给未来程序员的15个顶级职业建议

原文作者：Gayle Laakmann McDowell

Gayle Laakmann McDowell, Born and Raised as Myself 113.2k Views · Upvoted by Herbert Lee, Software Engineer at Striiv and Hossam Ghareeb, 3 years experience in Software engineering Gayle has 90+ answers and 56 endorsements in Career Advice

I'll get to my, uh, fifteen pieces of advice. But first, let me explain what awesome careers look like.

好吧，我觉得10条不够，应该有15条职业建议。不过首先，我想解释一下出色的职业生涯是什么样的。

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.)

他们的进步曲线并不是每个月都会上升一点的直线图形。（即便是普通人的职业生涯也不会是这样的直线图形。每个月提升一点，然后量变达到质变，出现一个大的进步。）

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

伟大的职业生涯看起来更像是这样的。在某段时间内增速放缓，然后挨过了“瓶颈点”之后会有急剧上升。

The color changes? Those are career changes: software development to product management, sales to cofounder, etc. 

为什么会有颜色的变化？那是因为职业发生了变化：软件开发到产品管理，销售到联合创始人，等等。

They also have some setbacks. Because you know what? Being great requires taking some risks. And taking enough risks means you'll fail a bit too.

其中也会有一些挫折。原因你也懂，想要成就伟大，必然要冒一定的风险。而足够多的风险也意味着你会失败。

So with that said...

所以，这就是说…

编码：

#1: Code. A lot. 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 actuallyhostile 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.

#1：写代码。写很多的代码。学校很善于传授理论知识，但不善于教导一些实用的东西。这在一流大学尤其如此。教授也是学者，实际上常常敌视那种更“实用”的教育形式。成为一个伟大的程序员的最好办法就是练习——很多很多的练习。你编码的内容（开源，iPhone app，等等）并不太要紧，只要你是在编码和进步即可。

#2: Be language agnostic. 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.

#2：不依赖于语言。语言只是一种工具。深入地了解一门语言是有价值的，但学习一些新的东西也是有价值的。最好的开发人员往往不会被打上____开发者的标签。

职业选择：

#3: Prestige helps. 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 #4.)

#3：“狐”假虎威。简历中把自己写得牛掰有助于吸引眼球和得到展现实力的机会。如果你能得到像Google、Facebook、Amazon、Microsoft、Dropbox等公司的机会，那么一定要抓住。 （但不要长时间地停留，原因见#4）。

#4: Leave the big companies quickly. 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.)

#4：迅速离开大公司。如果你想在一家大公司建立你的职业生涯，那么请通过各种手段，留在那里。但是，如果这不是你想要的东西，那么请迅速离开。在大学毕业之后有一两年类似在谷歌的工作经验就很好。待上10年？没必要那么久。虽然可以继续学习到东西，但收获会随着时间而递减。 （除非你想成为大公司的一员。）

#5: If you want an A+ career, come to San Francisco bay area. I love Seattle and began my career there, but I have to be honest: there are so many more opportunities in tech in the bay area. You will limit yourself as an engineer (or product manager/tech business role) if you live elsewhere.

#5：如果你想要一个A +的职业生涯，那么请来旧金山海湾地区。我喜欢西雅图，并且是在这里开始我的职业生涯，但我必须说实话：在海湾地区有如此多的高科技机会。如果你在其他地方，那么你就只能将自己框定为工程师（或产品经理/技术业务方面的角色）。

#6: If you don't want an A+ career, don't come to the bay area. It is extremely expensive here. Seriously. That's worth it if you want a ton of career options. But if you just want a cushy career, there are more affordable cities with enough tech (like Seattle). A good software engineer can buy a nice house in Seattle. It's a stretch in the bay area.

#6：如果你不想要一个A +的职业生涯，那么就不要来海湾地区。因为这里的生活水平极其高昂。我是说真的。如果你想有大量的职业选择，那还值得。但是，如果你只是想找一种轻松的职业生涯，那么还不如去其他更实惠的城市（如西雅图）。优秀软件工程师的薪酬可以在西雅图买到一个不错的房子。它是海湾地区的延伸。

#7: If you don't want to be a developer forever, then move on quickly. There is a lot of value in getting really deep technical expertise. But it doesn't matter that much whether you spent two years as a developer or seven years. Within a few years of college graduation, make a choice. Do you want to be an engineer for the next 10, 20, 30 years or not? If you don't, start trying to move on now. More time as an engineer won't help you that much.

#7：如果你不想永远成为开发人员，那么迅速前进。深入了解技术专业知识是很有价值 的。但是，你是用了两年时间还是七年才能成为开发人员是没有关系的。在大学毕业后的几年之内，做出你的选择。你想在接下来的10，20，30年都一直作为一个工程师，还是要换职业的？如果你不想一直待在同一个职业，那么现在可以开始尝试继续前进。工程师做得时间再久，也不会帮你很多。

#8: Quit quickly. If I look at my friends who have switches jobs, almost all of them were thinking about quitting for the last 6 - 12 months. Some stayed for 2 or 3 years after they start saying that they want to quit. They've wasted so much time because of just a resistance to change. If you're thinking about quitting, take action now. Start applying elsewhere - or possibly just quit outright. You probably won't be very successful if you're unhappy anyway, and there is a big opportunity cost in staying.

#8：迅速辞职。遍历我曾经换过工作的朋友，几乎所有人在过去6 – 12个月都萌生过“辞职”之意。有些人在他们说想辞职之后，依然待了2年或3年。他们因为不愿意改变的拖延心态，而浪费了这么多时间。如果你想辞职，那么现在就开始采取行动。

与其他人打交道：

#9: Integrity matters. 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.

#9：正直诚实。如果你欺骗和偷工减料，那么你就会深受其苦。在生活中要做正确的事情。这指的不仅是要做好事，也指要做聪明的事。这样大家才会更多地信任你和喜欢你。会有更多的大门朝你打开——这些门可能会是你职业生涯突破的关键时刻。

#10: Be helpful. When possible, help people who ask for help. This is a nice thing to do as well as a smart thing to do. These 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.

#10：乐于助人。如果可能的话，帮助那些寻求帮助的人。这是一件很好的事情，也是聪明人的做法。那些向你寻求帮助的人更有可能在未来给予你帮助。这种“帮助”可能会是介绍你给他们那些更能直接帮助你的朋友。所以，即使你并不怎么觉得这个人会对你有帮助，但可能他的哥们能够或者将来帮助到你。

#11: Make friends. 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.

#11：广交朋友。实际上，光靠自己是不可能真正成功的。如果你是一个创业者，那么你需要成为员工与企业之间连接的桥梁。如果你是一名员工，那么你需要一份工作。无论哪种方式，朋友是打开这些机会的关键。是朋友，不论远近，构成了你人脉的重要部分，而不是那些你在聚会中碰到的却再也不曾说过话的陌生人。

想要成为牛人：

#12: Realize - no, internalize - that we've all got impostor syndrome. Even the most successful entrepreneurs and engineers (with very few exceptions) feel like they just got lucky and aren't nearly as good as people think, and that one day soon they're going to get "caught." Truly internalizing just how widespread impostor syndrome is can help you realize that feeling like you're a fraud doesn't mean that you are.

#12：认识—— 确切地说是内在地了解自己——得了冒牌者综合症。即使是最成功的创业者和工程师（除了极少数），也会觉得他们的成功只是因为很幸运，并不认为自己像大家想象得那样优秀，因为他们得了“冒牌者综合症”。认识到冒名顶替综合征的普遍可以让你认识到，你以为你是个欺世盗名之徒，但其实并不是。

#13: Start stuff. Show initiative. Good things 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. 

#13：从现在开始。展示你的积极主动性。机会不等人。寻找新的机遇。从现在开始——可以是编程马拉松，也可以是参加俱乐部，启动项目，开办公司，统筹新的运行组，等等。在做这些事情的同时，你会学到很多东西，助你打开各种机会的大门。

#14: Take risks. 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.

#14：承担风险。抓住机遇。当你注意到一个若隐若现的机会时，一定要抓住它。看它要往哪里去。不要因为你不知道它准确的去向就直接忽略。

#15: Bias towards "yes." 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 in 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.

#15：偏向于“yes”。伟大的事业系于“突破”时刻。问题是，通常你并不能提前识别那些突破点。你不知道这个会议的要点是什么，那么你就不会知道它将导向哪里。你也不会知道，两个月以后，这个人会给你介绍一个需要一些建议，并最终成为你业务伙伴的家伙。坚持偏向于说yes。

All of these have a reason - usually multiple stories - behind them. They are things that I, or my friends/clients, have lived. 

所有这些都是有理由的——通常在它们身后有着多个故事。这些故事都是我，或我的朋友/客户，亲身经历的。

Lots of coding projects (#1) plus some friends (#11) resulted in my landing an internship at Microsoft after freshman year.

编码了许多许多项目（#1），加上一些朋友的推荐（#11），导致我大一后，能在微软实习。

That paved the way to eventually landing a job at Google, which has opened countless doors (#3).

这一条为我成功地被谷歌聘用奠定了基础（#3），从而打开了无数机会的大门。

Initiative (#13) and seizing opportunities (#14), as opposed to careful planning and research, led to my launching two companies, both of which are profitable and just amazing experiences.

是主动（#13），以及懂得抓住机遇（#14），而非认真规划和研究，使我能够开创两个公司，两者都是盈利的，而且让我积累了惊人的经验。

In fact, both of those companies also started as an unpredictable result of agreeing (#15) to do a favor for a friend (#10).

事实上，这两家公司一开始只是作为同意（#15）帮助朋友（#10）而产生的不可预知的后果。

Acquisition consulting (now a core part of my business) started because someone asked me to help them. I didn't really feel like it at the time, but I said yes (#15) because I've seen over and over again how valuable this philosophy is.

收购咨询（现在我的企业的核心部分）一开始是因为有人要求我帮助他们。那时候我真的不喜欢，但我依然说了yes（#15），因为我非常明白这个理念是多么宝贵。

But I made mistakes, too. 我也会犯错误。

• • I love Seattle (where I used to live), but being in the bay area has been so much better for my career. More opportunities and better opportunities, hands down (#5). It is a lot more expensive here though (#6), so if you're not going to use those opportunities, go elsewhere.
• 我喜欢西雅图（我以前一直住在那里），但海湾地区更利于我的职业生涯。那里有更多的机会和更好的发展机会（#5）。虽然这里的消费水平高得多（#6），所以如果你不打算利用那些机会的话，就去其他地方。
• • I also stayed at Google too long probably. The extra time didn’t earn me much (#4). I eventually left because I realized I didn't want to be a developer for my whole life (#7) and because I just wasn't happy (#8).
• 我在谷歌待的时间可能过长了。额外的时间并没有让我获得太多（#4）。我最终因为意识到不想一直做一个开发人员（#7），以及感到不开心（#8）而离开。

Two more pieces of advice were "automatic" for me, but I've seen the consequences when other people don't do this.

此外，还有两条建议是我们不能忽略的。

I've never identified too closely with languages and it's enabled a lot of flexibility. When I've coached people who do, they get much more limited in their career (#2). Fewer companies to pick from and the language-specific developers are often stigmatized as being weaker

语言的使用有很大的灵活性，并没有什么硬性的规定。一旦局限于某种语言，那么他的职业生涯就会受到限制（#2）。而特定于某种语言的开发人员往往会被诬蔑为更差，并且可选择的企业更少。

As for integrity (#9), two stories come to mind. In both cases, someone's drive for success caused them to ultimately hurt themselves. 

说到诚信（＃9），这样两个故事浮现在我的脑海中。这两种情况下，一个人对于成功的渴望使他们最终伤害到了自己。

In the first situation, a colleague tried to take advantage of a legal loophole to back out of a very important commitment. He eventually backed down, but I would never work with him again. I also won't help him if it's any sort of help that requires trust. (That is, I'll fill out a survey for him, but I won't connect him with anyone.)

在第一种情况下，我的一个同事试图利用法律漏洞来支持的一个非常重要的委托。虽然他最终做出让步，但我决定不会跟他再次合作。我也不会给他提供任何有关于信任方面的帮助。 （也就是说，我会帮他写调查报告，但不会帮他联系任何人。）

In the second situation, a fellow author posted some fake negative reviews of my book in some stupid, short-sighted attempt at winning. When I confronted him, he made up all sorts of lies and accusations. Now, he periodically asks me to connect him to someone I know or if I want to work with him on something. I refuse. Again, it's not revenge, it's protecting myself and my friends.

在第二种情况下，一位同行作家给我的书写了一些虚假的负面评论。当我质问他的时候，他编造了各种谎言和罪名。现在，他会定期要求我给他联系我认识的人，或者问我要不要和他一起工作于某个东西。我拒绝了。同样的，这也不是报复，我只是想保护我自己和我的朋友们。

If you've been tracking, you might notice that there's one left: Impostor syndrome (#12). 

读到这里，不知道你有没有注意到，还有一条漏了，那就是：冒牌者综合症（#12）。

I've known what impostor syndrome is for years, but it wasn't until the last year or two that I realized that almost every successful person experiences it. This was an "a-ha" moment for me. It told me that not feeling good enough to do something didn't mean that I wasn't. As a result, I have more confidence and am more likely to launch something (#13), run with an opportunity (#14), or just say yes (#15).

对于冒牌者综合症，我已经知道了许多年了，但直到最近一两年，我才发现几乎每一个成功者都经历过它。所以，感觉自己不够好可能并不是事实的真相。通过认识这一点，我有更多的信心来发布一些东西（#13），努力抓住机会（#14），或者说yes（#15）。

英文原文：What are the top 10 pieces of career advice ... software engineers?