Small Goals for 2021
Why Set “Small Goals”
The small goal in 2020 was: to increase income by 20,000 yuan in addition to work income and investment income.
First of all, a very important purpose is money. Because I was quite short of money this year.
There is an even more important reason. Since I started working in 2017, I’ve seen many articles on the Internet about the topic of “don’t become a company - customized talent”. The general idea of this view is that companies will use and cultivate people according to their own needs. However, these needs are often strongly related to the company’s own business and are not highly reusable in the market. So once a person leaves the company, it’s difficult to find a new job in the market with a well - matched salary and technical path. Due to this view, I’ve been quite proactive in learning some new technologies in my spare time. But as the saying goes, “All talk and no action is just empty talk.” Most of the technologies I learned in my spare time are related to web development (I’m a DevOps, proficient in both operation and development, but with different development focuses). So I came up with the idea of taking on freelance work, which can both earn money and improve my skills, killing two birds with one stone. Then I started trying various ways to take on freelance work. So far, I haven’t landed a single project, and the completion rate of this small goal is zero. But I still gained something during the process of trying to achieve this small goal, and I’m making a record here.
Don’t Become a Company - Customized Talent?
Let’s talk about this view first, as I think it’s the biggest gain this small goal brought me.
I now think this view is wrong, or at least not entirely correct.
From the employee’s perspective, the view of “don’t become a company - customized talent” probably implies two things: 1. Don’t work on niche projects or tasks in the company; 2. Learn more outside of work tasks. And to make up for knowledge and skill gaps, what you learn may not be applicable to your work in the short term. This means you can’t go all out in your current job. Personally, the overall talent market and internal corporate competition are quite fierce. Even if you go all out in a job, you can’t guarantee that you’ll do it well, let alone not going all out. In the long run, this will lead to your leader being dissatisfied with your work performance, and it will be difficult for you to get opportunities for salary increases and promotions. In fact, this goes against the original intention, because the ultimate goal of “don’t become a company - customized talent” is still to enable you to obtain a good income more easily over a longer period.
From the company’s perspective, if its employees are not willing to work with all their might and no one is willing to tackle niche directions (if a direction or business is niche but the company still decides to pursue it, it often means this direction is very important to the company), then the company may find it difficult to achieve good and sustainable growth.
So, doing this is not good for either individuals or companies. Then why do so many people on the Internet believe in this view?
In fact, this view is somewhat correct to a certain extent. Because if a person’s abilities are closely tied to a particular business of a certain company, then if they want to leave or have to leave (the company goes bankrupt or they get fired) the current company in the future, they may be in a tough spot, as it will be difficult for them to find a satisfactory new employer in all aspects.
Grow Together with the Company
How to solve the above - mentioned contradiction?
A possible solution I can think of is to join a company (or department) that you recognize. This recognition is multi - faceted, and I don’t have a clear idea, but it probably includes the following two points: First, you should recognize the industry the company is in; second, you recognize the company itself, including its management and your future colleagues. Actually, these two points still don’t fully describe what I have in mind, but I haven’t come up with a more suitable way to say it for now. Regarding the point of “growing together with the company”, it seems more suitable for small companies, because small companies develop rapidly and have more opportunities. However, large companies, often due to their large scale and long response time, make it difficult for an employee to have a sense of belonging of “growing together with the company”. But small companies are mostly unstable, likely to go bankrupt in a year or two, and may not be able to match large companies in terms of technical depth. This is another contradiction. If anyone reads this blog, you’re welcome to communicate your thoughts on this issue.
Small Goals for 2021
Given that the goals in 2020 were not achieved and I gained some new inspirations and understandings during the process of trying to achieve them, I plan to set several small goals for 2021.
Small Goal 1
Last year’s goal was to increase income by 20,000 yuan in addition to company and financial management income. To be honest, this goal is a bit difficult for beginners and is too general. So one of the small goals for 2021 is to earn 1000 yuan by June 30, 2021, and update the progress once a month. The ultimate purpose of this small goal is not just about money, but to drive myself to try more possibilities.
Small Goal 2
In 2021, update at least 50 technical blogs, 80% of which (that is, 40 blogs) should be related to the current work, which means updating about one blog per week.