給程序員和IT工程師的骨灰級建議

First, let me explain what awesome Careers look like. They don't look like nice linear graphs, where you're moving up a little bit each month. (Heck, even so-so careers don't look like that. You don't move up every month. You get a bit better at your career every month, but you move up in big steps.)

首先，讓我來給你們講講這些高大上的職業到底是什麼樣的。他們不是那種可以讓你直線型每月都能往上爬一點的職業（見鬼，在普通的職業也不會這樣啊。你不會每個月都得到提拔，但是如果你能得到晉升，那麼你會不鳴則已，一鳴驚人。）

Great careers look more like this: They have some periods of slower growth and some "turning points," where your career shoots up.

偉大的事業往往是這樣：任職之初，在幾段事業滯緩增長期過去後，你纔會迎來峯迴路轉。

The color changes? Those are career changes: software development to product management, sales to cofounder, etc. They also have some setbacks. Because you know what?

畫風變了？如下便是一些職業的變動：軟件開發變成產品經理，銷售成了合夥人，等等。一切皆有挫折，你知道這是爲什麼嗎？

Being great requires taking some taking enough risks means you'll fail a bit, with that said...

成功意味着冒一定風險。冒一定風險意味着你會經歷失敗。也就是說你要這麼做：

Coding:

寫代碼：

Code. A lot.

寫代碼，寫很多代碼。

Schools are great at theory, but not so much at practical stuff. This is especially true at the top universities. Professors are academics and are often actually hostile to more "practical" forms of education. The best way to be a great coder is to just practice —a lot. It doesn't matter so much what you code (open source, iPhone apps, etc.) as long as you're coding and pushing yourself.

學校對研究學術很在行，但在實際運用方面有軟肋。這一點在頂尖高校裏最明顯。講師往往是學院派，經常會對所謂的實用教育抱有些敵意。成爲好碼農的最好方法就是練習，大量的練習。不管你寫什麼代碼（開源、iPhone應用等），只要在寫代碼，你就會有進步。

Be language agnostic.

別太介意語言。

Language is just a tool. It's valuable to know a language deeply, but it's also valuable to be learning new things. The best developers tend not to identify as a developer.

語言只是一個工具，當然掌握一門語言意義非凡，不過學習新事物也是同等重要。一流的開發者不會認爲自己只是個開發者的。

Career choices:

職業選擇方面：

Prestige helps.

名氣抓眼球。

Having a strong name on your resume helps open doors and show competence. If you can get a name like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, etc., do it. (But don't stay long. See the next tip.)

簡歷上大公司的名字可幫你在求職之路上打開一扇窗，也展現出你的競爭力。如果你能在簡歷上寫下Google、Facebook、Amazon、Microsoft、Dropbox等等大公司的名字，那就寫上！（別太心潮澎湃，看看下一條）

Leave the big companies quickly.

儘快離開大公司。

If you want to build your career at a big company, then by all means, stay and build your career there. But if that's not what you want, leave quickly. One or two years post-college at a company like Google is great. 10 years? Not so much. You will continue to learn, but there are diminishing returns of sticking around. (Unless you want to be a big company person.)

如果你想在一個大公司裏搞出一番名堂，那麼不管是什麼路都要跪着走完。但如果那不是你真正想要的，趕快辭職吧。谷歌提供的校聘職位做一兩年是很棒的，那如果是十年呢？並沒有那麼誘人了。雖然你汲取的經驗還在增長，但在周而復始的工作中，收穫的回報可能會越來越小。（除非你想在大公司做高管。）

Quit quickly.

想辭職趁早。

If I look at my friends who have switched jobs, almost all of them were thinking about quitting for the last six to 12 months. Some stayed for two or three years after they started saying that they wanted to quit. They've wasted so much time because of a resistance to change. If you're thinking about quitting, take action now. Start applying elsewhere — or possibly just quit out right. You probably won't be very successful if you're unhappy anyway, and there is a big opportunity cost in staying.

我看到我周圍很多朋友都換了工作，然而下定這個決心花了他們大半年時間。有些再宣佈自己要換職位後兩三年過去還是按兵不動。他們爲了等待所謂的“跳槽好時機”浪費了太多時間。如果你想辭了，那麼現在就動手吧。到別的地方求職，或者先辭了再說。職業帶來不了幸福感，你可能也不會成功，在這個崗位上停滯不前的機會成本太高了，你傷不起。

Dealing with others:

人際：

Integrity matters.

誠信很重要。

If you try to cheat and cut corners, it'll haunt you. Do the right thing in life. It's not only the good thing to do, but it's also the smart thing to do. People will trust and like you more. More doors will open — and those doors might just be the breakthrough moments in your career.

欺騙他人或是偷工減料，其實是在給自己挖陷阱。做對的事，不僅要做善事，也要做明智的事。這樣他人就會更加信任與喜愛你。很多成功之門會爲你開啓——這些大門可能就是你職業生涯中的轉折點。

Be helpful.

樂於助人。

When possible, help people who ask for help. The people who ask you for help right now will be much more likely to help you in the future. That "help" might be introducing you to their friends who can help you more directly. So even if you don't see how that person will be helpful, you don't know who their buddies are or will be.

如果有機會，對要求幫助的人施以援手吧。現在求你幫忙的人以後也很可能幫你。這樣的幫助可能是把你引薦給更多的朋友，讓他們更直接地幫你。所以即使你幫的人看起來指望不上，說不定他們的朋友可能還是很靠譜的。

Make friends.

廣交朋友。

You actually can't really be successful by yourself. If you're an entrepreneur, you need employees and business connections. If you're an employee, you need a job. Either way, it's friends who will be key to opening up these opportunities. It's friends, distant and close ones, who form the important part of your network, not that one person you met at a meetup and never talked to again.

事實上靠自己很難成功的。如果你是個創業者，那你需要僱員和商務紐帶。如果你是個職員，那你需要一份工作。不管怎樣，這些機會有一個先行條件就是你需要朋友。不管親疏遠近，他們編織了你的人際關係網，而不是那些你見過一遍就再也不會說話的人。不管親疏遠近，這些朋友構成了你的人際關係網，而不是那些你見過一遍就再也不會說話的人。

Being awesome:

變強大：

Start stuff.

開始做事。

Show things never come to those who don't wait. Seek out new opportunities. Start stuff — a hackathon, a club, a project, a company, a new running group, whatever. You will learn so much from doing this and it will open doors.

表現出你的主動。機會不會青睞不追求他們的人。找到新的機會。開始做事——編程馬拉松、俱樂部、一個新項目、一個公司、一個新團隊，不管是啥。你會學到很多，機會也能慢慢靠近。

Take risks.

勇於冒險。

Seize opportunities. When you notice that little flicker of opportunity, seize it. Run with it. See where it goes. Don't walk away just because you don't know exactly where it's going to go.

把握機會，當你注意到了小的閃光點或是機會，把握住它，利用好它，看看它能不能成爲成功。不要僅僅因爲不知道它會帶來什麼效果而輕易拋下它不管。

Bias toward "yes."

說“行”。

A great career hinges on the "breakthrough" moments. The problem is that you often can't identify those in advance. You don't know where that coffee meeting that you don't see the point of is going to lead. You won't know that, two months down the line, that person will end up introducing you to a guy who needs some advice and winds up as your business partner. Maintain a strong bias towards saying yes.

偉大的事業關鍵在那些突破性時刻。問題是，關鍵點之來前，你常常是不能提前意識到的。你不知道一個茶會會帶來什麼。也不知道有人在兩個月後把你推薦出去，和一個需要指導的人成爲合作伙伴。讓自己更喜歡說“行”吧。