After graduating from university, Ding Lei returned to his hometown and worked at the Ningbo City Telecommunications Bureau. The job at the Telecommunications Bureau was very stable with a good income, but Ding Lei thought that those two years of work were very hard, and he also felt the frustration of not being able to fully utilize his abilities. In 1995, he resigned from the Telecommunications Bureau, which was met with strong opposition from his family, but he had already made up his mind to go out and explore new opportunities.