滬江小編:本文是微軟元老級員工Philip Su在2010年離開微軟時寫下的離職信。信中字字珠璣,回顧了自己在微軟工作的12年所感受和領悟到的職場真諦。無論你是職場老手還是職場新人,相信都能從中獲得一些啟發(fā)。

Today was my last day at Microsoft, after 12 years straight out of college. I will start at Facebook next week as a developer in its Seattle office.
今天是我在微軟的最后一天。自從大學畢業(yè),過去的 12 年里我一直都在微軟工作。下周起,我將以一個程序員的身份在Facebook西雅圖的辦公室重新開始。

Below is the email I sent to Microsoft colleagues on my last day.? I loved Microsoft, every one of the past twelve awesome years.? Here’s to new adventures!
在微軟的最后一天,我給同事們發(fā)了以下這封離職信。我愛微軟,過去12年都是如此。現(xiàn)在將會迎接新的挑戰(zhàn)!

### Original email below ###
離職信原文

Microsoft has been an awesome place to work over the past twelve years.? Today is my last day.
過去的12 年里,我一直很喜歡在微軟工作,但是今天是我在微軟的最后一天。

I’ve always been somewhat random, so I’d like to end this whole adventure true to form:? quirky, controversial, optimistic, seat-of-the-pants, with rarely a satisfying explanation.
我一直是一個比較隨意的人,所以我希望今天的信也一樣是有個性的、有爭議的、樂觀的、憑感覺的,而可能沒有讓人讀后很滿意的答案。

Don’t look for coherence below – you won’t find it.? And if parts of this offend you, it’s probably because you don’t know me well enough – I offend people inadvertently all the time, almost as a rule.
請不要在我的信里找連貫性,因為你是不會找到的。如果有內(nèi)容冒犯了你,那你可能不太了解我,因為我經(jīng)常會在無意中冒犯到別人,幾乎已經(jīng)成為了定律。

Thanks for everything.
謝謝所有的一切。

In college, I never thought I’d work for Microsoft.? Then I interned in 1997 and fell in love:? free sodas, individual offices (with doors!), Pentium 66’s – what more could a coder ask?? Years later, my manager from the internship quit suddenly when his hard drive crashed, erasing weeks of code that hadn’t been checked in.? He said it was a sign from God.? I have no idea what he’s doing these days.
上大學時,我從來沒有想過在微軟工作。但我1997 年的時候在微軟實習后,就對它一見鐘情:免費的飲料、自己的辦公室、奔騰66... 一個程序員還能要求什么?幾年后,我實習時的老板突然離職了。他電腦的硬盤當時發(fā)生了故障,丟失了幾個月的工作。他說這是一個來自上天的征兆。我不知道他現(xiàn)在人在哪里,在做些什么事情。

People often complain after getting a “bad” review that their manager has a distorted and inaccurate view of them.? Don’t you think that, of all the people in the world, the person reviewed would have the most biased view of their own performance?? I sometimes gently suggest this.? People don’t believe me.
人們在拿到一個不好的業(yè)績審查后總是會抱怨老板和上級不公平而且不客觀。但是你不覺得,每個人對自己的評估其實是最不客觀的嗎?我有時會平和地告訴別人這一點,但是沒有人信。

Choose carbs.? Eat dessert first.
吃點碳水化合物。吃飯時先吃甜點。

Use Occam’s Razor in interpersonal relations:? look for the simplest, most straightforward explanation that assumes the best of everybody.? Stay away from people who always have a conspiracy theory involving twisted office politics, unfulfilled Machiavellian ambitions, and unspoken agendas.
在處理人際關系是,我們應該運用奧卡姆剃刀原理(小編注:奧卡姆剃刀定律又稱“奧康的剃刀”,是由14世紀邏輯學家、圣方濟各會修士奧卡姆的威廉提出。這個原理稱為“如無必要,勿增實體”,即“簡單有效原理”。),也就是對于別人的行為,找到最簡單,最信任別人的解釋。對那些愛搞辦公室政治,勾心斗角的人敬而遠之。

Anonymous college course evaluations often ask for the student’s grade in the class. Turns out that there’s a strong correlation between a student’s grade and their assessment of the professor’s abilities.? I don’t listen too carefully when a poor performer tells me how awful their previous manager was.? My ears perk up when a star performer constructively criticizes their management.
大學里的教授評估往往會參考學生在那門課得到的成績,因為學生的成績與他對教授的評價有很明顯的關系。我一般不會認真聽一個業(yè)績不好的人對他老板的吐槽,但是如果一個業(yè)績好的人批評他的老板,我會洗耳恭聽。

Bias towards action.? “Litebulb” will drain your soul.
不行動的話,閑聊會耗盡你的生命(Litebulb是微軟內(nèi)部的一個廣泛話題討論組)。

Words matter.? Connotations matter.
字有表意,也有隱含的意思。

If you consistently deliver what the business needs most, and you do it well, it’s impossible not to get promoted.? People tell me this isn’t true, that it’s all about the people you know and about “visibility.”? I have no idea how to consistently deliver impactful business results without becoming visible as a side effect.? I hate it when developers ask me how to become “more visible.”? They hate it when I tell them to “do great work.”? They think I’m mocking them.
如果你不斷做公司最需要的事情,你是一定會被重用的。有人說,不是的,人際關系和在人前表現(xiàn)自己更重要。我不明白,如果你持續(xù)做對公司意義很重大的事情,怎么可能不被別人注意到。我很討厭程序員問我怎么才能在人前表現(xiàn)自己。他們也很討厭我的答案“把事情做得更漂亮”,覺得我是在諷刺他們。

Be genuine.? Never give advice for your own advantage.? I’ve never once counseled a person to join my team or to stay on my team because I needed them.
做一個真誠的人。給別人建議時不要考慮自己的利益。我從沒有說服過任何人加入我的團隊,或者說服他們不要走,僅僅因為我需要他們。

Listen to understand.? Speak to be understood.
聽人說話時盡量理解,講話時盡量容易讓別人理解。

Good ideas are a dime a dozen.? Great ideas are usually laughed at.? Neither sees the light of day without you taking action.? Do the work to prove your idea, or stop talking about it.? In an entrepreneurship class in college, I pitched the idea of an online grocery delivery service and got laughed off stage.? Hurt, but convinced of my great genius, I returned the following week to pitch the idea of online movie rentals using the postal service.? I called it NetVideo.? Everyone thought it was absurd.? I used to tell this story to bolster what I thought was my streak of unrecognized, prognosticating technical genius.? These days, I tell the story to remind myself that in the end, only action and execution matter.
好的創(chuàng)意很多。偉大的創(chuàng)意常常會遭受嘲笑,除非你去實現(xiàn)它。不要光說,用行動來證明你的點子。在大學的一門創(chuàng)業(yè)課里,我講了一個網(wǎng)上租看和郵寄電影光碟的點子,我當時把它起名叫“NetVideo”,所有人都覺得很荒唐。以前我講這個故事是為了炫耀我當時多么有遠見(指后來用相同點子起家的上市公司Netflix),但是現(xiàn)在我講這個故事是想告訴你,行動和執(zhí)行是最重要的。

What’s your final level at Microsoft?? Please don’t say CEO or Technical Fellow – I can almost guarantee you it’s not.? A realistic appraisal helps you aim for the right things, and is also essential to happiness.? A VP once told me that he had already attained the highest position he’d ever reach at Microsoft. It wasn’t false humility.? It wasn’t sour grapes. He was confident in his abilities and ambitious about doing great work.? He was just more grounded and self-aware than many, and thus more content.? Don’t give up or sell out.? Just know yourself.
你在微軟最終的職位級別是什么?請不要說 CEO 或科技院士,因為我?guī)缀蹩梢员WC你達不到。對自己能力更現(xiàn)實的認識會幫助你更準確找到目標,而且也會讓你更加快樂。一位副總裁曾經(jīng)告訴我, 他已經(jīng)做到了他在微軟能做的最高職位。這不是假謙虛,也不是抱怨。他對自己很自信,而且很有事業(yè)心。他只不過是對自己有很清楚的認識,而且懂得滿足。不要放棄,也不要出賣自己。但是你要正確認識你自己。

If you only ever implement feedback that you agree with, you probably don’t need the feedback in the first place.? For feedback to be useful, you must at least occasionally consider implementing feedback that you don’t initially agree with.? How else will you discover your blind spots?
如果你只采用你贊同的反饋,那很有可能這些反饋從一開始就不是你需要的。真正有價值的反饋是那些你在一開始并不贊同的反饋。要不然,你怎么去發(fā)現(xiàn)你的盲點?

Good people with good process will outperform good people with no process every time.–Grady Booch
有流程規(guī)劃的人通常比沒有流程規(guī)劃的人能夠做得更好?!计妫绹鳵ational軟件工程公司的首席科學家和Booch方法的主創(chuàng)人)

Don’t fear process.? Fear bad people dictating process.? Fear process trying to make up for bad people.
不要害怕流程。害怕人們不能夠很好的執(zhí)行流程,害怕不合適的人去執(zhí)行流程。

I’ve managed almost 150 people across dev/test/PM. I estimate about 60% of employees think that they belong in the top 20% when ranked against their peers. I have never once had a person say that they belong in the bottom 10%.
我管理過150 人的開發(fā)團隊。我估計60% 的人覺得自己應該是排名在前20%。我從來沒有遇見過認為自己是排在最后10% 的人。

What would Mini do?? (Incidentally, one of my managers once asked me, in all seriousness, whether I was Mini-Microsoft.? I guess you’ll find out after I leave.)
Mini 會怎么做?(一個經(jīng)理曾經(jīng)很嚴肅的問我,我是不是Mini-Microsoft。 等我離開微軟后,你們就會知道了。)(小編注:Mini-Microsoft 是一個寫微軟內(nèi)情的匿名博客,在微軟內(nèi)部有很大影響力)

In a company as large as Microsoft, I guarantee you’ll find someone higher level than you who you think is worse than you.? Don’t get stuck in this mental trap – it won’t motivate you to be your best.? Look instead towards the person you admire most at your level.? What can you learn from them?? What unique strengths might you have which they don’t have?
在微軟這么大的公司中,你一定能夠找出職位比你高,但你認為能力卻不如你的人。但是你不應該鉆這個牛角尖,因為這只會讓你氣餒。你應該做的是找到和你級別差不多的,但是你很佩服的人。你能從他們身上學到什么?你有什么他們不具備的優(yōu)點?

A person is either passionate or they’re not.? People who expect their manager to make their jobs fun and interesting won’t get far.
一個人的激情是無法替代的。一個總是需要經(jīng)理告訴他去做什么的人是無法進步的。

Once, at a Pizza Hut counter, I noticed that all the pens meant for signing credit card receipts had little flowers attached to their tops.? Stuck together in a cup, the bunch of pens looked like a bouquet.? I asked the cashier whether this was a new Pizza Hut policy.? She said no – she had done it on her own.? What would you pay to have her in your company?
有一次在必勝客,我看到所有簽信用卡的筆上都插上了小花,放在一起的時候看起來像一束鮮花。我問服務員,這是必勝客的新政策嗎?她說不是,是她自己弄的。你是不是也很想聘用這樣的員工?

Cynics don’t get anything done.? Stop talking to people whose first response is always skeptical.? They will crush you.
憤世嫉俗者并不能夠做成事業(yè)。停止和一開始就懷疑你的人討論問題,因為他們會拖垮你。

I had a coworker in Money who, by the time I joined in 1998, had already been at Microsoft for 15 years and could probably buy the county I grew up in.? He drove a beat-up Datsun and coded every day in his office as an individual contributor.? There is no doubt in my mind that he knows what he loves.
我有一位同事,他在我1998 年加入微軟的時候已經(jīng)在微軟干了15 年,應該有足夠的錢來買一棟樓。但是他每天還是開一輛破舊的Datsun 汽車來上班,來編程。說這不是他深愛的事業(yè),會有誰信呢?

Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness.? It may change your life.
去讀謝家華的《三雙鞋-美捷步總裁謝家華自述》吧,它會改變你的一生。(小編注:本書是“美捷步”(Zappos)首席執(zhí)行官謝家華創(chuàng)造奇跡的心路歷程與商業(yè)哲學的精華萃取,分享了他在商場與生活中得到的寶貴經(jīng)驗與教訓。點此下載試讀>>

Offer me one great Microsoft engineer for five “solid” ones:? I gladly take the exchange.
給我一位優(yōu)秀的工程師,我會很樂意拿五個“還不錯的”工程師跟你換。

Practice articulating positions you disagree with faithfully and persuasively.? Unless you can do this, you’re implicitly assuming that people who disagree with you are idiots.? Smart people understand why smart people disagree.
練習如何有說服力的表達你不同意的觀點,如果你不這樣做,你就會在心里暗罵與你“道不同”的人是蠢貨一個。聰明人會明白為什么其他聰明的人有時會不同意。

People keep asking for executive accountability when something goes wrong.? When’s the last time you saw a line engineer take accountability – real, public accountability, the type that says, “I screwed up. This needs to go on my review.? I will make this right, or I will find another position”?
發(fā)生問題的時候,人們總是讓管理人擔當責任。你什么時候見過底下的工程師說過:“這是我的錯,應該寫在我的業(yè)績審查里面。我會把它修好,或者辭職?!?/div>

The team you want to join is the one that’s hard to get into.
你最想加入的團隊就是最難進的團隊。

If it seems easy getting a bunch of great reviews, you’re probably working on the wrong team.
如果你很容易就能夠得到許多很好的評價,也許這說明你進入了錯誤的團隊。

Do you practice specific skills with repetition and intent?? Athletes do drills.? Musicians hone difficult passages.? What do you do?
你還在堅持練習你的技術么?運動員天天訓練,音樂家也會演練更難的曲章。你呢?

Mentees sometimes ask for the secret to my moderate career success.? They’re disappointed when I tell them that it’s partially due to hard work.? It sounds trite and preachy, like a public service announcement, like I’m commending myself for breaking a light sweat.? As if they’d be more satisfied with an answer like, “I clawed my way up to middle management through shameless brownnosing.”? My first year at Microsoft, I had a sleeping bag in my office and worked all the time.? On weekends, I still write code to learn new technologies.? I regularly read books about leadership, communication, management, and technology.? Equally smart people fare differently in their careers partly based on the amount they’re willing to put in.? Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
有些新員工會問我獲得職業(yè)成功的秘訣。當我告訴他們答案是“努力工作”時,他們通常會很失望。這聽起來像陳腐的說教,還像是自夸。如果我的答案是“我之所以能夠爬到中層管理崗位是因為我很善于給上級拍馬屁”,他們也許會更滿意。我來微軟的第一年就帶了個睡袋到辦公室,而且經(jīng)常加班,周末的時候,我也是在寫代碼,學習新技術。我會看團隊管理和如何與人溝通的書籍。才智相當?shù)娜嗽诼殬I(yè)生涯上會有不同的發(fā)展,主要是因為他們的付出有多有少。如果有人另有說法,那他可能是想向你“兜售”點什么。

Follow great people.? Work for great people.
跟隨杰出的人,為杰出的人工作。

Above all else:? Integrity.? You must be able to trust who you work with and for.? Theodore Roosevelt once fired a rancher who stole some neighboring cattle and added them to Roosevelt’s herd.? When asked about this by incredulous friends, Roosevelt simply replied, “A man who steals for me will also steal from me.”
最重要的是:做人要誠信。你必須信任和你一起工作的人。羅斯福有一次開除了他的牧場主,因為那位牧場主偷了鄰居的牛,然后把它們放到了羅斯福的牛群中。當他的朋友詢問他為什么時,羅斯福回答 “為我偷東西的人,也會從我這里偷東西?!?/div>

A PM once remarked of a former Microsoft VP known for being ultra-aggressive in meetings: “I’d rather have him pissing from my tent than into my tent.”? Everyone within earshot chuckled at this witty political insight.? I’d actually rather not have anybody pissing on any tents, mine or otherwise.
一位PM 曾經(jīng)評價過一位在會議上很具進攻性的副總裁,“我寧可讓他從我這邊往別人那里噴,而不是從別人那里往我這里噴。”聽到的所有人都笑了。我更希望誰也別噴誰。

Organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.–Conway’s Law (Melvin Conway)
康威定律(Conway’s Law):“設計系統(tǒng)的組織,最終產(chǎn)生的設計等同于組織之內(nèi)、之間的溝通結(jié)構(gòu)。”

Don’t ship the org chart.–Steven Sinofsk
永遠不要發(fā)出組織的架構(gòu)圖。-Steven Sinofsky(史蒂文·辛諾夫斯基,微軟Windows事業(yè)部主管)

You can control outcomes with three types of approaches:? a) People Control, where you decide who to hire, who to fire, and who to put in what positions;? b) Action Control, where you tell people what to do;? and c) Results Control, where you define the metrics of success.? Know when to use which.
你可以通過三種方法控制你的結(jié)果:1. 控制人,你可以選擇雇傭誰,解雇誰,把什么人放到什么位置上;2. 行為控制,你可以告訴他們該做什么;C. 結(jié)果控制,你告訴他們需要什么樣的結(jié)果而度量標準是什么。你要知道什么時候適合用什么方法。

Isn’t it a neat feeling when you’re introduced to a coworker’s kids or spouse?? For a moment, the bubble of work is burst.? You imagine baseball games, music recitals, anniversary dinners.? I remind myself of this when I get frustrated at people.
當你被介紹認識同事的孩子或者配偶時,這種感覺是不是很好?在一瞬間,工作和生活之間的隔閡消失了,你會聯(lián)想到籃球,音樂會,慶祝晚宴等。當我對同事不滿意的時候,我就會用這些提醒自己。

I love watching exceptional people do what they’re good at.? It amazes and inspires me.? I once saw an alleyway chef in Shanghai turn a basketball-sized clump of dough into hand-pulled noodles for a table of eight, amid a blur of arm movements in under a minute.? Ever watch speed stacking?? We each have astonishing potential.
我喜歡看到有才能的人們做他們最擅長的事情,因為這能夠很好的激勵我。我在上海的一個胡同里面看到一個大廚把一個籃球大小的面團用手拉成了8 個人吃的面條,而且整個過程都在一分鐘內(nèi)完成。我們每人都具有驚人的潛能。

Amidst some LCA controversy around “Dr. Who(m),” a site I worked very hard on creating after hours, I arrived at my office to find a handmade two-foot-high Dalek.? Someone had taken the time to print, cut, and tape together a mascot to support me.? What inspires people to this sort of kindness?? I still don’t know who did this for me – but if you’re reading this, thank you.
當我編寫的Dr. Who 網(wǎng)站(微軟內(nèi)部查詢?nèi)说墓ぞ撸┦艿搅朔墒聞詹康囊恍┛棺h時,有人把一個兩英尺高的“Dalek”(小編注:Dalek,中文名為戴立克,是英國BBC著名科幻電視劇《Doctor Who》(神秘博士)中Doctor 最大的機器人生命體對頭。)塑像放在我的辦公室里,表示支持。我現(xiàn)在還不知道這是誰做的,但是如果你在讀這封信,謝謝。

Spend time with people whether they’ll be “useful” to you someday or not.? Respond to emails whether from a VP or from a campus hire.? This advice will likely make you less “efficient.”? But it’s good advice nevertheless.
花時間和其他人在一起,無論他們對你是不是“有用”。回復所有人的郵件,無論他是副總裁還是一名大學實習生。這條建議你可能認為并不是特別“有效”,但它卻是條好的建議。

We used to get Dove Bars and beers all the time.? It felt like free food was on offer at least once a week, usually with a pretense of some small milestone to celebrate.? Why did we cut stuff like this?? (I know the boring fiscal reasons why.? I’m asking the deeper why, as in, “Was it worth the savings?? Is Microsoft better now that we’ve cut these costs?”)
我們以前經(jīng)常會有免費的啤酒和吃的,基本每一個產(chǎn)品的大小里程碑都會有一次慶祝。我們?yōu)槭裁船F(xiàn)在沒有了?(我知道財政上的原因,但我想知道更深層次的原因。省那點錢值得嗎?現(xiàn)在的微軟比從前更好了嗎?)

One day, a sign appeared on a soda fridge in RedWest saying something to the effect of, “Did you know that drinks cost Microsoft [ed: millions of dollars] a year? Sodas are your perk at work.? Don’t bring them home.”? This depressed me on too many levels to enumerate, but I’ll toss out a few:
有一天, 一個標貼出現(xiàn)在微軟雷德蒙西區(qū)的冰箱上,它是這樣寫的:“你知道微軟每年在飲料上要花費掉幾百萬美金嗎?飲料是公司的,請不要帶回家”。這使我非常郁悶的原因很多,簡單說幾個:

1.Someone had enough time to get these signs professionally printed and affixed to our fridges.
有人有足夠的時間去把這些標牌做得很專業(yè)并且貼到了冰箱上。

2.It was someone’s salaried, 40-hour-a-week job to do things like this.
有人在領每周40小時的工作薪水,竟然有做這個事情的工作崗位。

3.Someone thought soda smuggling was a big enough “problem” at Microsoft to draw attention to it.
有人認為帶走幾瓶飲料會是一個很大的問題,是值得微軟去注意的事情。

How much soda can a person steal?? How much does that same person cost the company per hour in salary and benefits?? Our most interesting profits will come from capitalizing on huge opportunities, not from micromanaging costs.? I’m sure some finance person will lambast me for this, which would only further depress me.? Believe in our upside.? Focus on our upside.
一個人能帶走幾瓶飲料?同樣一個人每小時的薪水和福利是多少?我們最大的盈利是來自于我們的潛能最大化,而不是我們的成本最小化。我相信,財務人員看到這段話會揍我,這只會讓我更沮喪。相信我們賺錢的能力,把注意力放在賺錢上面,而不是省錢。

Leadership is the art of getting people to want to do what you know must be done. This was told to me third hand; I’ve unfortunately lost the attribution.
帶領和管理的藝術是讓人們想去做你認為必須要做的事情。這句話是我從別人那里批發(fā)過來的,不幸的是,我不知道這是誰說的(小編注:據(jù)說這句話是美國第34任總統(tǒng)艾森豪威爾說的)。

What have you enjoyed most in your time at Microsoft?? What made that experience great?? How can you do more of that?
你在微軟最開心的是什么時候?是什么讓你這么開心?你怎樣可以做得更好?

What would you do if you hit the lottery?? How can you do some of that right now?
如果中了彩票大獎,你會做什么?當中有什么是你現(xiàn)在就能動手做的呢?

Individuals are the sole cause of anything that’s ever happened.
所有發(fā)生的一切都是從個人開始的。