经济学人下载:自助,我的远大前程

Self-help 自助

My big fat career 我的远大前程

How individuals can survive in the new world of work
新职业世界生存法则

Sep 10th 2011 | from the print edition

“I REWROTE MY entire book after my experience of Spain and seeing what is happening in America, to recast it in terms of survival job-hunting,” says Richard Bolles. His book, “What Colour is Your Parachute?”, was first published in 1970 as a guide to finding a fulfilling job and has sold millions of copies. When Mr Bolles went to Spain in March to give advice on dealing with its indignant army of unemployed, he found that nobody had much idea how to get people back to work.

“由于西班牙的经历和当今美国的见闻，我重写了整本书，并用生存性求职的观点重塑了这本书，”理查德.鲍尔斯如是说。他的书《你的降落伞是什么颜色？》作为一本求职指南首次发表于1970年并获得了几百万的销量。今年三月他去西班牙为怨气冲天的失业人群提供指导时，才发现大家对如何帮助失业者重返工作岗位一无所知。

Even in tough times there are jobs to be had, but applicants have to work far harder to get an employer’s attention, says Mr Bolles. The main thing is to give them hope and teach them the latest techniques for looking for work, of which he lists no fewer than 18. They need to market themselves better and consider a broader range of employers than they might have thought of. Not least, they must “clean up their act on the internet”. Facebook is now routinely scrutinised by human-resources departments, which will be instantly put off if they find anything negative or embarrassing.

鲍尔斯提到，即使在很糟的情况下仍然会有工作可做，但此时应聘者需要付出很多努力才能获得雇主的青睐。关键是要给求职者以信心，并且教给他们最新的求职技巧，鲍尔斯列出了不超过18条这样的技巧。求职者需要更好地推销自己且应该扩大原来设想的求职范围；尤为重要的是，他们应该清理其在网络上的痕迹，现在公司的人力部门经常定期检查Facebook，一旦发现任何负面或者不妥的迹象，求职就会被耽搁。

Better the devil you know
恶魔之上

The good thing about the internet is that it offers a vast amount of information to jobhunters, especially once they have secured an interview. Glassdoor.com, a website launched in 2008 that now covers more than 120,000 companies worldwide, lets employees (anonymously) share information about firms, ranging from what people think about the boss to salary levels and details about the interview process. Last year’s annual Glassdoor list of oddball interview questions was topped by Goldman Sachs, which asked a candidate for an analyst’s job, “If you were shrunk to the size of a pencil and put in a blender, how would you get out?” One Glassdoor contributor’s suggested answer was, “Ask the government to bail me out,” which would probably not have secured the job.

网络很好的一点就是它为求职者提供了海量的讯息，这一优点在获得面试后尤其明显。网站Glassdoor.com成立于2008年，现在覆盖了全球120,000家公司，雇员们可以在这个网站上匿名分享关于公司的信息，从对老板的看法、薪资水平到面试细节都有。去年高盛位列该网站的年度怪问题清单之首，高盛问一个求职分析员的人“如果你被缩到铅笔那么小并被放进了一个搅拌机，该怎么逃出来？”，网站上有人给出的参考答案是“让政府救援我”，当然这个答案不一定能保证你获得这份工作。