大学生第一份工作最常犯的错误

    第二个错误是没有在必要的时候寻求帮助。正打算执行的一项功能的时候，我发现了一个漏洞，并深陷其中。要找出导致漏洞的根本原因，无异于自找麻烦——突然之间，相关问题开始不断出现。我没有恰当地提升这些问题的严重性以提高其可见性，并由此获得更多资源或寻求帮助，而是一遍遍地试图找出解决方案，结果徒劳无功。我当时的上司表示，初级开发人员最常犯的错误，是会“消失”很长一段时间，忙于自己的项目，等到项目完成之后才会再次出现。当我意识到应该料想到意外问题总会出现，管理者的职责就是发现问题，使整个团队按最佳速度运行，我在这方面得到了提升。

    贾森•尤因的回答

    你对公司的忠诚度要高于公司对你的忠诚度。我管理过许多有初级员工的团队，见过太多这样的情况。你喜欢自己的第一家公司，它也给了你第一次真正的机会！你应该对它忠诚，不是吗？

    这是错误的观点。有些人停留在入门级岗位太长时间，因为他们认为，只要他们努力工作，坚持的时间足够长，他们的雇主就会“照顾他们”……

    随着时间的推移，这种想法会压垮一个人。我也希望人们都相信，只要努力做好工作，你的才能就会得到认可，你就会平步青云，但真实情况是，付出的努力不见得一定能得到回报。不论大公司还是小公司，必须有职位空缺才能给员工升职，或者有预算才能给员工加薪。

    从事第一份工作一段时间之后，要开始向上司请教自己的职业发展有哪些选择。如果你感觉没有人会得到升职，或者提升的选择有限，不妨改变方法：在这里尽可能学习新知识，然后带着自己的经验另谋高就。

    卡尔森•唐的回答

    避免老员工的坏习惯——在公司工作了至少十年的同事，可能经常开会迟到，但这并不意味着迟到是可以接受的。如果有老员工迟到，你的上司可能会放她一马，因为她证明自己对公司有帮助，符合雇主的要求。但如果你迟到，只会让你看起来不负责任，并被列入不宜雇佣的员工之列。

    主动寻求指导和帮助——在学校里，即便你没有主动提出，你的教授和助教也会经常为你的家庭作业和实验室任务提供提示和指导。但在工作中，所有人都忙于自己的任务，所以，如果没有人主动提供帮助，不要感到惊讶。这并不意味着他们不友好或者自私，只是因为他们非常繁忙。主动向你提供帮助的人，往往都非常友好，所以有必要与他们搞好关系。

    对分配给自己的任务，要做到精益求精——即便你被安排了一项没有意义的工作，比如修补较小的漏洞，也要放下自己的骄傲，完成任务，并弄清楚如何修补。如果你被安排负责一项重大任务，也要遵循同样的原则。在软件工程领域，对于由你修改和扩展的那部分代码库，你是专家，因此，如果你的同事遇到问题，他们会希望由你来提供答案。成为专家可以实现两个目的。首先，同事会认为你是一个负责任的人，其次，你的上司最终会注意到你，并给你安排更有意义的工作，或者让你参与更具挑战性、更有影响力的项目。

    The second was not asking for help when I should have. I was stuck on a bug I discovered for a feature that I was trying to implement. Trying to uncover the root cause of the bug was like opening a can of worms – related problems started popping up everywhere. Instead of properly escalating the issues to increase their visibility to get more resources or asking for help, I spent many cycles trying to find solutions, which was an exercise in futility. My manager at the time noted that a common mistake made by junior developers is to “disappear” to work on their tasks for extended periods of time, and reappear when they’re finished. When I realized that unexpected problems are expected, and a manager’s job is to have visibility and enable a team to operate at optimal velocity, I was able to improve on this.

    Answer by Jason Ewing

    Be more loyal to your company than the company is to you. I’ve managed too many teams that have entry level employees and I see this too often. You like your first company, they gave you your first real shot! You should be loyal, right?

    Wrong. People stay in an entry level position for too long believing their employer will “take care of them” if they just work hard enough, stick around long enough….

    Over time, this grinds a person down. I love that people believe that if you just work hard and do well your talents will be recognized and you’ll be promoted, but the truth is this isn’t always the way things work. Companies both large and small have to have a position to promote you to, a budget to pay you more, etc etc….

    Once you’ve been at your first job for a bit, begin engaging your manager about what your options are for developing your career. If you start to get the sense that no one ever gets promoted, or that options for advancement are limited, then change gears: Learn what you can where you are and take that experience somewhere else.

    Answer by Carson Tang

    Ignore the bad habits of your older colleagues - Your colleague who has been working for at least 10 years might be late to meetings often, but that does not imply that it is acceptable to be late. When an older colleague is late, your manager might cut her more slack because she has proven herself to be helpful and employable whereas if you are late, you simply look irresponsible and unemployable.

    Seek guidance and help proactively - In school, your professors and teaching assistants often provide hints and guidance on homework and lab assignments without you prompting them. At work, everyone is busy with his or her own tasks, so do not be surprised if no one offers help. It is not necessarily that they are unfriendly and selfish so much as they are just plain busy. The ones that offer unsolicited help are generally friendly people, so those are the ones with whom you want to be on extra good terms.

    Be the expert of your assigned task - Even if you are assigned a menial task like fixing minor bugs, swallow your pride, fix those bugs, and understand how you fixed them. If you are assigned a major task, the same underlying principles apply. In software engineering, you are the expert of the part of the codebase you modified and extended, so if your colleagues have questions, they expect you to have the answers. Being the expert achieves two goals. First, your colleagues will think of you as a responsible person, and second, your manager will eventually notice and assign you more meaningful tasks or place you on more challenging and more impactful projects.