First, let me explain what awesome¹ careers look like. 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.)

首先，让我来给你们讲讲这些高大上的职业到底是什么样的。他们不是那种可以让你直线型每月都能往上爬一点的职业（见鬼，在普通的职业也不会这样啊。你不会每个月都得到提拔，但是如果你能得到晋升，那么你会不鸣则已，一鸣惊人。）

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

伟大的事业往往是这样：任职之初，在几段事业滞缓增长期过去后，你才会迎来峰回路转。

The color changes? Those are career changes: software development to product management, sales to cofounder, etc. They also have some setbacks. Because you know what?

画风变了？如下便是一些职业的变动：软件开发变成产品经理，销售成了合伙人，等等。一切皆有挫折，你知道这是为什么吗？

Being great requires taking some risks.And taking enough risks means you'll fail a bit, too.So with that said...

成功意味着冒一定风险。冒一定风险意味着你会经历失败。也就是说你要这么做：

Coding

写代码

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 actually hostile 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.

写代码，写很多代码。学校对研究学术很在行，但在实际运用方面有软肋。这一点在顶尖高校里最明显。讲师往往是学院派，经常会对所谓的实用教育抱有些敌意。成为好码农的最好方法就是练习，大量的练习。不管你写什么代码（开源、iPhone应用等），只要在写代码，你就会有进步。

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.

别太介意语言。语言只是一个工具，当然掌握一门语言意义非凡，不过学习新事物也是同等重要。一流的开发者不会认为自己只是个开发者的。

Career choices

职业选择方面

Prestige helps. Having a strong name on your resume helps open doors and show competence². If you can get a name like Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, Dropbox, etc., do it. (But don't stay long. See the next tip.)

名气抓眼球。简历上大公司的名字可帮你在求职之路上打开一扇窗，也展现出你的竞争力。如果你能在简历上写下Google、Facebook、Amazon、Microsoft、Dropbox等等大公司的名字，那就写上！（别太心潮澎湃，看看下一条）

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.)

尽快离开大公司。如果你想在一个大公司里搞出一番名堂，那么不管是什么路都要跪着走完。但如果那不是你真正想要的，赶快辞职吧。谷歌提供的校聘职位做一两年是很棒的，那如果是十年呢？并没有那么诱人了。虽然你汲取的经验还在增长，但在周而复始的工作中，收获的回报可能会越来越小。（除非你想在大公司做高管。）

Quit quickly. If I look at my friends who have switched jobs, almost all of them were thinking about quitting for the last six to 12 months. Some stayed for two or three years after they started saying that they wanted to quit. They've wasted so much time because of a resistance to change. If you're thinking about quitting, take action now. Start applying elsewhere — or possibly just quit out right. You probably won't be very successful if you're unhappy anyway, and there is a big opportunity cost in staying.

想辞职趁早。我看到我周围很多朋友都换了工作，然而下定这个决心花了他们大半年时间。有些再宣布自己要换职位后两三年过去还是按兵不动。他们为了等待所谓的“跳槽好时机”浪费了太多时间。如果你想辞了，那么现在就动手吧。到别的地方求职，或者先辞了再说。职业带来不了幸福感，你可能也不会成功，在这个岗位上停滞不前的机会成本太高了，你伤不起。

Dealing³ with others

人际

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.

诚信很重要。欺骗他人或是偷工减料，其实是在给自己挖陷阱。做对的事，不仅要做善事，也要做明智的事。这样他人就会更加信任与喜爱你。很多成功之门会为你开启——这些大门可能就是你职业生涯中的转折点。

Be helpful. When possible, help people who ask for help. The 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 buddies⁴ are or will be.

乐于助人。如果有机会，对要求帮助的人施以援手吧。现在求你帮忙的人以后也很可能帮你。这样的帮助可能是把你引荐给更多的朋友，让他们更直接地帮你。所以即使你帮的人看起来指望不上，说不定他们的朋友可能还是很靠谱的。

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.

广交朋友。事实上靠自己很难成功的。如果你是个创业者，那你需要雇员和商务纽带。如果你是个职员，那你需要一份工作。不管怎样，这些机会有一个先行条件就是你需要朋友。不管亲疏远近，他们编织了你的人际关系网，而不是那些你见过一遍就再也不会说话的人。不管亲疏远近，这些朋友构成了你的人际关系网，而不是那些你见过一遍就再也不会说话的人。

Being awesome

变强大

Start stuff. Show initiative.Good things never 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.

开始做事。表现出你的主动。机会不会青睐不追求他们的人。找到新的机会。开始做事——编程马拉松、俱乐部、一个新项目、一个公司、一个新团队，不管是啥。你会学到很多，机会也能慢慢靠近。

Take risks. Seize opportunities. When you notice that little flicker⁵ 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.

勇于冒险。把握机会，当你注意到了小的闪光点或是机会，把握住它，利用好它，看看它能不能成为成功。不要仅仅因为不知道它会带来什么效果而轻易抛下它不管。

Bias⁶ toward "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 of 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.

说“行”。伟大的事业关键在那些突破性时刻。问题是，关键点之来前，你常常是不能提前意识到的。你不知道一个茶会会带来什么。也不知道有人在两个月后把你推荐出去，和一个需要指导的人成为合作伙伴。让自己更喜欢说“行”吧。