Workers who work on mobile phones have gone to build cars

More and more mobile phone factory employees are flocking to car companies. From front-line programmers who type code, to experienced product managers, to market executives who are familiar with marketing, they have all switched jobs from mobile phone manufacturers to seize the next trend in car companies. The latest personnel change in the industry is that Song Ziwei, known as the "Beautiful Product Manager," resigned from vivo's sub-brand iQOO to join Li Auto. This topic became a hot search on Weibo.

At the same time, Geely’s new car brand Ji Krypton hired Guan Haitao from Honor, who has decades of experience in brand marketing. Guan Haitao joined Huawei in 2018 and served as CMO of Honor China and head of the e-commerce department before joining Jikrypton.

China's four major mobile phone manufacturers - Huami OV (Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo), have become the talent reserve base for major car companies.

An automotive industry headhunter told Fixed Focus that many people have switched from mobile phones to cars in the past two years, "especially cockpit research and development, many of which were previously produced by mobile phone manufacturers."

Industry insiders who came out of mobile phone factories to make smart cockpits have found that many people they know who make mobile phones and terminals are jumping to car factories. "Now the car manufacturers are also willing to give money, and (wages) have basically been leveled."

Traditional car companies and new car-making forces are accelerating poaching people from mobile phone manufacturers, becoming the next gathering place for mobile phone workers.

Behind this new trend are changes in the two major industries. The expansion of car companies and the shrinking of mobile phones are changing the talent flow of China's Internet and smart manufacturing.

Jump into a vent

New energy vehicles have been the biggest hot topic in China in recent years. Not only did it attract enough money, it also gathered enough people.

Take BYD, which is at the forefront, as an example. In the two years from 2020 to 2022, BYD added 340,000 employees, bringing the total number of employees to 570,000, making it one of the largest automobile factories in the world.

In 2022 alone, BYD will recruit 280,000 new people. What is this concept? BYD’s total number before was only 280,000——It is equivalent to "recruiting" a BYD in one year.

Other major car companies, especially new car-making forces, are also not to be outdone.

In the past two years, Weilai has added 19,000 people, Ideal has added 15,000 people, and Xiaopeng has also added 10,000 people. Entering the third quarter of 2023, Ideal has crossed the threshold of a large company with 20,000 people, while NIO is sprinting towards 30,000 people.

Looking across the country, we can no longer find an industry that is expanding as crazily and continues to recruit people like car manufacturing.Where to recruit so many new people is a challenge for car companies.

While the automobile manufacturing industry is advancing by leaps and bounds, many industries are shrinking.

The most typical one is the Internet.Large factories have pressed the pause button on their expansion and are no longer hoarding people with high wages. Some workers have chosen to leave.

The "2023 Pan-Internet Industry Talent Flow Report" released by the Maimai Talent Think Tank shows that in the past three years, the ratio of talent inflow and outflow for large factories with more than 10,000 people has continued to decline, shifting from rapid expansion to partial contraction. In the first half of 2023, there was an obvious talent overflow in the Internet industry, with more than half of job-changers (52.31%) entering other industries. in,The new energy automobile industry has become a hot spot, with the talent inflow and outflow ratio as high as 1.29.

Another example is mobile phones. The mobile phone market has been unable to grow.China's mobile phone shipments have been declining in recent years since hitting a high of 470 million units in 2016, hitting a ten-year low last year.

"Demand in the mobile phone industry has plummeted, and some industry chain companies have laid off very heavy layoffs in the first half of this year. There are too many people using mobile phones, and now they have to be diverted." A former employee of a major mobile phone manufacturer told Fixed Focus.

In May of this year, ZEKU, OPPO's chip research and development company, suddenly announced its dissolution on the spot. OPPO gave up its chip self-research business, and 3,000 employees lost their jobs collectively overnight.

These former Zheku employees passively flowed into the market, and some of them entered the automotive industry. More than a dozen managers joined the autonomous driving company Momenta. Momenta has received multiple rounds of investment from SAIC.

As the carrier of the last wave of mobile Internet, the mobile phone industry was once very prosperous. It spanned technology, Internet, manufacturing and other industries and attracted a large number of talents.As the mobile Internet comes to an end, excess human capital is beginning to find another way out.

In fact, as early as four years ago, people in the mobile phone industry were chasing a short-lived trend - e-cigarettes. Both are consumer goods, mobile, require high frequency, electronic + intelligent, e-cigarettes and mobile phones have many things in common, which has attracted many people from mobile phone manufacturers to join them.

At that time, Luo Yonghao worked on an e-cigarette project "Ono". The background was that Smartisan mobile phones were in trouble, and this group of people switched to e-cigarettes. Zhu Xiaomu, the No. 1 employee of Smartisan Technology, founded the e-cigarette brand "Fulu". In addition, Chen Chen, the co-founder of the e-cigarette brand RELX, is also a veteran in the mobile phone industry and was the chief designer of Royole Technology. There are also some mobile phone channel operators that have also transformed into joining e-cigarette stores.

However, the electronic cigarette did not live up to expectations and became cold after a while in the wind.

In contrast, new energy vehicles are a field with extremely vast space, long industrial chain, and very rapid growth. Moreover, it has many similarities with mobile phones.

Therefore, switching from mobile phones to cars has become a natural choice for many migrant workers.

Who are the most popular?

Many mobile phone workers work in car companiesCar/cockpit, this is one of the most closely related areas between mobile phones and cars.

Zhang Rui once worked for a leading mobile phone manufacturer and is currently engaged in car connectivity and cockpit development. He told Fixed Focus that there are many people who come from mobile phones to develop cockpits. "Many people have transferred from the communications field. There are more Android developers, and some are APP product managers, who prefer HMI."

According to what a cockpit product manager of a car company said about "Fixed Focus": "The bottom layer of the car or mobile phone is the Android system, which is similar to that of a TV, so it is indeed easier to switch."

Jin Yongsheng, executive dean of the Xuanyuan School of Mathematical Intelligence, analyzed the "fixed focus". People who have worked on smartphone systems have switched to building smart car systems. They have certain advantages in the response cycle to consumer needs, engineering implementation of user experience, and iterative upgrades of the system.

For example, he said that in the past, car and machine development iterations were based on the large-scale structure of vehicle development and modification, and the cycle generally took 36 months or 48 months or even longer, while mobile phones basically only took 12 months, so mobile phones often have a natural affinity for connecting with consumer needs and new technologies. "If it weren't for this force, Qualcomm's chips wouldn't be so easy to get on the road."

Automobile headhunter Wang Zhigang has recommended many candidates with mobile phone backgrounds to car companies. He found that in terms of frequency, job-hopping in the Android application layer in the cockpit direction will be frequent, and the optional space for framework and below is not that large, and the relative stability will be higher.

Wang Zhigang’s experience is that people in the application layer are basically responsible for individual modules, such as voice, maps, engines, and native systems. In particular, Xiao Ai’s team is very popular, but they are required to work in this direction for at least three years; the middle layer framework is interested in projects and directions. For example, Hongmeng does system optimization, or specializes in AWS, PWS, etc.; those who do BSP or Linux kernel at the bottom level generally have two to three complete project experiences and can do optimization. As for architects (mobile phone industry), if the money is in place, they can be successfully recommended by the top five companies in the domestic industry.

There are a few fixed time points every year when people in the mobile phone industry are highly mobile."OPPO's performance year-end bonus will be released in March and April, and Huawei's year-end bonus will be paid out in July and August, and a wave of people will leave. We also follow this time to recruit people." He said.

However, not all people from mobile phone manufacturers can change jobs smoothly. There are certain professional barriers in the automobile industry, and the work content and nature of the work are very different.

Zhang Rui is one of the first "crab eaters" in the industry. At that time, he resigned from a mobile phone manufacturer and joined an Internet of Vehicles company to do research and development. At first, he "very much looked down on the people who made car computers, and felt that such a simple function could not be done well." Until he was taught a lesson - black screen, flashing screen, abnormal touch, fit problems, backlight aging, EMMC wear, "he was beaten badly."

Later he concluded,This is a problem at the level of consciousness and has little to do with technology.. For example, "Everyone who works on cockpits knows that you can't have a black screen or freeze, but people who use mobile phones don't have this awareness. At worst, they need to restart the service or even restart the system." But a car is not like a mobile phone. How to restart the system while driving at high speed?

Jin Yongsheng believes that compared with cars, mobile phones have relatively low requirements for safety, durability and normal use under extreme conditions.Some people with a mobile phone background lack the corresponding sense of awe and need the assistance of personnel who have received vehicle-level training.

In the past two years, the recruitment requirements of car companies have also become higher. "The demand is less, the requirements are higher, and the segmentation is becoming more and more obvious." Wang Zhigang said.

The person in charge of the development of the smart cockpit system of an independent traditional car company told "Dingjiao" that each car company has different priorities in recruiting people. He tends to recruit people with car and machine development experience, and rarely recruits people with a mobile phone background. "There will be a big difference. The APP application side is fine, but system development needs to be treated differently."

The team size and collaboration span required for mobile phone system development are generally significantly smaller than those for car-machine systems. At the same time, due to the similarities in system development in the 3C industry, personnel mobility is also higher.

"So from the perspective of the sustainability of an industry, mobile phone system developers are also weaker. With limited experience and ability in horizontal management and control, coupled with shallow industry accumulation, many mobile phone system developers have been awarded to automobile companies, which makes team integration relatively difficult, and there are few who have been leaders and go-getters in car and machine system development for a long time." Jin Yongsheng said.

Car companies take the initiative to seek change

The automobile used to be a traditional industry, centered around OEMs, with strict hierarchies and division of labor among suppliers. butIntelligence breaks this situation.

Zhang Rui said that in the past few years, a number of new parts suppliers invested by OEMs have emerged in the industry, between OEM and Tire1. This is equivalent to OEMs ending up making parts themselves.

"From traditional parts to intelligent parts, the demand changes too fast. The traditional OEM definition -> Tire1 development -> OEM integration method cannot keep up with the efficiency on the one hand, and there are too many business problems on the other hand. Tire1 places demand change orders to OEM all day long, and the communication cost is too high." Zhang Rui said.

The cycle for car companies to develop new models, hold press conferences, and deliver new cars is greatly compressed. In the past, traditional car companies could spend several years polishing a new model, but now new forces launch several new products within a year, and each one is different.

"This is also forced. There are too many competing products, and users will not wait for you. It is now popular in the industry to deliver as soon as it is launched." said a marketing staff member of a new force. Car companies have to adapt to the faster market pace and improve efficiency throughout the entire process, from product definition to delivery management.

Similar changes have also occurred on the channel side.

In the past, car companies sold cars through dealers and 4S stores. Now, new energy car companies prefer direct sales, and many car companies are also keen on user operations. Cars are no longer just a durable product, they are starting to look like a consumer product, more and more like mobile phones.

Car companies need to choose locations to open stores, run stores, and even build online malls to do precise traffic marketing. This is what mobile phone manufacturers have been doing and are good at in the past.

The change in marketing style is even more obvious.

The style of car companies used to be steady and conservative, while mobile phone manufacturers spent a lot of money on marketing. In the past, mobile phone manufacturers would often shout to their executives from a distance and try to win over their rivals at press conferences. Now car companies have learned this trick too.

Car companies must seize traffic and be more bold and aggressive in marketing. "King of Weibo" Li Xiang has led a group of traditional car company executives to join Weibo, actively create topics and start a public opinion war.

Changes in business strategies have led to changes in the demand for talents.

"Dingjiao" searched on the Maimai platform and found that many employees from Huawei and Xiaomi's market lines have switched jobs to car companies such as Ideal, NIO, and BYD.

Jikrypton has just hired Guan Haitao, CMO of China and head of the e-commerce department, from Honor. Guan Haitao previously managed the e-commerce business at Honor. Judging from his resume alone, Guan Haitao does not have much to do with car companies, but Jikrypton still values ​​his experience in marketing.

In April this year, Ideal hired senior executive Zou Liangjun from Honor to serve as senior vice president of sales and services, reporting directly to CEO Li Xiang. Zou Liangjun is a veteran of Huawei and is very experienced in terminal sales. He once served as the director of the Honor Brand and Marketing Department.

These two mobile phone market executives joined the new car-making force, indicating thatCar companies are increasing investment in the market and trying to learn from the gameplay of mobile phones.

Song Ziwei, the product manager of iQOO, a sub-brand of Vivo, recently joined Li Auto, causing quite a stir in the industry and even being trending on Weibo.