Part 2/10:
Back in 2017 and 2018, the tech industry in China was flourishing. It was a period when even graduates from third-tier universities could land high-paying programming jobs after merely a few days of training. Universities were flooded with hopeful students eager to pursue a future in coding, believing that a few lines of code could guarantee wealth and success.
However, this glittering façade began to crumble in 2022, as large-scale layoffs swept through tech companies. By the end of 2024—for context, China had approximately 7 million programmers—nearly 700,000 tech workers were laid off, signifying a stark shift from a culture of recruitment to one of austerity.