大约三十年前，许多公司都会提供明确的职业发展路线。只要你表现出色，你的工资、职务和责任一定会稳步提高，为公司忠心服务25年后，你还将得到一块金表作为表彰。

A generation ago, many companies offered a straightforward career ladder. If you performed well, you could count on a steady climb in salary, job title, and responsibilities until receiving a gold watch for 25 years of loyal service.

但现在，公司会根据自身需要，自由地重新安排和辞退员工。“大衰退”前就被婴儿潮一代塞满的公司管理层，现在不大可能出现人事变动，因为这些最年长的员工正在努力重建他们的退休积蓄。

Today, organizations freely reassign and fire employees as needed. Management ranks that were clogged with Baby Boomers before the Great Recession are now even less likely to see turnover, as the organization’s oldest employees seek to rebuild their retirement savings.

年轻人必须开拓自己的职业道路，他们需要寻找机会提高技能和积累经验，与正确的人交往，谋划职业发展道路上的每一个转折点。

Young professionals must create their own career paths by seeking out opportunities to develop skills and experience, networking with the right people and plotting each turning point along the road.

咨询师、《管理者面临的27项挑战》(The 27 Challenges Managers Face)与《你也可以管理老板》(It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss)的作者布鲁斯•塔尔干表示：“毫无疑问，大多数公司都希望人们对自己的职业发展负责。大多数公司已经不再提供一条适合所有人的职业道路。”

“There’s no question that most organizations expect people to take responsibility for their own careers,” says Bruce Tulgan, consultant and author of The 27 Challenges Managers Face and It’s Okay to Manage Your Boss. “There’s no longer a one-size fits all career path in most organizations.”

如果你从事同一个职务两年、三年或者五年，渴望下一个机会的到来，那你恐怕要学会自己开拓职业道路。以下是几条重要建议。

If you’ve been in the same role for two, three, or five years, and are itching for the next opportunity, chances are you need the secrets to the do-it-yourself career path. There are three key ingredients.

建立关系网

Build relationships

我们都知道建立人脉和寻找一位导师或担保人有多么重要。但最成功的做法则是通过自身的努力建立起多元化的关系网，并依靠这些人提供诚恳的反馈、建议、见解和信息。

We’ve all heard it’s important to network and find a mentor and sponsor. But the most successful do-it-yourselfers build a diversity of relationships and rely on those individuals for honest feedback, advice, insight, and information throughout the course of their careers.

如果每个人都必须成为自身事业的CEO，那么你就应该将这些人视为你的咨询委员会。这个团队应该包括公司内部和外部的同事、你的直属上司、其他部门的高层、公司人力资源部职员、同行和行业领袖、家人，以及在大学和其他地方结交的值得信赖的好友。你将依靠他们对自己进行评估，确定自己应该提高和发展的方面，了解机会所在，理解自己的角色，以及公司和行业的现状。

If each of us must be the CEO of our careers, think of these people as an advisory board. The group should include peers inside and outside the company, higher-ups in your chain of command and in other divisions, someone in your company’s human resources department, peers and leaders in your industry, family and trusted friends from college and elsewhere. You’ll rely on them to help you evaluate yourself and where you should develop and grow, as well as to learn where there are opportunities and to understand your role and how the company and industry work.

安永会计事务所(EY)美洲区招聘主管丹•布莱克表示：“这是一项毕生的追求，并且需要定期完成。一定要将自己的目标放到所处环境中进行衡量。”布莱克刚刚卸任全美大学与雇主协会(The National Association of Colleges and Employers)主席一职。

“You have to have those conversations early and often,” says Dan Black, immediate past president of the National Association of College and Employers and Americas director of recruiting for EY. “It’s a lifelong pursuit and an exercise to go through at regular intervals. Make sure you’re weighing your goals against the environment you’re in.”

加入行业组织、俱乐部和同行团体，例如公司女性或少数族裔的网络。怀着帮助对方同时也从对方那里得到帮助的心态，去接触同事和同行。

Join industry associations, clubs and affinity groups, such as corporate women’s or minority networks. Reach out to colleagues and industry peers, with a goal to helping them as much as they help you.

塔尔干表示：“单纯为了交际而交际，对于忙碌的人而言只是在浪费时间。认识其他人的首要规则是要展示自我。第二条规则是：要有价值。”

“Networking for the sake of networking is wasting the time of very busy people,” Tulgan says. “The number one rule to getting to know people is show up. The number two rule is: be valuable.”

不要贸然地在休息时间给公司高层领导打电话寻求建议，你可以自愿支持公司内的活动，例如全球性的内部会议，你会在这里遇到许多高层领导。软件公司SAP Global Customer Operations首席人力资源官布里盖特•麦金尼斯-戴伊表示，充当这种角色时，“你更容易引起人们的注意，并且有机会接触许多职能部门。这样的经历将帮你树立名声，证明你希望接触更广泛的层面，而不是一位只关心自己工作的工人。”

Instead of simply calling up a senior leader in your company for advice over coffee, you could volunteer to support a company-wide initiative, such as a global internal meeting that will include many senior leaders. In that kind of role, “you’re big and visible and touch lots of functional areas,” says Brigette McInnis-Day, chief human resources officer at software firm SAP Global Customer Operations. “Those help you get a name and show you’re broader than just to be a worker at your specific role.”

SAP与牛津经济研究院(Oxford Economics)最近联合发布的劳动力报告显示，仅有7%的千禧一代员工通过社交得到了职业发展，因为他们更依赖正规的培训和指导，来提升自己的能力。此外，全球29%的千禧一代员工希望能够得到更多反馈，39%的千禧一代会因为缺少培训和发展而考虑跳槽。

A recent SAP and Oxford Economics workforce report found that only 7% of Millennial workers received professional development through networking, as they rely more on formal training and mentoring for skill development. Also, 29% of Millennial workers globally expect more feedback than they get and 39% would consider leaving their jobs due to a lack of training and development.

33岁的克里斯蒂安•休斯是纽约一家保险公司的项目经理，在自愿成为一名有关公司责任的主题专家时，她认识了公司的一位高管，而公司责任恰好是这位高管的专业领域。不久，这位高管便为她推荐了公司内部和外部的其他人，建议她与这些人接触，看看是否有更好的机会。休斯说道：“他为我打开了一扇门……因为他几乎每个月都会与我谈论我的职业发展情况。”休斯最初也不相信，通过官方辅导计划能建立如此牢固的关系。

Christian Hughes, 33, a project manager for an insurance company in New York, got to know a senior executive at her firm when she volunteered to become a subject matter expert for corporate responsibility, his area of expertise. Before long, he was suggesting other people she should meet with internally and externally to talk about opportunities. “It’s really opened up a door … because every month or so he wants to talk to me about my career,” says Hughes, who doubts she would’ve developed such a strong relationship through an official mentoring program.

学无止境

Always be learning

仅靠关系不可能让你走得更远。你还要提前掌握下一个阶段所需要的技能和经验。许多年轻人会因为下面这种左右为难的情况而感到沮丧：要想得到一份你想要的工作，你必须首先证明自己具备该职位所需要的经验，但如果没有机会，你又不可能积累经验。

Relationships alone won’t get you far. You also need the skills and experience to advance to the next level in your career. Here’s where many young professionals grow frustrated with the following catch-22: you can’t get the job you want until you can demonstrate experience in that role, but you can’t build the experience without an opportunity.

休斯说道：“从小到大，人们都在告诉我们，通过努力工作，你可以做自己想做的任何事情。但许多公司不会因为一个人的潜力而聘用他，他们雇用的是一个人的能力。”

“We’ve all grown up being told you can do whatever you want to do [by] working hard,” says Hughes. “But a lot of companies are not hiring for potential … they’re hiring for skills.”

有时候，能否得到积累经验的机会，可能取决于你寻找机会的方式。一个新人直白地问：“我该如何进步?”，可能会令在一家公司打拼了五六年的人对他产生不满。相反，可以询问一些更宽泛的信息，帮助你找到积累经验的机会，深入了解公司和部门，以及自己能否适合这家公司等。

Sometimes, it can all hinge on how you ask for an opportunity. Someone who’s been grinding away at a company for five or six years will chafe at a newbie who asks bluntly, “how do I advance?” Instead, ask more broadly for information that will help you learn about opportunities to gain experience and learn more about the company, its divisions, and how you fit in.

要想了解其他人对你职业素养的看法，可以请求同事评价你的工作或在会议中的表现。他们的意见能够帮助你获得非正式的反馈，SAP的研究显示，超过三分之二的千禧一代希望得到更多这样的反馈。麦金尼斯-戴伊表示，你可能从同事那里了解到，你在办公室里说话声音最大，或者你总是太过安静。

To understand how you’re perceived professionally, ask peers for feedback on your work or participation in a meeting, for instance. Their input can help provide the informal feedback that more than two-thirds of Millennials would like in greater amounts, according to the SAP study. You may learn that you’re the loudest voice in the room or have a tendency to be too quiet, McInnis-Day notes.

她说道：“一定要清楚自己有哪些方面偏弱，需要加强。”她还鼓励有抱负的员工接受那些可能不怎么炫目或令人兴奋的机会。“通过同级调动来拓展自己的技能。”

“Make sure you understand the areas where you are weak and need to develop,” she says, encouraging ambitious workers to be open to opportunities that may not be as flashy or exciting. “Take lateral moves to broaden your skills.”

为了得到升职，休斯的一位同事便从自己喜欢的销售岗位调到了运营部门。休斯解释道：“她真正感兴趣的并不是运营，但她对自己当时的工作已经感到厌倦，希望接受新的挑战。”

A colleague of Hughes’ moved from the distribution side of the company – which she liked – to operations in order to land a promotion. “Operations is not really her interest, but she was tired of what she was doing and wanted a new challenge,” Hughes explains.

一些繁琐的工作或初级任务，可能给你带来意想不到的收获，例如公司如何与客户打交道，不同的部门如何整合等。布拉克建议：“看看自己能否向雇主证明：‘我已经掌握了公司的基本情况，我准备利用这些知识，让自己更上一层楼。’”

You may learn something you don’t expect from scut work or entry-level tasks, such as how the organization works with clients or how different divisions fit together. “See if you can showcase, ‘I’ve picked up the fundamentals of our business and I’m ready to utilize them and move to the next level,’” suggests Black.

关心自己

Care for yourself

刚走出大学或商学院的年轻人，可能习惯了校园里不分昼夜的生活。但这种生活习惯并不适合职场。

Young people coming from a college or business school environment may be used to burning the candle at both ends. That doesn’t go over well in a professional setting.

塔尔干表示，“如果你总是不在最佳状态，人们肯定会注意到。你应该照顾好自己的精神、身体和情绪……如果你是自己做生意，那么让自己的幸福感下降，等于是任由工厂分崩离析。”

“People notice and it means you’re not at your best,” Tulgan says. “Take care of your mind, take care of your body, take care of your emotional well being…. If you’re really in business for yourself, letting your well-being degrade is like letting the factory fall apart.”

来自华盛顿的南希•乔安娜是IBM公司的一位咨询师，她在加入IBM后不久便发现自己不堪重负，因为她每周工作60个小时，原因是她不希望失去对客户项目的所有权。于是，她向一位40岁的项目经理寻求帮助。这位项目经理的职位更高，但与乔安娜不属于同一个部门。

Shortly after joining IBM as a consultant based in Washington D.C., Nancy Geronian, 22, found herself overloaded, working 60 hours a week on client projects for which she didn’t want to lose ownership. She reached out to a 40-something project manager who was more senior but not in Geronian’s chain of command.

她回忆道，“她对我说：‘只有你自己知道你有多忙碌。’”最终，乔安娜将自己负责的项目进行优先排序，分析每一个项目所需要的时间，确保自己仅接受能够处理好的工作。乔安娜说道：“我下定决心解决这个问题，结果这对所有人都有好处，因为工作完成了。”乔安娜表示，这只是她自己的想法，不代表IBM公司。

“She said, ‘You are the only person who knows how busy you are,’” she recalls. As a result, Geronian prioritized the items for which she was responsible, analyzed the time each would take, and made sure she only took on what she could handle. “I made a decision to work that out so it works in everyone’s favor because the work gets done,” saysGeronian, who spoke only for herself and not on behalf of IBM.

如果你发现自己可能要到外部寻找新的发展机会，不妨先咨询一下你在人力资源部的可靠盟友或公司高层。你可能会发现，公司即将推出一系列非常适合你的新业务。

If it starts to seem that your career path is leading outside the company, consult a trusted ally in the human resources department or higher up in the company first. You may learn that the firm is about to launch a new line of business that would be perfect for you.

布莱克聘用的一位年轻审计师收到了另外一家公司发出的邀请，这令他颇为心动，因为他开始厌烦了审计工作。后来，他向一位审计合伙人寻求意见，那位高管提议将他调往咨询部门——如今，他已经成为该部门的合伙人。

A young auditor who Black hired was being recruited by an outside firm, which tempted him because he was growing tired of the audit track. But when the man asked an audit partner for advice, that executive advocated to move him to the advisory practice – where he recently made partner.

布莱克回忆道：“他知道自己不想沿着同一条道路继续走下去……能向别人倾诉自己的想法令他感到舒畅。他始终记得自己的长期目标是什么。”

“He knew he wasn’t excited about staying on the same path … and felt comfortable talking to someone,” Black recalls. “He kept his longer term goals in mind.”