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First job: beliefs - part 1

本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛Our behavior largely is the result of our beliefs. Incorrect beliefs lead to incorrect behaviors which lead to undesired outcomes.

Of the many wrong beliefs of a typical first time job seeker, the most harmful is the thinking that I'm just not good enough. How can I compete with people who've got a lot more experience? This belief often leads to inaction. Also such a person tend to lack confidence which would show up in the resume and later in the interview. It's very hard to pass an interview if you don't have reasonable amount of confidence.

One of my strong beliefs is that the world is a lot dumber than we think. Most of us tend to over-estimate the rest of the world thus talking ourselves out of good things in life. If you have average smarts and you work reasonably hard, you should be able to beat most people.

Years ago, I trained someone to be a programmer. I taught her the basics and had her working on a few small projects which were bare-bones version of what my company was doing. About 3 months later, she found a programming job. Later she learned that she beat 10 people in the phone interview and beat 1 more guy in the face-to-face interview. Can you imagine someone with only 3 month training experience beating all the others with much longer real world experience?

I've gone through many companies over the years. In most places I participated in the hiring process. The last couple of places, I had leading roles. In my experience, it's not easy to find really good people. In one case, we went through hundreds of resumes and did tons of phone interviews. Then we picked many for face-to-face interview. We hired a few in the end but at least I wasn't happy with any of them. Now you see why someone with 3 month experience under the right guidance can beat people with years of experience. Most people are happy with just a pay check and they put in minimum effort in order to not get fired. Even with years of experience, they may still don't understand the basic concepts let alone the big picture. You definitely can beat them.

Getting a job mostly means to pass the interview. The people who've got a lot more experience may not be as good as you're at the interview. One person got a job by simply going through interviews. After each interview, she'd memorize the questions. Once home, she'd ask her husband to write down detailed answers and she'd study them. After many interviews, she got a job.

In one extreme case, a woman with no programming knowledge got a job in programming. She studied economics in university and worked in the import-export business. However, she got bored and started to apply for programming positions. She didn't know much about programming and she didn't bother to learn. Obviously, she failed all the interviews. However, in the last interview, the technical guy was unable to make it that day so the manager interviewed her. Turned out the manager also graduated in economics. They had a very pleasant conversation and the woman was hired. Half a year in the job, she still had to call her friend with basic programming issues.更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
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  • 工作学习 / 事业与工作 / First job: beliefs - part 1
    • Your post is very good indeed and I agree with you on most part.
    • I super agree with you. I understood this too late after I worked for many years. Dxxx. Anyway, hopefully nothing is too late. Would you give some advice to a guy who is rather smart and super hardworking like me? Thanks.
      • I used to work with a lot Chinese who are very smart in technology and extremely hard working but they failed to sell themselve to management.
        本文发表在 rolia.net 枫下论坛They often questioned how come someone else got promoted or someone else got bigger bonus. And they often blamed discrimination or poor English!

        I am not saying technical skill is not important or English is useless. But I know a lot of immigrants who came from India or Eastern Europe whoes techncial skills is just so so and their English is as terrible as any average Chinese immigrants. But they got promoted much quicker than most Chinese workers.

        The key is they know how to sell themsevles. Whenever, there is gathering that our VP or CIO is present, they are like bee to honey. Most Chinese just have their own group or don't bother to show up because they have works to do. Whereas our competitors take whatever opportunities to play golf, have coffee or just go out to smoke with the senior management.

        During our regualr departmental meeting, I observed 2 extreme behaviors. On 1 end, some Chinese sit at the far end of the table and even I tried to give them opportunity to show off and asked them to discuss their project. They only speak for 10 seconds; highly summarised and they often head down and say it to the table rather to the people. The other extreme is those who are super confident. They would just talk and talk about their idea and never listen to other people's input and if their idea is not accepted, they would be very upset. Most projects in IT are team works and who is comfortable to work with such attritutes.

        If you think your techical is already very strong and extremely hard working, then my suggestion is slow down a little bit; go to your boss's (or your boss's boss) office and discuss with him about what you are doing. Pretend you can't make up upir mind, and give him a few choices, discuss the pros and cons; and ask him to give you his preference. Talk to your user is also important, especially the head of users department. Helping coworkers is also good but somehow, your boss have to accidentaly discover your contributions. If you do something you are very proud of, why do you tell your boss and suggest that you want to share with the rest of your team or even other team by doing a presentation. Don't fogot to invite your boss's boss! He may never show up but he now know who you are and what you do.

        Do not just work behind your computer! You have to stand on your table and let everyone know who you are!!!更多精彩文章及讨论,请光临枫下论坛 rolia.net
        • Be more concise, talk like an Indian. Be honest, promotion might bring more pressure than purely being a techy guy.
          • you are damn right. I stepped down because I couldn't stand the heat and I don't think it is worth for that 20% increase.
            • Sorry to hear that. However if a Chinese can be on a director position, which means a 130K and 20% of bonus, plus stock options, if might worthwhile to suffer a fews years.
              • I was in a director position and I had access to HR data so I know I was at 99 percentile in term of $$$ and my departnment head virtully put me in charge of everything from architecture to budget to project management.
                However, everyone even my dentist asked me to quit.

                I earn much lesser $$$ but I am quite happy with my own startup company and I dream 1 day my 1 man company can do better when the economy recovers.
    • 写的很好,很有深度。
    • Agreed. Many people, even at Fortune 10 firms, don't know what they are doing. They make a living playing politics and being in the right place the right time. Pick a career carefully and work hard, you will come out on top.
      "Most people...put in minimum effort in order to not get fired. Even with years...they may still don't understand the basic concepts let alone the big picture." Well said!