为什么20多岁是你职业生涯的关键一段

    MPW内部网络是一个邀请最有影响力的商界女性及时解答职业与领导力问题的在线社区。本周，我们的问题是：千禧一代在进入职场之前应该听从什么建议？以下是Hearsay Social创始人兼CEO史宗玮的回答。

    80后和90后们，要知道，你们这个年纪是进入职场最好的时段。抓紧这段时间，尽最大可能地去学习和做事，未来你肯定会感激自己今天的付出的。

    回顾我的第一份工作，即便我被要求去做一些看似很卑微、单调或者非常困难的事情时，我也会全力以赴。有的上司是我最不喜欢的类型，但即便如此，我依旧没有放弃、抱怨或懈怠。我会加班到很晚，如果有必要还会通宵达旦地工作，我学会了只有在自己确实无法解决的时候才去寻求帮助；只要是对我的上司和团队有利的事，我都会主动承担。

    一旦能够游刃有余地完成上司安排的工作，我就会挑战自己的能力极限。我会不断问自己：“我还能做什么？我还能做些什么让这件事变得更好？”这种心态让我在职业初期便拥有了更开阔的思路，主动向团队提出一些新的想法——虽然并非所有想法都是好的或者被采纳，但总能获得团队的欣赏。最后，“全力以赴”的工作劲头，让我获得上司和同事的尊重。我有幸加入战略对话，这让我有机会了解全局，承担更大的职责。

    如果你局限于短期思考，你或许认为这种想法有违常规，但如果你希望在职业发展过程中实现工作与生活的平衡，尽早“全力以赴”或许是最明智的选择。你可以获得宝贵的经验和人脉，这些收获将给你的职业发展带来好处。

    普华永道等公司的研究显示，80后和90后比他们的前辈更加重视工作与生活的平衡。一方面，许多初入职场的千禧一代会发现有些同龄人在工作中总是非常悠闲，即使混日子，依旧能领到工资。他们或许认为（你可能也会同意）自己比这个体系更聪明。但这样做其实会让他们错失为职业生涯奠定基础的关键时间段。

    虽然关于工作与生活平衡的决定很重要，而且人与人之间存在巨大差异，但从长远来看，尽量做最少工作的心态或许并不明智。心理学家梅格•杰伊在其非常有启发性的TED演讲《20岁光阴不再来》中，给所有二十多岁的年轻人敲响了警钟。所谓20岁到30岁是“可以挥霍的十年”这种观念，已经成为一种极其危险的谬论。太多虚度这段光阴的80后和90后将来肯定会后悔不迭的。

    就如今天投资100元产生的价值要远远高于10年后投资100元一样，随着时间的推移，出色的工作、职业关系和学习经验会产生“利滚利”效应。你投入的时间、精力和专注同样如此。早些起步能让你获得管理团队的权力，让你在不得不提前离开公司去接孩子放学时，可以将任务交给下属。（财富中文网）

    译者：刘进龙/汪皓

    审校：任文科

    MPW Insider is one of several online communities where the biggest names in business answer timely career and leadership questions. Today’s answer for: What is one piece of advice all millennials should take before entering the workforce? is written by Clara Shih, founder and CEO of Hearsay Social.

    Millennials, you could not be entering the workforce at a more exciting time. Seize the day, learn and do the most you possibly can today, and your future self

    Looking back at my first job, even when I was asked to do something seemingly menial, unglamorous, or very difficult, I always went all in. In my most trying moments with managers I liked the least, I did not give up, complain, or slack off. I stayed late, pulled all-nighters when necessary, learned to ask for help only when I couldn’t figure it out myself, and basically did whatever it took to make my manager and team look good.

    Once I got good at what was asked of me, I challenged myself to go further. I continually asked myself, “What else can I do? How else can I make this better?” This mindset led me early in my career to think bigger and proactively suggest new ideas to the team–certainly not all of them good or accepted, but almost always appreciated. Ultimately, going “all in” won me the respect of my manager and colleagues. I got to be a part of strategic conversations that allowed me to understand the bigger picture and play ever-bigger roles.

    This idea might seem counterintuitive if you are stuck in short-term thinking, but if you really want work/life balance over a career, going all in as much as possible early may be the smartest thing you can do. You will obtain valuable experience and contacts that will pay dividends throughout your career.

    Research from PwC and others suggest that millennials — more than previous generations — value work/life balance. On one end of the spectrum, many millennials new to the workforce will find peers have figured out ways to cruise through their jobs, doing the bare minimum and still collecting their paychecks. They may think (and you may be tempted to agree) they have outsmarted the system. But actually they are the ones losing out on crucial foundational years.

    Though decisions regarding work/life balance are important and vary widely from person to person, it may not be wise in the long run to optimize for doing the bare minimum at work. In her insightful TED talk, “Why 30 is not the new 20,” psychologist Meg Jaygives an important wake-up call to twenty-somethings. The notion that your 20s are a “throwaway decade” has become a dangerous fallacy that too many millennials may come to regret later in their careers.

    Great work, professional relationships, and learning experiences compound over time, much the way money does — investing $100 today creates much more value than investing $100 a decade from now. The same rings true for your time, energy, and focus. Starting early lets you earn the right to manage a team and have people to delegate to when you have to leave work early to pick up your kid from school.