When I joined this large company, I encountered something particularly interesting. This large company does not offer year-end bonuses, has a small number of project bonuses, and there are rumors that overtime is quite intense. Compared to the treatment and overall income at my previous company, I asked for a salary of 18K, thinking that I would just go for it; if I couldn’t get in, I would continue looking. The HR said they needed to discuss it with the leadership and asked me to wait for a notification. While waiting for the notification, I continued interviewing and unexpectedly ran into one of the interviewers from a few days ago, whom I referred to as ‘Villa Guy’. I subtly inquired about my interview status, and he mentioned that the leadership was quite satisfied with me. I thought it might be because I had asked for a high salary. Villa Guy asked me how much I had requested, and recalling HR’s instruction to keep the salary confidential, I told him a small, kind lie.
Not long after, I received the notification to join this ODM company. Upon joining, the leadership told me, “We hired you at a high salary, so you must take on a leading role and not disappoint my expectations. You will sit in the front row and focus on the mainboard.” Four pairs of eyes were staring at me.
From then on, I became a specialist in mainboards. Previously, I could also design small boards and FPCs, but now that was no longer the case. In fact, there weren’t many projects here; the boss said they wanted to create high-quality projects and not win by quantity. Five PCBs were considered a luxurious lineup, and by the end of the year, the total number of projects was still less than at my previous company. However, it didn’t take long for me to experience the style of a large company. We were doing OEM for several domestic brands like Juhua and Xiaomi. Although there weren’t many projects, the changes to the plans were frequent. By the time a project was ready for board production, there had been at least several major changes. Especially with Juhua, it was often the case that after working late into the night to complete part of the design, I would come in the next morning to be told, “Sorry, the client has new ideas, and this part needs a major adjustment.” So, while it seemed that there weren’t many projects, there were still plenty of boards to design, making it impossible to just coast along. However, the overtime wasn’t as exaggerated as the outside world claimed; usually, after dinner, I would take a stroll outside and clock out. The leadership also turned a blind eye to it, and compared to those companies that had already broken the 996 work culture, the overall workload in PCB design was still manageable.
For many years afterward, I encountered some boastful individuals who proudly called out to me, “Come develop with us; we collaborate with Juhua, and the future is bright.” I usually just silently despised them and took a detour. Although the ODM company still had a gap compared to Juhua, at least they could offer a high salary. These annoying boastful individuals always shouted about a wolf-like spirit but never fed the wolves.
When I used to work in the telephone industry, our production department’s quality slogan was: “Good products are made, not inspected by quality inspectors; quality control must start from the production source.” Later, while doing R&D, I adhered to the philosophy that design is correct, and one version is successful. However, the large company had the opposite philosophy: every engineer is a screw in the R&D assembly line, and your personal ability is not very important because there is a complete quality inspection process in place. The design philosophy here is that “good boards are modified into existence.” This philosophy is very suitable for novices who know nothing; it doesn’t matter if you don’t know anything, the organization has a mechanism to help you grow quickly. However, for experienced engineers, it can be painful; your experience is worthless, and the organization only cares about your progress in the early design stages. Once you finish the board design, the organization will initiate a correction mechanism to help you review it. Every time a board is ready for production, it is a grand event, with the entire hardware department brightly lit, reviewing the PCBs in rounds. The baseband team updates the schematics every ten minutes, and the new hires can generate dozens of pages of PCB modification suggestions by comparing with the datasheet, as the number of suggestions is tied to KPIs, and everyone checks very carefully.
Another thing worth mentioning is that they love to use shorting points here, and the PCBs are filled with colorful safety distance errors, repeatedly challenging the limits of the software. After several rounds of blaming the board factory, I was finally penalized for a low-level error due to a short circuit, and I chose to resign once again. I reflected on myself, wondering if I was too incompetent. Many of my former colleagues stayed for many years after I left; why couldn’t I persist? I believe that one shouldn’t ask for such a high salary; the one who laughs last is the true winner. A high salary that is fleeting is of no use if you are constantly changing jobs. Although I left, I still want to thank this company for fully covering my social insurance and housing fund, which saved me a lot of interest when I later entered the job market.
After leaving this company, I embarked on a six-year journey of coasting along.