Personal Growth, Career Planning, Financial planning

My Feelings to 30-Year Career Life

Elanso — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:13:06 GMT

Translator:amy_zw

Written by: Sun Zhenyao, CEO of HP China

Sun Zhenyao:

Mr. Sun Zhenyao joined HP Taiwan as a common engineer right after graduation from the university. From then on, his life had been closely connected with IT industry.

Mr. Sun Zhenyao started his job as a sales representative, and then got promoted to manager of the branch. In 1990, he became the one in charge of the PC business of HP Taiwan.

In 1991, Mr. Sun Zhenyao went a long way to assume the position of General Manager, Personal System Group, HP China. After that, since HP business in his charge had got enormous growth years in a row, and cooperation with domestic clients had grown deeper and deeper as well, he was promoted to Vice President, HP China in 1995, and continued to be the General Manager of Personal System Group. He had been the President of HP China from 2001 to 2007.

Career Life is Like a Marathon

Normally, we work 35 years in our lifetime, just like a marathon. The difference is that there is no professional player in the contest, and every one only has one chance. The thing is not many but only a minority of people who can stick to the end. Therefore, to strive for a leading position in the beginning does not have too much significance.

The career life is like a sports competition, and we have to go through preliminary contest, re-contest and final contest. In the preliminary contest, we step into the society with similar capability, and it’s often easy to stand out with more efforts than others. Thus, some people become managers in their twenties, and some others also become managers in their thirties and win the preliminary contest at a later time. Those who can join the re-contest are winners in the preliminary contest. At this stage only working hard and carefully is not sufficient to walk away. One needs to be hard bitten, understand power of teamwork, know how to win over others and have a long-term vision……

It seems not easy to win the re-contest, but it is not that hard indeed. There is a universal rule that success also brings with it pretension and self-complacence. Some winners of the preliminary contest might deem that they understand all, but do not know they only make little achievement, and become self-complacent and stop learning.

When the final contest comes, all players are master-hands and probably they can merely wait for others to make mistakes. And the universal rule works again. The winners of re-contest are not only over-confident and self-complacent but also perverse. They do not listen to others, some become ill-tempered, fickle in mood and bad in health. Their biggest enemies are themselves. Like sports contest, the final contest among experts is determined by who makes fewer mistakes.

Not Being Happy is Because You Do Not Know What You Want

Are you happy when you are working? Do you ever feel unhappy after having worked for some time? Do you feel that your work is in a chaos and going to work everyday is nothing but suffering? Do you feel that current company you work for is not as good as you had thought? What have you obtained from your work? Are you happy every day?

Actually, the reason why you are unhappy about your work is because you do not know what you want! Now that you do not know your target, you will not have anything to pursue and do not know what to seek for, and therefore cannot get anything.

I always suggest that the most important thing to notice in your career is yourself and what you want. Probably most of people have never thought of this question before, and they only care about a job with decent salary. I know every one longs for salary, but do you really want to repeat the process of job hunting every a few years? Do you want to spend your time every year in the anxiety for work and salary? If not, please think it over.

The more you are anxious for a job, the more you will be unclear about what you want and the more chances you will fail. Consequently, our resume is scrabbled and next recruiter will frown on your resume. Where there is living pressure there are anxieties. Positive people can be motivated by anxiety, while negative ones may be lost in it. Every one must make a choice under pressure because it is life, like it or not.

There is no easy success without any cost. Please forget all pressures for survival and figure out what you want most, since it is the most crucial.

What is a Good Job?

All human are keen on face-saving and likes to compare with others, even if comparing on jobs, no matter whether it measures up or not. We all think foreign enterprises excel other companies, but where? Ok, let’s say their office buildings are more impressive; maybe they live in better hotels during business trip; or others will envy jobs in foreign enterprise. All of these factors are something shown to others, but why do you live so hard just for showing something to others? To find a job, should you consider what you want or think about what others would like to see?

Most of my university classmates have gone to US. So have several cousins of mine. But their parents are left in China without anyone to take care, and even nobody knew several times when they fainted at home. Is going abroad really glorious? Just like some one said,“Many things are like watching pornies – audience may feel well, but actors may not.”

We always want to find out the best, but what is the best? You deem it the best because you really know it or simply others say it is the best? Even if it is the best for others, is it by all means the best for you as well?

You are the one most clear about what you want, and others’ opinions are not that important. Many people are often influenced by others’ opinions, relatives’, friends’...... The thing is whose life you will live? Our life is not just continuation of parents’, neither precursor of children’s, nor different versions of friends’. At least, you shall not regret about decisions made by yourself.

I think a good job should fit you. To put it concretely, it shall be able to bring something you want. So you have to understand what you want, or you can never find a good job without knowing your requirement, since you only see those you cannot get for good and define what you have obtained as something undesirable.

Perhaps the best has already near by you, but you just have learned to treasure. People all seek for things beyond reach, while overlooking those in their hands.

Job-hopping and Accumulation

I am not against job-hopping, but it is by no means the best solution, and frequent job-hopping will arouse doubts about your loyalty and make you unable to work reassured.

There must be certain reasons behind job-hopping, and mostly you cannot bypass the problem when it occurs, be it unhappy in this way or that. If it cannot solve in this company neither can in another one. You have to believe, under 90% conditions, your current company is not that terrible and the one you think better may not that excellent as well. There is no perfect company. You do not know what to encounter in a different environment. You’d better solve it right away. Many problems might not be quite difficult when you get down to it. Sometimes you think there is no solution; in fact, that is simply “what you assume”.

Generally speaking, you will experience a bottleneck in the 2nd or 3rd working year and think about quitting the job or even changing an industry, assuming that you can get rid of all worries in this way and get better. In fact, this just makes you start from scratch, and eventually encounter what you have come across in your previous job or industry. Therefore, when you get over it, you go one big step forward. Every one has to go through the process and experience several bottlenecks in their career. If you get over but others do not, you succeed and win.

In the 2nd or 3rd working year, most people become master-hands and often get into repetitive process. Some people think they have understood all and stop making progress. One thing can be sure is that it is no end of the story. At this time, you have got to work as hard as two years before because this is just a beginning of your steady accumulation.

Have you known your client well enough? Do you know what their biggest worries are? Have you understood your boss well enough? And what are their biggest concerns? Have you known your team members well enough? What are their biggest concerns? If you don’t know, how can you say you have accumulated enough? If you do not know, how can you ask them to give you a hand or well manage them? If they do not want to do what you have told them, how can you succeed?

Wait for Your Chance

It's not necessary that those go across red lights will be bumped by cars, that every criminal will be arrested, that every mistake will be punished and that every corrupted officer will be shot to death. Likewise, it’s not sure all your efforts will be rewarded, every of your persistence will be noticed, all your payout will be returned fairly and every of your goodwill will be well-received…..This is life. Most of the times, we need patience and confidence. Each of us may be treated unfairly from time to time, and usually, waiting calmly is the best way to face it.

Many times we have to resist loneliness and wait for your moment. Zhou Runfa has waited for his, Liu Dehua has waited and Zhou Xingchi has waited as well......Notice those who have been so successful today, have you ever thought about their waiting and patience at the first place? Have you ever seen the Golden Horse Best Leading Actor set up a temporary stall selling thing on the street? Have you seen Deyun comic cross-talk group perform for only one spectator at the theatre? Have you noticed that Zhou Xingchi once did not have a line in his role? Every successful person has their blue days. In the most bright and beautiful age, they aspire for success but have to start from scratch, just like you at the moment. Nobody can guarantee they will be successful in the future, and they choose to wait for opportunities.

We always come across frustrations, always have low points in life, cannot win recognition from others or have to condescend, but it is just the most critical moment that most people cannot get over. However, if you can make it, you succeed. In this moment, we need to be patient and wait for your opportunities with confidence. At least, you are young, have not been to jail, don’t suffer from incurable disease and do not have unaffordable debt to pay for. The number of more unfortunate people is much more than those luckier, so what are you worried about? You must go step by step. Although it is most exciting coming to the destination, footsteps in between are often common or even boring. But if you cannot go over the common and boring process, you will have no chance to witness the excitement in the end.

Adversity is something God adopts for selecting the stronger. You’d better understand that you are in the same situation as others. Do not tell others you cannot persist, which only help enhance their confidence. Be the stronger one and smile at your competitors. Remember victory belongs to the patient one.

Step into the Right Industry and Follow the Right Boss

There are two things you need to pay special attention in the first job. Firstly, choose the right industry. Secondly, follow the right boss. The most influential factor in the first job is which industry you have chosen. Since nowadays, job division has become more and more specialized and we can only be experts in an industry. I do not think there is any industry particularly good or bad. You may find some industry not as perfect as it looks like after you enter it, but outsiders often cannot see.

I think you should focus on the long-term, which industry is not what matters most. Sometimes you may feel the industry goes downhill, but the thing is no matter how bad the industry is, it becomes better if only few people are engaged in it. So when many people think negatively, usually the best moment is coming.

Gome, Suning and Yongle are all trading enterprises, they can equally be listed in the stock market; Chamate which sells tea and Heilan Home which sells clothes can be listed in the stock market as well……The thing is how to do rather than which industry you are in.

One thing to remember, in this world, throughout the history to the foreseeable future, successful and rich people are always less than common and non-successful people who account for a majority of all. Therefore, the approach and viewpoint of most people are often not the most effective. Something may be gotten in your good luck, but can be lost later in other places.

Following the right person means when you join an industry, you need to follow a good boss or a good mentor. Those who have just stepped into society often lack of experience, and they need to learn from others’ instruction. There are three rules of the so-called standards for judging a “good” boss.

Firstly, a good boss should be broad-minded. Those who are calm when they can get angry are mostly good bosses. However, a shortcoming prevalent among Chinese management is that they cannot tolerate those who are more capable than themselves. Thus, you may often notice that a capable leader is surrounded by a team of mediocre people or idle ones. You’d better not choose the afore-mentioned working environment.

Secondly, a good boss should be willing to stand in the shoes of his team members, which does not mean that he does not agree with them, instead, they must understand their standpoints and then try to persuade them afterwards. Those bosses who only care about their own thoughts often cannot be trusted by their team.

Last by not least, a good boss should be responsible. You’d better choose a boss who can take the responsibility for your mistake because it is his duty as a leader.

To meet more people and contact with those who are more capable than yourself, you may equally find good teachers. Do not associate with a group of depressed people, complaining about society and your boss, since it is no good for you and will only make you more negative. Stay with the stronger ones, learn what their perspective towards life are, how they do things, learn from them and then meet with even more capable people to repeat this benign circle.

Make a Choice

I always think that, what kind of people we will become is determined by ourselves to a great extent. Everyday we make various decisions. We may do it casually or with thorough considerations. And thousands of small decisions add up and eventually decide who we are.

To some extent, our future is chosen by ourselves instead of being given by others. Every day you may choose whether to provide customers with more considerate services, whether to be more patient with your colleagues, whether to do the job more carefully, whether to understand thing more clearly and whether to find out things in a more detailed way……

You may find your chance in daily life and change your life with every opportunity. You can choose to be the weaker or reverse. You always have another choice. But some choices may not have instant effect and need accumulation. For example, farmers may irrigate crops every day or wait for rains to water instead. It’s true that seeds may not grow immediately, but most seeds will finally grow up with frequent irrigation. But if you do not water them, you must have an undesirable harvest. Therefore, who you will be eventually is determined by every single small choice.

What do you choose to believe? Who do you choose to be your friends? What do you choose to do? How do you choose to do?...... We are faced with too many choices. For instance, it is how to do rather than which product to choose that matters most. It is not who to recruit but how to educate that matters. Most of the time objective conditions do not matter most and there is no clear line between right and wrong choice of objective conditions. The most important is how you choose to do it.

I cannot say you have choices on everything, but mostly you do, just you often do not regard it as a choice. Regard with every choice carefully, and you will have a better future.

Some Reflections

The story of Wang Shi, CEO of VanKe Group, who climbed the Mt. Everest, inspires me a lot. Although he took lots of materials upon departure, he had to reduce his burden constantly in the process to the peak. Finally, he could only take his oxygen bottle to the peak of the mountain. The same is true with our long lives.

What we need most is to grasp the opportunity in the proper timing and take actions accordingly, rather than planning.

I believe most people have their own goals, but I also know that many people only treat these goals as fantasies, and constantly find themselves excuses.

My philosophy is that a perfect performance results from sufficient preparation; try to change yourself and adapt to the changing environments, and then opportunities will naturally come; happiness and meaningful life derive from realizing the dream in your heart, rather than applauses.

I summarize life with three phases. The first phase is to find a job for living; the second phase is to find a job for interest; and the last phase is to find a job for your dream.

Find a Translator

amy_zw
Project completed: 16
Positive ratio: 100%

Translation Service:
Multi-media Localization English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Multi-media Localization Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement
Typesetting English －English Resume Acknowledgement
Typesetting Chinese(simplified)－Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Editing Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement
Editing English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Subtitling English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Subtitling Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement
Revising English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Revising Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement
Proofreading English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Proofreading Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement
Translation English －Chinese(simplified) Resume Acknowledgement
Translation Chinese(simplified)－English Resume Acknowledgement

Choose this Translator
{0}9:00-0:00

12 Rules about the Art of Words That Men Must Read

Elanso — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 20:19:32 GMT

Translator:fangshirley

1. Express emergencies slowly. When facing emergencies, you will impress your audiences with your stableness and imperturbability and enhance their trust on you if you can think of it calmly, and then express it slowly and clearly.

2. Express trifles humorously. It is particularly true for some well-intentioned reminding. If you remind a person in a funny way, they won't feel awkward; instead, they will not only accept your advice willingly, but also feel more intimate with you.

3. Express the things you are not sure prudently. As to those things you are not sure, others will consider you hypocritical if you choose to avoid, on the contrary, they will think of you as a person worthy of trust if you can uncover it carefully.

4. Express nothing to things that didn't happen. People hate those most that always spread a rumor. So, they will regard you as a person who is mature, well -cultivated, serious and responsible if you have never said nonsense about things that didn't happen,

5. Never make promise about things you lack capability. Just as an old saying goes:” No ability, no undertaking”. Never give promise to things beyond your ability, so that others will believe you are sincere in what you say, and to carry out what you do.

6. Never say thins that will hurt others. Never hurt others by words, especially to those who is very close with you, then people will think that you are a kind person and the lubricant to the relationship.

7. Never spread your sadness to everybody. Every person wants to confide when he or she comes across bad things, but it will end up with others suspicion and estrangement to you because of the overwhelming stress caused by your outpouring. Meanwhile, you will be a person who is not considerate because you spreaded your pain to others.

8. Express others' affairs carefully. Everybody needs a safe distance with others. No comment on or spreading to others' story at random will give others security as your friends.

9. Listening instead of speaking about your own business. There are two advantages to listen instead of speaking when talking about your own business: one is to give others an image of modesty about you; the other is to make you a person standing to sense.

10. More listening rather than commenting about elders' affairs. Elders usually don't feel right if the juniors comment too much about their business. If you do, you won't be a modest or bookish young man in his or her heart any more.

11. Discuss pair's matters in a conferential way. Blaming each other is the worst situation of all that appear between the husband and wife. Contrarily, the lovers will love each other more if they can say things in a conferential way.

12. Teach your kids in a edificatory. It is especially true to the youth, because they are in a very rebellious phase when to them, only gentleness can be accepted. What's more, teaching them in a gentle way, can not only correct them, but also make them willing to think you as a friend.

Find a Translator

fangshirley
Project completed: 0
Positive ratio: 0%

Choose this Translator
{0}7:00-22:00

5 Important Rules to Address Intricately

Baccalaureate address to Class of 2008

Elanso — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 05:40:14 GMT

In the curious custom of this venerable institution, I find myself standing before you expected to impart words of lasting wisdom. Here I am in a pulpit, dressed like a Puritan minister — an apparition that would have horrified many of my distinguished forebears and perhaps rededicated some of them to the extirpation of witches. This moment would have propelled Increase and Cotton into a true “Mather lather.” But here I am and there you are and it is the moment of and for Veritas.

You have been undergraduates for four years. I have been president for not quite one. You have known three presidents; I one senior class. Where then lies the voice of experience? Maybe you should be offering the wisdom. Perhaps our roles could be reversed and I could, in Harvard Law School style, do cold calls for the next hour or so.

We all do seem to have made it to this point — more or less in one piece. Though I recently learned that we have not provided you with dinner since May 22. I know we need to wean you from Harvard in a figurative sense. I never knew we took it quite so literally.

But let’s return to that notion of cold calls for a moment. Let’s imagine this were a baccalaureate service in the form of Q & A, and you were asking the questions. “What is the meaning of life, President Faust? What were these four years at Harvard for? President Faust, you must have learned something since you graduated from college exactly 40 years ago?” (Forty years. I’ll say it out loud since every detail of my life — and certainly the year of my Bryn Mawr degree — now seems to be publicly available. But please remember I was young for my class.)

In a way, you have been engaging me in this Q & A for the past year. On just these questions, although you have phrased them a bit more narrowly. And I have been trying to figure out how I might answer and, perhaps more intriguingly, why you were asking.

Let me explain. It actually began when I met with the UC just after my appointment was announced in the winter of 2007. Then the questions continued when I had lunch at Kirkland House, dinner at Leverett, when I met with students in my office hours, even with some recent graduates I encountered abroad. The first thing you asked me about wasn’t the curriculum or advising or faculty contact or even student space. In fact, it wasn’t even alcohol policy. Instead, you repeatedly asked me: Why are so many of us going to Wall Street? Why are we going in such numbers from Harvard to finance, consulting, i-banking?

There are a number of ways to think about this question and how to answer it. There is the Willie Sutton approach. You may know that when he was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” Professors Claudia Goldin and Larry Katz, whom many of you have encountered in your economics concentration, offer a not dissimilar answer based on their study of student career choices since the seventies. They find it notable that, given the very high pecuniary rewards in finance, many students nonetheless still choose to do something else. Indeed, 37 of you have signed on with Teach for America; one of you will dance tango and work in dance therapy in Argentina; another will be engaged in agricultural development in Kenya; another, with an honors degree in math, will study poetry; another will train as a pilot with the USAF; another will work to combat breast cancer. Numbers of you will go to law school, medical school, and graduate school. But, consistent with the pattern Goldin and Katz have documented, a considerable number of you are selecting finance and consulting. The Crimson’s survey of last year’s class reported that 58 percent of men and 43 percent of women entering the workforce made this choice. This year, even in challenging economic times, the figure is 39 percent.

High salaries, the all but irresistible recruiting juggernaut, the reassurance for many of you that you will be in New York working and living and enjoying life alongside your friends, the promise of interesting work — there are lots of ways to explain these choices. For some of you, it is a commitment for only a year or two in any case. Others believe they will best be able to do good by first doing well. Yet, you ask me why you are following this path.

I find myself in some ways less interested in answering your question than in figuring out why you are posing it. If Professors Goldin and Katz have it right; if finance is indeed the “rational choice,” why do you keep raising this issue with me? Why does this seemingly rational choice strike a number of you as not understandable, as not entirely rational, as in some sense less a free choice than a compulsion or necessity? Why does this seem to be troubling so many of you?

You are asking me, I think, about the meaning of life, though you have posed your question in code — in terms of the observable and measurable phenomenon of senior career choice rather than the abstract, unfathomable and almost embarrassing realm of metaphysics. The Meaning of Life — capital M, capital L — is a cliché — easier to deal with as the ironic title of a Monty Python movie or the subject of a Simpsons episode than as a matter about which one would dare admit to harboring serious concern.

But let’s for a moment abandon our Harvard savoir faire, our imperturbability, our pretense of invulnerability, and try to find the beginnings of some answers to your question.

I think you are worried because you want your lives not just to be conventionally successful, but to be meaningful, and you are not sure how those two goals fit together. You are not sure if a generous starting salary at a prestigious brand name organization together with the promise of future wealth will feed your soul.

Why are you worried? Partly it is our fault. We have told you from the moment you arrived here that you will be the leaders responsible for the future, that you are the best and the brightest on whom we will all depend, that you will change the world. We have burdened you with no small expectations. And you have already done remarkable things to fulfill them: your dedication to service demonstrated in your extracurricular engagements, your concern about the future of the planet expressed in your vigorous championing of sustainability, your reinvigoration of American politics through engagement in this year’s presidential contests.

But many of you are now wondering how these commitments fit with a career choice. Is it necessary to decide between remunerative work and meaningful work? If it were to be either/or, which would you choose? Is there a way to have both?

You are asking me and yourselves fundamental questions about values, about trying to reconcile potentially competing goods, about recognizing that it may not be possible to have it all. You are at a moment of transition that requires making choices. And selecting one option — a job, a career, a graduate program — means not selecting others. Every decision means loss as well as gain — possibilities foregone as well as possibilities embraced. Your question to me is partly about that — about loss of roads not taken.

Finance, Wall Street, “recruiting” have become the symbol of this dilemma, representing a set of issues that is much broader and deeper than just one career path. These are issues that in one way or another will at some point face you all — as you graduate from medical school and choose a specialty — family practice or dermatology, as you decide whether to use your law degree to work for a corporate firm or as a public defender, as you decide whether to stay in teaching after your two years with TFA. You are worried because you want to have both a meaningful life and a successful one; you know you were educated to make a difference not just for yourself, for your own comfort and satisfaction, but for the world around you. And now you have to figure out the way to make that possible.

I think there is a second reason you are worried — related to but not entirely distinct from the first. You want to be happy. You have flocked to courses like “Positive Psychology” — Psych 1504 — and “The Science of Happiness” in search of tips. But how do we find happiness? I can offer one encouraging answer: get older. Turns out that survey data show older people — that is, my age — report themselves happier than do younger ones. But perhaps you don’t want to wait.

As I have listened to you talk about the choices ahead of you, I have heard you articulate your worries about the relationship of success and happiness — perhaps, more accurately, how to define success so that it yields and encompasses real happiness, not just money and prestige. The most remunerative choice, you fear, may not be the most meaningful and the most satisfying. But you wonder how you would ever survive as an artist or an actor or a public servant or a high school teacher? How would you ever figure out a path by which to make your way in journalism? Would you ever find a job as an English professor after you finished who knows how many years of graduate school and dissertation writing?

The answer is: you won’t know till you try. But if you don’t try to do what you love — whether it is painting or biology or finance; if you don’t pursue what you think will be most meaningful, you will regret it. Life is long. There is always time for Plan B. But don’t begin with it.

I think of this as my parking space theory of career choice, and I have been sharing it with students for decades. Don’t park 20 blocks from your destination because you think you’ll never find a space. Go where you want to be and then circle back to where you have to be.

You may love investment banking or finance or consulting. It might be just right for you. Or, you might be like the senior I met at lunch at Kirkland who had just returned from an interview on the West Coast with a prestigious consulting firm. “Why am I doing this?” she asked. “I hate flying, I hate hotels, I won’t like this job.” Find work you love. It is hard to be happy if you spend more than half your waking hours doing something you don’t.

But what is ultimately most important here is that you are asking the question — not just of me but of yourselves. You are choosing roads and at the same time challenging your own choices. You have a notion of what you want your life to be and you are not sure the road you are taking is going to get you there. This is the best news. And it is also, I hope, to some degree, our fault. Noticing your life, reflecting upon it, considering how you can live it well, wondering how you can do good: These are perhaps the most valuable things that a liberal arts education has equipped you to do. A liberal education demands that you live self-consciously. It prepares you to seek and define the meaning inherent in all you do. It has made you an analyst and critic of yourself, a person in this way supremely equipped to take charge of your life and how it unfolds. It is in this sense that the liberal arts are liberal — as in liberare — to free. They empower you with the possibility of exercising agency, of discovering meaning, of making choices. The surest way to have a meaningful, happy life is to commit yourself to striving for it. Don’t settle. Be prepared to change routes. Remember the impossible expectations we have of you, and even as you recognize they are impossible, remember how important they are as a lodestar guiding you toward something that matters to you and to the world. The meaning of your life is for you to make.

I can’t wait to see how you all turn out. Do come back, from time to time, and let us know.

But let’s for a moment abandon our Harvard savoir faire, our imperturbability, our pretense of invulnerability, and try to find the beginnings of some answers to your question.

I can’t wait to see how you all turn out. Do come back, from time to time, and let us know.

But let’s for a moment abandon our Harvard savoir faire, our imperturbability, our pretense of invulnerability, and try to find the beginnings of some answers to your question.

I can’t wait to see how you all turn out. Do come back, from time to time, and let us know.

Blog	Hot Articles
Articles:0 Members:0

7 Things I Wish I Had Known the Day After College Graduation

Elanso — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:59:55 GMT

If you are a new graduate, congratulations! Everything you've worked for during your college career has come to fruition. If you thought college was fun, this next chapter has the potential to be way more fun. You can stop doing homework, at least for a little while, and actually relax at night and on weekends (and be able to pay for it!).

I graduated college several years ago and, in looking back, wished I knew then what I know now about personal finances and money. I've distilled these ideas into the seven tips you see below. None of them are difficult to do, they're just difficult to remember. If you can do all of these tips you'll be ahead of the curve.

Set It and Forget It Retirement
When you start your new job, the last thing on your mind is what you'll be doing when you retire in forty years. However, what you do now will pay big dividends in forty years so be sure to take advantage of the retirement options you have.

Contribute to a 401(k) or 403(b) retirement plan if you can, especially if your employer offers to match a percentage of your contribution. Contribute to a Roth IRA to the maximum every year you can because, hopefully, eventually you will earn too much to contribute and you'll want to take advantage of tax-free growth while you can.

Need proof of this: If you contribute only $100 a month and it appreciates at 10% a year for forty years, you'll end up with over $632,000. Set it and forget it.

Seek Mentors
Find people who know more about the world than you do and learn as much as you can. One of the greatest lessons you can know as a young person is that you don't know a damn thing. All the greats always credit the ones who came before them, the giants' whose shoulders they stood on - find your giants.

Continue Learning
You may have just graduated college but don't stop learning. If your new employer offers education reimbursement, use it and use it as quickly as you can. Education reimbursement is like getting a raise in your salary. And, when you've completed yet another degree, you'll be able to command more in the marketplace for your skills and knowledge. All that costs you is time and effort.

Always Be Networking
Networking is really the fancy term for making new friends. Find opportunities to meet new people by participating in as many things as you can. Join local groups interested in what you like, attend work functions (especially if they're geared towards new employees), and actively participate in local charities or philanthropic groups. Friends give life richness, make as many as you can.

Pay Off Debts
If you have any credit card debts from your freewheeling college years, begin paying those off in earnest. Credit card debt is a weight that will hold you back from your dreams as long as you let it. Your dream isn't to sell your future so you can have fancy new clothes or glittery new electronics, your dream is to make a good life for yourself and the ones you care for. Credit card debt, and other debts, are holding you back so get rid of those 20% a year interest rate behemoths as soon as possible.

Keep Rent Low
When you move to a new place, don't immediately go for the swanky new apartment. You just spent the last four years living in college dorms or off-campus housing, hardly Ritz-Carltons, so don't go locking yourself into high rents for the next year. If you keep your rent low, you can save more and spend more on other, more important, things (like paying off debts).

Enjoy Life, Have Fun!
I went to an engineering school where a lot of people spent a lot of their time hitting the books. I had my fair share of fun but there comes a time when you need to start enjoying life and not focus 100% on work. Remember work-life balance. You can burn the candle at both ends in college because it was only four years, you may be working for forty... your candle isn't as long as you think. Work hard, but remember to play as well or you'll end up miserable.

Congratulations once again and go celebrate!

Blog	Hot Articles
Dumb Little Man - Tips for Life Articles:0 Members:0	Committing to Your Career 2 Ways To Fish For Friends By Using The Right Bait Four Steps that Will Increase Your Earning Potential 7 Insanely Simple Ways to Ensure Your Project Gets Done True Happiness: No Laughing Matter

Four Financial Tips for Recent Graduates

Elanso — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:00:34 GMT

Given that it's now mid-June, and pretty much everyone that will be graduating from college this year has done so, I though I'd spend a bit of time putting together a short list of financial tips for the recent graduate. Here goes:

1. Spend less than you earn. This is perhaps the most worn out, overused phrase in the world of personal finance. But guess what? It's also the single most important financial lesson you'll ever learn. No matter how hard you work and how much money you earn, you'll never achieve financial security if you spend more than you earn, so… Do whatever it takes to make sure that this doesn’t happen. This takes self-discipline, and might require constructing (and sticking to) a budget, but if you ever want to get to a point where you can afford all the little niceties in life, you need to make it happen.

Remember: If your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall.

2. Plan for the future. I’ve been where you are, and I know that “the future” seems like it’s a million miles away. Do yourself a favor. Sit down and define short, intermediate, and long-term goals and then put together a plan for getting there. It’s not easy, and you probably won’t get it right at first (see also #4) but once you do this, you’ll have something concrete to work from (and to modify in the future). Start small and work your way up.

Open an online savings account and start making auto-transfers into to build up an emergency fund. Sign up for your company’s 401(k) and make regular contributions. Come up with a plan for ditching your debt. Open an IRA (either Traditional or Roth) and start funding it. And read books about money and investing so you’ll be ready to take the next step when the time comes.

Whatever you do, don’t wait.

3. Be patient. Building a solid financial foundation takes time. Don’t look for shortcuts or try to strike it rich overnight with the latest hot investment tip. Likewise, don’t make major financial decisions without fully considering the ramifications. This isn’t to say that you should be paralyzed fear. Rather, you need to do your homework. Turns those unknwowns into knowns, and then make an informed decision.

4. Learn from your mistakes. Nobody’s perfect. You’re bound to make mistakes, especially when you’re just starting out. The important thing is to learn from them and move forward. If you make a bad financial decision, make a note of it and get yourself back on track. Don’t beat yourself up, and don’t throw in the towel.

Blog	Hot Articles
fivecentnickel.com Articles:0 Members:0	Ten Tips for Avoiding an Income Tax Audit Frugal vs. Cheap: Where Do You Draw the Line? Five Frugal Shopping Tips How to Manage Your Asset Allocation With Multiple Accounts Reconsidering Our Asset Allocation

How not to apply for a job

Elanso — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:20:22 GMT

So far we’ve received about 80 applications to our call to hire a new web designer at 37signals. We’re beginning to get in touch with people we think may be a good fit.

Unfortunately it’s not all coming up roses. It’s shocking how many people don’t proofread, spellcheck, or otherwise pay attention to the basics when applying for a job. It’s a minority, but it’s big enough that I was encouraged to write about it.

We’ve received applications from people spelling 37signals as “37 Signals” and Backpack as “Backback” and Basecamp as “Basscamp” or “Base Camp”. We even got one email from someone calling Highrise “Hi Rise”. One said how much they liked “Packcamp”.

Casual communications are one thing, but when you’re applying for a job you have to pay attention. Know how the company spells its name. Know the names of the products. Read what you wrote so you know what you said.

It’s OK to be funny if you get the basics right. It’s OK to be irreverent if you get the basics right. It’s OK to take some liberties with language if you get the basics right. It’s OK (and encouraged) to have personality and be yourself if you get the basics right.

I don’t want to be grumpy here. I just want to be helpful: Check your spelling, read your email, double-check everything. This is a job application, not an IM with a buddy. We appreciate when you take the time to apply, but it’s a waste of your time if you don’t nail the basics. Without the basics, nothing else matters.

That said, there have been a handful of absolutely wonderful applications. Some people clearly took the time to put together a special portfolio page (some wisely even used Backpack). Some were bold and clear in their advice. Some were really beautifully written. These are the people who deserve an employer’s full attention. They’ve got ours.

Blog	Hot Articles
Signal vs. Noise Articles:0 Members:0	The Flip takes 13% of the camcorder market by doing less [Sunspots] The convergence edition Behind the scenes at 37signals: Miscellaneous [On writing] Constraints, nightmares vs. dreams, seeking haters, etc. Question your work

How to Build Trust

Elanso — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:03:38 GMT

Translator:gx05097zkh
No matter between parents and children, friends or lovers, trust is the most important base to build good relationship. In daily life, it is easy to build and destroy trust. If you are always perplexed by doubt, you should make efforts to built trust.

1. Do what you say.

The most foundational step to build trust is that you must do what you say. Even though it is just a little thing, that you do not do it or hold on to the last could result in your loss of other’s trust. Gradually, the base of trust would fall apart.

2. Never lie.

Does it sound easy? Not necessarily. Think about those white lies you said for friends, lovers or parents. Sometimes, even thought it would be unpleasant if you say the truth, you would earn more trust for that, and others would appreciate your frankness.

3. Volunteer information.

Tell some added information when comes some equivocal questions, showing your keeping nothing back. Here is an example can not build trust. “How about your meeting with layer?” “Not bad.” Here is another example can build trust. “How about your meeting with layer?” “Not bad. It is burdensome to deal with all the documents every day, but we have signed agreement and he said it would be sent tomorrow.” The content of what you say that the meeting with layer is good is similar. However, by offering some added information, you can show that you do not conceal anything.

4. Don’t omit important details.

The reason you should not omit details is that it is hard for you to keep consistent with the series of things you have omitted. Then others would notice the contradiction in what you say and view you as a liar, even you omit just only a little.

5. If you do have secrets, let it be known.

You don’t need to force yourself to drop your personal feeling and privacy to get other’s trust. Every single person has privacy his or her own, but the key to get trust is distinguishing the demarcation between privacy and secret.

6. Don’t mask truths.

“Never lie” also can be extended as “Don’t mask truths.” Sometimes, it seems harmless to replace the truth with some words sounds pleasant for keeping self-esteem. For example, a man does not admit his bankrupt but say he lose his credit card. Maybe it is harmless to say the credit card lost. Nevertheless, the trust would be destroyed if the others realize that what you say is lie. Tell the truth and don’t care the cost.

7. Keep secrets.

Don’t gossip about others or stir up trouble. Don’t leak others’ secrets.

8. If you do lie, admit to it.

At times, it is inevitable to lie. You’d better admit to it as soon as possible and explain your motive. Once you are saw through, admit to it. Otherwise, it would be another lie.

Find a Translator

gx05097zkh
Project completed: 0
Positive ratio: 0%

Choose this Translator
Not available now.

Why is 80% percent of IT worker willing to hop jobs?

Elanso — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:50:39 GMT

Translator:lindaliu
According to report about IT workers’ income in 2008released by internet employment organization and <<information weekend>>, over 80% of shoufangzhe would like to hop jobs. After reading the survey, the writer thinks that the following factors contributing to IT workers’ job-hopping.

Firstly, low income is a major factor.

Let’s forget the relevant figure first. I made a research among IT workers around me. B said, “Isn’t IT a profession that the workers dress neatly, walk inside high-level writing buildings and get high pay? Why dose IT supply outweigh demand nowadays? Maybe, it was popular because not many people choose this major in the past two years. After my graduation, there are a lot of IT graduates walking in the streets. Yesterday, a software company informed me that I got a job as software technique supporter. To be honest, I am quite happy with the job, but I just get more than 2000 per month. It is not much, but enough for paying my life.” C is a technique engineer from a famous technology company in Beijing. Two days ago, he told me that he wanted job-hopping and would make the decision soon. When I asked him why, the first reason is low pay. He has been working in the company for 3 years. To my surprise, he just gets 4000 yuan per month in such a big pc corporation, the same amount in 2006.

Some relevant surveys show that 48.3% of IT workers in 2006 could get over 4000 per month, 12.7% of them could get over 8000. 80.4% of IT workers arebasically satisfied with their income. It has been two years now: the commodity price is rising; all kinds of living expenditure are overspending. However, the income for IT workers isn’t rising. What’s more, the internet economy is in stagnation this year.

Secondly, the proportion of employees’ job-hopping is much high.

In their first period of job-hunting, many graduates just want a corresponding job. When they have been working for some years and got some experience, they begin job-hopping in order to get more pay. Therefore, job-hopping becomes a fashion. During the survey, Y said, “this year I quit again because there was no development for me in that company. Moreover, I have two-year working experience in company. It is not as difficult to hop jobs as two years ago. I found a new job in a communication company via internet and I got higher pay. My wife is planning to open a store and saving more money for the future house and the child. But the days just begin and it still has a long way to go. Without a car and a house, and parents’ getting older, I suffer more and more pressure. I am so exhausted.

Thirdly, old employees hop jobs in order to establish their own business.

Many people, especially those watch tv show<<win in china>>, can feel the charm of opening their own business. Old workers in it gain experience and seniority in some extent. They begin thinking about job-hopping instead continue to be worker with long-time and tedious job. There isn’t a big difference between establishing business and being a worker, but the former is working for yourselves. After all, not many people working for company can be like tangjun (he is a king of worker), those of who are mostly middle-level corporate executives. However, the proportion is not very high, and their age is pretty old. Among the it executives, the average age is 33.3; for the common it workers, the average age is 28.4.

Fourthly, they get limited in promotion.

When some employees suffer limitation in promotion and there is no space for them to develop, job-hopping becomes common like potluck. Nowadays, workers have made transitions from middle-level to low-level, from blind job-hopping to rational thinking about their career development. They are becoming mature. According to the survey, there are two equally important factors for workers: income and welfare, development space. Over 60% of questionnaire receivers choose the two factors. Based on the survey, many companies take different measures to make talents stay. the three most commonly used manners are offering more opportunities, paying more and making grass-roots training plan, accounting for 52.8%, 44% ,31.6% respectively.

Most employees have made income comparison in the same job among companies. If one company with the same job pays 30% higher than another company, some employees will flow to the better one, and the better company will accept them. That contributes to frequent job-hopping. It is beneficial to the employees. As for the requirements of occupations, most questionnaire receivers would rather engage in familiar jobs or relevant to the previous ones. Less than 40% job-hoppers would like to challenge a new profession. Therefore, the unit with higher pay is one of the reasons for job-hopping.

Job-hopping happens a lot in spring. Whatever the factors are, they bear on not only the development of Chinese economy, but also on corporate development. Talent-flowing is becoming a major challenge that Chinese companies.

Find a Translator

lindaliu
Project completed: 0
Positive ratio: 0%

Choose this Translator
Not available now.

Men and Women in Profession in Twenties, Thirties, and Forties

Elanso — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:01:58 GMT

Translator:gx05100cathleen
Along with the development of times, Women have entered the profession dominated by men. Women are not given in to the callous profession because they are women, weak and beautiful. However, a woman in profession is not the synonym of profession, and also the confidence to win the competition with men. If they have the confidence to face pressure bravely and are indomitable, women can also give full scope to women’s abilities in profession dominated by men.

In twenties, women put romance at the first place while men put reality at thefirst place.

Women in twenties are the flower buds which are not only graceful and beautiful on appearance, but also romantic and free in hearts. They always fancy their own future, including profession, but never consider about reality. These women in profession have just entered upon their career and are full of hopes to the development of future career. They are young and arrogant, easy to receive new things, active and restless, and have the strong self-conscious. All these pour the freshness into profession.

Men in twenties look immaculate on appearance, but they are more and more paying attention to the reality world in hearts. They have to consider their future out of responsibilities. They are afflicted with anxiety on the subject of houses, cars and money.

In thirties, family is the first thing to women while career is the first thing tomen.

Women in thirties are the flowers in full blossom that are delicate and charming waiting for picking. But they do not know where is fit for them to further development. They are wandering between the choices and being choice of family and career. These women in thirties working their ways for years take family as the first consideration if they pursue the further development in profession. Facing the crisis of heavy burden and career, they should keep on the steady attitude and rely on the rich experience to deal with all kinds of situation rationally.

Men in thirties are mature and experienced. They take their career as the most important thing. They are always lost directions under the control of utility which forces them to break through the developing space on career.

In forties, stability is the first for women while job-hopping is the first formen.

Women in forties wave good-bye to their youth and haven’t the changeable characteristics when they were young. They do not wander and choose any longer, and tend to pursue the steady work and life. Basically, family and career have got onto the right track when women are forties. Stability becomes the main melody of life. The experienced conducting styles and the consummate specialized skills are enough for them to handle the competition and pressure from profession.

Men in forties begin to pursue the winder development. Job-hopping likes the homely food. They many have the sub healthy problem of profession because of the busy life.

Maybe you are interested in the following passages.

The matter of job-hopping: six movies and six principles you should know

Ten things should be done before 35 years old in profession

Four essential conditions for a raise of white collar in foreign enterprises

The latest terms of address for office white collar

Why are eighty percent of IT workers willing to job-hop?

Adjusting the attitude, being as the favorite in profession

Label: women in profession, men in profession, profession, competition in profession, job-hopping

Find a Translator

gx05100cathleen
Project completed: 0
Positive ratio: 0%

Choose this Translator
Not available now.

Citibank of individual wealth management products that traffic in US dollar as the main currency at domestic

Elanso — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:15:48 GMT

Translator:imust8

For the moment, Citibank has three types of individual wealth management products that traffic in US dollar as the main currency at domestic.

The first category called premium accounts. That is, a certain amount of US dollar or Hong Kong dollar deposited in Citibank for 13 months. Then you can obtain a higher than ordinary time deposit interest rate, and random draw. For example, if the customer deposits from USD1 to USD50,000, can enjoy a return of 4.82 %. If the deposits more than USD250,000, can enjoy the yield of 5.20%.If the deposits of HK dollar from 75,000 to 1.2 million dollar, the yield is 3.68 %. 2 million Hong Kong dollar or more, the yield is 3.90%. The more deposits, the higher the rate of return over 13 months.

The second category called structured investment accounts. Citibank linked to five shares that are listed in the Hong Kong. During the investment that is a period of 1.5 years, customer enjoys 100% principal protection. But investment income is determined by performance in stock price that links to the absolute value of the fluctuation. In other words, the size of Client investment income will depend on the stock price that links to the rate of Change.

However, such product can not be terminated prematurely, investors must hold to expire, and does not guarantee in the expiration of any income for the customers (such as stocks performance is poor during the investment).

Therefore, customers must first understand the potential of investing in stocks and the stock market's future trend. If the stock performed well, then structured investment accounts of the customers would yield higher than the benefits of premium account rate of return.

Currently, Citibank linked by the listed companies in Hong Kong were China Mobile, China Telecom, China Construction Bank, China Merchants Bank, and China Life Insurance, it will be based on market conditions, which changes constantly linked to the stock.

Find a Translator

imust8
Project completed: 0
Positive ratio: 0%

Translation Service:
Translation English －Chinese(simplified)

Choose this Translator
{0}0:00-23:00

Personal Growth, Career Planning, Financial planning

My Feelings to 30-Year Career Life

Find a Translator

Related Articles

12 Rules about the Art of Words That Men Must Read

Find a Translator

Related Articles

Baccalaureate address to Class of 2008

Blog

Hot Articles

7 Things I Wish I Had Known the Day After College Graduation

Blog

Hot Articles

Four Financial Tips for Recent Graduates

Blog

Hot Articles

How not to apply for a job

Blog

Hot Articles

How to Build Trust

Find a Translator

Related Articles

Why is 80% percent of IT worker willing to hop jobs?

Find a Translator

Related Articles

Men and Women in Profession in Twenties, Thirties, and Forties

Find a Translator

Related Articles

Citibank of individual wealth management products that traffic in US dollar as the main currency at domestic

Find a Translator

Related Articles