In this era of explosive technology iteration, developer occupation, and age anxiety, the experience of industry veterans may be more relevant. What has affected him most in his 20-year career? What does technology thrive on? Why leadership is a necessary skill for every technical person? What misunderstandings and problems should be solved from technology to management? How to find the vein of technological development? With these questions in mind, the Rare-earth Mining community interviewed Shi Haifeng, the special publisher of Team Building and Management at rare-earth Developer Conference and the senior director of Shell. The following text is the interview.

The 20-year technical career relies on inheritance

Rare-earth JUN: Tell us a little bit about your experience in the industry. What are some of the most memorable things about technology in the past 20 years?

In 2001, I graduated from Beijing University of Chemical Technology, majoring in computer Science and technology. In 2005, I went to CICA, and in 2012, I “switched” to work as an architect. In 2016, I went to Ele. me, and in 2018, I came to Shell Gold, where I am today.

Twenty years have passed very quickly. From a blank sheet of paper when I graduated from university to today, my experience has been from traditional IT to Internet, and then to mobile Internet and industrial Internet, which fully reflects the career changes of IT migrant workers in the changing times, basically following the trend.

I’ve been through a lot in the last 20 years, but nothing really exciting. In technology, it is a good thing if nothing goes wrong, and don’t be afraid of anything when something goes wrong. “Life and death look pale, do not obey”. This may be an exaggeration, but technology is not neutral, it should be guided by values, and sometimes it can be fatal if done badly. When I started working, my field of vision is very limited, only care about technology, even think technology is the value, after 20 years of ups and downs, now see a problem would be relatively more comprehensive, practical, that is like a seashell used to say “difficult to insist for a long time, and do and the right thing”, not to change the world, but the existence of hope because we make the world a little different.

Last year, I gave a speech reflecting on a few things that have influenced me a lot. I think the IT industry relies on inheritance. When we join an industry or engage in a profession, there is inheritance, just like biological reproduction, civilization evolution and scientific progress. Only after passing from generation to generation can we live forever. These are the three things that have lit up my career. I call them tolerance, empathy, and selflessness. I hope that these lessons that have made a difference for me will help others who are struggling in the technology industry. For details, please refer to “IT Worker Gossip · Light a lamp”.

Rare earth jun: Why call oneself IT worker worker? Is there a story behind the name?

Migrant workers is the word of the last century, 20 years ago has not yet been farmers “code”, “program ape” and “siege lion”, “working people”, even “yards of livestock, such as” do IT technology is “labor-intensive industries,” is not suit “white collar”, so they invented the “migrant workers” IT online, is a kind of laugh at themselves. I am from the northeast, and there is a deconstructive spirit in the humor of the northeast people, who are good at self-recreation and even self-blackening. As a member of the “IT migrant workers”, I correct the mentality of working in the city, which is conducive to self-recognition. So later open wechat public number with this very time sense of the claim.

Rare-earth: What do you think has changed the most about yourself over the years? How do you stay passionate about technology and open to sharing?

The biggest change has been from a college student who was ignorant and had a blank SLATE to a more professional one. In fact, this process is quite long. When I look back, I find the innocence and ignorance in those days. It is a process of socialization. The university was also known as the Ivory tower, but I was not the favored one, just a raw talent.

When I was young, I was full of energy and curiosity. I had to check the software version when upgrading. I was very enthusiastic about technology and never felt that knowing something was enough. I had chewed through some technical books in those years and had forgotten them all. Speaking of sharing, or after entering the Internet field, because the development of this field is too fast, everyone is feeling the stones to cross the river, continuous innovation, sharing communication can keep up, but also collision out of new sparks, communication with the master benefit.

“Code and excellence lead to official”, the challenge and nature of technology management

Rare-earth jun: How did you get into technical management? What was the biggest challenge for you in moving from technology to management?

In the traditional IT field, engineers gradually grow up with projects or teams. Strictly speaking, they are not really management positions. They are almost temporary positions without direct assessment power. Such a process can exercise basic leadership skills and serve as a back-up cadre with the opportunity to continue to grow into a real management role. I have worked as a project manager and a team leader, which were basically arranged by superiors. I didn’t have too many ideas at that time, and I was basically in charge of things rather than people. The experience gained in these processes made it logical to lead a team later.

In my opinion, the biggest challenge to become a manager is to change the way of thinking. In the past, it was to make achievements for myself, but now it is to make achievements for the team and the company, and to take responsibility and downplay individuals.

Rare-earth jun: Looking back at the history of team management, what do you think is the essence of management? How do you get people on your team to agree with your management?

Drucker once said, management is not an art, not a science but a practice, so it is difficult to “learn” management. We must do it by ourselves and think by ourselves to see how to activate individuals, form a team rather than a gang, make 1+1>2, let ordinary people achieve not everything, and create value for the society.

Management is ultimately measured in results rather than form. There is no standard paradigm for management. Different organizational cultures, development stages, team sizes, business models, and project types require different management actions. Each leader also develops a management style that suits his personality.

In order to gain the understanding and recognition of the team, we must first treat people as human beings, believe that everyone is equal and free, adhere to the original intention, everyone is really good; Second, do not make poor information, as open and transparent as possible, communicate with everyone; Finally, practice what you preach and build trust with results and time. The technical team is relatively simple, you are really good to everyone, values are correct, work orderly, lead everyone to win the battle, will naturally gain trust.

Rare earth jun: Have you ever been challenged by superiors or subordinates in the process of management? Can you give some examples?

The word challenge is a bit heavy. The team itself is divided of labor and cooperation, complementing each other. Generally speaking, the team chooses the overall optimal solution and reaches a consensus. No one is omniscient and has limitations. It is important to know yourself objectively and make continuous progress.

For example, a CTO once told us that all of you should be Ctos in the future, and that you should hold yourself to CTO standards. Later, some CEOS also said that they should be their own CEOS, not just focus on product technology. All the bosses are right, all for our good, but progress should be made step by step, after all, different fields are like mountains, some fields have no actual contact, lack of perceptual knowledge, understanding will be very superficial, even amateurs.

For example, some ideas I said in the weekly meeting may be strongly opposed by the subordinate leaders, because judging from the actual situation of the team, the operation will bring troubles or increase extra costs. I will also discuss with other leaders to see how to do it more reasonably, or do it after a period of time when everyone’s pace slows down.

Rare-earth: What pitfalls do you think new technology managers need to avoid? What advice can I offer?

Misunderstandings generally take the following common forms:

  1. Too little authority, too much hands, too much work. Leave it to me.
  2. I thought I had a job, so people should listen to me.
  3. Lack of theoretical system to study, follow the feeling.
  4. Take your own standards and practices required by the team.
  5. Lack of abstract thinking, can not jump out of their own, can not stand in the perspective of the team and organization.
  6. Lack of closed-loop and quantitative thinking, lack of awareness of organizational communication.

My advice:

  1. Trust the team, trust people to do a good job, applaud the process, pay for the results, and give the team the C-spot.
  2. Recognize your weaknesses, build on your strengths, and rely on leadership rather than power.
  3. More and the same level, superior communication, humbly to learn from cattle and seniors, read good books.
  4. Look for the best and potential in everyone, and address those that are obviously problematic.
  5. To understand the organization’s positioning, division of labor, and evolution of operations, look at the history of some companies.
  6. Build team leadership model and framework as design system, and continuously improve, coordinate with HR.

Rare earth JUN: In China’s current environment, do you think it is feasible to focus on technology without management? What advice do you have for those of you who want to use the technology line?

First of all, the conclusion is ok, but generally only large factories or technology-based product companies will have enough space and soil for high-level development. In an organizational system that mainly relies on teamwork rather than individual heroism, leadership is a must in order to succeed. Please refer to my articles “The Growth Path of Technical Leadership for Architects” and “Staying True to the Original aspiration, Training for Intermediate Leadership” on my official account.

Rare-earth Jun: As the publisher of the theme “Team Building and Management” of RAre-Earth Developers Conference, what did you think when planning this topic? What input will be brought to attendees?

For the construction and management of technical teams, China is very short of systematic precipitation and output, even less in the Internet field, and there are huge differences in enterprise scale, industry characteristics and development stage, and the cognition of management is also extremely different. Many technical leaders are from the wild road, their own wade out of a road, the king of failure.

So in this conference, I specially invited three outstanding technical leaders with rich management experience and a complete system to share systematic management methods for everyone. They have experienced big factories, CTO, books, management consultants, in the public account and the conference to share a lot of dry goods, not only point and line, but also the surface and body, not only theory, but also practice. If you have time, you are advised to do some homework in advance. You should first study the content shared by several teachers on the Internet. You should also learn about their experience and background, and bring questions with you, so that you can have more thoughts and harvest on site.

Break away from anxiety and wind, find the vein of technology

Rare-earth: Last year’s buzzword was “inwrap.” This year’s buzzword was “lie flat.” What do you think of those two words? Why do young people nowadays seem unwilling to struggle?

For all kinds of popular hot words, I dare not say that my understanding is consistent with young people, for fear that I am self-righteous but cowardly. Personally, I feel that “introversion” has been mentioned too much at present. It has become an emotional release under high pressure, fast pace and fierce competition, almost equivalent to “excessive competition”. Therefore, the popularity of “lying flat” instead reflects a rebound in mentality.

It is normal for young people to be reluctant to struggle. Now that China has lifted itself out of poverty and completed the building of a moderately prosperous society in all respects, its material life is getting better and better. Naturally, it pursues more spiritual happiness. It works overtime every day and does not consume, eat, drink or have children. The energy of youth is the engine of the economy.

The Times are changing, and each generation has its own destiny and choices. We should not look at new problems from the old point of view. Isn’t the comfortable and happy life of young people a manifestation of improving living standards? Isn’t this the time you wanted? What’s more, young people have their ideals and ways to pursue their goals. Any generation will be labeled, such as the little emperor, the Defeated generation and so on, but eventually they will write their own glory and dream.

Rare earth jun: Technical people often occupation anxiety, age anxiety have you experienced? How do you view these anxieties, and how do you deal with them?

I didn’t when I first started working, because when I was young, I had endless possibilities. After 30, I was more anxious. But because I am relatively “senior”, at that time, there is no “35 years old eliminated” saying, in fact, WHEN I “change careers” in 2012, I was already 34, still feel that the road ahead is broad, broad world has a lot to do. A few years ago, when I was forty, I did a review, and once I really felt that I was “no longer confused”. But understanding doesn’t mean you can relax. After all, there are many challenges in your work life, so sometimes you still feel anxious.

It is said that now is the era of VUCA, the majority of people’s psychology or expected certainty under the sense of security, so anxiety is a modern disease, anxiety is a normal response. In fact, the day-to-day, the same life is boring, “not love the past, live up to the present, not afraid of the future” is worth pursuing the attitude. There are many things we have to face and many things we cannot choose or control. Everyone has his limitations. If you read more history and biographies, you will understand that you have to move forward no matter what, and there is no time to turn back. Of course, the total tension is not good for health, appropriate exercise, relax mood, healthy life, switching state is necessary. Adjust your attitude. Most of the time, what’s right in front of you doesn’t matter.

“VUCA” refers to Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity.

Rare earth Jun: Every year, there are many star technology fields attracting attention, AI, blockchain, low code, how do you view the development of technology context? How should technical students choose their own development track in this circle of so-called tuyere every year?

Although the singularity did not arrive as early as in science fiction movies and novels, there is no doubt that the current era is a technological explosion. Rapid technological update and iteration is the characteristic of this industry. The reason why it is dazzling is that new technologies emerge in endless stream and there are too many air channels. It is estimated that only looking at the news can not be seen.

As for the development of technology is a bit like fashion trend, wave by wave, there are always hot spots, there will be reinsara, in line with the law of spiraling upward. Laws are traces, innovations and inheritance. To understand the general direction of technology development, you can pay more attention to the technology maturity curve, technology adoption life cycle, enterprise development cycle, technology radar, dunning-Luger effect curve, and learn from the share of Lu Qi and Wu Jun.

As to how to choose, first of all, knowledge is very important, the second is for most people, choose application, stable development of the technology stack, relatively more predictable, again is to choose the direction must do through deep, also have the ability to quickly switch fields to fit, finally don’t be too focused on purely technical, to maintain vision technology and industry, understand the business value.

Introduction to Team Building and Management

With the continuous development of business, the size of the company team has been expanding; As a Leader, we should not only understand technology, but also understand management; How to bring the team together to quickly run in and grow? How to improve synergy efficiency? This topic will invite managers of first-line big factories to share their approaches and methods, hoping to bring new ideas to everyone.

Brief introduction of the producer

I have been engaged in the business support system integration work in the telecom industry for a long time in Digital China and Asia Credit Union, and participated in several projects of China Mobile and China Unicom, with rich experience in the r&d and implementation of large-scale business system. I used to be responsible for the overall architecture planning, technical specification formulation and technology pre-research and promotion at Dangdang. I am good at grasping complex business requirements, proposing innovative solutions, participating in the scheme design of several key projects, and continuously reforming and optimizing the system architecture in the projects. Responsible for the organization and management of technical committee, exploring best practices, promoting technical innovation, organizing internal and external technical communication, and open source DubboX, Elastice-Job, sharding-JDBC. Once responsible for product r&d team of Ele. me Technology Innovation Department and completed several innovative business projects and technical products. Now I am in charge of ecological financial service product planning, technical team management and system construction for small and micro enterprises in Shell Gold. Participated in many technical conferences of the industry as a lecturer and producer.

Live preview

At 8:00 this evening, Shi Haifeng will be a guest in the live broadcast room of the Rare Earth Developers Conference to talk with you about “Survival Guide for IT Migrant Workers”. If you are interested, please welcome to collect the live broadcast room address:

Live. Juejin. Cn / 4354 / xdcroo…

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