Submitting resumes, attending interviews, and finding internships... while many senior students are busy job hunting, Xu Haotian, a senior student at Jilin University, has already been hired by the e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, nine months before his graduation. As the first student in his class to sign a contract, who would have guessed that he was a true "course-failing student" during his university years, almost failing a course every semester.
Sunny "Course-Failing Student": "Maybe I seized the opportunity"
With a monthly salary exceeding ten thousand yuan and signing with China's largest internet company, as a "course-failing student" and the first student in his class to sign a contract, how did Xu Haotian successfully reverse his situation?
Yesterday, the reporter met this young man who made his classmates exclaim "I'm astonished" (along with my friends) on the Qianwei campus of Jilin University. Born in 1993, standing at 1.75 meters tall, with simple short hair, Xu Haotian, studying network and information security in the School of Computer Science and Technology at Jilin University, gave the reporter the first impression of being sunny. "Opportunities always go to those who are prepared, maybe I seized the opportunity." The young man scratched his head, somewhat embarrassed.
In mid-September, Xu Haotian received a call from the human resources department of Alibaba Group, notifying him that he had become an official employee of Alibaba. Just half a month before, he was so nervous about the interview results that he couldn't sleep.
"I am not a traditionally good student, my academic performance ranks at the bottom of the class, from freshman to senior year, I basically failed a course every semester." Xu Haotian said, although his academic performance was not ideal, he was a person with clear goals.
"Since high school, I have been particularly interested in the Internet industry, after entering university, I became even more clear about my direction. I like to research, whether it's technology or product design, I think this thing is very mysterious and attractive." In university, Xu Haotian was always researching the Internet industry. In the first semester of his junior year, he created a website called "Foodie Alliance" for online food ordering services; in the second semester of his junior year, he and his classmates developed the WeChat public platform "Are You Still Sleeping", which became popular on the Jilin University campus.
The Two Steps of Reversal
Speed: Preparing for Internship Four Months in Advance
In Xu Haotian's words, when he used the energy to do ten things to focus on one thing, success was not far away. In order to enter Alibaba Group, he could say he was fully prepared. "Every May, big companies like Alibaba will hold recruitment presentations at universities across the country, and recruit interns during the summer vacation, I just wanted to intern at Alibaba." Xu Haotian said that Alibaba did not come to Jilin Province this year to hold a presentation, so he took the train to Harbin Institute of Technology to participate. "At that time, I already realized that I was about to graduate, and should consider employment."
After participating in Alibaba's presentation in Harbin, Xu Haotian immediately sent his resume to Alibaba Group and Tencent Company, and soon received interview notifications from both companies. "The competition for positions at Tencent was too intense, thousands of people competing for one internship opportunity, while Alibaba recruited 270 interns nationwide, I was fortunate to be one of them." Xu Haotian said, when he learned that he had obtained the internship opportunity, he was overjoyed. "I am closer to my dream." He silently encouraged himself.
In early August, Xu Haotian arrived alone at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou to report for duty. At this time, most of his classmates still had no awareness of internships.
"September is the peak period for campus recruitment, many classmates were waiting, but I knew if I wanted to enter Alibaba, I had to act faster than others." Xu Haotian said.
Endurance: Successfully Passing Three Interviews
In early September, while interning at Alibaba's Taobao Search Product Department, Xu Haotian received a notice for the formal interview, scheduled three days later. "I was quite nervous at the time, after all, it was about my future, but I didn't expect there would be three consecutive interviews." Before the first interview, Xu Haotian specifically reviewed the work he was responsible for from beginning to end.
"The main examiner for the first interview was our department director, mainly asking professional questions related to my work, it went relatively smoothly." Thinking he had passed the interview, Xu Haotian was notified that there would be a second and third interview two days later. "The second interviewer was the vice president of the business unit, he conducted a more comprehensive evaluation, mainly targeting my basic qualities and work abilities. And the last interviewer was a data analyst, mainly focusing on specific content from my resume, such as the details of creating the 'Are You Still Sleeping' platform." Xu Haotian said.
Finally passing the three interviews, afterwards, Xu Haotian began to wait, "After the internship ended, I returned to Jilin University for classes, while waiting for the final news."
Good things take time, the long-awaited offer (acceptance notification) finally reached Xu Haotian's hands half a month after the interview. On the day he learned that he had been accepted, the young man solemnly wrote in his diary: Today, my dream has come true.
Series Reports on Graduation Job Hunting Season Advice for Junior Students
Xu Haotian: If I am stronger than others, then it might be persistence. Alibaba is where I want to go, and I must strive for it. Many companies, especially large ones, now place great emphasis on students' practical skills, especially us "IT guys," having tangible works can add significant weight when job hunting. Many classmates around me lack this awareness. Moreover, resumes also have requirements, each company needs different positions, you cannot create a universal resume, it must be targeted. In the resume I submitted to Alibaba, I mainly focused on the product manager position of the company, and ultimately successfully applied to become an internet product manager.