The bloggers who left their jobs and couldn't squeeze through the single-plank bridge have collectively returned to work

Resigned bloggers have chosen to return to the workplace, and the flags they once set have now become "face-slapping scenes". With low traffic and difficulty in monetization, the track for resigned bloggers has become a red ocean, and those who have escaped from large companies are once again caught in a vortex of internal competition.

Chen Xi (pseudonym)’s dream is to “not work”.

After each resignation, she would spend three months trying out her own media, but the traffic never improved. It was not until last year when she quit her job that the “resignation blogger” track suddenly became a new trend, and she received a business order for her first video.

At that moment, Chen Xi believed that "her own opportunity had finally arrived." Not only did she become a blogger herself, she also asked her boyfriend to quit his job and start a business together - the goal was to earn 30,000 yuan a month.

But just recently, Chen Xi, who has been earning 10,000 yuan a month as a blogger, decided to return to his old job and continue working in a big company.

This is not an isolated case. Under the wave of resigned bloggers, another undercurrent is surging at the same time. After going around in circles, the resigned bloggers who left the big companies and returned to the big companies began to escape the most crowded Internet celebrity track in 2024. Many resigned bloggers quietly changed their appearance and went back to work.

They told Snow Leopard Finance, "There has never been a moment like now when I feel it's so good to be at work!"

1. “I still have to go back to work”

After disappearing for a while, Chen Xi's Xiaohongshu finally updated. She announced that she would return to the workplace after quitting her job for 15 months.

She has worked in many educational Internet companies as a new media operator, is good at creating accounts, and has experience in copywriting, filming and editing. In order to fill the gap in her Gap Year, Chen Xi packaged the account with more than 10,000 followers she created during her resignation period into a new project when applying for a job.

After quitting his job for two years and having an account with nearly 40,000 followers, former blogger Li Ran (pseudonym) decided to return to the workplace this spring.

She works in finance and has worked in large companies and the Big Four accounting firms, as well as an Internet company doing cross-border e-commerce business. In order to "get a job" this time, she submitted hundreds of resumes at once, and was eventually "fished out" by a start-up e-commerce company in Shanghai. She did not hesitate much and interviewed and joined the company.

In the past two years, becoming a resigned blogger has become a retreat and haven for more and more people who have been laid off or resigned from large companies.

According to DT Business Observation, in the past six months, the total number of views on the topic "#我退职了" on Xiaohongshu has increased from 250 million to 380 million, and the number of participants has increased from 35,179 to 56,411. Douyin has seen the emergence of promotional products with the keyword "resignation". In this emerging track, there are also "sub-tracks" derived from resignations from different large companies such as ByteDance, Tencent, and Alibaba.

Most of them have a complete set of Internet work "methodology", pay attention to SOP when doing things, have a sense of the Internet, and therefore believe in their ability to monetize their own media. There are even a group of "observers" who specialize in analyzing the order income, number of fans, number of business orders and note quotations of former bloggers.

However, the imagined dimensionality reduction attack did not generally occur, and the resigned blogger track was not a happy hometown for people from big companies. Many bloggers gradually realized that "I still have to go back to work, this is the reliable choice."

Stills from "I, Get Off Work on Time"

Image source: Douban

Among the bloggers that Xuebao Finance has contacted, most of them returned to their old jobs. One fashion blogger went to an Internet company to manage live broadcasts, one career blogger who had worked in a film and television company for many years went to an artist studio, and another home decoration blogger went to work on a travel platform. There are also many people who have returned to their old jobs, like the former blogger Gu Zi (pseudonym) who accepted the olive branch from his former employer.

The biggest lesson Chen Xi learned from his experience as a blogger is “to remember the hardships of working alone.”

Today, she continues to manage accounts for the company. She doesn't have to get caught up in internal friction due to her lack of connections and conversion capabilities, nor is she forced to solve problems on her own. "When I encounter a problem, I can seek help from my leaders and colleagues, and I can slack off when I have nothing to do," she told Snow Leopard Finance. "This is the true meaning of work."

Having regained a stable source of income, Li Ran now values ​​work-life balance more. The start-up company she works for has low work pressure, giving her more time to enjoy life.

At least she realized one thing: being a resigned blogger is like being besieged, "only when you go in you realize that the world outside the city is better."

2. The starting point is the peak

Among the bloggers who have resigned, there are many who have reaped the benefits.

The top workplace blogger "Jiang Dora" has 300,000 fans on Xiaohongshu and more than one million fans on the entire network. As an E-person who is good at chatting, her specialty is interviews, inviting practitioners from all walks of life to chat.

"Gang Dora" recording video

Image source: Xiaohongshu

"Ugly Poor Girl Chen Langlang" has more than 880,000 fans on Xiaohongshu. Her personal label is "A girl with three books working in a big factory." She has maintained a humorous and somewhat depressing personal style from the beginning.

There are also some bloggers who have left their jobs and made money by paying for knowledge.

The blogger "Prince's Nuclear Power Plant" has 79,000 fans. Previously, he worked as an education project manager in a large company. He mainly taught fans how to create IP through live broadcasts, including account creation and monetization.

Snow Leopard Finance and Economics saw in her personal store that more than 200 people bought the 19.9 yuan "Little Red Book Traffic Monetization Training Camp" and the 999 yuan "Knowledge IP Traffic Monetization Course", and nearly 30 people bought the 9,980 yuan "Small IP Monetization, 60-Day Private Training Course". These courses alone brought her more than 500,000 yuan in revenue.

The success stories of these top bloggers attract a steady stream of newcomers. Every new blogger who has left the blog has his or her own "three tricks" to make a name for himself or herself.

First, there was a preview, "I will quit if I get more than XX likes." Then came the official announcement, using the classic three-piece set of recording a Vlog, hanging a banner, and a farewell ceremony to commemorate the last day at the factory. Finally, there was the "To do list." Going on a trip means believing that "life is a wilderness," and doing a side job means "restarting life."

Many bloggers who have resigned from their jobs joke that traffic is a farewell gift from big companies to their employees.

The former blogger "Claire Chazai" published a post complaining about ByteDance's "big company disease", including writing daily reports, focusing on direct employees, and not respecting the reproductive rights of female employees. It received nearly 3,500 likes and was also followed by ByteDance's senior management.

After leaving her job at a large company, Mika (pseudonym) created a column on social media called "100 Challenges to Do After Leaving a Large Company", which attracted more than 20,000 likes. This was also the moment when her traffic was the highest.

Stills from Restarting Life

Image source: Douban

Professional fatigue has become the mood of the times. Bloggers who have escaped from the inherent system and are under the halo of ByteDance and Alibaba have formed a kind of refreshing narrative. They are like the protagonists in urban dramas, as if they will say the line "From now on, the world is in front of me, pointing to wherever I want to go" like Liu Yifei in the play.

After seeing the traffic brought by the big company signs, the resigned bloggers are all keen to label themselves in their personal profiles: former ByteDance employee, worked in four major Internet companies, 7 years in the Internet industry, and Tencent female worker who just quit. In the initial stage of their posts, the word "big company" appears in almost every title.

Gu Zi, who had never worked in an Internet company, also learned this trick and changed his profile to "Worked in a Fortune 500 company, 18 years of experience in the workplace." Others listed their highest education, project experience, and annual salary in an effort to maximize their reputation.

However, the traffic brought by seeking reconciliation and self-improvement is fleeting. Looking back, many bloggers found that their "starting point was the peak", and they only saw the light briefly under the halo of big companies. Nowadays, the overly widespread big company labels are gradually being tired of and abandoned by people.

For bloggers who have left their jobs and whose ultimate goal is monetization, they need a new track that can provide stable and long-term content output.

3. There is no ultimate volume, only more volume

The hot and crowded track for bloggers who leave their jobs is even more exaggerated than that of big companies.

Li Ran tried to be a book blogger, but the traffic was very poor, with only a few dozen likes. She then transformed herself into a career blogger, using her expertise to do financial analysis, and the number of likes exceeded four digits. After publishing dozens of financial analyses over a year, her number of fans slowly climbed to nearly 40,000.

Li Ran updates financial report analysis

Source: Provided by the interviewee

Part of the income comes from business orders. The price of business orders is usually linked to the number of fans. For 40,000 fans, the price can be 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. However, the number of platform advertisements has decreased, so Li Ran can only quote a few hundred yuan. Even so, there is only one order a month, and he has to pay a 10% service fee to the platform.

Li Ran also provides paid services, including revising resumes and interview coaching, charging 198 yuan for one hour of interview consultation. However, such orders only come during the peak recruitment period, and she only does seven or eight interview coaching a year. This is also Mika's main business area. Her one-hour quotation is 299 yuan, and she receives about a dozen orders a year.

After all the calculations, Li Ran and Mika's income as career bloggers could not even cover their social security expenses, so they could only rely on their savings to support themselves.

This is not surprising. Li Ran spends a lot of time every time analyzing financial reports, but her competitors not only record videos, but also make exquisite PPT and Excel files, and even launch a series of online courses for sale. In comparison, her content is "completely not good enough."

During her time as a blogger, Chen Xi and her boyfriend operated two accounts, one for hotel and travel exploration, and the other for personal growth. Chen Xi was responsible for writing scripts, while her boyfriend was responsible for business connection, and the two filmed and edited together.

She thought that running the business with two people would make the content more refined and share the pressure, but she didn't expect that "in a big company, I would occasionally work overtime and have two days off, but being a blogger is like working 007 all year round." She even had to spend extra time and energy to communicate with her boyfriend in meetings, "which was no different from meetings at work."

Chen Xi shares his blogger experience

Source: Provided by the interviewee

Sometimes you will meet colleagues while shooting. Chen Xi found that a top store exploration blogger not only brought his own team, but also hired two additional photographers, with equipment including SLR and drone. "A store exploration video was shot into a movie blockbuster, there is really no comparison." Chen Xi sighed.

Her income is relatively better: she earns 20,000 yuan a month when she earns more, but she has to split it with her boyfriend; when she earns less, she earns nothing. Due to her lack of connections and professional negotiation skills, she sometimes misses out on business orders or compromises on quotes.

There are many people like Gu Zi who paid tuition fees to start their own media business. "I have taken all kinds of self-media courses, from 9.9 yuan to 299 yuan." Although Gu Zi's growth blogger account has not made any progress for several months, she still thinks that in the era of self-media for all, she should have her own IP, "but there is no need to do it full-time."

The bloggers who left their jobs and were unable to squeeze through the single-plank bridge of monetization eventually chose to go back to work and leave the pressure that they could not bear to their bosses.

After returning to the workplace, Chen Xi did not completely abandon his personal account, but changed the content to "job hunting experience after a gap year". Li Ran began to share his workplace experience in his 10-year career, and Gu Zi chose to share his reading notes and personal insights. However, a sharp drop in traffic was inevitable.

A stable job with continuous income is sixpence, while self-media is to leave a little room and possible moon in your heart. The moon can't fill your stomach, but what if?