New college graduates have begun to enter the extremely unstable employment market. In such an employment market, even the degree of a famous university cannot guarantee a successful employment.
"In enterprises, especially high-tech enterprises, it is not enough to be good at your work. You must be able to follow at least a major trend and take it to the other side of success ." Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, and Jonathan Rosenberg, former vice president of products, wrote in their new book "how Google works.
As young professionals keep asking them about career advice, they decide to teach them valuable experience and lessons. Their suggestions are summarized as follows:
1. Treat your career like surfing.
"Imagine your industry as a place where you surf. Your company is the wave you need to keep up. You must always stand in the tide ." Schmidt and rosenberger wrote.
Since young professionals do not have enough funds to invest in stocks and other assets, their best investment is to select an industry that is rapidly transforming and developing, and then improve their skills.
"At present, not only Internet companies have a good momentum of development. Industries such as energy, medicine, high-tech manufacturing, advertising, media, entertainment, and consumer electronics are also in the ascendant ." They wrote, "industries with long product cycles such as energy and medicine are facing large-scale transformation and there are a lot of opportunities ."
2. Follow companies that understand technology.
Even if you are not planning to work in Silicon Valley, you must understand the development trend of technology and the impact of technology on the industry. Only these companies will survive in the future when other companies collapse or stagnate.
Schmidt and rosenberger said that a simple way to determine whether a company understands technology is to see how it has adapted to industry changes in the past and how its leaders have taken a background. If the CEO of a company owns the background of creating a company and working in the technology industry, the company is likely to grow in the future.
3. Formulate a five-year plan.
Rosenberger wrote that he liked to follow the advice of musicians, ironic writers, and mathematicians Tom Lehrer: "Life is like a sewer. What are you throwing in, you will get something from it."
Rosenberger and Schmidt suggested that young professionals develop a five-year plan and answer these questions in the plan: "Where do you want to work? What do you want to do? How much do you want to earn? If you see this job on the Internet, what do you want it to do? What does your resume look like ?" You even need to figure out who you want to be ten years later.
In addition, you also need to figure out how you can leverage your strengths and improve your weaknesses. If you feel that you can start your dream work today, your dream is not great enough.
4. You are used to reading numbers.
"We are now in the big data era. This big data requires statistical analysis to become meaningful. This means that who can better analyze big data is the winner of the future. Data is the big tool of the 21st century. Who can use it with ease? Who is the real warrior ." Schmidt and rosenberger wrote.
This is not to say that you need to come up with a statistical textbook and make up relevant knowledge. However, you should at least be familiar with how your company processes data and how to use this information to improve your business.
5. Learn as much about your company and industry as possible.
"At Google, we always ask people who come to ask for advice to read the letters written by our founders when they went public in 2004, and Eric and Larry Page) all subsequent internal strategic memos." Schmidt and rosenberger wrote. They explained that most of Google's employees thought they were too busy to read them. As a result, they missed a good time for their own development because they didn't prioritize the company's value and strategy.
You should also learn as much about your own company as possible. You need to understand industry trends, establish a network of contacts in your field, and enhance information exchange between them.
A simple way to do this is to use Twitter to contact top enterprises and important news media in your industry.
6. Be ready to use the elevator to express your current and future goals at any time.
Imagine that you met your CEO at the door of the elevator and asked him what you were doing recently. You only had 30 seconds to answer him.
At this time, you cannot talk about it in a long way. You should always be prepared to briefly explain what you are doing, what your motivation is, how you measure your success, and how your goals are consistent with the company's goals.
If you are looking for a job, you should be prepared to focus on the most interesting part of your resume within 30 seconds, then explain how you will exert your influence in the company you interviewed. "You need to say what other people do not have the ability to do ." Schmidt and rosenberger said.
7. Go to a strange place.
Schmidt and rosenberger suggest that if you have the opportunity to walk out of your comfort zone and work in a strange place, you should seize it.
Enterprises, regardless of their size and scope of operation, are global, although humans are often used to choosing places they are familiar. You may subconsciously think that all your customers and all other companies in the industry are in the same region as you. You must never be confused by this illusion.
Schmidt and rosenberger suggested that, when you were young, you win the opportunity to work in your overseas branch. If your company doesn't have the opportunity, when you are traveling, let's take a look at the development of your industry in various parts of the world. For example, if you are in the media industry, you can pick up a newspaper anywhere you travel and study how the news is different from that in China.
8. Unify passion and contribution.
"Our ultimate pleasure is to unify our passion and contribution," said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO, in a speech at the barard college graduation ceremony ."
Schmidt and rosenberger agree that they represent an eternal goal in your career: not only do you love your work, but you can also provide you with a comfortable life based on your work, and has an impact on the world.
Of course, they understand the difficulty of achieving this balance. Therefore, they proposed a step-by-step approach: "Let your ideal job in the Five-Year Plan keep approaching your dream job ."
Schmidt's advice to young professionals: companies that understand technology