我的第一份工作是当女招待。那时我才12岁，所以我不想说那家店在哪儿。事后想来，那家店（雇佣童工）肯定是违法的。开始我只在周末上班，后来转为全职。这份工作让我早早就培养起了良好的职业道德。
我的第一份“正当”工作是在伦敦金融城上班，有份好薪水，还给配了一台漂亮的苹果(Apple) MacBook。但这并不是一份真正意义上的金融城工作，而是叫人讨厌的网络工作，只是上班的地方恰好在Alie大街美国银行(Bank of America)旧楼里。
把一家初创的网络公司开在这种地方确实很另类。在Pret A Manger餐厅排队的人群里，我们这个小团队总是显得很醒目。看着周围那些西服革履的人们，我可以看出他们心里肯定在纳闷：这个穿着套头衫和破牛仔裤的姑娘会是干什么的呢？
自从中学毕业后，我就把制服时代抛在了身后。我为此感到庆幸。我可不想再穿上那种剪裁合身的制服、还有那摔死人不偿命的高跟鞋。
我之前在伦敦大学学院(UCL)读经济学，我那些同学不久就在我周围的写字楼里干起了真正意义上的金融城工作。大学的最后一年里，他们把所有的空闲时间都用来申请工作，期盼毕业后进入金融行业。
我那时有点儿羡慕他们。虽然我知道自己并不想进入大型金融机构，但我的确希望它们招我：我希望他们给我一份很棒的工作，然后我会告诉它们，姐不稀罕。
我那些同学为什么都想进入金融行业？对于这个问题，他们的回答从来不能让我信服。我认为，他们大部分人的问题在于，他们以前从来没有工作过，所以他们并不清楚自己喜欢什么、不喜欢什么。而我从18岁起就一直在初创企业工作，并且喜欢上了在小团队里做大事这种感觉。
当听到我说我希望做让自己乐在其中的工作（应该会大量用到Facebook和Twitter）时，他们大笑不止。他们断定我是在豪赌，认为我放弃了参与毕业生计划(grad scheme)、以便沿着职业阶梯一步一步往上爬的大好机会。
那些毕业生计划理应启动的时间，恰好与雷曼兄弟(Lehman Brothers)破产事件撞在了一起。期待踏上安稳职业道路的伙伴们突然发现，原来这条路根本毫无保障。
这使我更加坚信：一切事情都是有风险的。谁敢拍胸脯说，自己的工作绝对安稳？
我最终是为一家初创的网络公司工作，这家公司的部分股权由一家大型机构所有。它看起来比较像一般意义上的公司了，因为我的工资单是由一个庞大的中央财务部门发的。但我们仍然是一个小团队，办公室的氛围一派轻松，有（非常老套的）豆袋椅和乒乓球桌。
我从来没有正式申请在那里工作，据我所知，他们当时也没有在招聘。我只是给首席执行官写了封信，说我喜欢他们在业内的兴风作浪，希望与他们一道谱写成功。
简单通了电话后，我和该公司的创始人们进行了一场轻松的面谈，然后他们就雇了我。我没有发过正式的简历，只是罗列了一堆网络链接，从中可以了解我擅长干些什么。
四轮小组面试和自我展示这种事情现在在我看来不仅毫无意义，也很可怕。我从来没有被哪个小组问过这种无聊的问题：“假设你是一辆车，你希望是什么车？”
除了睡觉以外（我睡得不多），我把所有时间都用来在网上建设人际网，为此有些公司还邀请我以近乎天天上班的方式工作。
例如，我为MSN撰写博客，这工作是通过Twitter得到的。上月伦敦时装周期间，我是沃达丰(Vodafone)的官方博主，同样是通过Twitter得到的工作。如今，我的梦想成真了，我创办了自己的企业。
今后会有什么因素让我离开网络创业界、转而在传统公司界找一份稳定的工作吗？我有家人在金融城工作，试图引诱我加入，可是当自己老板的感觉比那要好的多。
我无法想象在大公司里当一名普通职员的生活。我已经习惯能够说“那是我做的！”；习惯看到自己的工作让整个公司变得更美好；习惯受到首席执行官、而非中层管理人员的称赞。（老实说，我其实不懂什么是中层管理人员。根据道听途说得到来的印象，他们似乎是一帮讨厌的家伙。）
我或许没有养老金计划，但如今看来这也不是什么了不得的损失。我没有医疗保险，也没法儿去吃食堂，但我在家工作，去看社区医生方便得很，也可以在下午随便哪个时候煎一大块火腿。我没有公司给配的车，不过没关系，反正我有车。
我每天工作很长时间，可能比在银行上班的时间还要长得多。上午11点之前，我可能不会坐到办公桌前，但凌晨2点我可能还在工作。
只要干的是让自己充满激情的工作，熬夜并非难事，但假如背后有个老板盯着我，那我可做不来。
对于在大公司工作，我所担心的是团队精神的缺失，各部门和各团队都自扫门前雪：“这不是我们的错，找营销部门说去”或者“那不在我们的预算中，不是我们的问题”。
在大公司上班的人知道别的楼层的同事都在做些什么吗？就算是隔着几张桌子的同事，他也未必知道人家在做什么。为了能够顺利地合作，人们需要时间和空间来相互了解和交往。
我觉得反馈也极为重要，另外必须让人有机会去探索新的工作方式。
我认为，企业可以采取很多方法来吸引更多“人才”，这些方法并不难，但归根结底就是要提供更多灵活性。
如果我在家能干好工作，为什么不让我在家工作？如果我在工作中不需要面对客户，为什么我不能穿着牛仔裤？如果我中午之前就是起不了床，上午就是干不了任何正经事，为什么我不能灵活安排工作时间？
写这篇稿子时，我正穿着睡衣。假如去大公司工作的话，我想我就没法儿这么说了。
译者/杨远
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035134
My first job was as a waitress. I was 12 so I won’t say where it was, as in hindsight, it must have been illegal. But it was a weekend job that progressed to full time and it ingrained a pretty good work ethic in me from an early age.
My first “proper” job that came with a nice salary and a shiny Apple MacBook was one I took in the City of London. It wasn’t a “City” job, though: it was geeky web work that happened to be based in the old Bank of America building on Alie Street.
It was an odd place for a web start-up to call home – our tiny team always stood out in the queue at Pret A Manger. I would look at the suits around me and could see them trying to figure out what work I could possibly be doing in my hoodie and ripped jeans.
But I liked the fact that I had left my uniform days behind me after secondary school, and didn’t want to slip into another uniform of tailored dresses and killer heels.
I had studied economics at University College, London, so my former classmates soon began working in the real City offices around me. They had devoted every spare moment of their final year at university to applying for graduate jobs in the financial sector.
I sort of envied them at the time. Although I knew that I didn’t want to work for a big financial institution, I did want to be wanted by them – I wanted to be offered a great job and then tell them to shove it.
Classmates could never give me a convincing answer as to why they wanted to go into finance. I think the problem for most of them was that they had never worked before, so they had no idea what they might like or not like, whereas I had been working in start-ups from 18 and had fallen in love with the notion of making a big difference in a small team.
When I said I wanted to do a job that I enjoyed – which should involve a lot of Facebook and Twitter – it was met with raucous laughter. My peers concluded I was taking a huge gamble and throwing away a golden opportunity to get on to a grad scheme and work my way up the career ladder.
The time that those grad schemes were supposed to start concided with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. Friends looking forward to a guaranteed career path suddenly found themselves with nothing.
All this confirmed to me that nothing is risk-free: who can really say their job is safe?
I eventually worked for a web start-up that was part-owned by a big organisation. It seemed a little more corporate as my payslips now came from a large central finance department, but it was still a small team in a relaxed office with (fabulously clichéd) bean bags and ping pong table.
I never formally applied for a job there. As far as I knew they weren’t even hiring. I just wrote to the chief executive and said I liked how they were disrupting the industry and that I wanted to be a part of their success.
A short phone call was followed by a relaxed meeting with the co-founders and I was hired. I never sent a formal CV – just a list of web links that showed what I was good at.
The idea of four rounds of panel interviews and presentations now seems like nonsense to me – and terrifying. I’ve never been quizzed by a panel with questions that make no sense: “If you were a car, what car would you be?”
I have, instead, invested every waking hour (and I don’t sleep much) in building a network online, so much so that I now get approached with offers of work on an almost daily basis.
I blog for MSN for example, a job that came about via Twitter. Last month I was Vodafone’s official blogger at London Fashion Week, again a job that came via Twitter. And I am now working on my own start-up – a dream come true.
Is there anything that would make me leave the world of online entrepreneurship and take a steady job in the corporate world? I have family working in the City who try to tempt me but I’m far too happy being my own boss.
I can’t imagine being a number in a huge corporation now. I’m used to being able to say “I did that!”; to seeing how my work contributes to the overall good of the company; and to being praised, not by middle management, but by the chief executive. (To be honest, I don’t really know what middle management is – I just get the impression from what I hear that they’re an annoying bunch.)
I may not have a pension plan, but that doesn’t seem such a sacrifice any more. I don’t have health insurance or a canteen, but I work from home so I can see my village doctor easily or cook a massive fry-up in the middle of the afternoon if I fancy it. I don’t have a company car – but that’s fine, I have a car anyway.
I work a lot of hours, probably far more than if I had gone down the banking route. I might not sit at my desk till 11 in the morning but I’ll still be there at 2am the next day.
I find it easy to work late when it’s on something I’m passionate about: I couldn’t do it if I had a boss breathing down my neck.
My fear about working in bigger organisations is that team spirit is lost, replaced with departments and teams looking out for themselves: “That’s not our fault, speak to marketing” and “That’s not our budget, not our problem”.
Do people in large corporate environments understand what their colleagues on other floors do – or even those who sit a few desks away? People need time and space to get to know each other socially in order to work together well.
I also find feedback is crucial, as is being given the opportunity to explore new ways of doing things.
I think there are lots of simple things that corporates could do to attract more “talent”, but they mostly boil down to being more flexible.
If I can do a good job working from home, why shouldn’t I be allowed to work from home? If I’m not client facing, why can’t I wear jeans? If I am dead to the world until midday and do nothing of any value in the morning, why can’t I work flexible hours?
As I type this I’m in my pyjamas. I don’t think I could be saying that if I’d gone to work for Big Corporate plc.
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