Soft skills you don't know: How programmers can avoid detours in the workplace

Before we talk about "soft skills", let's first distinguish between "soft skills" and "hard skills". Usually we define the skills of our professional direction as "hard skills". For example, for programmers, our algorithms, computer knowledge and programming skills are "hard skills". They are the ones we make a living with. Most people rely on them to make money to buy cars, houses, and have wives and children. However, the quality of life is often determined by "soft skills". From the relationship between the two types of skills, "soft skills" are the catalyst for "hard skills".

The so-called "soft skills" mainly include professional ability, productivity, learning ability, self-marketing, etc. Today we mainly talk about some aspects that are easy to lack, such as poor communication skills, no experience in public speaking, hesitant speech, easy to blush in front of many people, lack of influence, working hard every day but feeling that work efficiency is very low, and making great contributions but not being valued by leaders. In response to these realistic problems, we start our ice-breaking journey from the following aspects.

1. Build a complete knowledge system

Learning never ends. Of course, learning here does not only refer to knowledge in books, but also in life and on the Internet. Knowledge can be broadly divided into five categories: data, information, knowledge, talent and wisdom. Data is organized into information, information that can solve a problem is knowledge, knowledge is formed through repeated practice, and talent is wisdom. Building a knowledge system can help us improve, and stable and high-quality output in any situation can solve the problems we encounter more efficiently. Let us rely less on luck. The higher the level of ability, the smaller the impact of luck, and the higher the proportion of our control over our performance.

The best way to manage knowledge in a modular way is to use mind maps to organize these underlying theories or methodologies to form one knowledge module after another. In this way, when faced with problems at the similar phenomenon level, you can completely move out the corresponding knowledge modules to solve them, and when faced with complex problems, use multiple knowledge modules.

There are many ways to acquire knowledge now, such as searching on Baidu, asking colleagues or friends who are more familiar with a certain aspect, buying some professional books, reading official documents, etc.

Each of us has many positions and fields. We can make a certain reading plan every year. At the beginning of the year, make a reading list according to the following four phenomena, and set a certain proportion to understand unfamiliar fields, broaden our horizons, and not be a frog in a well.

2. Arrange your time properly

1) Wake up one hour earlier every day

As the saying goes, a day's plan begins in the morning. Get up one hour earlier, do some exercise such as running to keep a healthy body; or read a book you like and memorize some words. Even if it is a small growth, it will turn into a lot of energy after 365 days of accumulation. Just like the picture below shows:

2) Arrive at the company 15 minutes early every day

Simply review yesterday's work content to find out what you missed and fill in the gaps. By the way, take a look at today's daily schedule, install the importance and urgency, and arrange the order of processing various things.

3) Spend 15 minutes summarizing before leaving get off work

Before leaving get off work, spend 15 minutes reviewing your work for the day, writing down tomorrow's work plan, and recording unfinished work and progress to facilitate better work the next day.

4) Reduce the time spent on your phone

When working, set your phone to Do Not Disturb mode and concentrate on doing one thing at a time. As the era of smartphone dominance has arrived, people spend more and more time on social apps such as QQ, WeChat, Weibo, Zhihu, etc. (except for communication required for work), accounting for about 24% of the total time. . Data shows that during non-sleep time, the average person checks their phone once every four minutes. This imagination has a new term called "technology addiction", which comes from people's desire not to miss any information or status of their friends around them, and to grasp various entertainment gossips in a timely manner.

5) Break your time into smaller chunks

If there is a huge task that overwhelms you, you can try to break it into small pieces to make it manageable, and then arrange your time accordingly. Leaving time for contingencies makes your schedule more "defensive". It is generally recommended to leave 20% of your time for contingencies.

6) Utilization of fragmented time

It takes a lot of time to commute to and from get off work every day. Crowded subways and buses are not suitable for reading paper books or tablets. You can download some audio books and make use of this time. If the company has certain conditions to improve the canteen, you can watch some video courses early after eating. Scientific research shows that the most efficient free time for learning is half an hour before going to bed, after getting up, and before going to work.

7) Make time for rest

With the rapid development of society, modern people are under tremendous pressure both physically and mentally. People are not machines and must follow the law of conservation of energy. Blindly pursuing success will lead to overdrawn physical strength and energy, which is not worth the loss. In the past year, there have been more and more cases of sudden death in the Internet industry reported online, which are basically caused by long-term and high-intensity overtime work. "The dead are gone, and the living are always sad", leaving behind the eternal pain of parents, wives and children. If you can't get a good rest tonight, how can you have the energy to achieve greater success tomorrow.

You can use some apps to better manage your time, such as: Wonderful List App

3 How to learn new technologies

1) Dare to accept new things

We should believe in the dialectical materialist thought that existence is reasonable, do not be prejudiced against technologies that we do not understand, and do not be afraid of technologies that we are not familiar with. We should break away from the limitations of our own technology and explore the mysteries of new technologies with an inclusive heart.

2) A proactive attitude

Many times we learn new knowledge at the last minute, because the project requires it and no one in the company knows it. The leader says it is good for young people to learn more knowledge, so we bite the bullet and quickly search on Baidu. Because time and experience are all about knowing the results but not the reasons, and we only know the superficial aspects. It is best to actively use the fragmented time mentioned above to actively study, as the saying goes, more skills are better than less.

3) Read the official documentation

The best documentation for a technology must be its official documentation. For example, anyone who develops Android apps should be familiar with Android's API documentation. It details the function of each interface function and the meaning of each parameter, and provides many examples to help us understand the practical application of each knowledge point.

4) Practice is the only criterion for testing truth

With the theoretical foundation above, hands-on practice is very important. Only when you experience it yourself can you have the most profound impression. It would be best if you have a project that happens to use these technologies. Otherwise, you can also write a demo yourself to practice, starting with the most familiar helloworld.

5) Read a book a hundred times and its meaning will become clear.

You may not understand some knowledge after reading it once, because everyone's foundation and understanding are different. Don't be ashamed to ask questions, and don't give up if you don't understand. Experience tells us that as long as you work hard, you can grind an iron rod into a needle. You will gain different benefits from reading it several times. You can use mind mapping software to sort out the knowledge points.

4. Make a year plan and plan your career rationally

Programmers have always been labeled as a job for young people. After writing code for three years, many people’s lives and work tend to be stable. Many people start to prepare for marriage and childbirth. They stand at a crossroads in life and enter a period of confusion. They start to consider their future development direction.

We need to keep thinking about three questions:

• Am I suitable to be a programmer?
• Should I be a programmer for life?
• If I don't write code, what will I do?

Then make a comprehensive assessment of yourself to see which of the following paths is right for you:

• Programmer—System Analyst—Architect—Technical Manager—CTO;
• Programmer—Project Leader—Project Manager—Project Director—CTO;
• Programmer—Product Designer—Product Manager—CTO
• Programmer - Entrepreneur - CEO
• Programmer - Technical Expert - Book Writer - Freelance

I saw a picture on the Internet today. I feel like a thousand words are contained in this picture. You can design your own career based on the picture.

From my personal development experience and the experience of my friends, I would like to share with you that although frequent job hopping can earn you a high salary, you should seriously consider whether it is worth it and what benefits it will bring to your entire career development in the long run. I don’t know if you have ever felt that many company managers may not be as good as you, but you are his subordinate. Because in addition to focusing on ability, execution and loyalty are also very important in a company. If you want to go further, it is best to find the right industry and company for you before the age of 30. Your current income may not be very high, but once your company goes public, you will be the next multi-millionaire and you can achieve financial freedom.

5. Build a personal brand

A “personal brand” is the impression or emotion that others have about you, describing the entire experience of having a relationship with you!

People are a special commodity, with different values ​​depending on their abilities. By sharing what you are good at or have experience in, you can increase your popularity in certain circles. Participate in some professional circles in your familiar fields, let more people know you, and get to know more elite talents in different industries. At the same time, constantly improve your professional skills and professionalism. "Most people's efforts are not as hard as their talents" and "10,000 hours of genius training theory, intensive practice - invest 3 hours a day in one thing, and persist for ten years." In this way, you have to be awesome and make yourself an expert in a certain field. At the same time, keep in touch with some professional headhunters, they will recommend more and better opportunities to you, and everyone will win together.

6. Technical Specialization

Every profession has its own specialty. We are in an Internet age of information explosion. We have long passed the era when holding a technology or secret recipe can comfort us for several lifetimes. However, in the face of so much knowledge, we should make some choices. Everyone's time and experience are limited. Even if you are determined to learn for life, you can only ensure that you keep up with the trend of the times and will not fall behind for the time being. Everyone needs to have a unique skill as their trump card to take on porcelain work that others cannot do. And constantly update their own technology, constantly expand the field of knowledge, not seeking to master all, but only seeking comprehensive development in familiar fields. Only when the breadth of knowledge is accumulated enough can it be converted into the depth of knowledge. Everyone's time and energy are limited, and we cannot blindly pursue the breadth of technology. Depth and breadth promote each other. We must grasp the degree, and depth is more important than breadth.

7. Learn to give speeches and apply language skills

In today's society, people are paying more and more attention to themselves, so even if you have strong personal technical ability, if you don't like to talk, don't know how to communicate, and are not good at expressing yourself, it is difficult to get recognition and attention from colleagues, leaders, and subordinates. The skit "A Word of Matter" makes a lot of sense: "A word of matter, a word can make things happen, a word can ruin things." Speech is an important means for you to express yourself, defend yourself, and reflect your own value. As the saying goes, Wang Po sells melons and brags about herself. If you can't sell yourself well and tell others your advantages, the wine will be afraid of being hidden in the alley. There are not so many Bole in the world, don't think that you are a thousand-mile horse and there will always be Bole to appreciate it. There are many people like Wang Xiaochuan of Sogou in the Internet industry, but not everyone can meet Zhang Chaoyang who appreciates them. Properly learning some speech skills can express your views and ideas more clearly and reduce misunderstandings caused by poor communication. Programmers are generally relatively introverted, typing code in front of the computer every day, and have fewer opportunities to express themselves. You can try to practice a 3-minute impromptu speech, just pick a topic, and start in a place where no one is. Gradually strive for some training opportunities within the company to share your experience and practice, so that your leaders can discover your strengths and get better opportunities for promotion and salary increase.

8 What are the negotiation skills to get a high salary?

Before going to an interview, it is best to visit the company's official website to get a brief understanding of the company's development history, products and industry, so as to avoid leaving a bad impression when the interviewer asks whether you know their company. Friends who often go out for interviews will feel deeply that the other party's company mainly looks at the following points of yours: project experience + basic technology + personal potential (that is, whether it is worth cultivating).

Generally, the first person to interview you is HR, who will focus on the following points:

• Reason for leaving the previous company;
• Current company salary package;
• What kind of company do you expect to work for?
• Planning of personal future development direction.

During the interview, do not take the initiative to mention the salary issue. Generally, HR will cut the salary. It is best to wait until the interviewer asks you a question before answering. Do not give a clear number, but give a range that you can accept. Focus on your own value rather than needs. You can list your experience, advantages, skills and other plus points to make HR believe that your value is enough for the salary they propose. Do not limit yourself to the monthly salary. The salary structure of the same company is different. For example, everyone knows that the monthly salary of state-owned enterprises is not high, but there are so many hidden benefits that you want to go crazy. If the salary given by HR does not meet your psychological expectations, you can try to ask about other benefits of the company, such as commercial insurance, welfare holidays, education reimbursement, project bonuses, quarterly bonuses, year-end bonuses, stocks, options, etc. If the company's benefits are attractive enough, the number of all benefits added up may be more objective. If the annual income added up can meet your expectations, it can also be considered.

Let me share the saddest salary cut story in 2017: a beautiful HR girl negotiated salary with a candidate, and she wanted to lower the salary like a juicer. As a result, a year later, the HR girl was successfully captured by our programmer brother and became his wife. When she didn't spend the salary every month, she regretted it so much. If she had known this would happen, she would not have done it in the first place.

During a technical interview, the technical director or a more experienced engineer will ask you questions about projects they are interested in or technical problems they are currently facing based on your resume, and ask you to answer them. This mainly tests the applicant's communication skills, thinking skills, and technical strength. You should answer all the questions the interviewer asks. If you don't know much, don't be perfunctory, because you may be exposed in the next question. It is better to just say you don't know, end the question, and quickly switch to the field you are familiar with.