Luxurious Electric New Force "ZEEKR": Welcoming Professionals from the Internet, AI, and Live-streaming E-commerce | Autumn Recruitment Report
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
In 2024, "finding a reliable job" and "recruiting reliable people" remain mutually troubling problems. We firmly believe that, aside from traditional large companies, there are still a large number of employer companies in the market that are in line with the dividends of the next era, waiting to be discovered. The potential of the Track, business logic, personnel situation... Mastery and insight into this information determine the vision of job seekers in choosing a company, as well as the quality and depth of interview communication.
Anonymous company gossip may be helpful for job seekers to avoid risks - but those career opportunities with scarcity and growth potential should not be missed because of an aimless comment on the Internet. During the spring and autumn seasons with a large volume of recruitment, 36Kr @ Workplace Bonus uses a professional scoring model to screen out a batch of "dividend companies" that are recruiting for on-site factory exploration. Combining multiple perspectives from investors and headhunters, it asks questions to employers, bringing you a recruitment report of dividend companies that can be "understood in one article".
Three years of entrepreneurship ╱ 01
Exploring a new growth curve ╱ 02
Faith in the torrent ╱ 03
About "Zeekr", you can also learn these ahead of other job seekers ╱ 04
Workplace Bonus has learned that the intelligent mobility technology company "Zeekr" is currently conducting its autumn recruitment. This recruitment is mainly for social recruitment, and the recruitment departments cover core areas such as "intelligent driving, three-electric systems, and cockpits". Among them, "R & D" and "marketing" are the key recruitment positions, and the main working locations are Base "Hangzhou, Hangzhou Bay, and Shanghai". The HR department of Zeekr told Workplace Bonus that from the current talent market and recruitment needs, key talents are still in short supply. The "Golden March and April, Golden September and October" are no longer the best delivery windows. As long as there is a demand for core positions, the company's recruitment enthusiasm will continue.
In 2021, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in the Chinese market was less than 10%, which was regarded as a "trend" in the eyes of many. Geely aimed at the intelligent electric track and quickly assembled personnel to incubate and establish a "new force" automotive technology company - that is, the later Zeekr. Now, this "young" startup company is about to Welcome its fourth year. In May of this year, Zeekr successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange in the United States, which also set a new record for the fastest listing of a Chinese new energy vehicle company in the United States.
Adhering to the founding concept of a "user-oriented enterprise", Zeekr focuses on the R & D of forward-looking technologies for intelligent electric mobility, builds a technology ecosystem and a user ecosystem, and takes "creating an ultimate travel experience" as its mission. From product innovation, user experience innovation to business model innovation, it is committed to bringing users the ultimate travel experience. At the beginning of its establishment, Zeekr positioned itself as a luxury technology brand and has now launched 6 models for sale. As of October 31, 2024, the cumulative delivery has exceeded 360,000 units, continuously Breaking the delivery record.
Since its birth, Zeekr has relied on the industrial foundation and global superior resources accumulated by Geely Holding Group over the past 38 years to quickly build a complete pure electric intelligent technology ecosystem and pioneer the "Zeekr Model" of the third track of pure electric development.
However, Zeekr has also positioned itself as an independent company from the beginning. When interviewed by HR, a word was mentioned many times - the entrepreneurial mindset. As the saying goes, "There is no making without breaking." Compared with other startups, Zeekr has an additional "breaking" Link.
From the innovative operation model to the construction of the talent team, Zeekr almost started from scratch. After going through the early stage that was called the "barbaric growth period" by old employees, the number of Zeekr employees has "grown from more than 3,000 in 2021 to more than 17,000 now".
The demand for talents in the automotive field is becoming more and more diverse. The HR department of Zeekr told Workplace Bonus that "the company warmly welcomes outstanding talents with in-depth experience in professional fields from industries such as the Internet, artificial intelligence, and live-streaming e-commerce."
"Whether they have a common sense of mission" is the key for Zeekr to measure talents. For this reason, the company has established its own "ZEEKR + Entrepreneurial Portrait" - Zero, Entrepreneurial, Efficient, Keen, and Reliable professional values, and the "+" sign represents a sense of crisis, requiring everyone who joins to always maintain a sense of crisis, continuously evolve their own abilities based on strategic needs, and be ready to deal with various risks and challenges at any time.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
Three years of entrepreneurship
In the heart of Hangzhou, there stands a 288-meter-tall skyscraper with a streamlined avant-garde curved surface design. Standing inside the building and looking out, you can have a panoramic view of the Qiantang River. "Zeekr Building" - Even for us who often explore factories, the luxury of the headquarters of this new energy "startup company" has reached a somewhat "exaggerated" level.
"This office building is bright, spacious, and has a good working environment. Everyone's sense of happiness is very high." Qin Feng, the person in charge of talent insight and the HRD of the ecological business, told Workplace Bonus that in July this year, Zeekr's headquarters moved to Wangchao Center, which is known as the "second tallest building in Hangzhou". "With the rapid expansion of the number of employees in recent years, the original office building even had a phenomenon where an average of 1.5 people shared one workstation, which also forced us to look for a new office building."
Qin Feng has been with "Geely" for nearly ten years and is now the 001 employee of Zeekr recruitment. From the preparation to the establishment, and then to the rapid expansion, Qin Feng has witnessed the entire process of Zeekr from gestation to growth. Looking back on the three years of Zeekr's entrepreneurship, Qin Feng said, "The development in these years has been very fast. We may have done what others would do in ten years in just three years."
For a startup company, team building is undoubtedly the most urgent and difficult thing. Due to the need for project confidentiality, few people knew about Zeekr in the early stage. On the eve of the official announcement of the company's establishment on April 15, 2021, the key top management (CEO, CFO, CMO, CHO) was determined, and the heads of other departments were not in place until August of the same year.
Qin Feng told Workplace Bonus that because they chose to take the completely different track of 100% direct sales and full self-research and development of pure electric vehicles from "Geely", most of the talent teams had to be built from scratch. "From the idea of establishing a new company at the end of 2020 to the official announcement of its establishment in April 2021, it's only five months in total," Even though he experienced it himself, Jensen, the HRD of marketing services, still finds it "incredible". "In March 2021, we built the sales team from scratch. With the launch of the vehicle model, the first store was opened."
"Many people think that we have a big tree to lean on, but in fact, it is not the case." Qin Feng said that working at Zeekr, everyone always adheres to the entrepreneurial mindset and builds an independent system on the basis of breaking the original things. In terms of culture, "the hierarchical culture of traditional vehicle companies is more significant, while Zeekr's differentiated self-positioning is a 'technology company' and a 'new force'. The company culture more advocates a diverse and equal culture similar to that of Internet companies, and internally, people will use 'nicknames' to address each other."
In addition, since Zeekr decided to do full self-research and development of pure electric vehicles from the beginning, a large number of top R & D talents need to be introduced - even "Geely" has never done the full-link self-research before. Qin Feng told Workplace Bonus: In order to attract high-tech talents, the company has also put a lot of thought into employee salary and benefits. For example, there are dozens of benefits such as the employee onboarding gift package, various peripheral products that are both high-quality and practical, and customized employee uniforms that are the same as those for e-commerce users Facing users.
"Workplace Bonus" (ID: ZhiChangHongLi)
Exploring a new growth curve
The product power has always been the most core competitiveness of To C manufacturers. When talking about the company's production concept, Qin Feng summarized it into three keywords: Safety, extremity, and full-stack self-research and development.
"Sometimes I even feel that the company has a'stupid' energy - even though it is rarely seen, we always produce cars in accordance with the safest principles." Qin Feng believes that compared with some Dominant characteristics such as appearance and price, most users may not pay attention to the safety configuration of the car when purchasing. "In addition, many of our parts are configured beyond the original price, and the functions of all vehicle models are very complete. And because it is backed by 'Geely' and has the global industrial chain advantage, users can enjoy the same quality parts of luxury brands at a higher cost performance."
"Every car of Zeekr is very easy to drive. For example, our first model 001 has a solid driving texture and at the same time gathers the advantages of a shooting brake, large space, and strong passability." Bi Yun, who is responsible for the operational management of Zeekr's subscription business, confidently added on the side. He himself is a car owner and had driven almost all models of Audi when he worked at Audi Mobility before.
In addition to consolidating the mainline business, Zeekr is also constantly exploring the second growth curve. Qin Feng told Workplace Bonus that the ecological business is an innovative business of the company, including three major sectors: energy, e-commerce, and subscription. Workplace Bonus has learned that the three major sectors of Zeekr subscription, e-commerce, and energy have completed the business construction from 0 to 1, 1 to 10, and 10 to 100, and have entered a stable operation period.
When Bi Yun talked about his work experience, the emotions that emerged were both hardship and pride. There were few automotive enterprises in China that originally did the Pan-C-end automotive subscription platform. The subscription team spent a whole year establishing a digital system. "It was officially launched in April 2022, and it only took one and a half hours from the launch to the sold-out - At that time, I felt that I finally made it, just like finally seeing the light after a long dark night."
Tomas, who is responsible for the growth of Zeekr's ecological e-commerce, also has a similar experience. For him, every time an e-commerce product is unveiled at the launch event, he can gain a sense of achievement. "When the Zeekr APP was launched in 2021, there were less than 50 products in the entire mall at the first batch. Now, the number of vehicle models is increasing, the number of car owners is increasing, and car supplies have gradually become a necessity for car owners."
Workplace Bonus found that when the interviewees of Zeekr mentioned the business, the word "team" was always inseparable from their words. "We highly advocate the co-creation culture and advocate that everyone collides, co-creates, and brainstorms together." In the opinion of Zhong Jiu, who is responsible for the operation and cooperation network expansion in the energy department, a team that can co-create together is very rare.
Faith in the torrent
In 2020, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles in China was only 5.4%. However, in 2021, hundreds of new energy vehicle brands emerged in China, and the penetration rate exceeded 10% for the first time, reaching 13.4%.
This year can be said to be the most fiercely competitive period in the entire domestic new energy vehicle market. "Only when the tide recedes can we know who is swimming naked." When the tide ebbs, only enterprises with real strength and foundation can stand out in the competition and develop continuously and stably.
Facing such challenges and pressures, and in such an Impetuous market, how should an employee in the industry respond? The answer given by Zeekr employees is "faith".
Recalling the year when the company was first established, Tomas still feels passionate. "Every night at eleven or twelve o'clock, the office building is bustling with people. Everyone voluntarily works overtime. Although the body is very tired, the spirit is very pleasant. On the first day of the new car delivery, everyone simply celebrated with Coca-Cola in the office, giving a feeling of working together. "He felt that at that time, he was purely supported by love and faith, and also enjoyed the atmosphere of striving for a common cause, and even "liked himself who is full of vitality and spirit."
When mentioning the past situation, several interviewees who experienced the entrepreneurial atmosphere of Zeekr opened the conversation. Bi Yun told Workplace Bonus that he still remembers the words on the gift bag that the company sent one day: The tide is coming, and we need to get involved. Further back, he still remembers the several big words on his Offer Letter from the company: "Strive for the rise of the national automotive industry for a lifetime." - In fact, this sentence is sent to employees in the form of a text message on important nodes such as the company's anniversary - That was the first time in his career that he felt a certain shock, as if he was at a key node in the transformation of the Chinese automotive industry, and he could become a contributor in the historical torrent.
"Relying on the common faith and vision, we have gone through the most difficult period and can also regard the work as part of our own career, and face various tasks with the mentality of the owner."
Zhong Jiu also has a deep understanding of this "owner consciousness". At the end of last year, their team proposed the idea of an unmanned automatic charging robot. CEO An Conghui strongly supported it and officially launched the project in March this year, hoping to be the first to launch it to the whole society in August this year. This project involves many related parties, with tight time, difficult communication, and heavy tasks... He remembers an operational colleague who "took the initiative to pick up the code ability in order to save time for the team". Many simple flashing and programming tasks were handled by him. "From March to August, every day is precisely planned, and everyone treats the work as their own thing. Even two days before the launch event, they were still doing intelligent driving and vehicle machine tests... Fortunately, we finally successfully delivered."
Tomas told Workplace Bonus that in Zeekr, the boss usually only grasps the general direction and does not interfere in the process, providing a sufficient soil for innovation. "Previously, we collaborated with Wuliangye to customize two types of wine. At first, the boss put forward this idea, but later it was actually up to us to explore the story and promote sales." The company is willing to fully respect everyone's ideas and suggestions, and give a sufficient open and inclusive development platform and space.