Zhao Shu was a frontend engineer at a Shanghai internet company. The night before the Dragon Boat Festival, she received her layoff notice.
She thought her performance wasn't bad, and she wasn't the most expensive person. Her first reaction was anger.
The most direct reason for her layoff was AI. She was responsible for merchant-side business. The backend would submit requirements, and she would build the pages. Now with AI, the backend could write frontend code themselves. In fact, over the past two or three months, the requirements she received had been getting fewer and fewer. In the last month, she had no work at all.
Zhao Shu returned from maternity leave just last year. Balancing work and childcare had already been exhausting. Recently, with anxiety about AI potentially replacing her job, she decided to adjust her mindset: "When I get to the new business, I'll '卷起来'—I'll work harder." But she never expected it to happen so fast, or that the opportunity to '卷' would disappear entirely.
Zhao Shu blamed herself for not being sensitive or fast enough. But for those who haven't been laid off yet, sensitivity doesn't bring safety—it only brings fear earlier.
After being laid off, Zhao Shu didn't really rest. In her last few days, she often stayed at the company until 8:30 PM, preparing her resume, learning new things, waiting for interviews.
Now when job hunting, pure frontend positions have almost disappeared. The market mostly wants "full-stack engineers," "AI application engineers." She's started learning Python—a backend language—to fill the gap and become a full-stack engineer.
"My husband comforted me: 'Work hard going uphill, enjoy yourself going downhill.'" Zhao Shu is 32 this year. She feels she's still in the uphill phase and cannot stop.