The reason why Chinese engineers have short technical lifespan: Are “older engineers” equivalent to industry losers?

It might be more accurate to change the age limit to 50 years old based on the technical life expectancy of Chinese engineers, but this number is not the root of the problem.

A few points can be summarized, for example:

(1) The vast majority of engineers and technical developers in Chinese companies do repetitive and copycat work. Therefore, not only is the value they create very low in the company, their own sense of achievement is also extremely low. The deeper problem is that they will soon reach a point where they are annoyed and no longer enjoy their work. Imagine if you always do repetitive and copycat work, can you persist for more than 5 years? But why don’t you learn and improve yourself, constantly stand at the forefront of the external market, and have the opportunity to become a technical master within the company and influence the company’s development strategy? There are still few such people.

(2) Most companies do not produce innovative products or products that carry core technologies, so the sales and company operations managers are the main players, because the survival of the company depends on relationship marketing. The overall management philosophy of most Chinese companies at the current level is a system that superficially learns some foreign methods and partially inherits the "leadership culture" of state-owned enterprises. It is also a microcosm of the culture of people fearing officials in Chinese society for thousands of years. So relatively speaking, if you climb to a leadership position, no matter whether you do a good job or a bad job (due to the internal system of the enterprise, most of them cannot supervise the leaders for any dereliction of duty, and can only blame their subordinates), they can continue to rise, report some useless things to the superiors, and then their lives will be guaranteed. If they go public, they can become billionaires. Do you engineers have a chance? Therefore, everyone wants to be an official.

In short, the problem is that the system is too big. Officials have power but no responsibility. Enterprises are backward in management, but they command engineers to only do "development" that repeats and plagiarizes. Then all the advanced things on the market can only be original foreign products + domestic copycats. As a result, each product is not at the level of winning by hard technology, so it has to rely on relationship marketing and these backward enterprise systems to operate. It is a vicious cycle. Now more and more companies are gradually taking another path, and that is the prospect.

But don't compare directly with Silicon Valley. What is the gap between the common companies in Japan, Europe and the United States, which are smaller in the middle, and us? What is the difference in the thinking patterns of people in them? It's the same for traditional and modern information industries: the indigestion caused by leaps and bounds, the introduction of manufacturing assembly lines to directly enjoy the fruits of the industrial revolution, and thinking that there is industrial spirit, but now we have to face the remedial lessons. It's normal to go that way, and as an engineer, personal development will naturally be more valued and respected. As you accumulate and improve yourself, while creating value for the company that exceeds others, you will also be valuable.

Reviews:

After the age of 40, technicians cannot compete with managers, and they cannot compete with salespeople. (Note: Older salespeople are more miserable than technicians, and the elimination rate of salespeople is more brutal. The survival rules of reality are similar.

There is real R&D, but it is rare. I am in technical support, and I feel that I have not done much in detail. When it comes to R&D, it is still a dream in my heart. I have been doing after-sales service for four years, two years in China and two years abroad. I only know the basics of technology. After four years, I have become a layman in the company, but when it comes to my own development, I still want to do more but do less. It is something worth reflecting on. After reading this article and the comments below, I have a lot of feelings.

This is closely related to the long-term feudal thinking of the Chinese. The greatest ability of the Chinese is to copy and imitate. Under the guidance of feudal thinking, let's see if there is anything Chinese in modern scientific and technological inventions. Computers, mobile phones, space exploration, life sciences, etc. Take the aircraft carrier, which is also second-hand, and some people say it is extremely powerful.

Nowadays, Chinese people are too impetuous. They always think about status and money. How can they create? Without creation and invention, of course the value is not high. To do technical work, you must have interest. Why should you care about your social status in the eyes of others? Isn't it good to live a plain life?

There are mature management and marketing models and business environments abroad, so the leaders can focus on products and technology. In China, you have to focus on management and marketing. Why was Ericsson's flagship P802 so popular back then, but was later surpassed by Apple? Why is the appearance of the iPhone 4 so simple that even a beginner in drawing can draw it, but when it first appeared, it really gave people a very simple (appearance) feeling and a sense of shock? I think it is inseparable from the leader's wholehearted pursuit of technology.

We cannot attribute our lack of effort to external factors just because the world is imperfect.

Yes, but are these reasons considered Chinese characteristics? They should be, but can they still be changed?

The original poster is right. We cannot always do repetitive and copy-pasting work, but must have real innovation, so that we can have a sense of accomplishment and thus extend the life of technology. To have real innovation, we cannot just focus on mathematics, physics, chemistry and solving problems. If the scientific and technological achievements are compared to a tree, then the soil in which the tree takes root is literature, culture, aesthetics, poetry, mythology, religion, music, and folklore. Only when these things accumulate to a certain extent can creative ideas be nurtured. The ancients said that if you want to write a good poem, the effort lies outside of poetry. And if you want to make a breakthrough in science and technology, the effort lies outside of science and technology.

There are many prejudices in China. First, technicians will never be treated as well as managers. Second, when seeing a technician in his 40s, many people look down on him instead of respecting him. Third, technicians have no say in the company. In view of this, many technicians are not really used in research technology. They are more concerned about how to maximize their interests and develop in the so-called management direction. In addition, the copycat culture occupies most domestic companies, so technicians do not have much ability to speak of, and their premium ability is limited. The work you do can be done by people who have just graduated for a few years. The boss will naturally not use someone whose salary is much higher than that of young people, so most older technicians will be very pitiful and sad. In order to maintain your career longer and have a family waiting to eat, it is necessary to liberate your mind and improve your own quality. Don't do those useless things anymore.

Encouraging innovation is important, but protecting innovation is more important. If the government can better protect innovation, then China's hardworking and innovative companies will have a better development environment.

I am 36 years old this year. I was born with a technical background, but I can't find a technical job in China. It's sad and heartbreaking. So, I have to change jobs as soon as possible.

The 50-year-old veteran walked by in tears.

Well, this is the difficulty... The current social concept seems to equate "older engineers" with "industry losers", which makes me feel embarrassed...