How do Internet newcomers choose careers, industries, and companies (Part 2)

Continuing from the previous article, in this article, the author mainly explains how to choose an industry and the strategies for selecting an industry from a macro perspective. Then, on this basis, he gives judgment suggestions on choosing companies and positions after selecting the industry. Let’s take a look.

We will talk about what everyone is more concerned about, such as how to choose an industry and how to choose a position in a company. Many newcomers who have not entered the industry will ask questions like, is AR good? Is big data good? Is artificial intelligence good? Is blockchain good? Or they get an offer but don’t know whether the company is a good match for them. In the next article, we will talk about these issues.

1. Macroeconomic recommendations for industry selection

After you choose a position, whether it is product manager, operation, marketing, or growth, you have to choose an industry. In fact, some industries have an impact, but most people will not always work in the Internet industry in the same industry. It’s just that the older you get, the harder it is to change industries.

1. Choose the core industry or comprehensive considerations such as interest, personal advantages, salary, etc.

As I mentioned before, the choice of industry depends on interest first, personal strengths second, and salary last. Although entry-level salaries may vary, high-end industry salaries are similar. Whether you can get a high-level position depends mainly on your interest and focus.

Interviews and job hunting are somewhat random. It is not that you will be able to enter the industry you like. We can make an analogy and compare the company to a university and the industry to a major. It is best to go to a company in the industry you like, but sometimes it may not be so comprehensive, so you need to make your own trade-offs.

2. Different professions and industry restrictions are very different

For example, designers, data analysts, junior and mid-level operations, and interactive designers are positions that are not restricted by the industry. In particular, designers and data analysts are the least restricted by the industry.

It is not difficult to see from this picture that designers and interaction designers are basically far away from the business model . From the perspective of business model formulation and implementation, designers and interaction designers are downstream of product managers and demand, rather than upstream.

Although data analysts are close to the needs, most of them only quantify the results of the business model, or make minor adjustments to the results, and do not modify the business model from a big framework. Only by deeply understanding the industry can you improve the business model, so data analysts are relatively flexible in changing industries. The threshold for data analysts lies in data acquisition capabilities, hard skills such as SQL and Python, and soft skills such as probability statistics and analytical thinking.

Therefore, the positions that are most affected by the industry and are not easy to change industries are high-level products and high-level operations. Both positions are involved in the formulation and implementation of business models to varying degrees. Among them, product managers tend to formulate and implement business models, while operations tend to formulate business models and dispatch people and resources to run the model to achieve results. The content of junior and intermediate product and operation work does not have too high a competitive barrier, but many companies will also consider related industries in order to obtain sufficient stability, but they do not value it as much as high-level product operations.

This is why I don’t think interaction designers and data analysts will pose a particularly big threat to the work of product managers, because interaction designers and data analysts are downstream of product managers, or in other words, only product managers are closest to the business model.

Hardware, games, VR and other products do not have many core business points that can be reused. That is, if you switch to the mass consumer goods industry, basically there is not much experience you can use. Of course, I have come across product managers who really like to do game design, but this is another matter. They start working in this industry and do not consider other industries.

3. Choose the mass product industry first, then other industries

The reason why it is recommended to choose the mass consumer goods industry is very simple. Whether it is as a product, operation or even interactive growth, it is easier to understand users when you are in the mass industry, and you may even be a user yourself.

1) Some mass consumer goods are high-frequency traded commodities, making it easy for Internet users to verify their ideas.

2) Products for enterprises are generally more complex, with complex scenarios and roles, and relatively high transaction amounts, which cannot be achieved by so-called operations. It is not without reason that many ToB books conclude that sales are more important than operations.

3) Enterprise-oriented companies generally have their own fixed customers, which is not convenient for product operations. To put it bluntly, it is difficult to expand new large customers, and the needs of old users have to be accepted. Many companies serving enterprises always talk about a topic: how to make the business flexible rather than customized development.

4. Don’t follow the trend. Find a general direction and a field that you like for a long time. Business model innovation without technological innovation is a red ocean.

So the industries that are really popular recently are all technology-based industries. With more new people I meet, there will always be people asking whether the big data industry is good, the AR industry is good, and the artificial intelligence industry is good. As I said before, there are no low-paying industries, only low-paying employees. Why do you say that these hot industries are not good? It is because the overheated industries in China recently are all technology-driven. In an industry with overheated technology, technology is of the highest value. This kind of industry generally chooses product managers who are more inclined to R&D, because it is difficult for pure experience and data-based products to generate value, and it is also because it is difficult to make a trade-off between implementation and experience because you don’t understand technology. Such products and interactions can easily become document assistants for R&D. The above content does not exclude product managers who love the above industries, so please study the good technology in depth.

5. Return to the essence - see through the essence of the industry and choose the industry carefully

"It is different to see through the essence in a short time and to see through the essence in a lifetime." Many young people over-trust themselves and their abilities, and it is easy to make wrong judgments that they are "very optimistic" about some industries. Individuals cannot fight against the industry. Quickly seeing through an industry can help you estimate the growth rate of the company. Of course, the growth rate of the company is your growth rate.

If you can’t see clearly, it’s okay. Use my previous strategy to find someone who you think can see clearly and communicate with them. Don’t make your own judgment. Here I will briefly talk about the macro strategy.

Head effect

Most of them are winner-take-all industries, which fits the 721 pattern very well, that is, the top companies occupy 70% of the market. Generally, tools, information, social, and news websites are more likely to have the head effect. WeChat, DingTalk, Youdao Cloud Notes, Toutiao, or Maimai, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc. in the communication category belong to this type of industry. Technology-driven industries that are open to the public are also prone to the head effect.

Industries where the Internet’s platform effect is too strong

There are two types of online platforms. One is a one-sided platform without a main node. For example, WeChat or QQ. There are many two-sided markets, such as Taobao, Tmall, and JD.com. It is very difficult to do two-sided markets at this stage. Why are there so few two-sided market platforms? Because the Internet itself is an information dissemination platform, and the so-called information is matchmaking. In 2012, the interest in mobile Internet even matched everything that could be matched in LBS. The rest may require blockchain and Sesame Credit to solve the matchmaking problem in trust.

There were very few platform products in 2017. If you go to a platform-level product company now, I feel that it is unlikely to succeed. There are more products like Luckin Coffee that produce and control the supply chain themselves.

SPA Market

A large number of SPA (Speciality Retailer of Private Label Apparel, a sales form that integrates product planning, production and retail) companies have emerged. The reason why these companies are competitive is that they control at least one end, either the supply end or the user end.

For example, Fan Deng Reading Club is a SPA product, just like Luckin Coffee we just mentioned.

Service industries are all sub-sectors

Any service segment has natural barriers, which are barriers and fences. The most obvious example is the education industry, which can be divided into multiple levels according to age and subject. Each area has a moat, but it is also not easy to expand into other people's segments.

Finally, it is very important to choose an industry. Mr. Yu Jun said that without the surge in the number of Internet users and the number of web pages, there would be no search engines. In a sense, search engines are the transaction nodes between Internet users and web pages. Then there would be no rapid development of search engines. It is very important in a rapidly developing industry. But we should also note that Mr. Yu Jun likes search very much. In fact, any industry will usher in growth in a certain period.

2. Strategies for Selecting Industries

We have said a lot, let’s talk about tactical strategies. There is a core trick here. Let’s talk about which industries are not particularly good.

1. Which industries should be paid special attention to? Industries with technology as the core

This industry generally chooses product managers who are more inclined to R&D, because it is difficult for pure experience and data products to generate value, and it is also difficult to make a trade-off between implementation and experience if you don’t understand technology. Such products and interactions can easily become document assistants for R&D.

Traditional software industry

With selling software as the main source of income, users are customers, so it is difficult for you not to develop according to the needs of customers. The characteristics of this type of software are that there are a small number of users, many decision-makers, and a long development cycle. The iteration speed is slow. That is, the intensity of your training is low in the same amount of time.

Outsourced Software Development Company

There is one person between you and the user, that is Party A. The demands of users and Party A are contradictory, which will greatly affect you. There is definitely no outsourcing company for operations positions, but the same is true for products and interactions. User feedback from such companies will be very slow, or even nonexistent, because operations are not at your company at all.

Traditional industries turning to the Internet

Because of the different frequencies, it is easy to convince your leaders. Secondly, many industries have different degrees of Internetization, and there is not enough motivation for Internetization.

State-owned enterprises

State-owned enterprises are mainly responsible for formulating market rules and resource access, and their core competitiveness does not lie in the Internet.

3. How to choose a company and position in the selected industry

1. What is a good position in a good company like?

What is a good workplace environment? It is an environment where you can grow quickly. Whether it is product, product operation, operation, or user growth, you can complete the journey that others need to take a long time to complete in a very short time. I have thought deeply about the following conditions, and the priorities are arranged in order of importance.

1. It is best if the company has as many users as possible

This doesn't need too much explanation. Whether it's product, product operation, operation, user growth, or data analyst, the larger the number of users, the greater the difference a little modification will make. The average number of users is equivalent to having a microscope, but a huge number of users is equivalent to having an electron microscope. The order of magnitude and precision of what you can do is completely different.

To explain the second point, it would be even better if the user base is large and can continue to grow rapidly.

2. Fast development is best

Being a golden-collar Internet person (hereafter Internet people refer to products, product operations, operations, user growth, data analysts) means making judgments, and making judgments means deciding what not to do. This requires you to make a lot of decisions every day. But the content of this decision also needs to be of high quality and have a large enough impact. It is not the kind of decision that you put the button on the left or the right. In the words of Xiachufang’s CEO, because of the surge in user and business volume due to the epidemic, the number of decisions they make every day is the same as the previous year. How can growth not be fast in such an environment?

3. It is best to do both the front-end and back-end, close to the user end

This is mainly for newcomers, so that they can quickly understand how the front-end and back-end interact. This will help with product design in the future. If you only work on the front-end (of course, no one has such a division of labor now that the Internet is mature), you generally don’t understand how data is stored. If you only work on the back-end, you will have fewer subsequent choices.

4. Have a certain degree of freedom

If your boss is always holding your hand while you make plans, it will be difficult for you to verify your own assumptions. You still have to think about products and growth yourself, and you will have the deepest insights from success and failure.

5. The environment of cooperation is complex enough

That is, your environment should have a data acquisition mechanism, data analysts, risk control, legal affairs, marketing personnel, and the more relevant parties you have, the better. This way, it will be easier for you to adapt to and coordinate multiple links early on.

6. Abundant resources, SOP

Generally, large companies have training videos and training systems, and they generally standardize SOPs very well. SOPs help you quickly get familiar with and master a position. At the same time, SOPs themselves are a perspective for looking at the business. Small and medium-sized companies lack this perspective.

7. Core business line

This is mainly because the core business resources are the most abundant. The greater the external pressure, the greater the internal pressure, the easier it is to achieve results, and there will be more competition and people who find faults. The more people who find faults, the more it helps Internet people look at their own business.

8. The team is relatively well-rounded, and you rank in the lower middle tier

If you are too far ahead in a team, it means that the team is too weak or you are too old. If you are weaker in a team, it means that you will learn and progress faster, and this team is worth learning from. Internet people need to learn from each other and practice with each other.

9. The team is willing to teach you

This is easy to understand. If you have a master, you will definitely learn faster. But it is still not as important as the environment mentioned above. If your motivation and direction are clear, you can learn completely by yourself. But if you don’t have an environment, there is really nothing you can do.

10. The team atmosphere is relatively harmonious

We are not talking about people, but about issues. We have the spirit of scientific experimentation, rather than just expressing an idea and then making a scene.

2. Use company size as a selection criterion

The most convenient way to choose a company is to choose it according to its size. The world is determined by size. What I am talking about here is the criteria for newcomers to choose a company. The logic of Internet people with 3 or 5 years of experience is different from this.

1. The golden team among listed and pre-IPO companies

For example, WeChat, Douyin, Taobao, Alipay

The main consideration is that the team is good enough, and the number of users in the environment is generally in the hundreds of millions of active users per day. Because of the large number of users, the decision-making quality is high and the influence is also large. The company's internal resources are also very good, and the relevant soft power, such as personal connections, and the information that can be accessed is also very good.

2. Core business of unicorn phenomenal companies listed in PreIPOD round

For example, JD.com’s e-commerce department, Pinduoduo’s product and user department, and Meituan Takeout.

The main consideration is that the team is good enough, the environment is rare enough, and the daily active users are generally tens of millions. Because of the large number of users, the decision-making quality is high, the influence is also large, the internal resources of the company are very good, and the relevant soft power, such as personal connections, and the information that can be accessed is also very good. Basically, the gap is an order of magnitude with the gold team.

3. Non-core business areas of first-tier and second-tier Internet companies

For example, Toutiao, Meituan, Didi or BAT are not non-core businesses.

How to judge whether it is a core business? Just ask the percentage of the business income to the company income during the interview. The main focus is on the internal resources of large enterprises, and the background of large companies will help future development. In terms of environment, it is generally to verify the segmented supply or divert business traffic. Because it is a non-core business, the degree of freedom is also higher. The number of users depends on the business line, ranging from millions of daily active users to hundreds of thousands of daily active users.

4. Listed PreIPO D and C rounds of leading star companies in the sub-sectors

For example: VPIkid, Zuoyebang, Yuanfudao, Xueqiu, Beike, etc.

If you are the leader in a certain market segment, it is also worth going. This shows that the leader and team of the core business are also good. In terms of user volume, the daily active users range from millions to hundreds of thousands depending on the business type. There are some standard processes, but they are not particularly good. This is because the scale of personnel determines that the input-output ratio of a standardized process is not high.

5. Mid-sized companies in the sub-sectors of rounds D and C

If you are in the second group in a certain market segment, there are still some very outstanding professionals inside, and it is also worth learning for newcomers. Depending on the type of business, the daily active users range from millions to hundreds of thousands. Basically, there is no standard process.

6. Startups with a Series B round size of around 100 to 200

There will be some good professionals, and the executives will be relatively good, but the problem is that newcomers cannot get in touch with them. The departments they work with will not be particularly complicated. This is determined by the size of the company. Depending on the type of business, the daily active users range from millions to hundreds of thousands. But if you grow fast, you will be entrusted with important tasks, and the business you can be in contact with will be relatively large. The problem is that there is a lack of sophistication due to the number of users and the size of the company.

7. Traditional software companies

Mainly from the perspective of scale, the characteristics of these industries are that their working habits and workplace professionalism are basically better than those of the makeshift team of a startup company.

8. A round and angel round companies 100 to 5 people

Since they are recruiting externally, especially for angel round companies, it means that they are not a very powerful company yet. Generally, the founders of unicorn companies are all the connections of the CEO. They will not start so-called social recruitment. The number of users is difficult to estimate, which may range from millions to hundreds of thousands of daily active users. Even most startups have no users. You go there to learn relevant knowledge by yourself, and the company is just a practice environment.

3. Difficulty of the business in the company

In particular, non-core business areas and angel round companies should consider whether to verify demand and supply, or just verify one end. Generally, the non-core businesses of large companies are to verify market segments, that is, to verify demand, or to verify supply, such as pushing new products or services to existing users through the same channels.

4. From the perspective of position and growth

To summarize the priorities of specific positions:

1. Front-end and back-end of core business.

2. Serving as the backend for the core business.

3. Serving as the company's backend support, such as the company's internal conference system, reimbursement system, etc.

4. Positions that support technical implementation, such as the system that manages the power consumption of the company's servers, or the system that reports errors when issuing coupons.

If you have been making products for about 5 years or have been working in a large enterprise, you need to consider going from 0 to 1. Consider entering a high-growth industry.

Author: Arun's Growth Research Institute

Source: WeChat public account "Arun's Growth Research Institute (ID: arungrowth365 )"