This is my first English blog post. Even though I’m Chinese, I am planning to write in English from now on. Here are the reasons:

To practice my English
To prepare for studying abroad (so that I can share it with my future foreign friends)
Because it’s cool

Introduction#

Usually, people don’t share their plans with others on their blogs, I guess… Anyway, it’s such a private thing. But I’m an open-minded guy who doesn’t care too much.

Nowadays, I find that a lot of my juniors are confused and anxious about their future plans, overwhelmed by employment pressure (mostly driven by the rise of AI tech). For the purpose of helping latecomers and getting some advice from wiser people on my own plans, I wrote this post. You might know that I am someone who always dares to dream big. So my schedule is just like a daydream. Please, experts, give me suggestions about my plan if you have any constructive ideas.

Choosing college preferences —— decide to learn Computer Major —— 24.7 - 24.9#

At the start of choosing my major and college after the Chinese National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao), I spent some time deciding what major I wanted to study and work in (and also earn a lot of money from). It turned out to be Computer Science.

After that, I began to search for information about colleges I was capable of applying to. After more than ten days of deep research, I decided to apply to Zhejiang University of Technology (ZJUT, where I currently study), even though my Gaokao score was barely enough to get me into an unpopular degree program (which certainly excluded Computer Science). So, it was highly unlikely for me to get into it directly.

If you are familiar with me, you should know that I successfully went through a Change of Major. Yes, in fact, back when I was submitting my college preferences, I had already researched the feasibility of it by reading posts on Baidu Tieba, talking with seniors in ZJUT freshmen group chats, and reading relevant official documents. I’m totally a daydreamer (lol).

So, days after submitting the college preference form, just as I had “hoped,” I got an offer for the chemistry program, and eventually successfully changed my major at the end of the first academic year (I also wrote a blog post about it).

By the way, during that vacation, I spent two months learning C++ and some algorithms. One reason was certainly for my future Major Change Exam; the other was that I was considering preparing for the ACM Contest at the time.

Adapting to college life, and laying foundations for future choices —— 24.9 - 25.2#

September 2024 (24.9) marked the end of the summer vacation before formally stepping into college. At that point, I encountered zjutjh, a club at ZJUT consisting of many high-tech computer lovers. There, I was introduced to the job of a website/software developer, met lots of ambitious and distinctive people, and stumbled upon my possible future —— being a front-end developer.

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I haven’t mentioned yet that I’m not a local in Hangzhou, where ZJUT is located. So coming here felt like a tour to me. I experienced a colorful life here, but that’s not today’s topic.

Oh, don’t forget, I was still a chemistry student at that time. So while taking chemistry courses, I was also learning front-end development. But I wasn’t too busy because most engineering programs share a similar course schedule at my school, usually consisting of Advanced Mathematics, a programming language (mostly C++ or Python), College English, and so on.

At that time, I learned how to develop the front-end of a website in just two weeks and produced my first website (as a sort of entrance exam), although it was really ugly and hard to use. I had my first teamwork development project with others (who are my friends right now). I built my blog (yeah, the one you’re surfing right now). I also took part in the development of an official online project (named WeJH).

As we all know, in China, college students usually have four post-graduation pathways:

Taking the National Postgraduate Entrance Examination (requires you to study hard in the last two years of college)
Postgraduate recommendation (a standard policy in Chinese colleges, requiring you to work hard your entire college life to compete with others for limited spots)
Studying abroad (usually costs a large amount of money)
Direct employment

At that period, I thought there was a 60% chance for me to directly get employed, 30% to take the postgraduate entrance exam, and 10% for the remaining two.

OK, remember this percentage distribution, my readers. After a period, it will change a lot. This reveals how my considerations for my future plans shifted during different periods.

Make a rough decision to work as a developer —— 25.2 - 25.9#

As my experience and skills in front-end development grew, working as a front-end developer became a clear, viable pathway for me. I figured I would probably choose this path. It was a stable route back then, after all (when the IT industry hadn’t been heavily disrupted by AI yet).

Repeat again, I am totally a daydreamer. I wish I could earn more money than my parents. And please don’t laugh at me for this “stupid” wish. It’s not easy for me to achieve that. And I deliberately aimed for it when choosing my school and major. It’s well-known that being a coder in a large-scale company usually earns a lot, although, in my view, that “a lot” doesn’t always seem to be enough.

The paragraphs above were written on 2026-05-20, and the paragraphs below are written on 2026-07-25. Well, maybe just because I’m a little busy, also lazy…

Well, I have totally forgotten the context of this post… Let me just casually write down whatever comes to my mind.

After all, I went through a lazy term from 25.2 to 25.6. Nothing specific happened. Just normally working on some projects, committing some code, and preparing for my Major Change Exam. The result of that exam? A success, certainly.

From 25.6 to 25.9 was the summer holiday. At that time, I spent most of my time in the club —— zjutjh, as management-level staff (In fact, most work was still about website and software projects, not management).

At that period, 70% for directly getting employed, 20% to take the postgraduate entrance exam, and 10% for the others.

AI technology was already quite strong at that time. But I wasn’t too worried about future unemployment because the seniors seemed to “succeed” with such jobs. This is how the environment influences an individual—gradually and unconsciously. You probably won’t even notice that your way of thinking has changed, becoming quite different from how you used to be.

Crush? Break down? Wake up? - 25.9 - 26.2#

You might notice that I mostly divide sections by school terms. Yes, you’re right. It’s for my own convenience to write such an article in English. SO HARD! There might be better ways to structure it, but I just want to finish this post, which has dragged on for 2 months.

Bet on Embodied Intelligence#

Back to context.

It’s usually hard for an individual to suddenly change their future plans unless something big happens.

There were two events that contributed to my reconsideration about my future, I guess:

I started to truly feel the impact of AI coding tools myself.
In October 2025, my family hosted a banquet to celebrate achieving a small financial goal.

For the first one, I experienced how strong AI was on my own. Also, I searched for and watched serious AI-related videos, including talks from various “professors” across different fields (some are just internet keyboard warriors, so I add quotation marks), and some interviews with Elon Musk.

I started to re-evaluate my understanding of AI technology’s development, and even the world’s.

Here was my basic idea of AI:

This is the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The world will be fundamentally changed over the next few decades, just as it was after the invention of the Steam Engine and humanity’s mastery of Electricity.

I don’t want to over-explain this. I just believe the entire industrial structure of society will be completely transformed in the coming years.

So, this led to a question —— will programmers become unemployed?

Hah, I’m not sure. But I just believe that traditional path won’t be the one I want to take.

At first, I just considered becoming a postgraduate student in AI. But finally, my eyes were caught by a new phrase —— embodied intelligence.

If you are totally unfamiliar with that term, you can just think of it as “Robots.”

Here is my opinion (translated by AI. In fact, my original intention for this passage was to show exactly this):

From a macro perspective: software-level applications like agent development are ultimately restricted by two carriers —— network and computer. AI, as the highly possible core tech of the forth Industrial Revolution, is the core of productivity reform in our new era. This technology will bring contemporary people a shock and a huge leap in productivity, which totally surpasses what steam engine did to the manual era, electrical devices to the steam era, and Internet to the electrical era. And obviously, such a leap couldn’t just be achieved inside a tiny computer or behind a single screen. Technology needs to be landed into the real physical world, and AI needs a pair of hands to work. Just like steam engine needs a locomotive to run thousands of miles, electricity needs various electric devices to bring us the electrical era and needs light bulbs to light up the earth, and the Internet needs to enter thousands of households’ computers and cellphones to truly change people’s lives. Embodied Intelligence —— is exactly the way how AI, this infinite energy source, changes the world.

Consider studying abroad#

The banquet hosted by my family made me aware of our real financial situation. Also, at that time, two coincidences happened.

First, my father asked me to contact a relative who had earned a considerable amount of money in Denmark.

Second, one of my seniors was considering studying abroad.

I started to formally consider studying abroad.

After contacting relevant organizations both online and offline, and spending dozens of hours searching and organizing information on the Internet, I found a reasonably feasible path.

I knew that studying abroad (without a massive budget prepared) could be a challenge. But deep down, I wanted to experience new cultures and a new lifestyle. Rationally thinking, such a challenge would make me grow a lot.

Now 50% for studying abroad, 30% for getting employed directly, and 20% for taking the postgraduate entrance exam.

However, this doesn’t mean I will give up on finding internships or other ways to earn money and hone my skills during the last two and a half years of my college life.

On the contrary, I must prove myself by showing my ability to earn money, so that I can get my family’s support to study abroad. Plus, it’s a great way to challenge myself.

END#

It is July 2026 (26.7) right now. But I am a bit reluctant to write another paragraph about my experience during the recent term.

That’s all.