During your first years in the workforce¹, you can expect to have a huge learning curve – not just about the details of your job, but about broader issues of how to manage your career and operate successfully in an office. How do you deal with difficult co-workers? Figure out if you're paid fairly? Understand what HR's convoluted² memos³ mean?

当你还是职场小白时，一定有许多需要学习之处。你不仅要学习本职工作的点滴细节，还要把目光放宽放广，比如学会如何管理职业生涯并胜任工作，如何与不合群的同事相处，打听工资是否合理，读懂人力资源上司晦涩难懂的暗示。

You'll keep mastering work skills throughout your career, but here are 10 key things that you should make sure you know about work by the time you're 30.

你将在职业生涯中不断掌握工作技能，但请确保你在30岁时领会了以下10条宝贵的工作建议。

How to talk to people much more senior than you. It's pretty common to be intimidated⁴ by company higher-ups or industry experts when you're just starting out in your career. But if you let yourself stay intimidated, it will keep you from forming relationships and gaining visibility with decision-makers, and that can hold you back professionally. Don't be shy about chatting with higher-ups or sharing your ideas when appropriate. The more you act like a colleague (which you are), the more you'll be seen that way.

如何与上级交谈。初入职场时，被公司上级或行业专家的气场所震慑是再正常不过的事。但如果你只是任凭自己被震慑而不敢向前，那么你将失去和决策者们建立人际关系、并在他们面前刷存在感的机会，而这无疑会阻碍的你的事业发展。大胆一些，在合适的情况下不要害怕与上级交谈或分享你的想法。你的举止越是像同事（其实你的确是），上级就越能同样看待你。

How to respond to critical feedback. Being able to listen to feedback about your work with an open mind is enormously important, because feedback is one of the most direct ways to get better at what you do. If you respond defensively or shut down, you'll prevent yourself from hearing important information, lose points with your boss and maybe even make it less likely that you'll hear information that could help you in the future. Instead, listen with an open mind and respond with something like, "This is really useful to hear," or "I appreciate you sharing this with me." If you can't stomach those, try, "I want to take some time to think about this, but I appreciate you telling me."

如何回应批判性反馈。怀着虚心的态度聆听别人对你的工作反馈十分重要，因为反馈是让你在工作中不断进步的最直接途径之一。如果你消极回应或直接拒绝回应，你将丢失重要信息，在上司那里失分，甚至也更不可能获得今后对你大有裨益的信息。所以反之，你需要带着虚心的态度聆听，以类似“听君一席话，胜读十年书”或“很感谢你的反馈”这样的言辞作为回应。如果一时接受不了这些反馈，试着告诉对方“给我一点时间思考这个问题，还是很感谢你的反馈。”

How to negotiate salary when you get a job offer. People sometimes worry that they have to lay out an air-tight case when asking for more money, but it doesn't always have to be a long speech with evidence about your worth. More often than not, you can simply say "I was hoping you could go up to X amount. Is that possible?" or "Do you have any flexibility⁶ on the salary? I was hoping for X."

得到工作机会时如何协商薪资。许多时候人们总是担心在要求加薪时得策划一份缜密的方案，但你真没必要对自己的价值大摆事实发表长篇大论。通常情况下，你只需要说“我希望您能把我的工资涨到X，这样可以吗？”或是“工资还有协商的余地吗？我的理想工资是X。”

How to figure out the market rate for your work. This can include asking other people in your field for their opinion, checking with professional organizations in your industry, looking at similar positions on online job boards to see if salary ranges are listed and talking to recruiters in your field – always making sure that you're factoring in your geographic⁷ area, which can have a big impact on the numbers.

如何弄清自己工作薪资的市场行情。具体方式包括：询问其他从事该领域工作人员的意见，咨询行业内专业组织，在网上求职平台查找类似职位的薪资区间，和该领域招聘人员交谈。你要确保以自身所处地理位置为前提，这会对该职位薪资的市场行情有重要影响。

How to run a meeting. If you lose control of your meetings, let conversation spiral in any direction and don't start or finish on time, people will quickly begin dreading⁸ attending any meetings you're running. Instead, always have an agenda, be clear about what outcomes you're aiming for, be willing to redirect the conversation when needed, take your starting and ending times seriously and make sure everyone is clear on next steps before you wrap up. People will be far less likely to "miss seeing" your meeting invites when you do this.

如何主持会议。如果你无法掌控自己主持的会议，放任谈话内容朝四面八方飞散，召开和结束会议的时间都不准时，那么你的同事很快就不再会出席任何你主持的会议了。相反，你需要备有议程表，清楚会议应该取得的成果，在需要时主动把话题引回正轨，按时召开并结束会议，确保会议圆满结束之前每个参与者都清楚下一步行动。如果你能做到这些，同事们就不大可能在你的会议上“缺席”了。

How to have a difficult conversation. Whether it's asking your co-worker to turn down their music, telling your boss you're quitting or letting an employee go, you're going to have tough conversations over the course of your career. Your life will be much better if you get comfortable with being straightforward⁹. That doesn't mean rude, of course; you can be direct and kind at the same time, but you do need to assert yourself and get comfortable with difficult topics. Speaking of direct ...

如何应对尴尬的谈话。不论是让同事把音乐声关小，告诉老板要辞职还是让员工走人，这些都是你在职业生涯中会经历的尴尬场面。如果你可以坦然直言，那你的生活会轻松许多。当然直言并不意味着粗鲁，因为你可以在直接表达自身想法的时候，也表现自己善良真诚的一面。但是你要坚持自己的立场，面对这些尴尬的话题也能泰然自若。直言……

How to stand up for yourself politely and professionally. There may be times when your employer does something that you need to push back on – for example, offering you a promotion¹⁰ with significantly more responsibility but no raise, expecting you to work unreasonable¹¹ hours for months on end or violating a labor law. In these cases, it's key to know how to professionally advocate for yourself. Usually that means being assertive¹² but not aggressive, calmly explaining the issue and being direct about what you need. For example: "I'm happy to pitch in when needed, but this schedule has me working seven days a week for the next month with only two days off. I'm not able to do that because of commitments outside of work, so let's talk about how else we can structure this."

如何礼貌而又专业地维护自己。有时候面对老板的某些作为，你需要加以推辞，例如，给你升职，但是只增加了更多的工作职责，却没有加薪，希望你数月连续加班或违反劳动合同法等。在这些情况下，最关键的是要知道如何有理有据的维护自己。通常情况下，这意味着你必须义正言辞地维护自己的权益，但又不能带有攻击性，你要冷静地给出自己的解释并坦言自己的需求。例如，你可以这么说：“当公司确实需要我的时候我愿意赴汤蹈火，但下个月每周工作七天，月休两天的不合理安排，实在让我没法接受，因为这超出了我的工作责任范围，所以让我们谈谈如何更改一下这样的日程安排吧。”

What you're good at and what you're not so good at. Early in your career, it's pretty normal not to have a well-refined sense of where you shine and where you don't. But if you've been working for most of your 20s, by the end of them you should have fairly nuanced information about what you're better at than others, what you're much better at than others, what you want to work on improving in and what you should probably avoid altogether.

明确你工作中的强项和弱项。在你职业生涯的初期，你可能无法准确判断自己的闪光点以及弱势，这都很正常。但是如果你已经工作到快奔三的年龄，那就应该清楚地知道自己在哪些方面比较擅长，哪些方面尤其具备优势，哪方面还需提升，以及哪方面则完全需要敬而远之。

What to do when you make a mistake. At some point, you're going to make a mistake at work because you're human. When you do, how you handle it will often matter more than the mistake itself. The key is to take responsibility for what happened; don't make excuses or be defensive⁵. Let your boss know what happened and – this is crucial – how you plan to ensure it doesn't happen again. If you do that, you'll have proactively addressed what your manager probably cares about most and he or she is less likely to impress the seriousness of the mistake on you.

如何处理自己所犯的错误。人非圣贤，孰能无过，所以有时在工作中，你也难免会犯错。当你犯错后，重要的是如何解决问题而非纠结于错误本身；你要为自己所犯的错误承担责任，而不是找借口为自己辩护。你要跟老板坦白自己的过错，这点也很关键；此外，你还需要跟老板保证下不为例。以上都是当你犯错后，老板最在意的方面，如果这些你都能积极主动地做到，那么老板很可能就不那么在意错误本身的严重性。

Your reputation matters. Your reputation for doing great work and being easy to work with is what will give you more and more professional options over time. It's what will let you avoid bad jobs and bad bosses and what will give you a safety net when you need to leave a job quickly or find a new one across the country. That means that it's not worth doing things like leaving a job without notice or telling off your boss, and it's worth it to go above and beyond to build a reputation for excelling.

你的声誉很重要。假如你有这样的声誉--能做大事，同你一起工作轻松而又愉快，那么在你往后的职业生涯中，会因此获得越来越多的职业选择。这样的声誉会让你避开糟糕的工作和老板，而且，在你马上要离职或需要在国内找到一份新工作时，它还会成为你的后盾。拥有这意味着，不要做些不值当的事，例如离职时不告知你的老板或不辞而别。追求突破，努力树立自己的良好声望才是最值得的事。