Interviewed ten young Chinese people for two positions last month at Pimax (designer & copywriter). Nearly all applicants changed jobs or roles last year as companies went bankrupt or downsized due to covid restrictions:

“The company doesn’t need a writer now, my manager told me to either leave or become an account manager.”

“We used to have a team of more than ten designers. Now it’s only four, very inexperienced. And I’m suddenly managing this team.”

“I’m not doing any real visual design work anymore, it’s backend stuff, laying out information but nobody cares about how it looks. I don’t like it.”

When asked how they want to develop themselves, all mentioned AI as something they want or have to learn to use in their craft.