A Twisted Path to Employment#
On July 8th, I finally started working at Ant Group.
After receiving the offer letter in April, I had to delay my start date until summer vacation. I originally wanted to ask for leave from the school leaders in May, but after passing the responsibility around, I couldn't make it in the end. Finally, in mid-June, I made up my mind to skip classes and start my internship, but suddenly Wenzhou was hit hard by the epidemic. In order to prevent being quarantined and affecting my final exams, I decided to endure it for a while longer. Helplessly, I had to put on a brave face and ask HRG to postpone it to July.
Fortunately, the final exams were not postponed, but actually moved a few days earlier. As soon as the exams were over, I went straight to Hangzhou without even bothering to move my dormitory.
On the first day of work, the morning was mainly done online through live streaming. First, there was an introduction to Alibaba's history and the onboarding training. The onboarding training mainly covered the onboarding process, common questions, and most importantly, data security and confidentiality, emphasizing that internal information and code should never be leaked. After the training, we went to the administrative area to complete the onboarding process and receive our office computers. After that, we could go to our workstations and start "slacking off."
The first day was basically uneventful, just going through the procedures, confirming relevant information, setting up the environment, and reading documents.
The second day was another day of reading documents. In the afternoon, there was an internal technical sharing session. Chenyu introduced the past and present of low-code development, why low-code is both fast and efficient, and demonstrated the Yunfengdie low-code platform. Yushu introduced the internal architecture of the entire Alibaba system and AntV visualization.
The first week came to an end. Two days off. 11 am to 6 pm. No clocking in.
House Hunting#
The company arranged for me to stay at a nearby hotel for the first two weeks, and during this time, I had to find a place to live.
During the two days of vacancy, I also looked at nearby apartments and private houses. In the end, I chose a private house that required a slightly longer commute. It would take about an hour to commute. The main reason for choosing this place was that if I rented a place near the company, the cost of living would be higher, as it is a high-consumption area with mostly office buildings and not many recreational facilities. Although it's a bit far from Zijingang Campus, there are plenty of places to eat and things to do, and the transportation is relatively convenient. Finally, I rented a house on Wo Ai Wo Jia, hoping that it is a reliable agency. I hope there won't be any tricks with my first rental.
Although that's what I said, I still fell into a trap. I looked at three or four places, and each agent only allowed one-year leases, with the option to sublet after three months, but with additional charges for short-term leases. After weighing the options, I decided to rent for a year, pay a deposit of 1.5 months' rent, and pay three months' rent in advance. It's full of tricks. I'm prepared to give up the deposit.
This Weekend: Fun (Spending)#
On the first day of the weekend, I originally planned to move out of the hotel. However, unfortunately, the delivery of the bedding I bought online hadn't arrived yet. So I had to go to the place I was staying and buy some daily necessities. Although the place I rented is far from the company, the surrounding facilities are complete. There is a subway station and a bus stop nearby, as well as a shopping mall, making it convenient to buy things. I went to the supermarket first and bought some daily necessities. I have to say that things in the supermarket are really expensive. But I couldn't afford to wait for online shopping. After that, I went to the nearby Xiaomi store and bought a Xiaomi router, otherwise I wouldn't be able to install broadband. After having a meal, the broadband installer came. He needed to pull the cable from the room of the tenant downstairs. Luckily, the tenant was home, so I took the opportunity to talk to the tenant and found out that he is also a recent graduate who just came to Hangzhou and has a background in computer science. (He has a girlfriend, and I'm jealous
In the afternoon, I made plans with my classmates to visit West Lake. Even though it wasn't a holiday, there were still a lot of people on a regular weekend. Line 2 was crowded when transferring at Fengqi Road to Line 1 at Longxiangqiao Station. As soon as we arrived at Longxiangqiao Station, a large group of people got off the train.
Today's expenses: 600+. I'm going to stop here as I'm moving tomorrow. Rest time.
Moving#
The second day of the weekend.
I woke up early in the morning and started packing after breakfast. I called a Didi freight to help with the move, and the driver told me that I didn't need to pay extra for these items. I lost 25 yuan. On the way, the driver also told me that I could use the platform to get discounts on rides without actually carrying any goods, as it would be cheaper than taking a taxi. I learned something new.
After moving the things, I went back to the hotel in the afternoon to take the clothes I left behind, and checked again to make sure I didn't leave anything behind before checking out. I stayed in the hotel for a total of 5 days, costing 300 yuan per day. Fortunately, it was free.
In the afternoon, I went to the Yintai City in the west of the city and bought some daily necessities at Miniso, which was relatively cheaper compared to the supermarket. I also bought a hairdryer at the Xiaomi store. Today was another significant expense.
After taking care of everything, it was already 4 pm. I didn't have time to rest properly this weekend, and I have to go to work again tomorrow. Tomorrow will probably be my official first day of work. It's full of unknowns and challenges.