Rebirth 10: I'm a Promoter at Tencent

At 2:41 a.m., the Tencent Human Resources Department conference room on the 16th floor of the Tencent Building was brightly lit, having been temporarily set up as a centralized office space.

On the computer screen in front of Li Wei, a dense list of employee files scrolled by. These were the first batch of 67 candidates she had selected from the talent pool of the wireless business group.

And she wasn't the only one doing this tedious work; there were also three other HRBPs from other business groups around her doing the same thing.

Someone brought over freshly printed resumes from the printing shop, slammed them down on the conference table with a thud, and hurried away. The warm paper was now almost taller than a coffee cup.

Finally, someone couldn't hold back any longer and asked Li Wei, "Li Wei, where did this monster Lin Shen come from? Since I joined Tencent, I've never encountered a team expansion that requires screening so many people beforehand, and this is only the first round."

The atmosphere in the office became heavy. Being called in to work overtime late at night was really frustrating, not to mention that these HRBPs were all influential figures in their respective business groups. They came from Tencent's Social Network Group, Interactive Entertainment Group, and Corporate Development Group.

Such a joint selection process across business groups is rare in Tencent's history.

At this point, someone raised their question: "Li Wei, you said that I selected 53 people from the Social Network Business Group based on the two basic conditions of 'more than three years of mobile development experience' and 'participation in at least one project with more than one million daily active users'."

The problem is that 22 of these 53 people are the technical leads or core architects of their respective projects. If I really transfer these people to WeChat, what will happen to their original projects? How am I supposed to explain this to my boss?

"Our situation is actually more complicated," said the HRBP from the Interactive Entertainment Group, a wry smile playing on his lips. "As you know, game engineers generally earn over 30% more than those in other business groups. How can I convince them to switch from game engine development to instant messaging without a pay raise?"

Li Wei had interviewed many people and was familiar with many sales pitches, but at this moment, she really didn't know how to answer these HR questions. As the deputy leader of this joint working group, even with a stronger boss backing her up, she felt that this task was extremely difficult.

All eyes turned to Li Wei.

Li Wei thought for a moment, stopped flipping through the resumes, and looked up. On the table in front of her was a special document. It wasn't a special employee file, but a copy of an email that Lin Shen had sent from his rented apartment half an hour earlier.

The email's subject was simple: "Supplementary Explanation Regarding WeChat Team's Talent Needs."

"First of all, let's be clear, Lin Shen wasn't actually recruited by me. He was interviewed in the final round of campus recruitment in July. There were twelve people interviewed that day, and he was the first one. He was originally interviewed for intern positions, as you all know, but he was promoted to a full-time employee after receiving a report from President Zhou."

She picked up the printed copy: "And I showed this to you earlier, but you all thought it wasn't suitable. But now, I think you should take another look together and make things a little easier for us."

Lin Shen's needs were actually quite clear in the printed manuscript:

Sister Wei.

Sorry to bother you so late at night. Regarding the talent needs of the WeChat team, after careful consideration following my conversation with Mr. Zhang, I need to make some key additions.

First, let's make one thing clear: WeChat does not need the pillars or all-round talents for each project.

This is not just politeness or consideration. From a practical point of view, transferring core personnel from various business groups would be too costly in terms of communication. Even with special approval from CEO Ma, it would create too many enemies within WeChat, which would be detrimental to its long-term development.

From a team-building perspective, an army full of generals is not effective; what we need are soldiers who can solve problems in every specific position.

So please help me find those people—those who have in-depth expertise in a specific niche within QQ, QQ Zone, Tencent Research Institute, and various product lines.

Please note that the "expertise" I'm referring to is not simply "knowing about databases," but rather "being skilled in performance optimization of MySQL on low-memory devices"; not "being able to do push notifications," but rather "being proficient in compatibility handling of push notification channels from various Android manufacturers"; not "understanding audio and video," but rather "having practical experience in ensuring the reachability of voice messages in weak network environments."

Please pay special attention to those who are assigned to tackle the toughest and most difficult tasks in projects. The job title and rank on their resume are not important; what matters is the actual problems they have solved.

I know this requirement sounds abstract, but I have faith in your professional abilities. I'll bring the team over tomorrow morning at nine o'clock, and we'll go over the list together.

林深

This email has ended.

The office was silent for a full minute again.

"This requirement is even harder than asking for a 'pillar of the company.' 'MySQL performance optimization on low-memory devices'? Who would put that kind of experience on their resume?" someone complained about Lin Shen's requirement; he was the one who had most opposed following it.

However, some people offered their opinions at this time: "Now I think he makes some sense. I worked in the social networking business group for six years and I have indeed seen people like this. They are not the most high-profile in the team, but when it comes to particularly tricky and obscure problems, they are often the ones who can solve them in the end."

"But how do we find them?" someone frowned. "If we use traditional screening criteria—job title, project role, management experience—these people might not even come into our sights."

At this point, Li Wei shared her experience from the experiment she had just tried: "So we need to change to a different sieving method."

She accessed Tencent's internal employee project contribution system, a relatively obscure system that records not what honors employees have received or how many levels they have been promoted, but rather what problems they have solved, what code they have contributed, and what bugs they have fixed in specific projects.

"Lin Shen is right," Li Wei said while operating the machine quickly. "What we're looking for isn't an 'all-rounder,' but a 'specialist.' And the mark of a specialist is having a large number of problem-solving records in a specific field."

She entered the first set of screening criteria into the system, and a new list was generated from the talent pool of the wireless business group. There were 23 people, which was more than half less than the previous 67 people, but Li Wei's eyes lit up.

"Look at this." She pulled up the first person's file. "Wu Yuechao, his job title is only intermediate engineer, but in the past two years, he has solved many compatibility issues of mobile QQ on low-end Android devices. Perhaps this is the kind of person Lin Shen needs."

"But such a person..." someone raised concerns. After all, making such a big fuss and then stuffing some people of low rank into the position, how would Lin Shen explain it to them? After all, this person had the imperial sword.

"Let's do it this way. I'll take charge of communicating with Lin Shen." Li Wei didn't care about anything else at this moment. She felt that someone who dared to bring up a betting agreement wouldn't care about things like job titles. Moreover, she really didn't want to waste time arguing with the heads of various business groups because of those "pillars of the company."

A few minutes later, the Social Networks Group HRBP compromised and selected 18 people from their own list.

The HRBPs of the Interactive Entertainment Business Group also made moves, selecting 21 people.

……

Once the screening logic is clear, the work becomes efficient and targeted.

The four HRBPs began to divide the work, with some focusing on "performance optimization" expertise, others on "data transmission and networking" expertise, and still others emphasizing "multi-platform compatibility" expertise...

At 4:17 a.m., the four sub-lists were merged and duplicates were removed, resulting in a new list of 87 people, which was then placed on everyone's desk.

Of the 87 people, none were at the level of expert engineer or above, and more than half were only intermediate engineers. However, they all had one thing in common: they had a solid record of problem-solving in a very specific field.

Li Wei printed out the list, 87 files, each with a detailed record of how the problems were resolved.

"Do you think Lin Shen's words could be considered an implication?" After a period of frantic activity, the brief gossip was somewhat therapeutic. The four of them slumped in their chairs, chatting idly. They talked about Lin Shen's emails, but with a human resources mindset.

Lin Shen seemed to be hinting in the email that "the job level and title on the resume are not important." Conversely, this means that on WeChat, they can obtain things that they could not obtain in their original positions.

"I guess so! After all, Lin Shen's project is Tencent's number one 'project' right now."

"Do you think WeChat can truly define the next era?"

In fact, as HR professionals, they also analyzed why WeChat is so highly valued. The perspective of ordinary people is sometimes not so short-sighted.

Sometimes, however, ordinary people simply don't have the ability to do anything after seeing something.

"Perhaps, there are more than 20, who are fortunate enough to participate in and define the next era."

"What you're saying makes me want to switch to WeChat."

……

-----------------

At 6:40 a.m., in the garage of Building C, Kexing Science Park.

Lin Shen, carrying four breakfasts, was the first to push open the door. Lu Chuan, Li Yue, and Cheng Xiangdong followed in one after another, some of them with wet hair, clearly having just taken a shower.

"Let's eat and talk!" Lin Shen pointed to the breakfast on the temporary meeting table.

Amidst the rustling sounds, Lin Shen said, "Last night, I met with President Ma."

"Cough cough cough..."

Lu Chuan nearly choked on his soy milk, and Li Yue cut him off with his first question: "Boss, are you talking about CEO Ma?"

"Pony Horse".

"Wow, boss, is Mr. Ma a kind person?" Lu Chuan's focus was clearly different from others.

"That's not important. What's important are three things. WeChat 1.2 will be launched in a week, with the goal of providing the ultimate privacy experience. And this pilot program may later be used on all other related Tencent products."

"Ultimate?" Cheng Xiangdong muttered to himself, then added as a reminder, "Boss, version 1.1 was released yesterday, the requirements document for 1.2..."

"I'll handle this one. Now, let's talk about the second thing: we're moving! The team has been approved to expand to thirty people, and HR has started screening people overnight. At 9 a.m. today, I need you guys to come with me to HR to find our people."

"One last thing, on the day version 1.2 was released, it was recommended in all QQ pop-up windows."

The three sentences were like three bombs, stunning everyone. Everyone's mouths were agape, even Li Yue, who was usually very conscious of her image.