in Beijing’s third quarter of 2023:
In Shenzhen for 2023:
This type of company is generally technology-driven, the products may not be mature yet, the pay is not much, but the technical requirements are relatively high. Most employees are those who are quite outstanding from ordinary universities.
[Medium and Large Enterprises]
These are well-known companies like BAT, ByteDance, DJI, Xiaomi, etc. This type of company has higher requirements, pays more, and most fresh graduates entering through campus recruitment are from 211 or 985 universities.
[Entrepreneurship]
Lastly, there is the option of starting your own business immediately after graduation. This situation is rare but not unheard of.
Positions and Corresponding Salaries
Let’s look at them one by one.
First, look at traditional small and medium enterprises. When you just graduate, your salary is probably in the range of 80,000 to 150,000 a year, which corresponds to a monthly income of around 6,000 to just over 10,000.
If you continue to learn and improve, after working for 1 to 3 years, you may become a mid-level engineer, at which time your annual salary will be around 150,000 to 250,000.
If you keep working hard and the company is doing well, after another 1 to 3 years, meaning in your 5th or 6th year of work, you may become a project or team leader, becoming a middle manager, at which point your annual salary will be around 250,000 to 400,000.
In traditional business small and medium enterprises, earning 400,000 a year indicates that the company’s business is indeed good, and you are really impressive, generating a lot of revenue for the company. However, note that this is also the ceiling of your career.
Now let’s look at high-tech small and medium enterprises. If you graduate with a good level but for various reasons cannot enter a large company, you can come to companies with certain technical barriers.
Your annual salary when you start working is about 150,000 to 200,000. After 1 to 3 years, you will be promoted to a mid-level engineer, with an annual salary of 200,000 to 300,000. After becoming a mid-level engineer in a high-tech small and medium enterprise, in addition to becoming a team manager like in traditional small and medium enterprises, there is also another path to become a senior engineer. Because this is a high-tech-driven company with certain technical value.
The annual salary ceiling of 300,000 to 500,000 also indicates that you are excellent, have a strong foundation, and can continuously learn new knowledge.
Why do both traditional and high-tech companies have ceilings? Because the next step up would be partners or co-founders, and salaries basically won’t increase.
Small and medium enterprises have limited annual income and profits, some even continuously burning money, which determines that they cannot offer particularly high salaries to employees.
Next is medium and large enterprises. If you can enter a medium or large company right after graduation, it indicates that your personal quality is quite excellent, and of course, the salary will be more competitive. When you first enter the industry, you can earn an annual salary of around 150,000 to 300,000.
After a few years, you will be promoted to a mid-level engineer, with an annual salary in the range of 300,000 to 500,000.
After that, if you pursue the technical path, you can be promoted to a senior engineer; if you pursue a management position, you can be promoted to a project or team leader, at which point the salary will be between 500,000 to 1,000,000 annually.
If you continue to deepen your technical skills as a senior engineer, until the business technology you are in reaches a globally leading level, you will be promoted to a technical expert.
Similarly, if you keep achieving results as a small project or team leader, you will be promoted to a professional manager, with an annual salary of at least over 1 million. Note that at this level, you will have usually worked for over 10 years.
If you stay in this large company without making mistakes and the business is doing well, with certain achievements every year, it will be relatively stable and you can live quite comfortably. This is basically the ceiling of large companies.
If at this point, you suddenly feel lost, or suddenly feel enlightened.
Then you can continue to move forward, that is entrepreneurship. Technical experts can become technical partners, and professional managers can become founders.
This brings us to the last point, entrepreneurship.
Anyone can start a business; you can start a business right after graduation, or you can start a business after becoming a senior executive in a large company. However, as a college student starting a business, no one may invest in you.
Of course, entrepreneurship comes with high risks and great pressure; failing could lead to debts of 600 million. However, once successful, the sky is the limit.
Entrepreneurship is a life-and-death matter, and the final outcomes can only be four: bankruptcy, stability, acquisition, or IPO.
I haven’t found data on this ratio; I wrote it based on my feelings: 90% of startups eventually go bankrupt; 7% of companies survive but do not make big money; less than 3% of startups will be acquired by large companies; and only 0.1%, or one in a thousand, will actually go public, and this ratio might be even smaller.
Ok, that’s the career path of embedded engineers.
Below this image, I have also found the requirements for various levels of engineers from a large company. The text is very detailed, so I won’t elaborate. If you need a high-definition version of the entire image, you can download it from the public account.
What to Do if Your Education is Average
You might ask, if I am an ordinary university student or currently a junior engineer in a traditional small and medium enterprise, where is my way out?
You can choose the following path.
First, while working as an engineer in a traditional small and medium enterprise, use all your spare time to learn, not just technology, but also social skills and industry knowledge. After a few years, you will become a mid-level engineer and will be very proficient in your job, having learned most of the company’s technology.
At this point, you can look for a high-tech small and medium enterprise and change jobs to become a mid-level engineer in a high-tech small enterprise.
Or, if you have the opportunity to be promoted to a manager, you can also jump to a high-tech small and medium enterprise as a management personnel.
Then, in the high-tech small and medium enterprise, continue to learn and become a senior engineer or manage a larger team before jumping to a large company.
The general route has several paths: mid-level to mid-level, senior to mid-level or senior, management to management.
Note, is it possible to jump directly from a traditional small and medium enterprise to a medium or large enterprise? Of course, but it is difficult.
Because the influence of the people around you is very large, the company culture, technical level, thinking methods, and working methods of traditional small and medium enterprises and medium and large enterprises are quite different. If you stay in a traditional small and medium enterprise for too long, it is easy to be assimilated.
For most people, the best route is the roundabout way to save the country.
I graduated from a non-211 university, and my first job was as a junior engineer in a traditional small and medium enterprise, with a monthly salary of 5,500 yuan.
I followed this route, gradually working at several traditional small and medium enterprises and high-tech small and medium enterprises. Later, I went to a large company, and now I am a co-founder of a high-tech small company.
Our company is small, and the salary cannot compare with large companies, but I am very picky when hiring. I hope to recruit people who can do the work well and whose salary demands are not outrageous.
Basically, I recruit people from similarly unknown small companies, selecting the more outstanding ones through written tests and interviews. After working with me for a few years, their abilities improve, and they get other opportunities—some go to Baidu, some to 360, and others to Xiaomi and MediaTek, following the same route.
Simple Advice
At the end of the article, I would like to share a few sentences with everyone.
The starting point determines the lower limit, while subsequent efforts determine the upper limit.
Your current school, major, company, and position are not shackles that bind you; it is never too late to change or cut losses.
Do not limit yourself, and definitely try more.
I am an embedded engineer. Although I have also created training courses for embedded engineers, I will not advise you to become an embedded engineer for life.
If you find something you like more or are better at, go ahead and try it boldly.
Cultivate patience
The whole society is in a hurry for quick success; parents, schools, bosses, and the public all chase stories of young achievers. I tell you, they are all wrong. The media reports on 25-year-olds becoming CEOs, 30-year-olds becoming elites, and billionaires; these rare events are just to attract attention and have little reference value.
If we do not shine in the early stages of life, it does not mean we are failures.
If one year doesn’t work, then two years; if two years don’t work, then three years. If it still doesn’t work, then five years, ten years. Life is long, and it is okay to be a little slower than others, a little later, or a little more tortuous!
The article ends here. I wonder if you have gained anything. If I can help you even a little, I will be happy.
I am Ke Yan, and I will see you next time!
Address for specialized and refined inquiries:
Beijing:
https://jxj.beijing.gov.cn/jxdt/tzgg/202312/t20231205_3490160.html
Shenzhen:
https://www.sz.gov.cn/cn/xxgk/zfxxgj/tzgg/content/post_11073899.html
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Hello, I am Ke Yan. I have been an embedded engineer for more than 10 years, and every time I debug a board successfully, I feel a great sense of achievement.
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