Having worked in HR at a large banking corporation and in strategic HR consulting, I’ve seen the effects of learning and development on career mobility — and what leads people to let it fall by the wayside. Over time, working with users as well as learning experts, I’ve found that four crucial habits can make a tremendous difference.
我曾在一家大型银行公司和战略人力资源咨询公司工作过，看到了学习和发展对职业流动性的影响——以及是什么导致了这方面的失败。随着时间的推移，与用户以及学习专家一起工作，我发现四个重要的习惯可以产生巨大的影响。
 
Focus on emerging skills. With so many learning options available these days, people are often tempted to simply go to Google, type in some general search terms, and start one of the first courses that pops up. That’s a waste of time.
关注新兴技能。现在有这么多的学习机会，人们常常想简单地去谷歌一下，输入一些一般的搜索词，然后开始一门突然出现的课程。这是浪费时间的做法。
 
Job requirements are quickly evolving. To ensure relevance, you need to focus on learning the latest emerging skills. You can do this in a couple of ways.
工作要求正在迅速发展。为了确保跟上时代发展的步伐，你需要专注于学习最新兴的技能。下面是几个建议。
 
 
 
First, track what skills the leaders in your industry are hiring for.
Look at recent job postings from the top companies, and see which qualifications keep popping up. Second, reach out to people in your network or on LinkedIn who have the job you want. If you want to know what sales skills and technologies are becoming most important, talk to some high-level salespeople. Ask them what they’re having to learn to keep succeeding at their work and what skills they think someone needs to acquire in order to become a viable candidate.
首先，看看你所在行业的领导者需要拥有哪些技能的员工。看看最近几家顶级公司的招聘信息，看看哪些要求的出现频率比较高。第二，发挥你的人际网络作用，或者看看LinkedIn上哪些人可以提供你感兴趣的职位。如果你想知道什么销售技巧是最重要的，那就和一些高级销售人员谈谈。问他们在工作中需要学习什么，以及他们认为需要什么样的技能才能成为有机会获得工作。
 
You may feel intimidated about reaching out. But I’ve found that most of the time, people are happy to share this information. They want to see more and more capable candidates filling jobs and staying on top of trends.
这时候你可能会感到害怕。但我发现大多数时候，人们乐于分享这些信息。他们希望看到越来越多有能力的候选人填补就业岗位，走在时代前列。
 
As you get a sense of the most important skills to learn, ask these experts whether they can recommend specific online courses with practical value. Also take a close look at course descriptions to find content that will be useful on the job rather than provide mostly academic insight. For instance, you might seek out instructors who are leading experts in your industry or content created in conjunction with companies that you admire.
当你了解到哪些是最重要的技能后，问问这些专家，他们是否可以推荐具有实用价值的在线课程。也要仔细阅读课程描述，以找到对工作有用的内容，而不是一味专注于学术见解。例如，你可以找那些在你的行业中领先的专家或与你感兴趣的公司相关的内容。
 
 
 
Get synchronous.
In this era, micro-learning — engaging with online learning tools when and where it’s convenient — is becoming a much larger part of the training and development scene. This has its benefits, including freedom, convenience, and digestible content.
同步学习。在这个时代，微型学习——与在线学习工具打交道是很方便的——这正逐步成为培训和发展领域的重要组成部分。在线学习的优势在于自由、方便和可消化的内容。
 
But there’s also a downside. These asynchronous experiences are often solitary. And without at least some real-time interaction, whether in person or online, many students lose motivation. Researchers have found that “the sense of isolation” for some online learners “may make the difference between a successful and an unsuccessful online learning environment.” They call for more synchronous experiences. Others have also identified interaction and collaboration as critical factors in fruitful learning.
但也有不利的一面。这些不同步的体验常常是与外界隔离的。无论是线上学习还是线下学习，如果缺少实时互动，很多学生都会失去动力。研究人员发现，对于一些在线学习者来说，“孤立感”可能会导致在线学习环境的失败。在线学习需要更多的同步体验。还有一些人认为，互动和协作是卓有成效的学习的关键因素。
 
In my work, I’ve consistently seen that when online students sign up for a live course, in which they interact with a professor and one another at a set time at least once a week, they stick with it longer and learn more. Often, these kinds of programs offer materials you can work on individually. But the camaraderie can serve as a huge motivator, as can the desire not to fall behind the group.
在我的工作中，我一直看到，当在线学生报名参加一个活动课程时，如果他们每周至少一次与教授互动，他们会坚持更长时间，学习更多。通常，学习这些课程可以让你日后独立工作。但是同学也是一个巨大的激励因素，激励大家不要落于人后。
 
When a live course isn’t available, I encourage learners to find a “synchronous cohort” — a friend or acquaintance with similar learning goals. Make a pact to do online learning together weekly. You can learn a lot from hearing each other’s questions and explaining things to each other as you come to understand them, since the act of teaching can improve content understanding, recall, and application.
大家没办法上现场课程时，我鼓励大家去找一个“同步队列”——一个有相似学习目标的朋友或熟人。制定一个每周在线学习的计划。你们可以从彼此的问题中学习到很多东西，并在理解的过程中互相解释，因为教学行为可以增进对内容的理解、回忆和应用。
 
 
 
Implement learning immediately.
Research shows that performing the tasks you’ve learned is crucial, because “enactment enhances memory by serving as an elaborative encoding strategy.”
立即将学习内容运用到实践中。研究表明，将所学内容运用到实践中是至关重要的，因为“通过作为一种详尽的编码策略可以增强记忆”。
 
This is part of the problem many engineers face when looking for jobs straight out of college: They’ve been stuck in “theory land,” with little experience putting what they’ve learned into practice. You can run into the same issue with online learning. For example, I could spend weeks watching videos on how to set up a distributed computing system. But if I don’t go to Amazon Web Services and deploy it — soon — I’ll forget much of what I learned.
这是许多工程师在大学毕业时面临的一个问题:他们被困在“理论领域”，没有什么机会把他们所学到的东西付诸实践。在网上学习中你会遇到同样的问题。例如，我可以花上几个星期的时间观看关于如何建立一个分布式计算系统的视频。但是如果我不去Amazon Web Services尽快实践，我将会忘记我所学到的大部分知识。
 
So whatever field you’re studying, find opportunities to use your new skills. Depending on the skill, you might participate in a collaborative project at work, for instance, or set up your own project on a small scale at home.
所以无论你在研究什么领域，都要找机会使用你的新技能。根据技能的不同，你可能会参与一个协作项目，或者在家里小规模地建立你自己的项目。
 
 
 
Set a golden benchmark.
Just like runners in a marathon, online learners need to have a clear goal in order to stay focused. A return on investment (in terms of time and money spent) is hard to gauge in the near term. But those who persevere generally have their eye on a larger prize — a new job, a promotion, or the chance to lead a project. I encourage people to determine a specific career objective and keep it front of mind as they learn.
设置一个金色标准。就像马拉松选手一样，在线学习者需要有一个明确的目标来保持专注。在短期内，投资回报率(在时间和金钱方面)很难衡量。但那些坚持不懈的人通常会着眼于更大的奖励——一份新工作、一份晋升，或者是领导一个项目的机会。我鼓励人们去确定一个具体的职业目标，并在他们学习的过程中把它放在心里。
 
Of course, that benchmark will change as you develop. Learning is a career-long process. After you achieve one big goal, set your sights on the next one. That’s how you make learning a part of your normal routine.
当然，这个基准会随着你的发展而改变。学习是伴随职业生涯发展的漫长过程。在你实现一个大目标后，把你的目标放在下一个目标上。这样就可以让学习成为你日常生活的一部分。