It's your first day at your new job. What do you do? How do you make sure that you start things off on the right foot when you're surrounded by intelligent and intensely driven people?

这是你新工作的第一天。你做什么工作？当你周围都是聪明、有强烈进取心的人时，你如何确保自己的起点是正确的呢？

That's the conundrum I was faced with two and a half years ago when I first entered the workforce as a staff writer at a startup.

这就是我在两年半前遇到的难题，当时我刚开始在一家初创公司当员工作家。

It was a scary, exciting, and slightly overwhelming experience. But I had some help from my friends and managers— not to mention people on the internet who claimed to know the best ways to get ahead in a new gig. I was able to cobble together the bits of advice I got into the best combination for me and my job.

这是一次可怕的、激动人心的、有点势不可挡的经历。但我从我的朋友和经理那里得到了一些帮助——更不用说那些在网上声称知道在新工作中获得成功的最佳途径的人了。我能够把我得到的建议拼凑成对我和我的工作最好的组合。

Here are the eight smartest things I did when I first started my job:

以下是我刚开始工作时最聪明的八件事：

1. Asked for help

1. 寻求帮助

At first, asking questions felt like navigating through a field of landmines. I felt like taking one false step and I could derail all of the work I had put in up to that point.

一开始，问问题就像穿越一片地雷。我觉得我犯了一个错误，我可能会破坏我到那时为止所做的所有工作。

But once I relaxed into my new role and saw what other people on my team were doing, it became clear to me what types of questions were helpful and which were just me being too much in my own head. That made it easier to ask direct questions with confidence, rather than resorting to the old "this may be a stupid question, but —" trap.

但一旦我放松下来，开始做我的新角色，看到团队里其他人在做什么，我就明白了什么类型的问题是有用的，而这些问题都是我自己想得太多的。这使得人们更容易自信地直接提问，而不是求助于“这可能是一个愚蠢的问题，但——”的陷阱。

2. Read the wiki

阅读维基

Many startups have a wiki, a website where employees can quickly access everything from procedural information, like how to expense items to the company, to basic things like how each team contributes to company goals.

许多初创公司都有一个维基百科网站（或百度网站），在这个网站上，员工可以快速获取一切信息，从程序信息（比如如何向公司支付项目费用）到基本信息（比如每个团队如何为公司目标做出贡献）。

Finding the right phrases and keywords, by paying attention at orientation as well as asking my manager and employees who'd worked at the company for a while, helped me access the information I needed on the wiki. And checking for timestamps was vital to this process, since working at a startup means adapting to an ever-changing landscape of policies and processes. I bookmarked pages I'd need to access on a regular basis, like the office floorplan, and vital information about my team, which turned out to be enormously helpful, too.

确定合适的短语和关键词，通过关注方向，以及询问我的经理和在公司工作了一段时间的员工，帮助我在维基上获取我需要的信息。检查时间点对这一过程至关重要，因为在初创企业工作意味着要适应不断变化的政策和过程。我把需要定期访问的页面都加了书签，比如办公室的平面图，以及关于我的团队的重要信息，这些信息后来也变得非常有用。

3. Leaned in to using new tech

3. 首选使用新技术

Every company has its own way of doing things, and that usually means you have to learn how to use a new system or product to get things done. For me, one new bit of tech was Slack, a chat service that lets you keep in touch with everyone in the company without clogging up their inbox. Regularly using it also helped to foster positive relationships between me and my coworkers.

每个公司都有自己的做事方法，这通常意味着你必须学会如何使用新的系统或产品来完成任务。对我来说，新技术之一是Slack，这是一种聊天服务，可以让你在不阻塞收件箱的情况下与公司里的每个人保持联系。经常使用它也有助于促进我和同事之间的积极关系。

4. Set up 1:1’s with people on my team

4. 和我的团队里的人建立1:1的关系

When you're just starting out in your career, it's useful to talk to people on your team to find and close your inevitable gaps in knowledge and ask the silly questions that might be frowned upon once you've been working together for a week or so — like, "What exactly is your job here?"

当你刚开始你的职业，与你的团队成员聊天有助你发现及缩小不可避免的知识差距；一旦你已经一起工作了一个星期左右，也可避免问一些可能会让人不悦愚蠢的问题。比如，“你到底是做什么工作的呢？”

5. Paid attention to best practices

5. 关注最佳实践。

Taking cues from my coworkers, in emails, Slack messages and at meetings, was essential to success at my company. In doing so, I was able to discern the do's and don'ts for that workspace, rather than having to make mistakes and possibly annoy my coworkers and editor.

在我的公司里，从同事那里得到启发，无论是在邮件中，还是在会议上，都是成功的关键。通过这样做，我能够辨别出工作空间的“该做什么”和“不该做什么”，而不是不得不犯错误，可能会惹恼我的同事和编辑。

Don't get me wrong: Mistakes can be a valuable learning tool. But if you can avoid the more embarrassing ones in your first few months on the job, the whole experience is a lot less stressful.

不要误解我的意思：错误是一个很有价值的学习工具。但是，如果你能在工作的头几个月里避免那些比较尴尬的事情，那么整个经历就会少很多压力。

6. Used my ‘enrichment’ stipend

6. 用我的“浓缩”津贴

I was lucky enough to work somewhere that valued continued education and showed it with a $500 stipend for things like books, online courses, and writing workshops. I used the stipend to learn new skills to apply to my new role.

我很幸运，在一个重视继续教育的地方工作，并向它展示了500美元的津贴，用于购买书籍、在线课程和写作工作坊等。我用这笔津贴来学习新的技能，以适应我的新角色。

If that isn't available at your company, there are still a ton of free resources available, like Harvard's database of free online courses. You can also check if your company has any old training videos that can help you build your skills.

如果你的公司不能提供这些，还有大量的免费资源，比如哈佛的免费在线课程数据库。你也可以检查你的公司是否有可以帮助你提高技能的旧培训视频。

7. Volunteered for (almost) every opportunity that came my way

7. （几乎）每一个机会我都自愿参加。

Even though I had a lot going on, I tried to be open to each new assignment or opportunity that became available to me. That allowed me to expand my role and try things that I otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

尽管我有很多事情要做，我还是尽量对每一个新的任务或机会保持开放的心态。这让我可以扩大自己的角色，尝试一些我原本无法做到的事情。

Having that experience under my belt meant that later on I was better equipped to pitch projects that were somewhat outside of my job description, like creating a social-media-ready series of profiles about getting out of student debt.

有了这样的经历之后，我就能更好地推销一些超出我工作范围的项目，比如制作一系列关于如何摆脱学生债务的社交媒体资料。

8. Asked for feedback

8. 要求反馈

Nowadays, I'm big on feedback. I knew that I had a review coming up after my first six months on the job, and I wanted to make sure I passed. So even though I was a bit self-conscious about my work, I forced myself to consistently ask for feedback from my editor.

现在，我很喜欢反馈。我知道我在工作的头六个月后会有一个评估，我想确保自己能通过。因此，尽管我对自己的工作有点自我意识，但我强迫自己不断地向编辑要求反馈。

I even made a note to bring it up every two weeks and created a spreadsheet to track the feedback I got so that I had concrete evidence to support my self-evaluation. And as it turns out, that paid off and I passed my first review.

我甚至每两周都会做一个笔记，并创建一个电子表格来跟踪我得到的反馈，这样我就有了具体的证据来支持我的自我评价。结果证明，这是值得的，我通过了我的第一次审查。

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