At the end of March 2022, when the spring blossoms and everything comes back to life, the three master students of the LIFE team officially graduate and start their careers. Today, they condense what they have learned about scientific research, work, and life over the years, and share it with everyone, hoping to bring some empathy and suggestions to the younger students.

Zhangli Wu

The laboratory "roll king", known as the offer harvester, is either in scientific research or on the way to solve problems.
Admission time: September 2019, professional master's degree
Research direction: Spectrum broadening technology based on high-order phase modulation and custom driving signal
Employment unit: ByteDance

01 Scientific research experience <<<<

The relevant experience of scientific research mainly refers to the sharing of Leibo. I will only talk about my own little experience here. As we all know, Optical Fiber National Center is a large laboratory with hundreds of people, and the research content of different laboratories will overlap to a certain extent, so the usual thinking collision and exchange will be very helpful. It is recommended that you expand your interpersonal relationship and get to know more people in other laboratories.

This has several advantages. First, you can use other people’s wheels to conquer your own scientific research. Maybe the difficult point you feel now is what the other party is good at. Communicating with others can help you quickly get rid of the bottleneck; It makes your experiment go much smoother, such as borrowing instruments, demonstrating equipment, etc. Our SBS direction was not limited by equipment restrictions during the project development period. Thanks to the mutual borrowing of instruments and getting to know many people in the laboratory, the experimental turnover is relatively fast. smoothly. In addition, when scientific research has stagnated for a long time, you must communicate with your direct brothers and sisters and Teacher Yi in a timely manner, and don't be afraid of being scolded. First of all, there is a high probability that they will not blame you. Secondly, let everyone know your progress and status in time, and adjust the scientific research plan in time. Don't deceive yourself and the teacher.

02 Job Search Tips <<<<

Regarding employment, I would like to share some of my views on the current wave of Internet layoffs.

As we all know, the Internet industry is far from its past glory in the past two years, and has begun to enter a period of steady development of "cost reduction and efficiency increase". This also means that the scale of recruitment, salary and benefits are not as attractive as before. At the same time, because Internet companies are greatly affected by policies and international and domestic situations, the layoff rate is also at a relatively high level. Secondly, in the past two years, wages in industries such as hardware, communications, and optoelectronics have also been rising, and their annual income can reach an average of 300,000 to 400,000 yuan, which is comparable to the Internet. I chatted with the salesman of a domestic optical equipment company two days ago and found that graduates with a master’s degree are almost It can also reach a very high level after a year.

So you don’t need to be anxious. Under the current situation where Internet wages remain stable, the choice is wider. You can choose an industry according to your interests, instead of going to a place just like everyone else (although I still chose this way. ...).

Tell me why I chose the Internet industry, to be the "most beautiful retrograde". Personally, I like work that I can control. Relatively speaking, Internet project iterations and R&D progress can be mastered by yourself, and even if there is a problem with the code you write, it must be your own problem, and it is almost impossible to be an external factor. Physical conditions are closely related. Secondly, the working atmosphere on the Internet is very relaxed. Even when the bytes are beating, I still feel that the working atmosphere is relaxed and pleasant. From the point of view of body feeling, the work rhythm is actually acceptable, and you can do anything at work, as long as you can ensure the completion of the task, and there is no ddl, and the work order is not allowed to go online after 7 pm. Just do it again, this degree of freedom is what I am after. Then, the job content of Internet companies is what I prefer. I hope that my work can be perceived by many people, especially family and friends, which can make me feel value and achievement. Moreover, there are tens of thousands of people taking the road of the Internet, and there are many lessons learned in each direction. I don't worry about getting lost halfway, because there is always a bright road. If it involves a higher dimension, then I would say that the growth path of the Internet is very clear, with detailed information and heated discussions. As long as there is enough volume (?), it is not difficult to climb up.

Let me talk about the suggestions for the students who take this path. If you are firm on this path, then I would like to say: First of all, you need to comprehensively evaluate your existing capabilities, short-term improvement space, and long-term development plan to determine the position, front-end, client, back-end, testing, product manager, operation, algorithm , Architecture, etc. We can theoretically go, but not all of them are suitable for you. For students who have no experience in majors, the back-end and client-side may be a more "cost-effective" choice. Embrace the changes in the timing of autumn recruitment. The saying of gold, nine and silver and ten is outdated. Internet companies have entered early approval since the end of June, and it must be too late to look for it in September and October. At the same time, if you publish a relatively good academic paper at school, remember to follow the special plans of Internet companies, such as Meituan's "Beidou" and Huawei's "Find star". Not only can you lock in offers in advance, but you can also get better salary ratings. I suggest that you participate in more interviews, and summarize and learn during the interviews. At the beginning, you will definitely feel that you can’t answer anything, so keep a normal mind and have an attitude of learning every time. I remember that every time I interview, if I feel cold, I will use the last opportunity to ask the interviewer to give me some suggestions for improvement and feedback.

If you get some offers and are struggling with how to choose, then I would like to give you a few suggestions. First of all, don't be too obsessed with the company's reputation. Tencent Shanghai's csig is actually not as good as the core positions of Meituan and Netease; the core team can guarantee that you will not be laid off in the short term, and the core team has more concentrated resources of the company and year-end. Try to choose a position in a company with a deep moat, such as Douyin and tiktok with Bytedance, Tencent's WXG, Alibaba's Alibaba Cloud, Baidu's autonomous driving, etc. The moat is not easily affected by the policy situation. Make more use of software such as Maimai and Niuke to inquire about the situation of the department in an all-round way, have the ability to enter the company to understand in advance, and cherish your status as a freshman. The company atmosphere and overtime are directly related to the group you are in and your leader, and have little to do with the company as a whole (except for Pinduoduo). Byte has a group that gets off work at 11 o'clock, and a group that gets off work at 7 o'clock. At the same time, considering the future purchase of a house, the provident fund ratio is also a relatively important factor. For the first job, the focus should be on the company's technical atmosphere and room for growth.

Liang Jiaxi

The "talented man" in the laboratory, whether life is beautiful or not, whether scientific research is bitter or not, a rap and a harmonica, say goodbye to all troubles.
Enrollment time: September 2019, master's degree
Research direction: Mutual information estimation method and application research of optical fiber communication system based on deep learning
Employment: Shanghai Huawei CBG software development

01 Scientific research experience <<<<

Regarding scientific research, here I mainly want to share something with the students of the master's degree. The first thing is to communicate more and clarify what you can do. During the master’s period, you must plan the time for scientific research, and immediately communicate with Teacher Yi and your seniors after you are clear, and don’t be afraid to communicate. During my master's degree, there was a period of time when I had problems with my work progress due to lack of communication. I was easily stuck in a certain position and couldn't move with my own strength. I should communicate more with others and absorb ideas. The second is to accumulate literature. In the later stage of research, after I have my own idea, I will find the importance of early accumulation. Whether it's literature or books, it will always help me when I don't expect it. I often found later that because of lack of accumulation, I often found that my thinking was blocked, and I didn't know how to solve problems when I encountered problems. Finally, English proficiency is very important. During my master’s thesis, I used the translation software—Zhiyun Literature Translation to translate the entire English thesis, which may lead to insufficient accumulation of professional terms, and mechanical translation may make the concepts in some papers unclear, leading to deviation The author of the paper should have thought. If you want to make achievements in scientific research, you must read original English papers and literature.

To sum up, make a rational understanding of your past practice in the way of review and thinking, find out the nature of things and the law of development, gain experience, avoid mistakes, and guide future work.

02 Job Search Tips <<<<

I received an offer from Huawei Software Development, and my job hunting experience is divided into three stages:

The first is the first stage, learning the basics. If you want to switch to software development, you need to learn a lot of knowledge. First, choose a language (Java or C++), learn data structure and algorithm, and the basic knowledge of language and computer. It will take about half a year.

The second stage is to find a summer internship. Internship requires 1 round of written test and 1~3 rounds of interviews, and only those who pass the interview will get the internship opportunity. Choose an internship that has the opportunity to be retained. If you are retained in the internship, it is equivalent to getting a guaranteed offer in the autumn recruitment. Even if you do not choose to retain, you can still get the opportunity to practice. I chose Meituan as an internship to develop a fault drill platform and use the Java+SpringBoot data stack. Unfortunately, I didn't get the opportunity to become a full-time employee, but this internship time also allowed me to learn a lot of practical knowledge.

The third stage is to prepare for the autumn move. Most Internet companies start to approve in advance one after another from the end of June to July, and start autumn recruitment at the end of August. Most of the better companies will complete the interview process at the end of September and issue offers in October, so it is very important to grasp the time . Autumn recruitment requires 1 round of written examination and 2~3 rounds of interviews, and each round has the risk of being rejected.

The written test mainly focuses on algorithm questions, mainly examines thinking, and secondly examines the ability to withstand stress. In the written test, 3 to 5 questions should be completed within 1 to 2 hours, so there must be a sense of time.

For the written test, I recommend practicing algorithm questions on LeetCode and some other OJ websites (such as Luogu). Make sure that before the written test, you must know how to use, how to use, and the time complexity of using most common algorithms.

In recent years, the algorithm questions of many enterprises are characterized by difficulty, depth, large amount of questions, and strong cross-cutting, so it is necessary to be prepared. Before preparing for the written test, you can try the LeetCode weekly competition or other time-limited algorithm competitions on other websites to exercise your coding ability in a stressful environment.

(Legend: LeetCode competition, solve four problems in one and a half hours, global ranking based on score and problem-solving speed)

The interview mainly examines the depth and breadth of experience/knowledge. Generally, the interviewer first asks about the experience of interest, and then asks about some basic knowledge of computers and languages. If the interviewer is interested in knowledge in one direction, he will keep asking until he can't answer/the answer satisfies him. It is also possible to do an algorithm question within 15 to 30 minutes, which tests the thinking ability in a stressful environment more than the written test. There are many ways to learn about interviews, and the learning materials are very comprehensive. There are complete learning paths on websites such as station B/Zhihu/WeChat official account/Niuke.com/LeetCode and other websites.

03 Whether to enter the Internet <<<<

In recent years, the news of layoffs of Internet companies is common. The Internet has many salaries that traditional industries cannot match, but its short-term and fast working environment and the constant work pressure areTest every Internet practitioner. Regarding whether you want to work in the Internet, you need to consider the following three points: First, your interest in the Internet industry. When the cost-effectiveness of Internet work is no longer much higher than that in traditional industries, will you still choose to work in the Internet? It is likely that in the next three to five years, Internet work will no longer have an advantage in cost performance, so you need to consider why you should consider Internet work. The second is ability. Are you suitable for software development? Is your ability in hardware development more prominent than your ability in software development? Is there irreplaceability? If you are better at hardware or other work, there is no need to devote yourself to the Internet. Finally, you have to consider your own physical fitness. Can your body adapt to the short, flat and fast work process? This may also be the most critical point.

Yu Minghai

The "warm man" in the laboratory, doing experiments and revising papers to accompany the grades, and a cup of milk tea is on call.
Enrollment time: September 2019, professional master's degree
Research direction: Research on real-time anti-jamming lidar technology based on digital chaotic modulation
Employment unit: Pulian Technology

01 Scientific research experience <<<<

First of all, communicate with the tutor to determine the direction of interest. After determining the direction, read the relevant literature, and get familiar with the scientific research process starting from some small simulations and the construction of simple experimental tables, so as to slowly enter the simple and unpretentious scientific research life. Scientific research is a process that accumulates over time, and no one can become a big fat man in one bite; Newton once said: I am standing on the shoulders of giants; scientific research needs to be chewed slowly and carried out bit by bit under the existing progress Breakthrough, don't set yourself a huge and almost unattainable illusory goal.

Secondly, in daily scientific research, more or less encounter bottlenecks, which is commonplace for scientific researchers; we must not be afraid of difficulties, learn to analyze the problems we encounter, break them down into several small problems, and These small problems are like difficult clearance games. You will find that in the process of solving problems, your sense of accomplishment and motivation will soar every time you solve a small problem; if you look at the problem from a different angle, you will have different gains. In addition, when you encounter problems, you should communicate with your tutor in time. The experience and experience of your tutor will see things that you cannot see. Effective communication with your tutor will bring different results to your scientific research.

Finally, you must learn to accept new things. Constantly absorbing new knowledge will give you a wealth of experience. It is very likely that one day you will find that what you have learned can be used in current research. Believe in what you have mastered Knowledge will eventually come in handy.

02 Job Search Tips <<<<

Be sure to clarify your career direction as soon as possible and prepare early. Since my own career direction is the Internet, I will share some Internet-related experiences.

Master the programming language required for the position, learn the basic grammar (including data structure and classic algorithm) and the use of the programming software used. Then, go to some websites for brushing questions (Likou, Niuke.com) to practice the use of algorithmic questions and programming languages; especially you need to master the problem-solving methods of classic algorithmic questions. After sufficient practice in programming, you need to master some knowledge of computer networks, operating systems and databases, which are often asked in interviews.

In the interview preparation stage, you can read more face-to-face scriptures and intensive exercises on algorithm questions to prepare efficiently. More importantly, you must adjust your mentality in time, and don't be affected by the failed interviews that have passed and the successful interviews of others. You must summarize your own failures and absorb others' successful experiences from them, so as to make full preparations for the next interview. And keep a good attitude, firmly believe that you will definitely find a company and a job that suits you.

Finally, for the first job, don't think about ease and stability, development is the last word. While you are young, learn more and exercise more at work to improve your own abilities, and you will shine wherever you go in the future.