01
About the Author & Career Transition
I graduated in 2022 from a non-prestigious university with a major in Transportation. After graduation, I joined a state-owned enterprise, working in site material management. After six months, I decided to resign and attempted to pursue a master’s degree, but I was unsuccessful for two consecutive years.
At the beginning of this year, I chose to join Wangdao’s embedded employment class. Through five months of systematic learning, over ten days of job hunting, and more than thirty interviews, I ultimately received ten job offers, with salaries ranging from 11K to 18K.
After comprehensive consideration, I chose a semiconductor chip company in Wuhan, with a current salary of 13K × 14 months (annual salary of 182K). The benefits include meals and commuting, working hours of 7-8 hours a day, minimal overtime, weekends off, and a relaxed team atmosphere.
02
Wangdao Learning Experience
From Zero to Project Practice
Before joining Wangdao, I had almost no foundation, with only some basic experience in C programming. Many classmates in the class started at a similar low level, but the teachers treated all students equally, paying special attention to those with weaker foundations.
Let me first outline the teaching steps for the embedded direction at Wangdao: C language, STM32, FreeRTOS, Project One, C++ Basics, C++ Advanced, Qt, Audio and Video, Project Two.
As you can see, Wangdao’s teaching content is very rich and covers multiple directions, which posed a significant learning challenge for someone like me transitioning from another field, and the learning intensity was also high: from 9 AM to 10:30 PM daily, with only a short break for lunch and a brief rest in the evening.
In this regard, I suggest teaming up with classmates who have a positive learning attitude to motivate each other. A group with an excellent team atmosphere can greatly enhance our learning efficiency. The specific approach is to find a top-performing student to team up with; if you can’t find one, then be the top performer yourself to attract them to your team.
Our group holds weekly meetings to comprehensively review the content learned that week, and group members ask each other questions. If we encounter unsolvable problems, we seek help from AI or teachers. Two months before the course ended, we started memorizing common interview questions and consistently conducted mock interviews, completing 15-20 questions each week, which significantly reduced the pressure of job hunting later on.
Project phase was the period of our fastest growth.
I believe that before starting a project, it is essential to clarify the project’s framework and process, understand which function or protocol connects each step; when encountering difficulties during the project, proactively consult teachers and outstanding classmates to learn their coding ideas and improve your project functionality; after the project ends, be sure to summarize the bugs encountered and your gains to prepare for interviews after the course. Additionally, if time is tight and you cannot complete all functionalities, at least clarify the process and be able to express it fluently—during the interview, you only need to discuss the parts you are most familiar with.
To enhance the competitiveness of the project, I often coded until dawn, and ultimately our group’s two projects won second place in the class, and this experience also allowed me to gain a group of like-minded friends.
03
Job Hunting Experience: From Mass Applications to 10 Offers
I mainly used Boss Zhipin, but I recommend applying on multiple platforms to increase opportunities.
In the early stages, I chose to interview in Beijing and Shanghai to gain experience, primarily targeting positions in Wuhan. However, during interviews, we must express a strong willingness to settle down and not reveal any intentions of just practicing, as this will help us gain more interview opportunities.
In the initial few interviews, I faced repeated setbacks and summarized three main issues: not answering core points, nervousness leading to poor expression, and unfamiliarity with project details.
Later, I developed a personalized answering template (linking C++ knowledge through several keywords; when the interviewer asks about a point, I first answer that point and then expand it into a line), deliberately reducing filler words (like um, uh, I just remembered, etc.), and asked teachers to help refine my project descriptions, ensuring my packaged experiences matched reality, while constantly self-suggesting that I had years of experience, gradually finding my state, and receiving up to three offers in one day.
Interview questions often revolved around C++ fundamentals (inheritance, polymorphism, STL, smart pointers, etc.), network programming (Socket, Reactor, etc.), multithreading (mutexes, deadlocks, multithreading synchronization issues, etc.), Linux compilation commands, debugging techniques, and project details.
I suggest customizing greeting scripts based on different positions and actively following up with HR and interview results. In self-introductions, when discussing projects, it is advisable to first summarize in a conversational manner and then use technical terms during in-depth discussions.
Additionally, we can leverage AI to improve project descriptions by providing AI with a production background and informing it of the parts I worked on in the project, and it will package it into work content that aligns with production realities.
Moreover, the class teacher at Wangdao is very responsible; whether it’s difficulties in life or challenges during salary negotiations, the teacher provides us with timely assistance. Before the course ends, the teacher shares a lot of employment knowledge, including social insurance, self-introduction, greeting scripts for HR, how to schedule interviews, and salary negotiations, etc. I found that more than one person was eliminated from interviews due to neglecting these common knowledge points, as sometimes details can determine success or failure.
I believe the two most critical aspects of interviews are:
First, highlighting one’s strengths (technical or communication) within a limited time;
Second, maintaining confidence and applying for many positions. I interviewed up to six times in one day and ultimately found that with Wangdao’s high-quality teaching content, we only need to master half of the course content to find a satisfactory job.
04
Onboarding and Adaptation: Confidence and Proactive Learning
I have been in my job for half a month now, mainly working on familiarizing myself with the code and processes.
I believe passing the probation period won’t be too difficult; we can proactively ask HR or interviewers what they value in us. If it’s technical skills, quickly familiarize yourself with the business code to showcase your coding abilities; if it’s soft skills (like communication skills, expression abilities, etc.), then boldly ask questions and actively perform to let the leaders see our learning capabilities and areas of improvement.
Additionally, we need to pay attention to how we ask questions: seek help with specific questions that show thought and research, rather than broad inquiries. I was once reminded by my team leader for not being specific in my questions, so I started organizing notes and preliminary understandings in advance before seeking guidance, which proved to be very effective.
Whether in interviews or during the probation period, learning to showcase oneself appropriately is crucial, and confidence and proactivity are often the keys to success.
05
Final Thoughts
At Wangdao, one must give their all; as long as you invest sincerely, the results will not be disappointing.
No matter if you are a career changer like me with many debuffs or a fresh graduate from a formal background, it proves one point: ability and attitude are far more important than education and experience, and Wangdao provides us with a perfect platform. May everyone have the heart of a fierce tiger and the ability to smell roses, and soon receive the desired offer!
Recommended Reading:
Giving up a state-owned enterprise job to transition to C++ and receiving a 175K offer!
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