“Translation” a career mistake

Link to the original text: https://bitfieldconsulting.com/golang/career , this article is a translation without the authorization of the original author, and will be deleted if it involves infringement.

The reason why I decided to translate it is that, although most of the content of this article is something I often rant about, there are still some inspirations or reminders; the second is that this article matches my English ability. .

The best article I read this month, it could be this year, it could be the last decade.

——Leemay Nassery (female, Etsy engineer, worked for Spotify, Dropbox)

(Translator: This is the author’s bragging, but I think it’s not outrageous, so I will translate it together)

I’m not talking about the trivial matter of me accidentally shutting down a British nuclear power plant, even though it was true; nor about a new programmer who deletes the database on his first day on the job (God bless them).

Instead, I want to talk about another career mistake, not a small group of people, in fact, a lot of people may be making, and that is: not thinking about the end of our careers.

By “end” here, it’s not about telling you when to retire, what we’re actually talking about is your career goals, which is a place where you realize that’s where you want to be.

As long as you don’t change direction, you’ll get where you want to go. – colloquialism

If you like what you’re doing and don’t plan to change, like! You are nearing the end of your career, even if they may last decades. If you don’t like what you’re doing, and probably don’t like it more and more, then ask: Why do you feel this way? When did it start?

So, is this where you want to end your career? Is this where you’re headed? If not, what should you do?

out of control

As you know, the word “career” means “running” (another meaning of “career”), or for a car, “accelerating out of control” “. Fittingly, doesn’t this describe the professional experience of many of us?

The necessary steps to getting what you want are: knowing what you want.

-Ben Stein

In fact, for most of us, we don’t know what we want, and our careers are bouncing around like pinball, occasionally getting a little score, or sometimes, unfortunately, burping. Pretty soon, before we’re really ready, it’s game over.

So it’s not surprising that many of us find ourselves in jobs that aren’t entirely satisfying, with dubious or non-existent prospects for promotion. Honestly, if you’re happy at work, it’s more likely luck than your plan.

Maybe we should stop burying our heads and take a moment to think about what we want in our careers, it’s better than sitting still, and then we should make a plan and take steps to make it happen. As programmers, we always make plans for computers to run smoothly, but we rarely think about writing programs for ourselves, weird?

choose your own adventure

The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago, and the same goes for career planning. When you realize this, you should act as soon as possible, stop the ink, a bad plan is better than no plan.

So, what should career planning look like, and when should it start?

In fact, as a person grows in strength and knowledge, the paths he can choose become narrower and narrower, until in the end he chooses nothing but what he has to do.

—Ursula K. Le Guin

(Translator: This quote is inspiring to me, or rather, causes me to feel and resonate)

The first stage of my career is a bit early and I can’t make any serious plans. Any decision at this time is not critical, and there is enough room for trial and error. (Translator: My consistent advice to young people is to take a look at this time and find a direction you like)

By contrast, at the end of your career, when you have few options and not enough time to steer, the autopilot system locks in and guides you to continue coasting down your path.

You need to choose your destination while you still have time, so it looks like you should start thinking hard about it mid-career. (Translator: My point of view is, know more in the early stage, and make a decision in the middle stage)

In other words, you should plan to enter the final stage of your career at the right place, at the right level, at the right time, and land where you want to land at the end of the flight. So, where is that?

I think there are three main career directions, at least in the tech industry:

• Freelancers
• High P
• manager

Let’s take a closer look at these destination airports, check the local weather if you will, and ask what our flight plans look like.

Choose your own adventure. What kind of career do you want to pursue?

The following three paragraphs are for three career directions, so I won’t go over them in detail, but briefly

• Freelancers: It is recommended to start with a side hustle instead of quitting at once. In addition, many freelancers are not voluntary choices, such as having to after unemployment, but it is not necessarily a bad thing.
• High P: The characteristic of high P is that you are a sharp knife, you can’t say no, and of course you don’t need to. Of course the best part is that you can choose whose knife you become.

  • Your work will take up a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you think is great work.

    – Steve Jobs

• Manager: Management is still very important. Take the example of McDonald’s, which is a bit ironic about the technology industry.

  • If McDonald’s were managed like a software company, 100% Big Mac would cause food poisoning, the customer service would say yes, “Sorry, here are two coupons.”

    – Mark Minassi

We’re talking about planning, not planning itself

I hope I’ve encouraged you to think about your career direction, where to go, and what you can do. Of course, you may not yet know how you want to spend most of your career. It’s okay, it’s totally normal.

But you can think about it first, even if it’s too early to make a decision. You can ask yourself what you think is valuable and how your work will contribute to it. As your knowledge of the world grows, it may become clearer about what you want to do and be.

tell me what you want to do

With your wild and precious life?

—Mary Oliver, ‘The Summer Day’

(Translator: This paragraph also resonates, and sighs)

In fact, you might not be in tech later, and that’s okay. I have more than one friend who, despite having great success as an engineer, felt that in the long run it wasn’t really something they wanted to do. If you want to change careers, be a doctor, a teacher, a senior engineer, a carpenter, or wander the world like a badass (quote a Westworld video here, didn’t watch it carefully), go for it. Don’t waste your wild and precious life on a dead end.

Once you get a feel for where you want to go, it can help you make choices. Even if you don’t know what your perfect job actually looks like, you may start to feel like you’re unhappy unless you’re an independent professional, or a high P, or a manager. You can avoid those that limit your choice of these fields, and look for companies and fields where you have the best chance of getting the career you want.

That’s not to say you have to have a detailed map for every step (“become a VP in Q4 2035”). As engineers, we already know that overly rigid plans rarely land. Instead, assume that life throws all sorts of messes on you. Plan to be flexible and adaptable.

Surfing is an amazing concept. You take a stick and say to nature, “I want to ride on your head!” A lot of times, nature will say, “No, you don’t want to!” and flip you over.

—Jolene Blalock

As the saying goes, you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. Opportunity favors the prepared, never underestimate the power of chance, the perfect opportunity may appear when you least expect it, but if you never think about what you want, how can you recognize it?

What matters is not the plan itself, but the making of the plan, right now.

Extended reading: “Translator’s Original: Four Upgrades for Professionals: Rookie → Specialist → Expert-Tutor”