我收到最好的职业建议[译]
原文是著名的前端大牛Nicholas C. Zakas，我就是看他写的《JavaScript 高级程序设计》入门前端的。网上看到他的这篇文章，感觉不错，与编码无太多相关，在别的行业也有通用性，在此总结下。
- 不要成为只会做快餐的厨师
- 自我推销
- 领导能力
- 工作不是你生命的全部
- 权威，你有自己的风格
- 从“怎样？”转到“什么？”
- 表现出你在负责
- 让他们赢
- 和比你聪明的人在一起
Don’t be a short-order cook不要成为只会做快餐的厨师
My very first job lasted 8 months because the company shut down. As I was talking with my manager about what I would do next, he gave me this advice:
因为公司倒闭了我的第一份工作只持续了8个月。当我和我的经理讨论我下一步该做什么时，他给了我一下建议
Nicholas, you’re worth more than your code. Whatever your next gig is, make sure that you’re not a short-order cook. Don’t accept a job where you’re told exactly what to build and how to build it. You need to work somewhere that appreciates your insights into the product as well as your ability to build it.
Nicholas，你的价值不仅仅是你的代码。无论你接下来要做什么，要确保你不是一个做快餐的厨子。永远不要接那些告你你该做什么和改怎么做的工作。你应该去那些赏识你的洞察力以及构建产品能力的公司。
This is something I’ve kept in mind throughout my career. Simply being an implementer isn’t good enough – you need to be involved in the process that leads up to implementation. Good engineers don’t just follow orders, they give feedback to and work with product owners to make the product better. Fortunately, I’ve chosen my jobs wisely and never ended up in a situation where people didn’t respect or value my insights.
这句话一直贯穿我的职业生涯。只是简单的代码实现者是不够的——你必须参与到整个开发过程中。好的开发者不仅仅是遵循命令，他们和产品拥有者一起工作，并且反馈让产品做的更好。幸运的是，我在选择工作的时候很机智，并且不会在一个不尊重我洞察力的公司待上很久。
Self-promote自我推销
My second manager at Yahoo pulled me aside one day to give me some advice. He had been watching my work and felt like I was hiding a bit:
我第二个经理有一天把我拉到一边给了我一些建议。他在我的日常工作中发现我有点内向
You do great work. I mean really great work. I like how your code looks and that it rarely breaks. The problem is that others don’t see it. In order for you to get credit for the work you’re doing, you have to let people know. You need to do a bit of self-promotion to get noticed.
你在工作上做的很棒。我很喜欢你的编码风格和连贯性。但是有一个问题：你努力的工作别人却没发现。为了让你在工作上得到别人的好评，你应该让别人看到的工作成果。你需要做一些自我推销来引起别人的注意。
It took me a little while to digest what he was saying, but I finally figured it out. If you do good work, but no one knows that you did good work, then it doesn’t really help you. Your manager can back you up but can’t make your case for you. People within the organization need to understand your value, and the best way to do that is to tell people what you did.
我花了些时间来理解他说的话让，但是最后我还是了然了。如果你努力工作，但是没人知道你做的很棒，然而并没有什么卵用。你的经理能顶你，但是不能帮你证明什么。你一起工作的队友需要知道你的价值所在，最好的方式就是告诉他们你做了什么。
This is advice I give to many of my colleagues now. Self-promoting doesn’t mean, “look at me, I’m awesome.” It means letting people know when you’ve hit major milestones, or when you’ve learned something new. It means showing people the work that you’re proud of. It means celebrating your accomplishments and the accomplishments of others. It means being visible within the organization. The engineer who sits quietly in a corner and just codes away is always a bit mysterious – don’t be like that. A quick email to say, “hey, I finished the new email layout. Let me know what you think” goes a long way.
我把这个建议给了我很多同事。自我推销并不是指：看！我做一个很吊的东西。它意味着让别人知道你的工作有了巨大进展或者让他们知道你学到了一些新内容。它意味向别人展示你所骄傲的成果。它意味着庆祝自己以及别人的成就。它意味着向你所在的组织证明你的价值。做在角落自己摸摸敲代码的工程师看起来有点神秘——千万别这么做。一封简单的邮件”hi，我完成了邮件的新布局，大家看看怎么样“，往往更好。
It’s about people领导能力
I was very title-driven earlier in my career. I always wanted to know what I had to do to be promoted. During my first one-on-one with my new manager on the Yahoo homepage, I asked what it would take for me to get promoted. His words still ring in my ears:
在我早起的职业生涯中总是：头衔驱动。我老是想我改做点什么才能晋升。在一次雅虎主页上与新经理的一对一会议上，我问：我需要做什么才能晋升？他说的话一直在我耳中盘旋。
At a certain point, you stop being judged on your technical knowledge and start being judged on the way you interact with people.
当你不再是依靠技术技能被评定而是依靠人与人之间的互动评定。
I’m not sure I’ve ever received a better insight into the software engineering profession since that time. He was exactly right. At that point, no one was questioning my technical ability. I was known as a guy who wrote good, high-quality code that rarely had bugs. What I lacked was leadership skill.
自从那以后我更深入的理解了软件工程师这个职业。他完全正确。在那时，没有人怀疑我的技术能力。我以写高质量，几乎零bugs的代码而出名。我所缺少的是领导能力。
Since that time, I’ve seen countless engineers get stuck at one level in their career. Smart people, good code, but the inability to work effectively with others keeps them where they are. Anytime someone feels stuck in their software engineering career, I recount this advice and it has always been right on the money.
从那时起，我看到无数工程师处于他们职业生涯的瓶颈期。他们聪明，写着一手好代码，然而缺乏有效的与同事高效交流的能力。这将他们困在原地。一旦有人困在他们软件工程生涯的瓶颈期，我都会给他们这个建议。
None of this matters工作不是你生命的全部
I went through a period at Yahoo where I was frustrated. Maybe frustrated isn’t the right word, more like angry. I had angry outbursts and was arguing with people constantly. Things were going wrong and I didn’t like that. During one particularly rough day, I asked one of my mentors how he managed to stay calm when so many things were going wrong. His response:
曾几何时我在雅虎惆怅过一段时间。或许惆怅不贴切，愤怒更准确点吧。我发脾气，并且和别人争吵。事情变得越来越糟糕，但是我也不喜欢这样。有一天，我心情非常差，就问我导师如何在面对这么多问题时保持冷静的。他回答：
It’s easy. You see, none of this matters. So some crappy code got checked in, so the site went down. So what? Work can’t be your whole life. These aren’t real problems, they’re work problems. What really matters is what happens outside of work. I go home and my wife is waiting for me. That’s pretty nice.
其实这很简单。你看，这其实都不是事儿。一些垃圾代码混入导致站点变慢。哪有怎样？工作不是你的全部。这些都不是真正的问题，它们只是工作上的问题。真正重要的是工作外的事。我回家我的妻子在那等我，这才是最幸福的。
I had moved to California from Massachusetts and had a hard time making friends. Work was my life, it was what kept me sane, so when it wasn’t going that meant my life wasn’t going well. This conversation made me realize I had to have something else going on in my life, something I could go back to and forget about the troubles I had at work.
我当时从Massachusetts搬到California并且很难交到朋友。所以工作变成了我的全部，工作让我清醒。所以一旦工作除了问题我的生活也就出现了问题。这次对话让我意识到生活中需要有些东西能够让我回家后忘记工作中带来的痛苦。
He was right, once I shifted my mindset and recategorized the annoying things at work as “work things,” I was able to think more clearly. I was able to calm down at work and have much more pleasant interactions with people.
他是对的，当我调整心态并且将这些工作中遇到的令人恼火的事情重新归为“工作”的时候，我能够思考的更加清楚。我还能够让自己冷静下来与人进行更愉悦的交流。
Authority, your way权威，你有自己的风格
When I was first promoted to principal engineer at Yahoo, I sat down with my director to better understand what the role entailed. I knew I had to be more of a leader, but I was having trouble being authoritative. I asked for help. Here’s what he said:
当被提升为雅虎的首席工程师时，我与主管一起讨论这个职位所需要承担的责任。我明白这个职位更应该是个领导者，但是我并不知道如何使自己更具权威性。我请他帮忙。这是他所说的
I can’t tell you how to be authoritative, that’s something you need to figure out on your own. Different people have different styles. What you need to do is find a style that you can live with, that makes you comfortable. I can’t tell you what that is, but you do need to find it for this position.
我不能告诉你应该如何具有权威性，每个人的风格不同，你应该自己发掘出来。你应该做的是找到适合自己的风格。我不能告诉你你的风格是什么，但是你应该找到适合这个职位的。
I spent a lot of time that year observing people of authority and how they interacted with others. I took note as to how they walked, how they talked, how they dealt with problem situations. I tried different styles before I finally came across one that worked for me. My style is uniquely me and anyone learning to be in a position of authority has to go through the same growing pains. My advantage was that my mentor clued me about the process up front.
那一年，我花了很多时间来观察那些有权威的人以及他们与人交流的方式。我把他们走路的方式，讲话的方式以及处理问题的方式记录了下来。我试过许多不同的方式，最后终于找到了能为我用的风格。我的风格只适合我，任何处于权威性位置的人都会经历同样痛苦的学习过程。我的优势是领导一开始就跟我讲明了情况。
Moving from “how?” to “what?”从“怎样？”转到“什么？”
During a conversation with my manager at Yahoo, I asked what the expectations were with my new position. He answered:
在与经理的一次交谈中，我问道这个新职位的期望是什么。他回答说：
To this point in your career, you’ve answered the question, “how?” As in, we tell you what needs to be done and you figure out how to do it. At this point, though, you need to answer the question, “what?” I’m expecting you to come and tell me what needs to be done.
到现在为止，你的职业在回答“怎样？”这个问题。即我们告诉你应该做什么然后你想出怎样做。而从这一刻开始，你应该回答的问题是“什么？”。我希望你能够过来告诉我应该做什么。
This is the part where I see a lot of engineers get tripped up, and I would have as well if not for this piece of advice. Switching from “how?” to “what?” is very hard and takes time to develop. It also takes a bit of maturity to be left to your own desires as to what you focus on. After all, if you can spend your time on anything you want, you are also solely responsible for what you produce.
我看到许多工程师都在这个部分犯错误。如果没有这个建议我同样会陷入困境。从“怎样？”转到“什么？”是很困难的，并且需要许多时间来发展。你需要对自己所向往的以及所关注的事情有一个比较成熟的认识。毕竟，假如你能够花费时间在任何你想的事情上，你也应该独自对自己所创作的作品负责。
At Box, we call this “running open loop,” meaning that you do your job with minimal oversight and yet still are making a significant positive impact on the engineering organization and the company as a whole. This is the step where many engineers fail to make the leap, and I still give this advice to anyone who is trying to get to the next level.
在盒子中，我们称其为“开环运行”，意味着在最少的监督下你完成工作并且仍然对组织和公司有一个整体的积极影响。就在这一阶段许多工程师失败了，我将这个建议给那些努力想要到下一阶段的工程师。
Act like you’re in charge表现出你在负责
I had just sat through a meeting where I had nothing to say. During my one-on-one with my director, I mentioned that I was just in a meeting where I had no idea why I was there and had nothing to contribute. He said:
我以前常常参加一些我没话可以说的会议。在与导师的一次面对面交谈中，我提到我之前参加一些会议，但是我不知道我会在那里，并且我对会议没有任何贡献。他说
Don’t ever do that again. If you’re in a meeting, it’s because you are there to participate. If you’re not sure why you’re there, stop and ask. If you’re not needed, leave. You’re in a leadership position, act like it. Don’t go quietly into a room. Just act like you’re in charge and people will believe it.
以后永远都不要这样。假如你在会议中，那是因为你参加了。假如不确定自己为什么会在那儿，停下来问一问。如果你不需要在那儿，那就离开。你在一个领导的位置，那就表现的像领导。不要静静的走进一个房间。只要表现出你在负责，那么人们就会相信。
In that piece of advice, my mentor had reminded me of a lesson I learned while acting in high school: no one knows when you’re acting. If you’re nervous but act like you’re not, then people won’t know that you’re nervous. The same with leadership. The old phrase fake it til you make it comes to mind. From that point on, I never sat quietly in a meeting. I made sure I only went to meetings that needed me to participate and then I would participate.
通过这个建议让我想起我在学校之前学到的一课：没人知道你在表演。如果你很紧张，但是你表现出不紧张的样子，人们不会认为你在紧张。领导也是一样的。一句古语“久演必成真”出现在脑海中。从那时，我从来没有在会议中静静的坐着。我确保自己只去参加那些需要我参加的会议。
Let them win让他们赢
I went through a particular period where there were a lot of arguments on the team. I prided myself on ending those arguments with authority. I had a “my ruling is final” mentality, and my manager noticed that and gave me this piece of advice:
我经历过一段时间，在这段时间内团队内部有很多争论。我因为用我的权威来终止争论而感到自豪。促使我有一种心态：我的裁决就是最后的答案，但是我的经理发现了这个现象，然后给了建议
I see a lot of arguing going on, and I see you pushing through to win a lot. I know that most of the time you are right, but every once in a while let them win. Pick the things that really matter to you and push for those but let the other things go. There’s no need to win every argument.
我发现你们团队有很多争论，而且经过你推动，基本都赢了。我知道大部分情况下你都是对的，但是有时应该让他们赢下。选择你认为重要的事进行推动，没必要什么事都亲力亲为
This was one piece of advice I resisted initially. I was right nearly all of the time, why would I ever let someone else win? However, as I had grown to trust his instincts, I gave it a shot. The result: there were less arguments. People didn’t feel like they had to get one over on me, and in turn, I became better at identifying things I really didn’t care that much about. I stuck to my guns on important issues and let the others ones get resolved by the other party. The intensity of all conversations dropped considerably.
这是一则我一开始就坚持的建议。几乎所有时候我都是正确的，那为什么应该让其他人赢呢？然而，随着我的成长我开始相信他的本能，我决定试一试。结果是：争论减少了。他们不想要必须赢过我一次了，并且反过来，我能够更好的识别不需要太关心的事。我坚持那些重要的问题，将那些不重要的事情让别人来解决。所有对话的强烈程度都大大的降低了。
Conclusion
Looking back at the brash guy I was when I graduated college, my career could have ended up very different. I was seen as a malcontent, a smart but hard-to-deal-with guy who people dealt with because they had to. If it weren’t for the mentors I had along the way, as well as some humbling failures early in my career, my interpersonal skills (or lack thereof) could have very well done me in. These days, I regularly seek out those who are more experienced than me and ask for advice. I may no longer make big, glaring mistakes, but I also don’t want to wait for one to happen to seek out the experienced insights of someone I trust.
回头看看那个刚刚毕业、非常无礼的小男孩，我的职业生涯可能非常不一样。我曾经被认为是一个不满现状，聪明但是很难伺候的人。假如不是因为一路上所遇到的导师以及在职业初期所遇到的一些令人羞辱的失败，我的交际能力（缺乏）会令我疲惫不堪。这些天，我经常找到那些比我更具经验的人并且向他们索取建议。我可能不会再犯一些大的错误，但是我也不会等着一个错误发生然后去找个我信任的人问经验性见解。
The nearly five years I was at Yahoo were some of the most transformative in my career. I got to work on interesting problems at a large scale, but moreso I was blessed with a series of wonderful managers and other mentors within my organization. I credit those conversations with turning me into a person that I’m proud of today, both at work and outside in “real life.”
在Yahoo的接近五年时间是我职业生涯中变化最大的。我工作面对的都是大规模的有趣问题，但是我更庆幸自己能够同一系列非常优秀的经理和导师在一起工作。将我变成现在所自豪的人（无论是工作还是生活上的）的原因是那些对话。
If I can leave you with one overriding piece of career advice, it would be this: identify someone at your work that is smarter than you in some way (technically, organizationally, etc.) and attach yourself to them. See if you can regularly have lunch or coffee and pick their brain for the vast amount of knowledge it has. Your career, and maybe even your life, could end up drastically better by doing so.
如果我能给你一条最主要的建议，那就是：在工作中贴近那种在某方面（技术、组织能力、或者别的）比你聪明的人。看看能不能定期的和他一起吃午饭或者喝咖啡，这样你可以挖掘出他们脑袋里的大量知识。最终，你的职业生涯甚至你的生活都会变的更好。
