The flow of talents is often a barometer of the industry, and the trend of intelligent new energy vehicles is more obvious. In the next 4-5 years, new energy and intelligent networked vehicles will account for about 25% of the car ownership, and the gap of relevant talents will reach hundreds of thousands or even millions.
Jumping from Internet manufacturers to car companies, which would not have been understood a few years ago, is gradually becoming a norm.
an increase of 20000 employees a year: Wei Lai, ideal, Xiao Peng, army expansion and preparation
In 2021, the number of employees of ideal car enterprises, Weilai and Xiaopeng increased sharply.
By the end of 2021, the total number of ideal auto employees had increased to 11901, an increase of 7720 over the same period last year, an increase of nearly 185% year-on-year; The total number of employees of Weilai automobile increased to 15204, an increase of 7441 over the same period last year, an increase of 96% over the same period last year. Xiaopeng automobile has not disclosed the annual data yet, but by the end of the first half of 2021, the number of employees of Xiaopeng automobile has increased to 7923, an increase of 2839 over the beginning of the year. According to the current data, the total number of employees of the three auto enterprises has increased by nearly 18000 in 2021.
From the perspective of employee function classification, the number of R & D personnel and sales personnel increased the most.
At the end of 2021, the number of ideal automobile R & D personnel increased by 1991 compared with the same period of the previous year, with a year-on-year increase of 140%; The number of sales and marketing personnel increased by 4456 over the same period of the previous year, a year-on-year increase of 285%.
At the end of 2021, the number of developers of Weilai automobile products and software increased by 2596 over the same period of last year, with a year-on-year increase of 117.31%; Sales, marketing and service personnel increased by 3891 over the same period of last year, with a year-on-year increase of 93.96%.
At the end of the first half of 2021, the R & D personnel of Xiaopeng automobile increased by 1028 compared with the beginning of the year, with a year-on-year increase of 49.83%; Sales and marketing personnel increased by 1436 over the beginning of the year, with a year-on-year increase of 71.41%.
“algorithmic man” became a new favorite: an increase of 30% – 50%, director level annual salary of one million
In pulse, Zhao Siqi, a senior algorithm engineer of automatic driving company, realized for the first time that she had suddenly become “hot”.
“Before, I went up to see the gossip of the company. Occasionally, headhunters came to the door, but recently they have been particularly frequent. There are five or six headhunters contacting each other every day. It’s really annoying.” She make complaints about it. Angry, she changed her personal signature to “don’t bother headhunters without considering job opportunities.”
Zhao Siqi’s experience is only a microcosm of the present. As the intelligent trend of new energy vehicles becomes more and more obvious, the industry’s demand for software, especially algorithm talents, has reached the peak.
According to boss direct employment data, since 2021, the demand for positions such as autopilot R & D, intelligent cockpit design and algorithm engineer has increased by more than 1.8 times year-on-year.
Previously, a person in charge of a car headhunting enterprise in Shanghai also said in an interview with China Central Television that the amount of orders taken by the team in 2021 was more than five or six times higher than that in 2020.
In order to grab talents, enterprises have offered high salaries.
Ye Ke, an automatic driving headhunter, said that in the past, it was difficult to break through the increase of automobile algorithm posts after reaching 20%, but the increase in the past two years was generally 30% – 50%, and some could reach 70% – 100%.
“Now an algorithm engineer who has worked in Tier1 for three years can basically get 50000 or Shanghai Pudong Development Bank Co.Ltd(600000) a year after job hopping. This number may not be much on the Internet, but it is already at a high level in the automotive industry.” Lyla said.
It can be found by querying major recruitment websites that such “high-level salary” has become a new force in car building. For example, the salary range of algorithm R & D Engineer recruited by Weilai automobile is 30k-80k; The annual salary of senior engineer of Xiaopeng’s auto driving vision algorithm and senior expert of auto driving software is as high as 6 China High-Speed Railway Technology Co.Ltd(000008) 00000 yuan; The annual salary of directors in some companies is basically more than one million.
The most generous money given by car companies is Xiaomi car. In the early stage of its establishment, in order to quickly build a team, the cash part of the offer was even about 20% – 30% higher than the market.
Zhao Shuai, a fresh graduate of a non subject master’s degree from an ordinary 211 school, revealed that he had just got the offer of Xiaomi auto automatic driving algorithm post, with a salary of 28K 15 “For me, this is already the ceiling of recruiting ordinary posts in the school.” He spoke bluntly.
In addition to real gold and silver, equity incentive has also become a powerful tool for auto enterprises to attract talents.
According to media reports, Wei Lai, Xiao Peng and ideal have distributed part of their equity to a large number of middle and senior managers of the company through several equity incentive plans. Xiaomi also announced that the equity incentive plan has been approved by the special general meeting of shareholders. In the future, the upper limit of 1 billion shares will be used for incentive projects for internal employees.
In the face of the strong posture of “Wei Xiaoli”, traditional car enterprises are also unwilling to show weakness. According to statistics, in the first half of last year, the total amount of equity incentive of Saic Motor Corporation Limited(600104) , Geely Automobile and Great Wall Motor Company Limited(601633) reached about 25 billion yuan.
In addition to the traditional playing method of “high salary + equity incentive”, the person in charge of the algorithm of some car enterprises even went out in person to “catch people in the whole network”. It is reported that the person in charge of the algorithm of a new force of car making at the head will share the dry goods of the industry from time to time, and even set up a post to answer questions and solve doubts for netizens, almost “know everything”. He said that the main purpose of doing so is to drain recruitment.
There are more “Crazy” ones. At the end of 2021, the automatic driving full stack technology and operation service provider mushroom car Union opened the autumn recruitment in 2022 and released the “double hundred talent plan”, that is, looking for 100 top graduates with an annual salary of 100W +; Another “climber program” is looking for 50 top doctoral students with an annual salary of 200W +.
Internet giant halo is not in the “workshop” and exudes charm
“Everyone’s acceptance of new energy vehicle enterprises has improved a lot, not as much as in previous years.”
On the one hand, the high-intensity work rhythm of 996 and the layoffs and downsizing measures of reducing costs and increasing efficiency under the overall weakness of the industry make the Internet manufacturers no longer the best choice in the hearts of many young people. On the other hand, with Weilai and Xiaopeng successively entering the virtuous cycle of releasing new cars, mass production and stable growth of delivery, the new energy vehicle industry conforming to the general trend of development is showing an increasingly strong attraction.
Therefore, the move of jumping from Internet manufacturers to car enterprises, which would not have been understood a few years ago, is gradually becoming a norm.
“When we are doing business, we often encounter candidates who change jobs from major Internet manufacturers to new energy vehicle enterprises. The job hopping positions are mainly technical positions, such as computer vision, algorithm and so on.” Hardy believes that technical talents do tend to “migrate” to new energy vehicle enterprises.
When asked about the reasons for these technical talents’ job hopping, hardy listed several typical considerations: new energy vehicle enterprises provide high salary + stock / option, the track is on the tuyere, and the technology landing is strong. Some businesses may only be branches in large factories, but they are the core Department of Vehicle Enterprises, so they pay more attention. In addition, there is no age anxiety in the auto industry, which can avoid the so-called 35 year old crisis.
“In addition to technical posts, some employees of human resources functional departments and product managers who have participated in smart cockpit and AI projects also tend to change jobs to new energy vehicle enterprises, and employees of large Internet manufacturers who have cooperated with vehicle manufacturers understand the needs of vehicle enterprises, such as Huawei, so they will be more popular with new energy vehicle enterprises,” headhunter Zhu Zhu added.
so how do insiders in the automotive industry feel
“Nearly half of the colleagues in the team come from Internet companies”, said a software engineer of a new energy vehicle enterprise. At present, the development trend of the automotive industry is intelligent terminals, including automatic driving and vehicle networking. It requires a large number of Internet talents to implement these technologies.
The engineer gave a simple example. When performing OTA upgrade (software online upgrade) for new energy vehicles, the server needs to send software packages to the vehicle, and the processing on the server naturally needs the technology of Internet talents.
“Now the car is the largest intelligent terminal and will carry a large number of employment opportunities in the future.”.
Beijing Career International Co.Ltd(300662) released the 2021 auto industry salary report, which pointed out that with the new energy vehicle manufacturers’ models coming on the market and mass production, traditional automobile manufacturers have entered the market one after another. In the next 4-5 years, new energy and intelligent Internet connected vehicles will account for about 25% of the car ownership, and the related talent gap will reach hundreds of thousands or even millions.
Nowadays, the new energy vehicle track on the tuyere, whether the new forces of car making or algorithm talents, is enjoying the huge dividends brought by the development of the industry.
