1. Build your own professional depth in the first five years
First of all, the most important point is that no matter which industry you are in, what job you do, whether it is technology, products, design, or operation, the professional ability of your job must be the most important, especially in the first five years of work. Don't ignore the first one at any time. This is the basis for your long-term career development. After staying in a solid industry for three to five years, some experience, skills and experiences are really accumulated.
When they first graduated, many people would rack their brains for a salary increase of 1, 2k, or even give up promising projects, and the leader who was a good fit frequently changed jobs. The short-term wages have risen. After three years, no company dares to ask for it. Industry experience and ability have also become problems. And those who have solidly cultivated in the industry and professionally may have already run out at this time. 3 or 5 years of accumulation can make the gap between people very large. At the same starting point, it is normal for outstanding people to earn 1 or 2 times the salary of ordinary people.
Recently, I met a guy who frequently changed jobs. His experience in the last two years is Baidu-Tencent-Sogou. To be honest, after chatting with him, I feel that he is very smart and capable, but his depth is obviously not enough, and his professionalism is not solid. In the end, I really didn't dare to accept it.
Although it is difficult for you to be financially free simply by improving your professional ability. But don't be too ambitious, and think about quick realization when your ability is not up to you. Take your time, step by step, and solidify your professional ability. There is absolutely no problem in achieving success in a small way. Otherwise, you may lose the foundation of your development, drift with the tide, and get worse and worse. This is by no means alarmist.
2. Become a lifelong learner
The 365th power principle of 1.01, accumulated learning over time, will eventually make you surpass your peers and peers.
The Internet is a rapidly changing industry, and the competition is fierce, even cruel! Since we choose the Internet, don't walk into this good night gently! The sooner you become a lifelong learner, the more it will help you in your career.
In the first few years of work, we are always busy working overtime, and the pressure of survival will drive you to become a wooden person. When resting, your hormones will drive you to return to animal attributes. Tencent games, Douyin, etc. have already dug a big hole for you to jump!
But we must fight against our own nature. 100% dedication is a must when you go to work, but after your own work is completed, you can quickly enter the learning state instead of resting and entertaining. If you are a technical person, see if there are any new awesome projects on github that you can participate in, and if you are a product developer, see if there are any new good products emerging. In addition, observing other people's work process and results is also a very good learning method, especially to find excellent colleagues around you, and quickly learn and discuss with him.
Of course, please pay attention, the company spends money to invite you, it is definitely not for you to study, so your job is still the most important, and you must not slack off. Of course, more and more companies and leaders are beginning to like people who can learn on the job, because this kind of people will continue to improve their work efficiency and work quality. In fact, it must be a win-win situation.
When resting, it is the so-called 8-hour gap. During weekend breaks, I recommend reading books first. Those who want to take the professional route in this industry should read more professional books. If you want to do management, read books in other industries. However, there is one more important thing about reading and learning. You must read books related to your work, and after reading them, you must immediately find a way to use the methodology and experience in the books. Only in this way can we achieve the unity of knowledge and action and make real rapid progress.
3. Don’t set limits on yourself
It is easy for many Internet professionals to set limits on themselves. Not only do you set limits on your abilities, but you also set limits on your work. In fact, the gap between people is really not that big. If others can do well, you will definitely be able to do better if you work hard.
I have met some old colleagues, and what I often say is, I want to do this, but I feel that my ability is not enough. But have you ever thought that if you don’t do it, how can you acquire and improve your abilities? There are also some colleagues who only do what is within their job responsibilities, and do not do more. Over time, they will become old scalpers or even old fritters in the workplace, and they will stop at a young age.
I joined 360 in 2010. I was just an ordinary engineer at the beginning, but in the third year of work, I started to manage a team of dozens of people, responsible for technical management, and also responsible for many innovative products. When I was working, I didn't distinguish which jobs I should do and which ones I shouldn't, and I didn't even consider whether I was able to do it or not.
At 360, I have done overnight programming, and I have also done direct access to products. I remember that the first time I made a product, I found that there was a UnionPay payment process that was extremely long, requiring users to input 4 times. I directly made an animation for it and then used js injection to help users save these few steps. As a result, with this action, the sales volume of the department increased by 40%. It was also this experience that paved the way for the vice president to let me be responsible for innovative products.
4. Continuously accumulate industry influence
Many people may not care about industry influence at all, or may think: industry influence? Isn't that just for the boss? In fact, industry influence is very important, and it is not only the big guys who have industry influence.
For example, if two applicants apply for a company, they have similar abilities. But one person has more influence in the industry. Tell me, who will this company choose?
So how do we accumulate our industry influence?
First of all, in any company, make every effort to do a good job and develop excellent professional habits. Your current leader, your current colleagues, and even your subordinates may be your important contacts in the future, and they may be your industry influence! Their evaluation of you may be very important. Whether you are a reliable and excellent person or someone who cannot be relied on, they know better than yourself!
Sharing is very important. Your own growth and work practice need to be systematically sorted out and then shared. Writing articles and blogs is a kind of sharing. It is also very important to participate in some industry gatherings, give more speeches, and let people in the industry know who you are and what you are doing. Don't think it is difficult to do this kind of sharing. Interlaced like a mountain, the work you do may seem ordinary to you, but if you share it with others, you may feel superior. Especially for those who have worked in BATTMD, it is very easy to share.
An old classmate of mine, with mediocre ability and talent, just graduated and joined a small company. But he would participate in various sharing sessions whenever he had the opportunity, and later he also worked on various open source projects on github. I recently learned that he is already a p8+ architect of Ali. Chatting with him, he was recommended to join Ali, and the recommender knew him after listening to his technology sharing once.
5. Deliberate practice
A while ago, the so-called "10,000-hour law" was very popular, as if you can naturally become an expert as long as you persist in your field for 10,000 hours. I think it's a big hallucination. Many people around me who have worked for ten years have persisted for more than 10,000 hours, but they feel that they have only used one year of experience for ten years. Repetition does not mean progress, real progress comes from "deliberate practice".
Deliberate practice: You can't repeat the actions that you have been doing in the past and completed automatically, so that you will quickly lose room for growth. Instead, we need to establish a feedback system to help us be efficient and diligent.
First of all, you have to avoid your work from entering the automatic completion mode: ask yourself every day whether your work today is consciously and purposefully improving, or is it automatically completed? If it is done automatically, can it be done better?
Be vigilant and avoid entering the comfort zone. If you find that you are already in the comfort zone, then find a way to jump out quickly. Can repeated work be done better? Can you take on more challenging jobs?
The way to get out of your comfort zone is to constantly set executable goals for yourself and execute them resolutely and quickly. My old leader at Tencent is such a person who absolutely does not let himself enter the comfort zone. The KPI work of the team was completed, and the old leader thought of a new project in combination with the business, and he did the product conception himself. It quickly led us to launch innovative products. Usually, if the research and development is completed, the old leader will lead us to do technical reconstruction and make the code structure better. Now the old leader is the general manager of Tencent's department.
There's another important aspect to deliberate practice: getting feedback and adjusting. The way to get feedback is very important. Colleagues at work are a source of feedback. If your code structure is more reasonable, show it and let colleagues give feedback. Objective data is also a source of feedback. Anyone who makes products understands it. Every time you adjust your product, there is very objective data feedback. In short, you need to get feedback and iterate based on that feedback.
