April, 2018?—?Is this what you want?

來自專欄 ZAKE ZHANG7 人贊了文章

A Letter to My Future Self

Dear Zake,

I』m the 24-year-old version of you from 2018, how have you been?

Since 2015, I decided to take a day every month to reflect on work, life and thoughts, sharing with you.This is the 29th mail I』m sending to you.

April — Is this what you want?

So you quit the startup, went for a short vacation in Philippines, enjoyed your time there, came back to Shenzhen and joined ByteDance and Faceu, started a podcast with your friend Ben, moved to a bigger nicer apartment, hang out with old friends on weekends… Every thing seems to be pretty good, except my work.

Work

Let』s talk about the good things first. ByteDance is one of the hottest unicorn currently in China, and it really provides ByteDancers a great environment to work, grow and live. You have great research team working on new technologies, top salary, free meals and snacks throughout the day, housing subsidies and more…

However, the other side, for me, shuts down all the good. The structure and lack of planning suffocate me. Apparently I cannot go too far on these 2 subjects, but what I do know, is how to be proactive and maximize my own learning/growing curves, since your leaving won』t make any difference to the company at all.

So what I』m doing right now are:

1. Take advantage of my 「Boredom」

To be honest, on the product management wise, the things I need to do for a week at my last job will be much more than the things I』ve done here in ByteDance for an entire month. Sometimes, I feel that they don』t really need this position.

However, I』m taking advantages of the boredom and doing some research on AR&AI technologies.

But still, it just doesn』t feel right, it』s like back to school and going to library every day working on my own stuff. You might make a lot of progress on yourself, but this is not what I want from work. Cannot think and take action like a product manager, this is a big NO for me.

2. Holding higher standards

Holding higher standards, especially for the tasks I』m told to do. Being in a big company, there』re way more things to acknowledge, accept and learn. Always be prepared, and never regret.

Lastly, I came across the following paragraph, and would love to share with you:

Someone once told me the definition of Hell: The last day you have on earth, the person you became will meet the person you could have become.

Life

After quitting my first job, I took a short trip to Philippines. On the one hand, I』m trying to unplug myself from the intense March, and enjoying some time with friends, on the other, I』m keeping my promise for Mikaela who I met in Hokkaido.

Here』s the travel vlog, there should be another 3-min long short film, but I』m too lazy to start editing yet.