什么样的大学毕业生最好找工作？

SHORTCUTS
What It Takes to Make New College Graduates Employable
By ALINA TUGEND July 11, 2013
职场
什么样的大学毕业生最好找工作？
ALINA TUGEND 2013年07月11日
MY older son graduated from high school last week and has started a pleasant job as a summer lifeguard. In four years we expect to attend his college graduation, and we hope the time there leaves him with great experiences, a love of learning and some idea how to get and keep a job.
我家大儿子上周中学毕业，暑期开始做救生员这份美差。四年后，我们应当会去参加他的大学毕业典礼。希望届时大学毕业的他已经有所历练，养成好学之心，并对如何成功获得并保住一份工作有了些自己的见解。
It’s that last part of the equation that I’m going to focus on. My heart sinks every time I read a news story or opinion piece quoting employers who charge that four-year colleges and universities are failing to provide graduates with the skills they need to become and remain employable.
最后一点正是本文要重点谈到的。每当读到新闻报道或评论，引用雇主的话指责本科四年没能给毕业生传授就业与保住工作的各项技能时，我的心总会随之一沉。
Of course, in many ways, this isn’t a new story.
当然，从多方面来看，这已不再是什么新鲜事儿。
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Mel Evans/Associated Press
上个月，罗格斯大学的硕士毕业生杰弗里·卡纳斯(Jefferey Canas)高举“雇用我”的标语，表达他的愿望。
“A four-year liberal arts education doesn’t prepare kids for work and it never has,” said Alec R. Levenson a senior research scientist for the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California.
“四年制人文教育不是为孩子们就业提供准备的，从来就不是如此，”南加州大学(University of Southern California)高效组织中心(Center for Effective Organizations)高级研究员亚历克·R·利文森(Alec R. Levenson)说。
Mara Swan, the executive vice president of global strategy and talent at Manpower Group, agreed.
万宝盛华(Manpower Group)负责全球战略与人才事务的执行副总裁马拉·斯旺(Mara Swan)对上述意见表示认同。
“There’s always been a gap between what colleges produce and what employers want,” she said. “But now it’s widening.” That’s because workplaces are more complex and globalized, profit margins are slimmer, companies are leaner and managers expect their workers to get up to speed much faster than in the past.
“大学传授的知识与技能和雇主需要的一直有差距，”她说，“不过现在这个差距正在拉大。”那是因为如今的职场更趋复杂和全球化，利润率越来越低，公司越来越精简，管理者都希望员工们能够快点上手。
“Employers are under pressure to do more with less,” Ms. Swan said.
“雇主们都不得不花小钱办大事，”斯旺女士说。
Unemployment rates for those with bachelor’s degrees or higher are still much better — at 3.8 percent in May — than those with only a high school diploma, which was 7.4 percent in May, according to the [要查看本链接请先注册并登录]
美国劳工统计局(U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)的[要查看本链接请先注册并登录]，相比仅取得中学文凭的人群（五月份失业率为7.4%）来说，拥有学士或更高学位的人群（五月份失业率为3.8%）失业率一直低得多。
Nonetheless, a special report by The [要查看本链接请先注册并登录] and American Public Media’s Marketplace published in March found that about half of 704 employers who participated in the study said they had trouble finding recent college graduates qualified to fill positions at their company.
然而，[要查看本链接请先注册并登录](The Chronicle of Higher Education)和美国公共媒体(American Public Media)旗下《市场报道》(Marketplace)栏目在三月份发布的一份特别报道显示，参与该研究的704家雇主中约半数称，它们很难物色到符合公司空缺职位要求的应届大学毕业生。
But, surprisingly, it wasn’t necessarily specific technical skills that were lacking.
不过，令人意外的是，这不见得就是大学毕业生缺乏具体技术技能。
“When it comes to the skills most needed by employers, job candidates are lacking most in written and oral communication skills, adaptability and managing multiple priorities, and *** decisions and problem solving,” the report said.
“在雇主亟需的技能方面，求职者最欠缺的是书面及口头沟通技能、适应能力及同时处理多个紧急任务能力，以及决策及解决问题的能力，”报道称。
Jaime S. Fall, a vice president at the [要查看本链接请先注册并登录], an organization of chief human resources managers from large employers, said these findings backed up what his organization was hearing over and over from employers.
[要查看本链接请先注册并登录](HR Policy Association)副会长杰米·S·佛尔(Jaime S. Fall)指出，这些调查结果与该组织从雇主处反复了解到的意见不谋而合。该协会是由美国大型雇主首席人力资源经理组成的一家机构。
Young employees “are very good at finding information, but not as good at putting that information into context,” Mr. Fall said. “They’re really good at technology, but not at how to take those skills and resolve specific business problems.”
年轻员工“很善于查找信息，不过却不大会把找到的信息放到所处背景下去考量，”佛尔先生说道，“他们在技术上很在行，不过又不大会发挥这些技能去化解具体业务难题。”
This isn’t a dilemma just in this country, but around the world, Ms. Swan said. A global study conducted last year of interviews with 25,000 employers found that nine out of 10 employees believed that colleges were not fully preparing students for the workplace.
斯旺女士说，不仅是美国，在全世界都存在这种两难问题。去年约访了2.5万家雇主的一项全球研究显示，90%的雇主认为大学没有为学生将来进入职场开展全面的指导。
“There were the same problems,” she said. “Problems with collaboration, interpersonal skills, the ability to deal with ambiguity, flexibility and professionalism.”
“毕业生面临的是同样的问题，”她说，“协作问题、人际交往技巧、处理不确定性的能力、适应力及专业精神。”
But it’s easy for the issue to degenerate into finger-pointing.
但是，这容易使问题演变成相互指责。
“If you sat down with a committee of professors, and told them students are not coming out with the skills they need, they would say, ‘you’re smoking something,’ ” Mr. Levenson said. “The trouble is, those skills are applied in a college context, not a workplace context.”
“如果你坐下来与一些教授讨论，然后告诉他们学生没学到企业需要的技能，那他们可能会说：‘你满嘴胡话，’”利文森这样说道。“问题在于，那些技能在大学里派得上用场，在工作场所则不然。”
But, he added, “you can’t create a school-based curriculum that can help someone transition to being highly productive on the job in 10 days.”
不过，他补充道，“你无法设置一门能够帮助毕业生在10天内就成为高产员工的学校培训课程。”
In other words, the onus shouldn’t just be on universities; employers also need to step up to the plate.
换言之，这种义务不应当仅仅由大学来履行；雇主同样也需要行动起来。
The in-depth training programs and apprenticeships of the past are unlikely to come back, so companies must become more innovative in helping young employees come up to speed, according to [要查看本链接请先注册并登录], a management consulting and outsourcing company.
管理咨询及外包公司埃森哲(Accenture)[要查看本链接请先注册并登录]称，以往的深度培训课程和学徒制不大可能复辟，因此企业必须勇于创新，帮助年轻员工快速上手。
“Rather than simply bemoaning the inability to find employees with the skills required for available jobs, organizations must step up with new and more comprehensive enterprise learning strategies,” Accenture stated in a summary of The Accenture 2013 College Graduate Employment Survey, which queried 1,010 students graduating from college in 2013 and 1,005 who graduated in 2011 and 2012.
“企业与其为无法物色到有必备技能的员工而怨声载道，不如进行自我提升，制定新的更全面的企业学习策略，”埃森哲公司在《埃森哲2013届大学毕业生就业调查》(The Accenture 2013 College Graduate Employment Survey)的摘要中这样指出。该调查询问对象为1010名2013届大学毕业生及2011届和2012届这两届共1005名的往届毕业生。
The problem, it said, is that most recent college graduates expect employers to provide on-the-ground training, but most of them don’t actually receive it.
该调查称，问题在于，大多数大学毕业生期许雇主会给他们提供就职培训，不过其中多数人压根就没接受过培训。
“Based on these findings, as well as our own work with hundreds of companies around the world, it is hard to deny the conclusion that many employers have overblown expectations for the skills of new hires — believing falsely that recent college graduates should be able to hit the ground running,” the summary added.
“根据这些调查，以及我们与全球数百家公司所开展的合作显示，许多雇主对新员工技能的预期过高，误认为目前的大学毕业生能够旗开得胜，”该摘要还称。
Katherine LaVelle, who leads Accenture’s Talent and Organization group for North America, said the employers they talked to seemed more concerned about the lack of specific technical skills than broad ones like communication. But the overall issue of preparedness remains the same.
埃森哲公司北美区人才及组织小组(Talent and Organization group for North America)的负责人凯瑟琳·拉维丽叶(Katherine LaVelle)表示，相对沟通这类宽泛的能力来说，受访雇主似乎更关心毕业生有无具体技术技能。不过，就业前准备这一整体问题还是没变。
“Universities are not in the job of vocational training but they are in the job of evolving,” Ms. LaVelle said. “The magic lies in finding a model that’s appropriate for students to build skills, but palatable and effective for employers as well.”
“大学的使命不在于做职业培训，而在于不断自我进步，”拉维丽叶女士指出，“关键是寻找一个既适合学生培养技能，又遂雇主心愿而且有效的模式。”
It would seem that the job internships that college students, and increasingly post-college students, participate in would help prepare students for the working world, but experts say most are too short and not substantial enough. Longer, more in-depth ones at prominent companies are highly competitive.
看起来，在校大学生以及越来越多的大学毕业生参加实习，这可能会帮助他们为正式进入职场热身，不过专家认为，大多数实习时间太短，实习内容还远不够充实。一些知名公司提供的为期更长、内容更深入的实习机会很抢手。
“They’re incredibly helpful, but they’re not a cure-all,” Mr. Fall said.
“它们特别有用，但也不是什么万灵药，”佛尔指出。
There is clearly no one answer, but the most important issue is communication between all sides, said Karin Fischer, a staff writer for The Chronicle of Higher Education, who helped write up the survey results.
参与调查报告撰写的《高等教育纪事报》记者卡琳·费舍尔(Karin Fischer)说，这显然没有一刀切的答案，不过最重要的问题还是各方之间的沟通。
“To what extent are employers and colleges having a conversation about what they really need?” she asked. “We see this more in the community college arena. Maybe we need more back and forth.”
“雇主和大学就真正需要怎样的人才所进行的沟通程度如何呢？”她这样问道。“在社区大学，我们发现这方面问题更突出。也许我们需要进行更透彻的沟通。”
It’s not that colleges and companies haven’t been trying to figure this out — and with varying success. In 2008, the Boeing Company ranked colleges based on how well their graduates performed within the corporation. The results weren’t made public, but Boeing did share them with colleges.
并不是大学和企业没有努力解决这一问题，事实上它们已经取得了不同程度的成功。2008年，波音公司(Boeing Company)根据公司内部毕业生的表现对各所大学进行了评级。虽然评级结果没有公开，但是波音公司确实向相关大学提供了评级信息。
Richard Stephens, a former senior vice present of human resources and management at Boeing, told The Chronicle that some colleges took the findings seriously and worked with the company to refine their curriculums, while others dismissed them.
波音公司前人力资源及管理高级副总裁理查德·斯蒂芬(Richard Stephens)向《高等教育纪事报》表示，一些大学认真对待调查结果，并同企业一道改善学校课程，而另外一些大学并不把这当回事。
Boeing used that information to determine where the aerospace company focused its internship programs and hiring.
波音公司利用了这些信息来确定该公司招募实习生和正式员工的重点目标大学。
But a spokesman for Boeing said there were no plans for another such evaluation, saying it was “difficult to measure individuals in such a big company and difficult to implement over the long term.”
不过，波音公司发言人表示，目前公司并没有计划开展新的评估，理由是“很难在波音这么大的公司内部去衡量个人表现，也难以长期落实”。
One way the industry is reaching out directly to new entrants in the work force is through a Web site, Jobipedia.org, started by the HR Policy Association. An employee posts a question and recruiters for the companies that participate answer it. One question may elicit several answers from different perspectives.
目前业界直接接触职场新人的方式之一就是通过由人力资源政策协会创办的Jobipedia.org网站牵线搭桥。应聘人员先贴出问题，然后由参与其中的公司所聘用的猎头回答。一个问题可能会引出多个不同视角的答案。
About 20 major companies — such as Gap, Merck and American Express — participated. And some 50 colleges, including Cornell, Duke University and Georgia Institute of Technology, have made the Web site available to students at their college career centers.
大约有20家大企业参与其中，比如盖普公司(Gap)、默克公司(Merck)和美国运通(American Express)。而且，大约有包括康奈尔大学(Cornell)、杜克大学(Duke University)及乔治亚理工学院(Georgia Institute of Technology)在内的50所大学已经在各自大学职业中心提供了这家网站的链接。
The questions range from career planning to interview issues to on the job concerns. For example, “Is it O.K. to have a drink at a business lunch?” elicited four responses. The consensus: Best to avoid it.
一些问题涵盖职业规划、面试问题及具体工作问题。比如说，“工作午餐时能喝酒吗？”这个问题引出四条回复。一致意见是：最好别碰。
As Mr. Fall said, “colleges can’t be either/or anymore — a trade school or a liberal arts college. We need skilled people with well-rounded backgrounds and the ability to think constructively.”
正如佛尔所说的那样：“大学不能只有单一功能——仅仅是职业学校，或仅仅是人文学院，这都不对。我们需要有综合背景和建设性思考能力的高技能人才。”
You hear that, son?
儿子，你听明白了吗？