In the blink of an eye, it's been half a month, the second week, and I can finally start my job. On this day, there were many classmates coming for their first day of work because the number of people had accumulated over the past 2 days. I arrived at the company around ten in the morning and there were already many people sitting there, all here for the onboarding process. Most of them are interns, and there are only a few full-time employees. Interns are relatively cheaper, and most companies like to hire interns. The onboarding experience at Xiaohongshu is quite poor compared to Alibaba. At least compared to Alibaba, there is no automated process, everything is done manually. The classmates who handle the onboarding process are also interns. They sign the paper contract on the spot, verify it on the spot, and need to queue up one by one. That's how the morning passed. Compared to Alibaba's online onboarding with e-signatures, it's really a terrible experience. Of course, it's also because big companies like Alibaba have a sound infrastructure.
After completing the process and receiving the computer, I went back to my workstation. There's not much to do on the first day, just set up the environment, familiarize myself with the development process, and read some documentation. That's how the first day passed. My impression of this place on the first day is that it's very crowded, and there's even no more workspace available. They are still hiring new people, so I can only use a temporary workspace (facing the wall), which is a very poor experience. Besides the crowded space, it seems that there is also a shortage of manpower. At least everyone looks very busy, especially compared to my previous internship at Ant Group. They also work late into the night. This is not what I wanted. Once again, I was deceived by HR. There is no such thing as getting off work at 8 o'clock. On the first day, I already had the idea of running away.
On the second day, I was assigned to work on an unfinished low-code platform. I don't know if it's because I'm too proactive or because they think I'm not busy enough, but they gave me 9 requirements on the second day. But it's only the second day, fortunately, the schedule is not too urgent, so I can still slack off a bit. After all, let's take it slowly. We can't be too hasty at the beginning.
For the next few days, I've been reading code and writing requirements. Once again, I was disappointed. Many people still don't pay attention to code standards. They code just to complete the requirements, regardless of the means, without considering the maintainability in the future. TypeScript becomes AnyScript, which is very annoying. The tech stack is still outdated, similar to the project I maintained at Ant Group before. Let's not mention it. Next time, I should only choose open-source companies. After all, code quality and work-life balance are important. But for now, I can only endure it and stick it out for a year. But it was my own choice back then. I gave up the opportunity to work at an open-source company. I wonder what I was expecting at that time.
Every day, the most enjoyable time should be mealtime. The company provides three free meals, although they are boxed meals, they are much better than spending over 20 yuan for a meal outside. If there are leftovers, I can have two portions. The food is not bad. You can pre-order what you want to eat the next day, provided you can grab it.
On weekends, I started moving. Finally, I moved out of the old shabby place and escaped from the high-consumption area of Huangpu District to Pudong, a place mainly for residential areas. Although it's not as luxurious as there, it has everything and the cost of living is still acceptable. Since it's an old residential area, the greenery and overall environment are still lacking, but it's much better than where I used to live.
I also visited the China Pavilion up close.