I got laid off from Bilibili in March 2025, originally thinking I'd find a decent job within a month. Little did I know reality would slap me hard in the face!
Laid off in March, Job hunting in April
I wasn't surprised when I learned about the layoff, because we got a new manager after Chinese New Year and I could clearly sense changes were coming, so I started looking for opportunities early on. Compared to previous job searches, I obviously felt there were fewer positions available, and most of them were outsourcing roles. The entire market's salary had dropped by $400-700, making it hard to even find a job that matched my previous salary!
After leaving on March 31st, I started staying home every day in April, browsing job apps, sending resumes, with very few interviews. I had completely opened up my resume visibility, which would have been unthinkable a few years ago! A few years ago, after making my resume visible to everyone, I'd get dozens of messages within minutes! Now, sometimes I don't get a single one all day! I even paid for job app premium membership, only to discover that hundreds or thousands of people were competing for a single position 🙀
Since there weren't many interviews anyway, I took advantage of this rare break to visit Tokyo for a week. Overall, I didn't really like Tokyo - it's too crowded, and people all seem to be in a hurry and stressed out. However, it's really orderly, the city is very clean and beautiful. I hope to visit other Japanese cities in the future.
Started at a pharmaceutical company in early May, lasted one month
After job hunting for a month in April, even though most positions were terrible, employers were still being picky. I had very few interviews because there were simply too many job seekers! I got an offer from a pharmaceutical company at the end of April. Although I wasn't very satisfied with it, I didn't have other options.
After starting in May, I discovered that the work was endless, weekends required overtime, developers had no voice, and schedules and launch dates were all decided by management. Within one month, I completely developed an AI-related mini-program from scratch, including dark mode, with over thirty pages in total. I did more work in one month than I used to do in two months!
At the end of the month, I was told the team was relocating to Suzhou - either move to Suzhou or resign. Of course, I wasn't going to Suzhou, so I had to look for work again. But I was happy about it! I couldn't stand that garbage company anyway!
June, July, and early August - Crazy job hunting
Seriously, I've encountered every kind of weirdness! Let me tell you what I've seen:
Short-term contracts, age discrimination, no social insurance
I encountered numerous job postings with unreasonable terms - some offering only 1-3 month contracts, others explicitly stating age limits (like "under 30 only"), and companies that don't provide mandatory social insurance and housing fund benefits. The job market became filled with these questionable opportunities that would have been unthinkable in better economic times.
Scam messages and emails
I also received various fraudulent job offers via SMS and email, trying to take advantage of desperate job seekers. These scams ranged from fake remote work opportunities to requests for personal information under the guise of "background checks."
Offers that were withdrawn
Even more frustrating were the cases where companies extended offers only to withdraw them later, sometimes citing "budget changes" or "position cancellations" just days before the supposed start date.
Even job apps ran out of new positions to recommend
The situation got so bad that even the job platforms started recommending completely unrelated positions - dishwashing jobs, coffee shop apprenticeships - none of which matched my career intentions at all!
Because of the bad work experience at that pharmaceutical company in May, I became more cautious about offer selectio