In early March I came back to Hangzhou from Gansu, originally planning to start job-hunting right away. I’d already rested for two months, and my résumé was polished and ready to send out. Then on March 8 I got the news that my mother-in-law had unexpectedly passed away. I had to put everything aside and go back to Gansu to arrange the funeral. Counting it up, 2026 turned out to be the year I spent the most time in Gansu.
After handling the funeral and returning to Hangzhou, I finally really started sending out résumés. Over the better part of a month, I had some experiences and thoughts, which I’ll record here.
The First One: A Part-Time Invitation
A developer buddy asked if I was interested in taking on a side gig—not complicated, could earn twenty or thirty thousand yuan. I said if it’s such a good deal, why don’t you take it yourself? He said he’d written two modules already and didn’t want to take on the rest. I said, well, I’m idle anyway, so I looked into it—but ultimately I didn’t take it. I felt there was some legal risk. I searched China Judgments Online afterward and sure enough, there were precedents. I won’t say here exactly what it was, but anything illegal, I wouldn’t dare touch.
The Second One: A Consultant Offer from My Old Employer
The second was recommended by a former colleague. My old employer’s new product line was short-staffed, and my former colleague said they were hiring, and asked if I wanted to give it a try. Honestly, having just been laid off not long ago, I instinctively didn’t really want to go back. But that day I happened to be climbing North Peak; on the way down I had dinner with the colleague, and he said, you’re looking at opportunities anyway, no harm in chatting.
That afternoon I talked directly with the boss. He said he could pay me my previous salary, but in the form of a consultant, working two months first. That meant no social security or housing fund, and all told it amounted to taking a pay cut to join. We didn’t reach an agreement, and there was no news afterward. I heard they originally wanted to hire a product-technical person, then later wanted a BD.
I learned some inside details. They said they thought well of me and recognized my skills; there was actually plenty of work in their department that could be given to me—it’s just that I’d been laid off so recently and wanted to go back too soon. If I formally joined, someone might have to take responsibility, including the hundred-plus thousand yuan severance they’d given me, which in theory I’d have to return. That’s something I wouldn’t do. Sometimes the workplace is like this: on the surface it looks like an opportunity, but behind it there are all sorts of entanglements of interest.
update
On 4.9, my former colleague reached out again, saying he was transferring to a dedicated AI role, and that his current work needed someone to take over, and he’d recommended me to their boss again. The person in charge said that if I returned the severance package, he’d agree to take me back. He said if I agreed, I could arrange to talk with their boss.
When I heard that condition, I laughed out loud. This isn’t job-hunting—this is paying a ransom.
Severance is a legal right granted by labor law. Once the separation agreement is signed, the money is in the account, and social security is discontinued, that whole process is done, and the relationship between the two sides is completely over. Now they’re short-staffed and think of me, and I happen to be job-hunting, so for the sake of money I could consider continuing to cooperate—but they want me to vomit out what I’ve already swallowed? I can’t wrap my head around that logic no matter how I think about it. However I look at it, it feels like Lin Chong going up to Liangshan and presenting a “pledge of allegiance”—except the pledge is that I have to pay out of my own pocket to go to work.
And besides, even if I really did return the money, how could I stay at that company afterward? Everyone would know I’d come back by “paying a ransom.” Who knows what they’d gossip behind my back. The boss would also think this guy is easy to push around, and next time there’s a scapegoat needed, it’d probably be me again.
My colleague meant well, and I’m grateful, but this condition from the company can only mean one thing: they never treated me as an equal partner. In the eyes of capital, I’m probably just a tool that can be recalled and discarded at any time. Tools don’t need dignity; give them a meal and they should be grateful.
Sorry, I don’t play that game. I wouldn’t go back even if I starved. Based on this, I set a bottom line for myself: a good horse never turns back to graze the old grass—no matter how tasty the grass, I won’t turn back to take a bite.
The Third One: The All-Rounder Role at an AI Startup
The third was at EFC, very close by. A company doing book publishing was hiring an AI Agent developer. Before going, I had some expectations—after all, it was the direction I wanted to go. Right now every company is transforming toward AI; otherwise there’s no opportunity.
Talking it over in person, I found the person in charge wasn’t a technical person, and had a lot of ideas. It looked like they wanted to do a lot, but the company had only one or two developers, and the rest were basically business people. Thinking about it, the technical atmosphere couldn’t be that great. I was hesitant about whether to go. Actually, if there were a chance to deeply understand how to apply and how to use AI to empower the enterprise, a chance to do some concrete things, I really don’t care that much whether the pay is a bit more or less. But with this offer, I felt I’d have to figure everything out on my own, without anyone to guide me.
update
Actually, from the very start I felt this company’s position wasn’t reliable, but what interested me was that I wanted to see AI agent application scenarios in these small and medium-sized enterprises—and I didn’t have a job anyway. A little less pay, fine; I wasn’t going purely for the money. Initially we talked about 22k, all agreed, but the other side probably felt I was still asking too high, and today they broke the deal. Haha. For me, this isn’t actually a bad thing.
The Fourth One: The Cycle of the Alibaba Cloud Outsourcing Role
The fourth was an AI-direction role at Alibaba Cloud—outsourced. Those who proactively contacted me on BOSS were, for the vast majority, outsourcing roles. Even my previous employer was frantically using outsourcing; I learned ByteDance was also laying off full-time staff to replace them with outsourcers. Last year someone from ByteDance contacted me and I refused outright.
This time I was mainly curious, wanting to see what the outsourcing market is like now and what they ask in interviews. I also wanted to move toward AI, so it was a way to get to know the market.
At first the outsourcing company said they’d push me as senior, maxing out at 19k. I thought, well, let’s give it a try. Years ago when I first came to Hangzhou, I’d also worked 8 months as an outsourced worker for Alibaba, when I was only paid 3,200 a month. The memory of that second-class-citizen status is still vivid; at the time I even fantasized about one day becoming a full-time employee—looking back, that was pretty naive.
More than a decade later, I wanted to see what they ask in an outsourcing interview.
The first round was an internal review at the outsourcing company, asking some troubleshooting questions; after we communicated they said I’d passed, and pushed me to Alibaba. The second round was originally set for 2 p.m.; they stood me up, rescheduled to 5 p.m., stood me up again at 5, and finally scheduled it for 11 a.m. the next day. I passed Alibaba’s first round. At 5 p.m. that day was the second round, requiring me to open my computer and share my screen, with AI tools not allowed, to write a method that calls a large model with polling, with memory functionality.
Honestly, I hadn’t done “old-school programming” in a long time, so I said I couldn’t write it out, and just explained my approach on the shared screen. We chatted about some other things, and afterward they said I’d passed. But the outsourcing company said they still wanted to compare candidates and asked what salary I could accept, saying they could only offer me 15k. I said if that’s the case, there’s nothing to consider at all. Then when it ended I asked why they wanted me to write code on-site—aren’t AI tools allowed for assistance at work? The other side said no, it was just to see whether you can understand the client’s code.
Actually, everyone knows full well: they just passed me and wanted to see who’s cheaper to use. I said go ahead and compare, I don’t care. This salary is completely below expectations.
update
After two rounds of interviews they said the max they could give me was 15k, then I ignored them, and they said they could negotiate and offer 16k. Feels like they’re haggling over cabbage here. I updated my résumé in passing.
In Closing
There’s still an interview this afternoon; I’ll see how it goes. A former colleague said that since he left, he couldn’t find anything at all without a pay cut, and later he simply stopped working for these private companies and went to prepare for the civil service.
Job-hunting is something you can’t rush. A bad job is worse than no job. During this rest period I’ve also figured some things out: technical ability is one aspect, but the abilities in the workplace that require dealing with people—like communication and coordination, understanding needs, and building trust—those are the ones AI can’t replace.
I’d rather go slower than jump into another pit.
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