Pet funeral, accompanying services, AI training... In recent years, young people's career fields have been continuously expanded and "new". On social media platforms, many young people share their new experiences and feelings about entering a new career. Why do young people choose new careers? What new experiences are there? What challenges do they face? Recently, a reporter from China Youth Daily and China Youth Network interviewed several young people who changed their careers and worked in new professions to listen to them tell stories about how to choose a direction in a new profession and "find themselves" again.

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  Walk out of the northwest exit of Jijiamiao Station on Beijing Metro Line 10, and you can see a pet funeral shop when you look up. The store is quiet and bright, with the doors open, and some visitors cry with a sound of crying, while others look silent, giving their pets their last journey. The problem faced by pet funeralist Mo Yangyang is: How to help guests say goodbye to their pets?

  More than 1,000 kilometers away, accompanied his clinician Li Chunsheng to the hospital in Shanghai. He picked up the uncle in a wheelchair and took him to the clinic. He also accompanied the aunt from another place to travel back and forth between the hospital buildings. Along the way, Li Chunsheng thought about how to get patients nearby and conveniently as soon as possible.

  More than 2,000 kilometers away in Shenzhen, 29-year-old AI trainer Xiang Nan (pseudonym), sat in the grid of an Internet company, facing lines of data codes, making the answers generated by the AI ​​more in line with user instructions.

  These young people follow their hearts, face the trend of new technologies and new industries, and are brave enough to "be themselves" in pursuing their dreams.

The accompanying clinician Li Chunsheng (first from right) helped the patient with leg and foot inconvenience to the examination table. Photo provided by the interviewee

  Follow your heart and face the wind

  Born in 1998, Mo Yangyang runs a pet funeral shop with two friends in Fengtai District, Beijing. In 2023, she, who was originally engaged in the media industry, decided to enter the pet funeral field because "this is a blue ocean."

  The "2025 China Pet Industry White Paper (Consumption Report)" shows that the pet economy market size exceeded 300 billion yuan in 2024, and the urban (dog and cat) consumer market size increased by 7.5% to 300.2 billion yuan in 2024. Mo Yangyang realized that compared with common pet grooming and pet hospitals, pet funeral is an emerging category. With the increase in pet feeding, "pet death" is an unavoidable issue. She decided to change careers and become a full-time "pet funeralist".

  Choosing a new career requires courage and accepting change. Some of them follow their inner direction, while others aim at the trend of new technologies and new industries to meet challenges.

  Li Chun, 27, went to school for interior design. After graduating from university in 2020, he has been engaged in building materials design and sales. He doesn't like to sit in the grid and draw drawings, nor does he want to bear the pressure of sales performance, and is always looking for a career he really likes.

  In the second half of 2024, he found someone working as a co-patient clinic on social platforms. With his communication skills in sales training, he started working as a co-patient clinic. Li Chunsheng believes that Shanghai has rich medical resources, and as the degree of social aging deepens, the accompanying clinic industry has great room for development.

  Xiangnan also experienced a career change. After graduation, he worked as a teacher and car sales teacher. In 2024, with the rise of various big models, the "AI wind" blows all walks of life and attracts Xiangnan. He learned that AI trainers are a series of positions related to AI training. "As long as they deal with text content, big model evaluation, big model annotation, and command engineers are all AI trainers." He took a fancy to "AI trainers earn good income and are positions that are relatively easy to get started in the AI ​​industry, and their requirements for education and experience are relatively relaxed." Recently, many companies are recruiting experienced AI trainers, so he spent nearly 20,000 yuan to sign up for AI training classes, facing the "AI wind", and embarking on the road to changing careers.

Pet funeralist Mo Yangyang held a farewell ceremony for the pet. Photo provided by the interviewee

  Feel the sense of responsibility needed

  Mo Yangyang discovered that many young people were "at a loss" when facing the death of their pets. At this time, she would comfort them, "most importantly, cherish the last time I was with it." She listened patiently and shared her experiences to relieve them of their emotions in the face of parting.

  One day in October 2024, Li Chunsheng, with paper, pen and water, met his first guest - an aunt in her 50s. This aunt had a foot pain and was going to Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital for treatment. On the day of accompanying the doctor, he prepared a guide in advance and accompanied his aunt to orthopedics and neurology for examinations. After a complete process, the aunt was very satisfied. Afterwards, Li Chun was promoted to a accompanying medical service company and started a full-time job.

  Now, he is competent for the medical treatment. Before the consultation, you should understand the patient's basic information, condition and medical history, and sometimes give medical advice; during the consultation, take the patient to register and consult, record the doctor's words, and explain it to the patient; after the consultation, he will also organize a summary based on the doctor's advice and feed it back to the patient and his family. He usually starts working at 8 a.m., and orders are 4 hours a day and can take two orders a day.

  After completing the training, Xiangnan became an AI trainer in Shenzhen. His job is to judge and rate the answers to user questions by big models.

  "The score is generally between 0 and 4 points. 0 points is completely unusable. 3 points belong to the baseline, and 4 points belong to the answer is better." Xiang Nan explained that different questions have different annotation rules, and common rules include authenticity, comprehensiveness, logic, etc.

  After becoming a pet funeralist, Mo Yangyang "pained and happy". It is not difficult to deal with pet funerals, but the difficulty is to deal with people's emotions. A guest once brought his child to mourn a 20-year-old cat, who witnessed her own growth. Mo Yangyang realized that this farewell was also the beginning of their farewell to the past and welcomed a new life. Now Mo Yangyang has become more confident and optimistic, realizing that the work he is engaged in can bring spiritual comfort to people, "that is a sense of responsibility that is needed."

  Li Chunsheng realized that it is crucial to pay attention to people’s emotions and needs during the accompanying medical service. Some patients from other places are more anxious and helpless. They will take the initiative to chat to relieve the other party’s tension and improve the efficiency of consultation. Li Chunsheng once accompanied an aunt for 11 hours to undergo an examination. In the hospital, some people regarded him as the old man's son. This moved him a little and realized his value.

  Moving forward while exploring

  Although these young people who choose to change careers cannot fully see the future path, they are moving forward firmly while exploring.

  Li Chunsheng found that many people regard accompanying clinicians as part-time jobs, "This actually has certain risks." Especially when facing older patients, it may be difficult to deal with emergencies and the division of responsibilities is unclear. He also found that it was not easy to find a professional accompanying company. Some companies' main business is cleaning or elderly care. Some companies require him to pay more than 1,000 yuan in fees and promise to accept orders on the platform. "This is actually a housekeeping company, which just provides a part-time qualification. The so-called training is not standardized." Li Chunsheng admitted frankly.

  Now, he chose to join a formal accompanying service company, "We will sign a responsibility agreement before service, and the company is also equipped with a professional legal team." Li Chunsheng plans to continue working in the accompanying clinic industry. He noticed that Shanghai is promoting the standardization of the accompanying clinic professionals and launching a pilot program of accompanying clinic services in 2025. He believes that this industry will develop better and better in the future and more standardized.

  Xiangnan, who changed his career to be an AI trainer, is now very satisfied with this job of "making money, not working overtime, and having flexible time". Xiangnan saw that many people chose this profession because they pursued the trend of the AI ​​industry, hoping to achieve a career leap. He is still waiting and watching the career prospects of AI trainers, worried that this position will be replaced by AI: "At present, AI can be programmed, and it is very likely that data labeling will be completed independently in the future." At present, most Internet companies outsource AI trainers' positions, and this type of work generally has problems such as poor stability, low threshold, high repetition, and limited promotion space. Xiangnan hopes to closely track new developments in AI technology development and be ready to adjust its career development direction at any time.

  At present, Mo Yangyang's store has achieved stable operation. She hopes that more people will understand the pet funeral industry in the future. "As long as it can be known and recognized by the public, it will be progress." (China Youth Daily·China Youth Network Intern Reporter Huang Xiaoying Reporter Huang Chong)

[Editor in charge: Wang Qi]