On the morning of May 20, when she received an internal letter from Zhang Yiming announcing her resignation as CEO, Zhao Qian, who was at work, was not surprised. Her colleagues around her were like her: "on the surface, everyone calmly looked at the details and went on with their work. "

In the byte jump, it is accepted that one truth is that the only constant is change. "Education, short video, what hot development," Zhao Qian, who joined byte for two years and worked in a functional department, found that "the company is always changing, the business line is changing, and the management is also changing. Everyone is used to it." I don't think it's too much to accept another CEO. "

As the founder of the company, Zhang Yiming is also reluctant to publicize himself. "We don't have any PR against him. Without him, we'll do it as usual. Zhao Qian believes that the most important thing about Zhang Yiming is that the corporate culture he founded is "frank and clear, not upward management", which has a profound impact on the technology giant.

For a company with more than 100000 employees, the importance of corporate culture is self-evident.

Since its inception in 2012, the byte beat has developed faster than anyone can imagine. It took only eight years to reach the size of 100000 people. By comparison, it took 17 years for JD.com and more than 20 years for Huawei. As for Tencent, which is nearly 23 years old, its financial report reveals that the number of employees is less than 90, 000. At the beginning of 2021, Byte Jing alone announced that it would hire another 10,000 people.

In the process of rapid expansion, no other company has such a strong demand for talent as a byte jump. In the bouncing canteen, the HR of the interview can be seen everywhere. Because the office is not enough, the interview is temporarily arranged in the canteen. "I had about 20 interviews a day and 30 people in two months," said Xiao Lili, who has done HR in byte. "

The intensity of recruitment never seems to be reduced. Wang Miao, who sent her resume to byte last year, found that recently she has received frequent calls from byte HR, including operation posts, audit posts, and positions that cooperate with the media. "these HR don't talk to each other." "

The report "Talent flow and Migration 2021" released by pulse shows that Byte Jump has become the new economy company with the largest talent inflow in 2020, ahead of Internet giants such as BABA and Tencent.

Adding byte beat has also become the dream of many people. To some extent, the byte jump provides workers with a near-perfect job sample: wages are highly competitive in the Internet circle, as a big company has endorsement effect, and a transparent corporate culture is very easy to integrate and adapt.

A byte-beating work card once became the best proof of honoring one's ancestors, and it was even called a symbol of "people in the capital" along with the uniforms of the middle school affiliated to Renmin University of China and the meal card of Peking University.

More and more people are going in, and of course some will leave. This "algorithm"-driven technology company needs to advance its business quickly and make mistakes quickly. Tian Li remembers, "I was working on a project with someone else at 11:00 the night before, and the next morning I would inform you that the project was gone." "

In order for the project to continue or even expand, the people under each project have to work hard to make a performance. A former media person who just joined byte to do operational work at the beginning of this year works 12 hours a day. "he basically gets off work at more than 10:00 in the evening, but not because he's done, but because he really doesn't want to do it, so he goes home. "

Under the intense work, the line between "people" and "tool people" has gradually blurred. When they can't stand it, they have no choice but to leave. For byte beat, it never retains people who can't keep up with their own pace.

The temptation of a high salary

Many people choose to add byte jumps, and high salary is a very important factor.

Before entering the byte jump, Yang Yu worked in a portal. Although she graduated as a graduate student, she was paid less than 6000 yuan a month, including overtime pay. The byte jump is very attractive to Yang Yu, a newcomer who has just graduated from the workplace for a year.

"the average person will not refuse the byte treatment. Yang Yu said that after entering the byte, he received 35% more salary than on the portal, with extra overtime pay for working on weekends and three times the salary for holidays.

Among the many Internet companies in Beijing, the salary given by bytes is indeed one of the best.

"since 2017, the byte salary is definitely top. An employee who has worked in the byte jump HR department for three years told AI that in the past few years, the byte jump has been a "big deal" in recruiting talent. "you can meet with other companies and come back with the highest-paid offer, and the byte jump will be higher than this. "

Tian Li also confirmed this claim, with a total annual salary of 700000 yuan, an increase of about 30 percent, from Meituan to a byte-jumping product manager in 2017.

Mu Hao once managed hundreds of people in byte beats, and many of his people came because of the money. "Don't tell me what you work for. Most people have the pressure of life. "before getting rid of bytes, Mu Hao also interviewed another Internet company." not only did the money not have many bytes, but he just said that you should do a good job. "

Not only a high monthly salary, but also a large year-end bonus of bytes.

Zhang Xuan joined when there were only more than 1000 bytes. She had just graduated a few years ago, and her rank of entering bytes was also very low. But one year, she got an E (exceeding expectations) and suddenly got a year-end bonus of nine months' salary. "I didn't know anything. Can I be unhappy if I can get so much money through my own efforts?" "

The same is true of byte generosity for interns. Ding Jin, who once worked as an intern in byte jump and now works for a cross-border e-commerce company, recalled that byte jump offered technical interns a salary of 400 yuan per day in 2019, compared with 200 yuan to 300 yuan per day for similar internships in most Internet companies at that time.

Of course, with the rapid growth of bytes in the past two years, the company's valuation has soared, and the dividend of salary premium has become less obvious. At present, the salary increase of bytes will be limited to 30%, beyond which you need to go through a special process. "said Tian Li.

In the recruitment process, sometimes HR will also use some tips. A person who started the job last year mentioned that after three rounds of interviews, he agreed with the manpower about a monthly salary of 25000 yuan, but in the end, the other person said, "I'll apply for it for you." "the final result came out. Manpower said that what had been agreed before was not approved, and in the end, the figure was less than a thousand, and she didn't bother to talk to the other side, so she had to accept it.

Welfare is another bargaining chip. The byte canteen is unique in Internet companies, not only free of charge, but also famous for its abundance. Xiao Lili recalls that sometimes when interviewing candidates for dinner, they would take them to the canteen for dinner, in exchange for surprised and envious eyes. "your food here is really good." "this is invisible and increases the possibility that the candidate will eventually choose bytes.

While attracting talents with high benefits, byte also raises the threshold of entry very high. Zhang Xuan was in a very low rank when she joined the job, but she also went through several rounds of interviews, and finally VP had to interview her, "not just a few words, but a very in-depth chat, familiar with my personality and expertise." "

In the end, VP felt that Zhang Xuan was not suitable for the position she was originally applying for, but it was suitable for another department, so she recommended it in the past. She still went through the whole process of written examination and interview before she was able to join.

In bytes, efficiency is always one of the core goals. Fei Yi, an early employee of Jinri Toutiao, remembers that after talking to him, the immediate leader should have gone back and waited for the next interview, but the other party immediately took him to see the group leader, and then quickly sent him an offer, asking him to join the job as soon as possible.

"Byte is one of the most flexible and unreasonable companies I have ever seen. Li Feifei said that in the past few years, she has been responsible for finding talent for byte beats, with ranks of 3-1 and above-- in bytes, the R & D sequence is divided into 10 levels, and 3-1 equals middle-level. However, she has no idea why a candidate passed or failed the interview. "as long as you have one or two points that meet the requirements, byte will be willing to let him in and give it a try." "

Li Feifei said that byte is very strict with candidates' academic qualifications. "the academic qualifications must be good, but there are all kinds of strange personal styles." "

Internal competition

When entering bytes for the first time, most employees feel good. Whether it is the freshness of technology companies, or the "frank and clear" communication culture advocated by the company, even the benefits such as free meals and afternoon tea in the company canteen will be refreshing for newcomers.

"it feels good, rational, professional and efficient. "Wang Fei, who just joined the byte in April this year, likes the byte atmosphere very much. As soon as he joined the job, he attended the training," and then assigned me a mentor. If you have any questions, you can ask him. "

Several former colleagues of Wang Miao have added bytes. She found a rule that when they first joined the company, they all liked to post byte ID cards and canteens in their moments, and showed great joy in their speech and behavior. One night in May this year, a former colleague who had just added bytes called her and said, "Bytes are great. Come quickly." "

Liu Pingping, who joined the byte last year, initially felt the same way. She found that the byte employees seemed to be carved out of the same mold. "they are all professionals, both men and women, and everyone is in high spirits." When talking about things, one at a time, dear, very polite. "

But after a long time, Liu Pingping felt that something was wrong. She found that her colleagues around her, no matter how much they had done, would pack themselves. "obviously they just went to the mall to hand out a flyer, and they were able to contact the situation at home and abroad when reporting, as if they had held a big event. "

In private, everything that could have been solved directly with Wechat had to go to the group of Flying Books to say that this made Liu Pingping very uncomfortable. She later figured it out, "this is a performance. "

Wang Miao also has a deep understanding of this. One of her leaders was in the byte before and failed to get rid of the habit formed in the byte in her new position. "his biggest hobby is performing in WeChat groups. There is also his leader in the group. You must not discuss your work with him every day. He will be able to reply for a long time with a small problem. All of us can see his routine, and we are all performing with him. "

For a long time, Wang Miao has mastered the routine of leadership. One day, when she wanted to touch the fish, she pretended to discuss her work with her leader in the WeChat group in the morning. "as a result, he was very happy that he didn't talk to me all day." "

But Liu Pingping is not used to this kind of corporate culture. she is upright and has been unable to convince herself to cater to the leader.

On one occasion, when her department was going out for a dinner, someone suddenly came up with an idea for people to win a certain award more often than a leader. Her colleagues are all more interesting than her, some people take photos compared to 8, others compared to 10, she reached out to compare a "yay", the leader's face immediately pulled down.

In Zhang Xuan's view, this is all a disease of big companies brought about by the rapid expansion of byte beats. She remembers that when she joined the company, the communication within the company was very smooth, and Zhang Yiming was in many groups. "I can send a message to Zhang Yiming directly, and I won't be said to be over the top." "

At that time, she had to learn to do a lot of work alone, including foreign cooperation, internal operation, and so on. But as the company expanded, her department expanded from five to 50. "it's the same job, but each person gets a small piece and has to start internal competition." "

Under the pressure of competition, there are more and more meetings to "align the business". A byte work calendar will be exposed to everyone, and as long as the other person sees that you are free for a certain period of time, someone will drag you to a meeting without your consent.

A byte-beating employee complained that he had been dragged into three meetings that lasted more than an hour one afternoon, and there were only three participants, and the content of the discussion was not important, "he said in a few minutes at the station." "

When Tian Li was working in bytes, she already had the fear of being dominated by flying books. At home on weekends, she unconsciously read flying books every 10 minutes, always worried that someone would send her a message.

"the byte has not escaped the fate of the inner volume. "Xiao Lili has also heard of all kinds of problems with byte today," he said. "the struggle between the middle and low leadership, and some people who do not work but can report and flatter. At that time, the talent echelon was relatively good, but now there are many such people who only report and do nothing. "

"one byte year, three years in the world."

In 2021, New Year's Day, Byte's business structure was greatly adjusted. Tian Li did not have much rest for two days and nights, and his body showed obvious discomfort, protruding blood vessels in his temples, headaches and palpitations, and even too tired to sleep. It took her a long time to recover. "it's not just physical fatigue, but also high mental tension." "

For more than three years when she was bouncing in bytes, she basically worked from 10:00 to 9 p.m., and nearly 40 percent of her time worked overtime until the wee hours of the morning. As a product manager, he is basically occupied by various meetings during the day and has time to write documents at night. "you have to work overtime inside the bytes. The people behind you will rush you." "

"getting off work at 9 o'clock in the evening, is that called overtime? When Zhang Xuan was working in bytes, he was trained to work anytime and anywhere. "I have a lot of work to cooperate with foreign countries, and my partners have something urgent to do. I need to reply immediately when I'm looking for you. You have to have a meeting even if you are on vacation. "

In bytes, overtime has become a top-down corporate culture.

A Beijing media source recalled to AI that she was rear-ended by a car when she got off work. After getting out of the car, the other person apologized to her, saying that he had stayed up late and worked overtime the night before and was also turning around during the day. The other person was tired in apology and had a byte beating badge around his neck. This is the first time that she has intuitively experienced the madness of byte overtime culture in reality.

Sihan used to do audit work in bytes, and his job is to manually audit the contents that are still in doubt after the preliminary examination of the machine, which is equivalent to correcting the algorithm. "the content of each manuscript is different, and it takes a lot of energy to read it from beginning to end. He said that he reviews about 1000 articles a day, and if an average of 1000 words per article, it means that he needs to read more than a million words a day.

Content audit, like assembly line workers, is divided into morning and evening shifts, from 7am to 3pm in the morning and from 3pm to 11:00 in the evening. Sihan sits in front of the computer every day, clicks, and takes an hour's lunch break. "I've never seen people on the morning shift leave on time, at least three hours late. You have to finish it before you can leave." "

In the byte beat, overtime is a self-evident thing. For example, the dinner time for byte beat is 7: 00, but the off-duty time for many departments is 6: 00, that is, if you want to have dinner at the company, you have to work for another hour. The rental subsidy given by byte to employees is also considered to be designed for overtime. As long as the commuting time is less than half an hour, byte will be given a subsidy of 1500 yuan per month.

Although Zhang Yiming once explained that the rental subsidy has nothing to do with overtime, "the time saved is also good for fitness, reading and watching movies." "but this objectively provides employees with a reason to work overtime," Internet companies are eager to keep their employees at the company 24 hours a day. Fei Yi laments that the old and dilapidated young people near AVIC Square are basically rented to byte employees, and these people are generally newcomers to the workplace without family members.

Although bytes do not impose mandatory requirements on working hours, the system design and task volume of bimonthly OKR can not get employees off work on time and get the work done. Tian Li thinks it's like running. The difference is that OKR sets the distance and time for the next 100 meters for every 100 meters. "the whole person is like a pulverized donkey, constantly moving forward." "

This is why byte beat HR prefers people with entrepreneurial experience. "they feel that people with entrepreneurial experience are more motivated than others." HR, who has worked in bytes, said that correspondingly, the experience of a foreign company is not an added item when interviewing bytes, because HR will worry about whether such job seekers can withstand intensive jobs.

The high intensity of byte pressure can also be seen in the corporate culture it advocates. Byte jump conducts a 360-degree environmental assessment every six months, which includes three items: performance, investment and byte norm. "Byte norm is the most important indicator of scoring. One byte former employee said that in addition to the well-known "honesty and clarity" in the byte paradigm, there is another one: Always Day One (always starting a business).

Of course, the overtime phenomenon of bytes should also be divided into departments. Among the nearly 20 byte employees contacted by AI Finance and Economics, the craziest people working overtime are often those in core positions such as products and R & D. they are constantly iterating over products and following up new projects, "one byte year, three years in the world," and "only one heart and byte can beat." these network jokes are the realistic portrayal of these byte employees.

Employees in departments such as administration and legal affairs generally have no fear of working overtime. One person in the PR department said that 70-80 per cent of the time, he can get off work before 07:30 in the evening. "all the operators I know have to get off work until eight or nine o'clock. "

Sense of low value

Compared to tiredness, algorithm-driven nothingness is another torment for byte employees.

I will not write this paragraph (in bytes) on my resume. Sihan left after staying in the byte-beating content review group for a month and a half. He was trained for three weeks, and many of them "ran away" in the first week, while most of his colleagues were newcomers who had been on the job for less than half a year.

What really bothers him is that "algorithms don't need values." He used to work as a content editor on a vertical website in the industry, and he needed to write manuscripts, start headlines, and do special projects. He had his own personality, but he was more like a tool man in byte. "you are just a working machine that is less machine than a machine." "

For example, some content that involves both sexes and offends women will make Sihan very uncomfortable, but he has not touched many of the rules and bottom lines told in the previous training. He cannot do anything and still needs to be released. "I can't turn myself into a ruthless auditing machine. "

Fei Yi stayed in byte for a year, and was very excited in the first nine months. He felt that he had a lot to learn every day, but found that he couldn't do it in the last three months. Fei Yi, whose job is to invite Big V into byte products, found that celebrities and big brands were reluctant to enter Jinri Toutiao because byte had no community culture.

The core logic of bytes is algorithm-driven, what content everyone likes to see, recommend what content, this kind of content traffic is naturally high.

Fei Yi found that the idea of this product determines that even if there are millions of fans, there is no guarantee that the next piece of content will be read in the millions. But if there is a good content, there may be a chance to read it with only a few fans. "the byte algorithm is to put everyone in an arena every day to lick the blood, giving everyone an equal chance." "

He found himself in the Colosseum, too. "We can't show the value of our work here. We all work hard, because everything is controlled by algorithms. "Fei Yi found that the operation eventually became a logistics, and the work he did could be replaced at any time." those without permanent production have no perseverance. "

This product logic made him lose his sense of value and sense of security to his job. Half of the department had already left when he left, and so did his immediate supervisor.

Yang Yu has been operating in bytes since 2016, and he also feels that this work is very obvious on the ceiling of bytes. "it is very likely that R & D to change a design and logic may be comparable to months of hard work." "

This gap can be clearly reflected in the year-end bonus. The year-end bonus for product and technical positions basically starts with six months' salary, but most of the operations, audit and functional departments start with three monthly salaries.

This pace of work also determines that they prefer to recruit mature employees. Byte gives enough attractive salary, but doesn't pay much attention to employee training, Yang Yu said. "it just requires you to take your past experience and do it quickly. "

Of course, it also hopes that any project will bear fruit quickly. For example, as the first byte education project, GOGOKID only tried for half a year, decided to start the project in October 2018, and began to lay off staff in March of the following year. "Bytes have always been more decisive and can't be done, either changing business or changing people. "Mu Hao said.

"exchange money for time. "one byte employee concluded.

For this matter, Fei Yi and in charge of his VP feedback, "bytes do not retain people, do not bring value to the individual." "but Fei Yi is also clear, reflection is also useless, this problem can not be solved by leaders," Byte must rely on this huge personnel scale rolling, wave after wave of new operators to ensure the rapid growth of the business. "

Leaving or leaving.

For byte jumps, there are many changes in 2021.

In late April, byte suddenly announced that it had no plans to go public for the time being. On May 20, Zhang Yiming suddenly sent an internal letter saying that he would resign as CEO.

The latest news is that on May 26, byte jump began to send emails to employees, claiming to meet the cash needs of some colleagues and launch an option buyback plan. A former byte employee believes that this means that bytes will not be listed in the short term.

The option price of bytes has been doubling for several years, with a recent market price of $180 per share. When byte announced that it was temporarily off the market, it was a blow to many people who had byte options.

"what really affects the veteran employees and R & D, they have a lot of options. Joey, who is engaged in administrative work in the byte beat, is obviously in a low mood when he talks about it. Although he didn't get many options, the skyrocketing bytes made him have high expectations of the option premium, which made it difficult for him to accept for a while.

Zhao Qian didn't think it was a big deal to suspend the listing. She didn't have any options. After working in byte for two years, she was still very happy. "compared with the private company where I worked last time, Byte knew how to motivate employees better. Personal value is reflected. Although working overtime is tiring, it is also within the scope of tolerance. "

"generally speaking, people still have a lot of confidence in this company. Zhao Qian said that her department had not changed much and made a lot of money, and she felt that she could still work in byte for a few years.

Yue Shan, who joined byte's watermelon video team in 2020, interviewed a bank but chose byte beat. She has a good sense of work so far. "I really don't feel bureaucratic here, and we are all very equal." "

There are also people who can't stand the byte-beating corporate culture and finally choose to leave.

At the age of 30, Tian Li chose to resign from the byte, "the moment after unloading the flying book, it was really cool." On the day she left, she uninstalled the byte communication software Feishu, and then she finally had a life of her own: swimming in the morning, playing guitar in the afternoon, and keeping a diary with friends at dinner in the evening.

Tian Li made up her mind to leave here at the beginning of this year. She was hospitalized because of an operation, but at 10:00 in the evening, she was still dragged into a conference call. No one cared about her illness. What everyone cared about was the progress of the project.

All the negative emotions broke out at this moment, and she resigned naked.

Zhang Xuan left her job two years ago on the grounds that her business line had been replaced. "I don't have a chance in this company." I also reached the ceiling of that business. "

"Bytes can't provide for the aged. "almost all the leavers have expressed similar views. In a fast-growing company, everyone is running fast. If you can't keep up with it, you will be abandoned. "Bytes make you feel tolerant, but it also makes you feel anxious and afraid to slack off. "said Yang Yu.

Although the multi-byte current and former employees contacted by AI Finance and Economics have complaints about the high-intensity pace of work or the department, they generally have a good impression of Zhang Yiming, "no airs, frank and clear". The former CEO has a very important advantage that there will be no difference between what he expresses externally and what he conveys internally.

For those veteran employees who have left, byte beat is also happy for them to come back.

Zhang Xuan now often receives calls from byte HR. But she could clearly hear the arrogance of a big company from HR's phone. Once, a HR called her and asked her if she was interested in a position. 'i 'm not interested, 'Mr. Zhang said. The other party is very surprised, how can you not be interested?

However, even if Zhang Xuan left, both his way of thinking and work habits were deeply influenced by byte jumping. She thinks the biggest feature of bytes is that "high investment and high return, do valuable things, can have a very high return." "

"maybe one day, I'll go back to byte-beating work. "Zhang Xuan said.