Foreword
What is the workplace? It is the place where we will eventually go to make a living.
Do you imagine the workplace like this: early in the morning, dressed in a suit and leather shoes, tie neatly fastened, making a confident smile at the mirror with a raised fist, carrying a laptop bag onto the bus with composed steps. Getting off in front of a high-tech building, adjusting your glasses, tightening your tie, and walking into the office, greeting colleagues with a smile and saying hello to the leaders along the way. In the spacious and bright office, many colleagues have already entered work mode, and in the corner, two or three colleagues are discussing technical topics, with professional terms floating by occasionally, lightly touching your nerves. You soon start working as well... Well, it’s beautiful, similar to the university classrooms you fantasized about countless times in high school.
Of course, just like your actual university years, the workplace is not actually like this.
Reading Reflections
1. What is an Enterprise?
First, let's be clear: An enterprise is a profit-oriented organization, not a charity. And you want to come to the enterprise to learn things, hoping the enterprise can use its environment to cultivate your abilities. That's right, everyone goes with this purpose.
So, if an interviewer asks you: "Why did you choose our company?", would you naturally answer: "Because your company is the most [adjective] in [field], and I have been fascinated by it since I was young, so I hope to come here to learn practical techniques, improve my abilities, and become someone like [notable person]." This is exactly where you would be wrong. Remember? "Enterprise is not a charity." Enterprises hope your joining can bring them value. Simply put, the enterprise wants to use you to make money, not support you for free. The enterprise has no obligation to train you. The relationship between you and the enterprise is simply "you work for them, they pay you," it's that simple. Only by understanding your position can you adopt the right attitude and be accepted by the enterprise.
Although the enterprise has no obligation to train you, it won't stop you from learning. To learn or not? How much to learn? It's all up to you. Completing a project together creates profit for the company. What you get should not just be the salary reward, but also the experience gained from it, and the latter is what truly matters. The company's knowledge is right there; no one can stop you from putting it into your own pocket (in an abstract sense, of course). So, don't say it out loud, but you must know in your heart what your purpose for being here is.
2. Should You Choose a Big Company or a Small One?
Big companies have famous brands, good environments, and high pay. Working in one also gives you prestige—it's likely the choice for most people. So, by comparison, are small companies worthless? That's right, those are indeed the advantages of big companies, but they are only immediate benefits.
The advantage of small companies is: you are helping the company start up. Simply put, "in small companies you do things, in big companies you learn office politics." What does this mean? Because small companies are in the difficult period of starting up, the ROI (Return on Investment) is considered for every new person hired, so everyone in the company is indispensable. The reality is this: in a small company, you will be forced to do many extra things, such as writing documents, making reports, even negotiating projects, hiring new people... By now you should roughly understand. Small companies can provide many opportunities for exercise. Who knows, maybe you did front-end for two years in a small company, and your second job involves working on architecture? Because there is much to do and limited personnel, employees are required to either wear multiple hats or be a jack-of-all-trades. It doesn't matter who does it as long as someone can do it. Isn't this the opportunity to exercise your abilities that you wanted? In short, a small company is like a training room where mobs respawn quickly, so your experience points naturally grow fast.
3. What Do "Unspoken Rules" Have to Do With You?
Workplaces have unspoken rules. You know this even if I don't tell you. But it might seem like they have nothing to do with you. You just behave properly, work diligently, and avoid provoking them—wouldn't that be fine? Thinking this way is wrong. You should know that even if people don't change, situations do.
First, as soon as a newcomer enters a company, they face the issue of "taking sides." Harmonious environments don't exist; there are always factions. You must pay attention to the relationship between factions and your own interests and decide which team to move closer to (Note: only move closer; don't try to aggressively defend your own people or suppress the opposition, because no boss wants to see internal divisions in the company. If you are the nail that sticks out, you will surely be the target of all criticism). When facing a choice, you must see clearly the connection between departmental interests, company interests, and individual interests, because often these three are in conflict. Furthermore, departmental interests are higher than company interests, because company interests are, to some extent, just the interests of the BOSS alone, whereas departmental interests concern the interests of a group of people.
4. How to Get Along with Programmers, and What's the Difference Between That and Getting Along with Leaders?
Most programmers are helpful (open-source spirit), but there is only one time when they are very serious and quite cold: when they are writing code. When getting along with programmers, you must avoid this time. Never bother him when he is very busy. And learning from veterans is a very important way to learn, so you certainly shouldn't give it up. You should talk tech when the programmer is free; they will relax and open up, sharing their experience like pouring beans out of a jar.
When getting along with leaders, you should pay attention to their subtext—listen for the meaning behind the words and understand what he truly wants to express. For example: "Good job, this plan looks decent and is relatively practical, but some details are still not very clear. We'll see. As for when to implement it, I'll consider it." Do you understand? It means this plan you worked so hard on has already become a "sunk cost." Throw it aside; it will never see the day of actual implementation. If you don't understand the subtext, you will continue to work overtime to modify the plan and keep bothering the leader from time to time. The other party will nod and smile without showing annoyance, but in the end, you worked hard for a long time and got no reward, leaving the leader with an impression of you being dull.
5. Compared to Veterans, Where is the Newcomer's Advantage?
Veterans are steady and sophisticated, with rich experience. As workplace veterans, they have long since smiled silently at various workplace traps. Newcomers are unfamiliar with the place and people, and their skill proficiency is far below that of veterans. So, how do you compete on the same stage as the veterans? The answer is: passion.
Passion is often what veterans lack most, while for newcomers, it is the cheapest thing (knowing nothing, but having a heart full of hot blood). When passion is gone, people inevitably become lazy. Veterans can generally complete work tasks quickly, using the remaining time to browse Taobao or read novels. Newcomers, on the other hand, are full of energy, working overtime to learn technology because mastering it sooner allows them to complete work tasks faster. Moreover, there are too many novel things for newcomers, and curiosity drives them forward. So, as a newcomer, you should take advantage of this abundant passion to accumulate as much knowledge as possible.
6. What Should You Do in Your Spare Time?
No matter how busy work is, there will always be spare time. Using spare time to browse forums, look at tech news, and check out senior blogs are all excellent choices. Constant dripping wears away the stone; today's bit-by-bit accumulation might be of great use in the near future. As a programmer, you should have a sensitive nose for new technology and a relatively accurate judgment ability. It's not required that we mindlessly learn new technologies; what we truly need to spend time deeply understanding are the most promising new technologies.
So, how do you judge the vitality of a new technology? To make a reliable inference, you must have rich experience and comprehensive understanding. Fortunately, we usually don't need to evaluate from scratch; seniors on the internet will give relatively reliable judgments. As for how to avoid trusting the wrong person and how to analyze the most credible intelligence from various reviews, that shouldn't be difficult, right?
7. Should You Change Jobs After All?
First, why change jobs? The best time to change jobs is when you are about to hit the ceiling. There is only so much to learn in a company; taking a bit every day, you will have gotten most of it in 3 to 5 years. At this point, the company cannot give you anything extra besides salary. This is a good opportunity to change jobs. Too early or too late are both very unwise.
Changing jobs too early wastes the work experience from that period because you have just started and barely understand the daily work. As for the company's core assets, you haven't had the chance or the qualification to touch them. After all, a company won't easily reveal its deepest secrets just to protect itself. Changing jobs too late wastes time. Since the company can't give you anything else, staying longer is just for a small salary increase. Why not go find a new ceiling?
Book Review
The points above are my reflections after reading this book; its value speaks for itself.
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