TED演讲｜你的职业发展，该走些弯路了！

The best career path isn't always a straight line

Helen Tupper：当我们20年前在大学相遇时，我们为不太可能的朋友做了一些事。我是个外向的人，不管什么活动都积极参与，人缘也很好，

Sarah Ellis: ... and I'm an introverted ideas person who finds extroverts energizing but a bit intimidating.

莎拉·埃利斯：我是一个内向的人，觉得外向的人充满活力，但有点吓人。

HT: Despite our differences, we both had an ambition to climb the ladder and have a successful career.

HT：尽管我们之间存在分歧，但我们都有一个雄心壮志，那就是爬上阶梯，拥有一个成功的职业生涯。

SE: We were motivated by how far and how fast we could progress, and we thought that our route to the top would look something a bit like this. And in those first few years of work, we were all about promotions and pay rises. 

SE：我们的动力来自于我们能走多远，走多快，我们认为我们通往顶峰的道路看起来有点像这样。在工作的最初几年里，我们都是为了升职和加薪。

We were preoccupied by the positions that we held and how senior our job titles sounded. And on the surface, everything seemed to be on track. But we started to get the sense that the ladder might actually be holding us back.

我们全神贯注于我们所担任的职位，以及我们的职位头衔听起来有多高。从表面上看，一切似乎都在轨道上。但我们开始意识到梯子可能真的在阻碍我们前进。

The obvious next step wasn't always the most appealing, and we were both excited about exploring opportunities that weren't necessarily based on what we'd done before. It wasn't what we'd anticipated, but our careers had started to look and feel much more like this. Squiggly.

显然，下一步并不总是最吸引人的，我们都很高兴能找到一些不一定基于我们以前所做的事情的机会。这并不是我们所期待的，但我们的职业生涯已经开始看起来和感觉更像这样。歪歪扭扭的。

HT: A squiggly career is both full of uncertainty and full of possibility. Change is happening all of the time. Some of it is in our control, and some of it's not. Success isn't one-size-fits-all. Our squiggles are as individual as we are. And for me, that's meant a career where I've moved from working on foldable credit cards in one company -- they didn't catch on -- to building and launching a loyalty app for another. And that one is still going.

HT：一个曲折的职业既充满了不确定性，也充满了可能性。变化无时无刻不在发生。有些是在我们的控制下，有些不是。成功不是万能的。我们的曲线和我们的个性一样。对我来说，这意味着我的职业生涯已经从在一家公司工作的折叠信用卡——那会儿还没流行起来——到为另一家公司建立和推出一个靠谱的应用程序。而那个情况还在继续。

SE: And I've moved from making magazines to working on food waste, from a five- to a four-day week so I could spend more time on personal projects and volunteering. I've already had more jobs and worked in more organizations than my dad, and he's been working for twice as long as I have. And I'm the rule, not the exception.

SE：我已经从制作杂志转向处理食物垃圾，从每周5天变成了4天，这样我就可以把更多的时间花在个人项目和志愿工作上。我已经有了比我父亲更多的工作，在更多的机构工作，他工作的时间是我的两倍。我一直都循规蹈矩，没有出现什么意外状况。

HT: When we started to share the idea of squiggly careers with people, we were surprised by how much it stuck. It seemed to give people something that perhaps they didn't even know that they needed, a way of describing both their experiences and their aspirations. Someone even told us that they took our book, which has a big squiggle on the front of it, into a job interview, as a way of describing their career so far.

HT：当我们开始和人们分享关于不稳定职业的想法时，我们惊讶于它的坚持程度。它似乎给了人们一些他们甚至不知道他们需要的东西，一种描述他们的经历和愿望的方式。有人甚至告诉我们，他们把我们的书带到了求职面试中，以此来讲述他们过往的职业生涯。

But we underestimated one big problem: the legacy of the ladder is all around us. It's in the companies that we work in and the conversations that we have. It sounds like being asked in a job interview, "Where do you see yourself in five years' time?" It's the uncomfortable question of how we reward and motivate people who do a great job but don't want to be promoted. And it's the unfairness of our learning being unlocked by the level that we reach in an organization.

但我们低估了一个大问题：梯子的遗产就在我们身边。这是在我们工作的公司和我们的谈话。这听起来像是在面试中被问到，“五年后你觉得自己在哪里？”这是一个令人不安的问题，即我们如何奖励和激励那些工作出色但不想升职的人。我们的学习被我们在组织中所达到的水平所释放，这是不公平的。

SE: Career ladders were created as a way to manage and motivate a whole new generation of workers -- in the early 1900s. And that world of conformity and control from over 100 years ago is unrecognizable today, especially when we consider only six percent of people in the UK now work nine-to-five. We can all expect to have five different types of career. And the World Economic Forum estimates that 50 percent of the skills that we have right now won't be relevant by 2025.

SE：在20世纪初，职业阶梯被创造出来作为管理和激励新一代员工的一种方式。而100多年前的那种从众和控制的世界在今天是不可识别的，尤其是当我们考虑到现在英国只有6%的人在朝九晚五地工作时。我们都可以期望有五种不同类型的职业。世界经济论坛估计，到2025年，我们现在掌握的技能中有50%将不相关。

HT: Ladders are limiting. They limit learning and they limit opportunity, and if organizations don't lose the ladder, they will lose their people, the people that are always adapting, that never stop learning and who are open to the opportunities that come their way. 2020 disrupted the way that all of us work, and none of us know what will happen next. But one thing we can be confident about is that the ladder is a redundant concept of careers.

HT：梯子是有限制的。他们限制了学习，也限制了机会，如果组织不失去阶梯，他们就会失去自己的人，那些总是适应的人，那些从不停止学习的人，以及那些对机遇持开放态度的人。2020年打乱了我们所有人的工作方式，我们谁也不知道接下来会发生什么。但有一点我们可以确信，阶梯是一个多余的职业概念。

SE: Losing the ladder starts with redefining our relationship with learning at work. We all now have the chance to curate our own curriculums, and we can be really creative about what that looks like, whether it's the TED Talks that you're watching, the books and blogs you're reading, the podcasts you're listening to.

SE：失去阶梯始于重新定义我们与工作中学习的关系。我们现在都有机会策划我们自己的课程，我们可以对它的样子真的很有创意，不管是你正在看的TED演讲，你正在读的书和博客，你正在听的播客。

Your learning is personal to you. And the good news is, your development is no longer dependent on other people.

你的学习是你个人的。好消息是，你的发展不再依赖于别人。

HT: Our learning can't be limited by the level we reach in an organization or only available to the fortunate few. It's not the responsibility of a single department, and it doesn't just happen when you go on a course.

HT：我们的学习不能被我们在一个组织中所达到的水平所限制，也不能只局限于少数幸运的人。这不是一个部门的责任，也不只是在你上课程的时候。

No one has a monopoly on wisdom. In squiggly careers, everybody is a learner, and everybody is a teacher. We've been inspired by MVF, a global technology and marketing company who've introduced a program called "Connected Learning."

没有人能独享智慧。在曲折的职业生涯中，每个人都是学习者，每个人都是老师。我们受到了MVF的启发，MVF是一家全球技术和营销公司，它推出了一项名为“联网学习”的计划。

They blind-match their employees so that people can learn from each other without barriers like what job they do or who they know getting in the way. Their CEO, Michael Teixeira, told us, "Everybody is in charge of their own learning here. We all learn from each other and with each other, and we're much better off as a result."

他们随机匹配他们的员工，这样人们就可以互相学习，而不受阻碍，比如他们做什么工作或者认识谁。他们的首席执行官迈克尔特谢拉告诉我们，“这里每个人都在负责自己的学习。我们都互相学习，互相学习，结果我们的生活好多了。”

SE: In squiggly careers, we need to change our perspective on progression. The problem with career ladders is that they only go in one direction, and you can only take one step at a time. If progression purely means promotion, we miss out on so many of the opportunities that are all around us. We need to stop asking only, "What job comes next?" and start asking, "What career possibilities am I curious about?"

SE：在曲折的职业生涯中，我们需要改变对进步的看法。职业阶梯的问题是，它只能朝一个方向走，而你一次只能走一步。如果进步仅仅意味着提升，那么我们就错过了我们身边的很多机会。我们不需要只问“下一份工作是什么？”而应该开始问“我对什么样的职业前景感到好奇？”

HT: Exploring our career possibilities increases our resilience. It gives us more options, and you create more connections. We see how we can use our strengths in new ways and spot the skills that might be useful for our future. We can all start exploring our career possibilities. It might be an ambitious possibility that you don't feel ready for yet. Or perhaps it's a pivot that feels interesting, but just that bit out of reach. Or maybe it's a dream that you've discounted. The most important thing is that you give yourself the permission to explore.

HT：探索职业发展的可能性可以增强我们的韧性。它给了我们更多的选择，你创造了更多的联系。我们看到了如何以新的方式利用自己的优势，发现对我们的未来可能有用的技能。我们都可以开始探索自己的职业前景。这可能是一个雄心勃勃的可能性，你还没有准备好。或者它是一个让人感觉有趣的支点，但却有点遥不可及。或者这是一个让你大打折扣的梦想。最重要的是你要允许自己去探索。

SE: And this is not a one-way street. We need support from the people that we work for and the organizations that we work in. And we've seen how this can work in practice at a food manufacturer called Cook. They have something called the "Dream Academy." And in this academy, their colleagues can explore any career that they're intrigued by, in or out of the organization, and even rediscover abandoned ambitions. It could be to try stand-up comedy, to write their first children's book, to move from marketing to finance, become the CEO. Nothing is off the table.

这不是单行道。我们需要我们工作的人和我们工作的组织的支持。我们已经在一家叫库克的食品制造商看到了这一点。他们有一个叫做“梦想学院”的机构，在这个学院里，他们的同事可以探索他们感兴趣的任何职业，在组织内外，甚至重新发现被抛弃的雄心壮志。可能是尝试单口喜剧，写他们的第一本儿童书，从市场营销到金融，成为首席执行官。桌上什么都没有。

One employee said, "The Dream Academy didn't open doors for me. It helped me to have the confidence to open them for myself." In career ladders, our identity can become about the titles that we've held, rather than the talents that we have. Everyone is talented, and we can use those talents in many ways. We don't need to constrain our careers. In the words of my favorite band, Fleetwood Mac, "You can go your own way."

一位员工说，“虽然梦想学院没有为我敞开大门。但它帮助我有信心为自己打开它们。”在职业阶梯上，我们的身份可以变成我们拥有的头衔，而不是我们拥有的才能。每个人都有天赋，我们可以在很多方面利用这些天赋。我们不需要限制自己的事业。用我最喜欢的乐队弗利特伍德麦克的话说，“你可以走自己的路。”

HT: One of the things that sticks with me from my time at Microsoft is that I'd go into the office, and I'd see a sign that said, "Come as you are and do what you love." And this was more than just words on a wall. As a non-techie with a podcast on the side, I certainly brought something different to the organization.

HT：我在微软的时候，有一件事一直困扰着我，那就是我走进办公室，看到一块牌子，上面写着：“照你的样子来，做你喜欢的事。”这不仅仅是墙上的文字。作为一个有播客的非技术人员，我当然给组织带来了一些不同的东西。

But my uniqueness was embraced, and there was no pressure to fit a perfect mold. I felt like I could be open about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to go, even if that was different to everybody else. In squiggly careers, there is room for everybody to succeed. And no two squiggles are the same. The ladder has been holding us back for far too long. But it's not easy to change something that's been around for over 100 years. What we need now is more than a radical rethink. We need a radical redo, and change comes from action.

但我的独特性被接受了，没有压力去适应一个完美的模式。我觉得我可以对我想做的事情和我想去的地方敞开心扉，即使这对其他人来说是不同的。在曲折的职业生涯中，每个人都有成功的空间。没有两条曲线是一样的。梯子拖我们太久了。但要改变已经存在了100多年的东西并不容易。我们现在需要的不仅仅是彻底的反思。我们需要彻底的重做，而改变来自行动。

SE: Together, we have an ambition to make careers better for everyone. And we've seen just what's possible when people let go of the ladder. We see people who define their own success and take control of their careers. And we see organizations who benefit from adaptable employees who are curious, confident and continually learning.

SE：我们共同的目标是让每个人的事业都变得更好。我们已经看到了当人们从梯子上下来时可能发生的事情。我们看到的是那些定义自己成功并掌控自己事业的人。我们看到的组织受益于适应性强的员工，他们好奇心强、自信、不断学习。

HT: We want to ask you to become an advocate for squiggly careers. You might be a manager who could help somebody to explore their career possibilities. Or maybe you’re a mentor and you can give someone the confidence to see how they can use their talents in new ways. And now that we're all teachers, let's share what we know so that everybody can succeed.

HT：我们想请你成为一个倡导歪歪扭扭的职业。你可能是一个经理，可以帮助别人探索他们的职业发展的可能性。或者你是一个导师，你可以给别人信心，看看他们如何用新的方式发挥自己的才能。既然我们都是老师，让我们分享我们所知道的，这样每个人都能成功。

SE: It's finally time for us all to step off the ladder and into the squiggle.

史：我们终于该走下楼梯，走进弯弯曲曲的世界了。

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