From "trainees" to "stall vendors" in parks, young people are starting a new trend of career exploration

Quitting without a job, taking a gap year, changing careers, and setting up stalls show the freedom that young people crave. After three years of repeated beatings from the pandemic, employment pressure, and the rapid iteration of chatGPT on traditional jobs, will there be a new wave of career exploration? Let's find the answer together.

Quitting one's job, Gap year, changing careers, and street stall culture seem to be becoming mainstream terms among young people.

Recently, a video of "Master Chen, the flash deliveryman" caused a fierce collision between the protagonist Chen Tao's past experiences as a "philosophy graduate student, former reporter, public relations, new media" and his current identity as a "deliveryman". The transformation from mental labor to physical labor, combined with the theory of taking off the "Kong Yiji long gown", sparked a wave of public opinion.

At the same time, many public figures also frequently appear in daily life scenes and become practitioners of physical labor.

Liu Haoran and Dong Zijian set up stalls to mix drinks, former idol Xu Bingchao switched to selling steamed buns, Chen Xiang sold grilled sausages at night markets, etc. On social media platforms, articles and videos with tens of thousands of hits, such as "Quitting a gap year at a big company," "30-year-old career change tips," "Butterfly wings sold out at a stall," and "Fancy side jobs without stepping on landmines," have been active for a long time.

Whether it is a 38-year-old reporter who switched to delivering takeout, a celebrity who set up a stall to sell buns and sausages, or young people who quit their jobs, from the social issue triggered by a resignation letter of "The world is so big, I want to see it" a few years ago, to the freelance practitioners who return to their hometowns to farm, start their own media businesses, and work in coffee shops , young people who yearn for freedom may usher in a new wave of career exploration under the repeated beatings of the epidemic in the past three years, employment pressure, and the rapid iteration of chat gpt on traditional jobs.

We talked to several young people and found that behind the keywords such as cross-industry, physical work, and self-employment, we were able to get a glimpse of the contemporary attitude of young people towards the workplace.

01 Do you regret quitting your job and changing careers? Regret not doing it earlier

Ah Zhen, a 28-year-old former variety show promoter, chose to quit her job in 2022. Recalling the four years she had been in the entertainment industry, the last straw that broke the camel's back was that she spent most of her time doing repetitive work and could not find the ceiling for advancement or the meaning of her work.

Because the entertainment industry is often constrained by insufficient budgets, Ah Zhen set his job search goal in the brand market of the new consumer industry, which is relatively wealthy. After a period of exploration, Ah Zhen successfully crossed over to a clothing company to build a brand.

"After staying in a certain industry for a long time and being familiar with the way it operates, it is inevitable that you will not be able to adapt to changing careers. For example, other industries usually require people to work and punch in, which is really painful for people in the entertainment industry who have disordered work and rest schedules."

Ah Zhen, who values ​​the sense of value and growth brought by work, does not have much excitement and sense of accomplishment in the new field at present. "After all, it is a cross-industry and we are still in the exploratory stage. The most anxious part at the moment is the uncertainty about the prospects of the industry," said Ah Zhen.

The entertainment industry generally has one of the mental and physical parts on standby. Although there are not many colleagues around Ah Zhen who have changed careers, most of them are waiting for opportunities. Ah Zhen believes that "those who choose to stay may be out of habit, or they may still be afraid of the unstable environment, want to stay in their comfort zone for the time being, or they may have a passion for the content industry."

There are many young people who choose to "quit without a job" like Ah Zhen. The Just So Soul Research Institute's survey of Soul App users, "Insights into the Work and Life Attitudes of Generation Z: The Dreams and Choices of the Courageous Generation," shows that more than 70% of young people are not worried about "quitting without a job," and 80% of young people have the idea of ​​changing careers.

When asked, "If time goes back to a year ago, would you still choose to quit your job or enter your current industry?", Ah Zhen said firmly, "Yes. I feel that it is still too late for me to change. I should try more while I am still young!"

It took 24 years for Qingqing, a 24-year-old former script-killing store owner, to switch career from being an entrepreneur to being an employee.

After graduating from university in 2020, Qingqing and her friends opened a script-killing store in Beijing. Qingqing, who majored in accounting, was influenced by her family's business thinking and had the idea of ​​"working for herself" before graduation. This vision became stronger after she suffered from the rush hour commuting in the Beijing subway during her internship.

Qingqing admitted that she had hit the right vent when she started her business. According to Xiaoheitan data: In October 2020, the number of "script-killing" stores in China had grown from 2,400 at the beginning to more than 25,000. Most of the stores were concentrated in crowded places such as business districts and universities, and the number of offline players exceeded 30 million.

Qingqing's store was rooted in the "golden age" of the offline script-killing industry. With the support of family and partners, Qingqing and her friends prepared about 500,000 yuan in start-up capital and rented a store of less than 200 square meters near a university in the sixth ring road of Beijing, with an annual rent of 180,000 yuan and renovation costs of nearly 300,000 yuan.

"At that time, I wanted to expand and do well. After all, it was my first time to start a business, so I decorated each theme room very carefully. In addition, I bought notebooks and hired DMs. For a while, the business was really good and I could see the hope of making a profit."

"It's been a mixed bag of emotions these past two years." Qingqing still remembers that when Beijing issued the policy of celebrating the Chinese New Year in 2021, the offline entertainment industry started a short carnival. That period was the highlight of business. The store was in a state of "three days and three nights, three o'clock in the morning, day and night", and the daily turnover exceeded 10,000 yuan .

After a short carnival, everyone can guess what happens next.

The biggest headache for 24-year-old Qingqing is that "my dad calls me almost every week, and the content is always about asking me to go back to my hometown to buy a car, a house, and find a partner. Because my family is also in business, my parents have always been reluctant to let me stay away from home, and they always put pressure on me by saying, 'Go home and find a stable job, and I'll buy you a house and a car. Girls don't have to work so hard, and our family is not short of money.'"

After her partner withdrew, Qingqing's dream of opening a store was temporarily extinguished, but she never thought of returning home. Now she is preparing to sell the store while preparing to start working. "Seeing that the store that I bought for nearly 200,000 yuan at that time was sold at a discount, I felt very frustrated." But Qingqing, who wanted to "make a comeback", decided to save the start-up capital by herself this time, and not ask for money from her family.

Qingqing is very interested in the entertainment industry now. She may find a job related to self-media to gain experience while observing the possibility of starting a business. "Maintaining as much freedom as possible will always be my career goal."

When Xu Bingchao, who entered the audience's field of vision through the talent show "Youth With You" in 2019, regularly appeared at the gate of a certain business university for 2-3 hours every day, he was not holding a book signing meeting or experiencing a reality show, but selling buns he made himself.

The stall opens at 5 or 6 and is sold out by 8. Fans have already figured out Xu Bingchao's stall schedule. A customer who queues up every day said, "The wonton wrappers are really fresh and delicious."

In an interview with China News Service, Xu Bingchao said that selling steamed buns was an accident. During the Chinese New Year, he was amazed by this steamed bun on the street in his hometown. So on a sleepless night, Xu Bingchao came up with the idea of ​​bringing steamed buns to more people, so he went to visit the steamed bun master. The latter said that the old craftsmanship of more than ten years would not be passed on to others. After much persuasion, the master agreed to teach the secret of steamed buns. #徐炳超杭州街卖包子# quickly became a hot search.

Coincidentally, in 2022, some netizens encountered Liu Haoran and Dong Zijian setting up a stall to sell cocktails by the Liangma River. According to Liu Haoran's subsequent interviews, every afternoon, he cut lemons at home, prepared mint leaves, filled a large plastic bucket with ice, and set up a stall by the river at eight or nine o'clock. A large group of people drank and chatted, and a large glass of mojito sold for 20 yuan.

There are more and more young people who want to make a living through physical labor.

There are endless cases of people from the Internet and state-owned enterprises switching to become baristas on Xiaohongshu, and there are even more young people on Douyin setting up stalls and using their mobile phones to cook instant noodles and stir-fry rice noodles. As early as last year, the popularity of the stall economy has repeatedly appeared on the topic list. Now the stall economy is showing a trend of being younger and more sophisticated. The spirit of young people to dare to think and do, the boost of social networks, and the reduction of various information gaps have all contributed to a powerful force for action.

25-year-old Azhi became a freelancer after resigning in 2020. After his Zibo barbecue became popular on the Internet, he has set off for Zibo to conduct research and prepare to explore the possibility of opening a store in Beijing.

Of course, in addition to inadvertently developing their main business/side business, some artists have also developed the street stall culture into a new marketing method. For example, Chen Xiang's "National Cycle Stall (Circular Street Stall) Beijing Station" has a lot of national tour scenes.

It seems that street stall culture may become a new promotional method for film, television, and TV series in the future.

Ah Zhen, who has also tried setting up stalls in parks and planting crops at home, told Entertainment Unicorn, "Doing physical work is a form of resistance to mental exhaustion. Who doesn't want to raise pigs and grow crops? The love for the land is a gene engraved in the DNA of Chinese people. It is interesting to watch the growth process of plants and animals. The theme song of the variety show "Let's Plant the Land" sings 'The land will not let down every drop of sweat.'"

As a former variety show promoter, Ah Zhen also understands that artists have to set up stalls partly out of necessity. "Given the non-competition restrictions brought by their contracts, some of it should be marketing. But it is true that the current market prefers artists with down-to-earth images."

04 Conclusion

The rise of digital careers and the possibility of side jobs created by street stall culture have provided a better buffer zone and career possibility for young people who quit their jobs and pursue a gap year.

The "Classification of Occupations of the People's Republic of China (2022 Edition)" shows that there are 158 new occupations added, the total number of occupations has reached 1,639, and 97 digital occupations have been identified for the first time. The "Report" mentioned above also shows that in Soul, about 26% of young people are "sideline youth", and e-commerce (20.4%), self-media (17%) and knowledge payment/skill payment (16.8%) are the top three most popular sideline jobs.

With the rise of the concept of the metaverse, many new professions have emerged, and 3.3% of young people have begun to engage in metaverse-related professions such as "face-sculpting artists".

In many interviews, these young people who changed their careers all pointed out that the benefits of this decision were freedom and happiness.

Chen Tao, who started working as a delivery man at the age of 38, once made statements about the "delivery happiness theory" such as "delivering food is more fun than writing PR articles for companies", "revising articles means negation but delivering food only requires one time and you will be thanked". After changing careers, Ah Zhen felt that he should have made a decision earlier and tried more while he was young. Liu Haoran recalled the time when he set up a stall and sold alcohol in an interview, "I walked home to sleep at four or five in the morning. Those days were extremely happy."

As career changes become more frequent, complex jobs such as street vendors that seem to be physically demanding but actually test social and negotiation skills are beginning to become a testing ground for young people. When all walks of life dominated by a sense of gain and accomplishment are being "expanded" and "transformed" by young people who fit the aesthetic of the times.

What we see is that more and more young people are opening a door that leads to the place where Chen Tao describes "at night, there are few cars, the wind is blowing, and running gives you a feeling of freedom and flying."

Author: Akagi Pingzi

Source: WeChat public account "Entertainment Unicorn"