Career Choice and Envied Luck

By Huang Tongtong

Career Choice and Envied Luck

By Huang Tongtong

In the past few days, my bestie Miss Blue and I have been engaged in a lively discussion about the recent buzzword “the rocket pack that allows pigs to fly,” which reminded us the importance of career choices in one’s life and the “rocket packs” we’ve seen in China over the past few decades.

For the post-60s generation(those born between 1960 and 1969 in Mainland China), there have been many such “rocket packs” as going into business and being your own boss in the 1990s. For example, one of my cousins was a worker in a machine factory in our town. Back in the late 1980s, everyone thought that punching a time card at the factory every day was the best and most stable way to earn a living.Yet ignoring objections from his family members, he quitted job,started a brick mill and gradually became somebody, and later even bought out the machine factory which he worked for before.Now he’s a local celebrity in my hometown.

For the post-70s generation,engaging in the real estate business was their “rocket pack.”In the 1990s, three red-hot majors as foreign languages, computers and civil engineering are more favored in my college time. Time proves all things as many of those who majored in foreign languages in college are now mediocrities.They fought tooth and nail to go abroad but now sincerely regret that they missed out on China’s 20-year period of lightning-

fast development. Those who majored in computers did pretty well for themselves; at least they are a part of the middle class.But those who majored in civil engineering are absolutely loaded.It didn’t matter if they opened a real estate company or worked at a real estate company, or if they majored in architecture, as long as these people did something remotely associated with real estate, they are now richer than anyone I know. Even the lowliest of those who went into real estate back in those days now have a mansion somewhere in Changsha,the capital city of Hunan Province where we spent our college time.

For the post-80s generation, it was finance.

For people like Miss Blue,there were two popular majors:one was journalism, the other being finance. Back in the day,the idealistic ones went off to study news media, while the non-idealistic bunch went off to study finance. No one could have predicted the Great Recession of 2008 that hit the news media industry like a ton of bricks.Those who studied finance went,one after the other, off to work at the banks. Now those upstarts are driving around in BMW and Mercedes Benz. Of course, the finance industry didn’t entirely escape the collateral damage of the recession, as for the last few years it hasn’t been doing that well either, but for at least ten years or so, the members of the eighties generation who went intofinance have gotten to live high on the hog.

For the post-90s generation,it was definitely anything weboriented or being a me-media personality in the Web 2.0 internet landscape. Rising to prominence in 2013, the memedia stars, including internet celebrities, vloggers and gamers are from the 90s generation. I myself have seen an incredibly inspirational example of this with my own eyes. A non-descript girl of a family of limited means hailing from small-town China who graduated from a generic art academy became an overnight sensation on a karaoke website.Later she began to do live video streaming, and finally became a WeChat entrepreneur. She now does several million yuan in business per year, leaving her parents, who themselves make only around 50,000 yuan per year, with their mouths agape and eyes as big as dinner plates.Another perfect example is my neighbor’s son, a chubby nerd who sat at home all day playinggames like some couch potato.The whole family was convinced he had no future, but I heard he made millions doing live video streaming and is now the owner of a shiny new Porsche amongst other flashy toys.

Every new era ushers in sweeping changes. China has had thirty years of change equaling three hundred years of change in Europe. Those who want to control their own destiny amid the torrents of life mostly do so by luck, and many people have parlayed their luck into their first fortune. But later they didn’t rely entirely on luck alone. My wellconnected friend, who made his riches in civil engineering became the preeminent mogul of the 1990s due to his father’s connections in high places,later lost it all on high-stakes investments that didn’t pan out.Likewise, not many of those who risked it all to go into the real estate business became a genuine real estate mogul in their own right, someone like Xu Jiayin or Wang Shi. The odds are stacked against you getting a hold of a rocket pack. And even when you get one, whether it propels you to wealth and glamor is ultimately just up to whether you are able to grasp it.

Take myself for example, I’m an unlucky member of the post-70s generation wholly engrossed in learning foreign language who made the switch to media communications and suffered from hand and brain cramps on account of all the writing I had to do. I had been in the entertainment business for ten years when, by a fluke, in 2014 I got my big break by hopping onto the post-90s generation’s memedia gravy train. And though I can’t say I compare to those white hot social media personalities with massive social authority,

you can’t say that I’m struggling either. I’m living the kind of life that I want. Maybe we can just chalk it up to luck, but if I hadn’t been so persistent and tenacious after I got that big break, I would never have gotten my golden ticket aboard the said gravy train.

Looking back on it I can’t help but think of a universal truth,that is, “Money can’t buy a crystal ball.” It’s better to live your life than to go searching high and low for a rocket pack to blast you into the stratosphere. Put priority on going in search of what you are good at and what you like to do and then become devoted to that body, mind and soul. Most of the time, if you can land in the top twenty percentile of your industry, no matter what industry it is, you will never have to worry where your next meal is. And if you’re lucky enough to pair your industry with a rocket pack, you can probably change your whole occupational sphere.

There are always those angsty newbies to the job market who ask me how to choose a career,and how to zone in on where the rocket pack might be stashed.I look them straight in the eyes and tell them point blank: the rocket pack is just the luck of the draw, you can’t force it make an appearance, so don’t bother trying. A much more practical way to go is to live your life and work hard at leveling up your skills. It’s like this, at the end of the day, the rocket pack comes but once in a blue moon, it’s best to concentrate on what you can control, and see it through to the end. That is by far the best choice for all the average Joes out there in the world who will probably never get the chance to blast off to the stars. (From Shanghai Wave, November 2017.Translation: Chase Coulson)

前兩天和我拍檔藍(lán)小姐聊天，聊到“站在風(fēng)口上，豬都會(huì)飛起來”這件事，想起人選擇職業(yè)的重要性，想起這些年我們看到過的風(fēng)口。

對(duì)60后來說，90年代初下海做生意是一個(gè)風(fēng)口。我的一個(gè)表哥原來是鎮(zhèn)機(jī)械廠的普通工人，當(dāng)時(shí)還是別人覺得應(yīng)該牢牢靠靠守著廠子的80年代末的時(shí)候，他不顧全家反對(duì)，辭職開了一家磚廠，后來慢慢做大，竟然把原來的機(jī)械廠吞下來，是我們老家有名的成功企業(yè)家。

對(duì)70后來說，房地產(chǎn)是一個(gè)風(fēng)口。90年代初，大學(xué)有三個(gè)專業(yè)很吃香，一個(gè)是外語，一個(gè)是計(jì)算機(jī)，一個(gè)是土木工程。事實(shí)證明學(xué)外語的現(xiàn)在混得一般，當(dāng)年拼命出國的同學(xué)現(xiàn)在真心后悔，因?yàn)橥昝厘e(cuò)過中國這20年迅猛的發(fā)展期；學(xué)計(jì)算機(jī)的人總的來說都不錯(cuò)，至少是中產(chǎn)；學(xué)土木工程的人則發(fā)了財(cái)，無論是自己開房地產(chǎn)公司，還是進(jìn)房地產(chǎn)公司，還是改學(xué)建筑設(shè)計(jì)的，只要是跟房地產(chǎn)公司沾邊的人，現(xiàn)在都比我們有錢，當(dāng)年土木工程系最差的學(xué)生都在長沙買了別墅。

對(duì)80后來說，是學(xué)金融。

藍(lán)小姐這些80后當(dāng)時(shí)流行兩個(gè)專業(yè)，一個(gè)是新聞，一個(gè)是金融。當(dāng)年有理想的孩子都學(xué)新聞，沒理想的孩子才去學(xué)金融，誰知從2008年開始，新聞媒體就進(jìn)入不景氣行列，而當(dāng)年學(xué)金融的同學(xué)統(tǒng)統(tǒng)進(jìn)銀行，年紀(jì)輕輕就開起寶馬、奔馳。當(dāng)然，這幾年金融又不行了，但至少10年之前入行的80后們，在這個(gè)行業(yè)賺足第一桶金。

而90后呢，自然是各種互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和自媒體運(yùn)營者。從2013年興起的自媒體大號(hào)們，包括網(wǎng)紅和直播達(dá)人、游戲達(dá)人，百分之九十是90后。我見過一個(gè)最勵(lì)志的例子是，一個(gè)家境普通的三線小城姑娘，藝校畢業(yè)后，先在一個(gè)K歌網(wǎng)站唱歌成了紅人，后來搞直播，再后來她做起微商，現(xiàn)在一年是幾百萬元的生意，把她打了一輩子工、年收入不超過五萬的父母驚得目瞪口呆。另外一個(gè)是我們鄰居家的孩子，一個(gè)胖胖的宅男，整天打游戲，大家都覺得這孩子將來肯定沒出息，但聽說他靠網(wǎng)絡(luò)直播成了大富翁，買了保時(shí)捷豪車。

時(shí)代日新月異，中國人這三十年經(jīng)歷歐洲三百年都沒有過的劇變，活在激流里的人要改變命運(yùn)，很大程度上是靠運(yùn)氣，很多人靠運(yùn)氣淘到第一桶金。但后來也不完全是靠運(yùn)氣，當(dāng)年我們那個(gè)土木工程系里最有背景的師兄，因?yàn)楦赣H的關(guān)系成了90年代第一批富翁，后來因?yàn)橘€錢以及投資失敗輸了個(gè)干凈。大家同樣下海進(jìn)房地產(chǎn)，可沒有幾個(gè)人能成為許家印和王石——風(fēng)口是運(yùn)氣，但如果你是豬，到最后還是會(huì)摔下來。

而我自己，一個(gè)學(xué)外語又轉(zhuǎn)去做媒體的倒霉的70后，這些年除了寫稿就是寫稿，一頭扎在娛樂行業(yè)十來年，終于僥幸在2014年搭上原本只屬于90后的自媒體快車。雖然說跟風(fēng)火的大號(hào)們沒法比，但也算是脫了貧，過上自己想要的生活，說運(yùn)氣也真是運(yùn)氣，但如果沒有這些年的堅(jiān)持，怕是想搭也搭不上。

回顧往昔，想起一個(gè)道理，“有錢難買早知道”，與其茫然尋找下一個(gè)風(fēng)口，還不如活在自己的節(jié)奏里，先尋找一件自己擅長又喜歡的事，然后一頭扎在里面，勤懇努力。通常，做到行業(yè)的前百分之二十，你肯定餓不死；如果運(yùn)氣好，將自身的行業(yè)和當(dāng)時(shí)的風(fēng)口對(duì)接起來，也許就能改變自己的職業(yè)生態(tài)。

每當(dāng)有焦慮的職場(chǎng)新人問我，要怎么選擇職業(yè)，要怎么感知風(fēng)口時(shí)，我都淡淡地說，風(fēng)口是運(yùn)氣，不可強(qiáng)求，活在自己的節(jié)奏里，努力提高專業(yè)技能，可能是更為實(shí)在的路。畢竟，風(fēng)口不常有，而做到自己能力范圍里的最好，且一直做下去，這才是我們這些普通人更為現(xiàn)實(shí)的選擇。

（摘自《上海采風(fēng)》2017年第11期）

這些年看到過的風(fēng)口

文/黃佟佟