招聘廣告背後的小祕密

Read enough help-wanted advertisements, and you'll soon realize that they all basically sound the same. Jargon like "detail-oriented" and "self-starter" is so overused that the positions advertised begin to sound unremarkable: part of the expected landscape of hunting for a job.
招聘廣告看多了，很快就會發現它們聽上去都差不多。“注重細節”、“有主動性”等字眼泛濫成災，招聘職位看上去千篇一律，這種情況已經成爲找工作時常見的現象。

But if you stop and think about what all of these buzzwords are signaling, you'll realize how much information you just might miss if you fail to read between the lines. First of all, when employers fall back on the same old jargon to advertise positions, it could very well be that they actually have no idea what they are looking for. They just know they have a spot to fill.
但如果你能停下來，想想這些招聘的熱門字眼究竟意味着什麼，就會發現字裏行間隱藏着大量有用的信息，一不留神就會漏掉。首先，如果公司在招聘廣告中採用這些套話，很可能是因爲他們對於所要招的職位全無概念，只知道有一個空缺需要填補。

"Jargon is our way to grow lazier decision making in corporate cultures," says Kevin Fleming, owner of Grey Matters, a neuroscience-based executive development and coaching firm based in Jackson Hole and Tulsa. "We use these words to cover up something. It could also be a way to hide some ambivalence."
“套話助長了企業文化中決策領域的懶惰，”高管發展和培訓公司Grey Matters的所有人凱文·弗萊明說。“我們使用這些辭令來掩飾一些東西。它也可以掩蓋矛盾的心態。”弗萊明的業務建立在神經科學的基礎上，公司在懷俄明州傑克森霍爾和俄克拉荷馬州塔爾薩都設有辦事處。

For instance, an employer may ask for two qualities that seem to conflict — such as "entrepreneurial" and "team player" — because the hiring manager and the human resources director have different ideas about what the position requires. Or, the employer may simply have unrealistic expectations of all the qualities that a single individual could possess.
比方說，一家招聘公司可能要求應聘者同時具備兩項看起來相互牴觸的品質，如“創業精神”和“團隊合作精神”，原因是招聘經理和人力資源總監對這個職位的要求有不同的想法。或者，招聘公司就是存在不切實際的預期，期望一個人能擁有所有的優秀品質。

"The hiring managers are thinking about the ideal person. 'If I could get everything I wanted on my Christmas wish list, what would I put on that list?'" says Kathryn Ullrich, a recruiter based in Silicon Valley and author of Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success. "They'll take the best attributes of the five best people they have."
“招聘經理們想找的是理想人選，‘如果一個人的聖誕節心願全部都能兌現，他會在清單上面寫下什麼心願呢？’”《職場登頂戰略》（Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success）一書的作者、硅谷招聘人凱瑟琳·烏爾裏克稱。“他們會列出現有的五個最優秀員工的傑出品質。”

Or perhaps, confusing jargon suggests that the company has an ill-defined mission or strategy. "Most people have no idea what the development plans really are; they don't know where they're going," says Fleming.
又或者，令人困惑的套話說明這家公司的定位或策略不清晰。弗萊明說：“大多數人對於發展計劃並無概念；他們也不知道前進的方向在哪。”。

With that in mind, we've asked Fleming, Ullrich and other career experts to help us decode the most commonly used jargon in job ads, often the same buzzwords that fill up resumes.
鑑於此，我們特地請來弗萊明、烏爾裏克和其他職業諮詢專家幫助我們解讀這些招聘廣告中的常用詞，同時也是充斥着求職者簡歷的熱門字眼。

Detail-oriented. "Watch out for control freaks," Fleming warns. Unless the position involves detail at its core — like a forensic accountant or administrative assistant — this phrase hints that your every move will be scrutinized and second-guessed.
注重細節。“當心控制狂，”弗萊明警告說。除非招聘職位的核心工作與細節相關——如法務會計或行政助理——否則，這個字眼可能意味着你的一舉一動都將受到嚴密的監控和反覆的揣測。

Team player. It may sound innocuous, but be wary that this innocuous phrase really means that you'll take whatever the bosses dish out, "for the team." "Team player is code phrase for someone who will allow us to do whatever we want to you," Fleming explains.
具有團隊精神。這聽上去可能沒什麼，但要小心它的真正含義是你將承擔老闆“以團隊名義”分派的任何工作。“具有團隊精神，就是你要完完全全服從我們的安排，”弗萊明解釋説。

Fast-paced work environment. This means that the employer wants high productivity at all costs and you'll be fielding a steady flow of emergencies. "Fast paced means you're going to work more hours than we're paying you," interprets Ullrich. Some industries, such as journalism or communications, are truly fast paced, but you should already know that going into those fields. "Fast-paced work environment means it's a little bit of a crazy office," says Kate Giannini, senior recruitment manager at Edelman Public Relations in San Francisco.
快節奏的工作環境，意味着招聘公司希望不惜代價獲得高生產率，員工會不斷地遇到緊急狀況需要處理。“快節奏意味着你工作的時間將超過我們支付給你的薪水，”烏爾裏克這樣解讀。如記者或傳媒等行業節奏非常快，進入這些行業之前就應當瞭解這一點。“快節奏工作環境意味着辦公室有點瘋狂，”愛德曼公關（Edelman Public Relations）駐舊金山的高級招聘經理凱特·吉安尼尼說。Multitask. Neuroscience tells us it's actually impossible for the human brain to multitask successfully. By trying simultaneously to complete different tasks, we reduce our performance and effectiveness at each individual job. "Multitasking is an utter violation of reality. What they're trying to say is, 'We may switch up your job description without telling you and we want you to be okay with it,' " Fleming says. You'll need to be able to quickly prioritize initiatives and figure out which competing task is the most important, Ullrich says.
多任務處理。神經科學告訴我們，人類大腦實際上並不能成功地同時處理多項任務。嘗試同步完成不同的任務，每項工作的表現和效率都會降低。弗萊明說：“多任務處理完全違背現實。他們想說的是‘我們可能在事先不告知你的情況下調整你的工作職責，我們希望你對此沒有意見。’”烏爾裏克表示，員工可能需要能很快判斷各項任務的輕重緩急，確定哪一項任務是最重要的。

Self-starter. "It's saying, 'When we don't give you any sense of direction, we want you to pull it out of thin air,'" interprets Fleming. "Self starter is a code phrase for, 'Can you make ambivalence and lack of direction work?' "
積極主動。“它的意思是，‘當我們沒有給你任何方向的時候，我們希望你能從無形中找到方向’，”弗萊明如此解釋說。“主動性意味着‘你能否承擔模糊且缺乏方向性的工作？’”

Results-oriented or self-motivated. "What this really means is that they want someone with incredible drive, often used to opaquely reference sales positions where you will have to work to make commission," says Shawn O'Connor, founder and chief executive officer of Stratus Careers, a career counseling and training firm based in New York.
注重結果以及自我激勵。“它真正的意思是他們想找的人應具有驚人的動力，通常暗指那些有提成的銷售崗位，”紐約職業諮詢和培訓公司Stratus Careers的創始人兼首席執行官肖恩·奧康納說。

Early-stage or venture-backed. While these phrases legitimately describe startups backed by venture capitalists, it's important to understand the subtext. "There aren't a lot of resources; you may not get paid a lot; and we hope you're going to work for that Holy Grail of going public or some successful exit," Ullrich translates.
初創階段或風投支持，這類詞彙用來描述已經獲得風投資本家支持的初創公司當然合情合理，但搞清楚它們背後的潛臺詞很重要。烏爾裏克解釋道：它們的意思是，“這裏沒有多少資源；你可能掙不了太多錢；我們希望你能爲公司上市或投資者的成功退出而努力工作。”。

Experience in an entrepreneurial setting. Similarly, any job ad that describes an "entrepreneurial position" will demand a willingness to do whatever task needs to be done from the person who takes the gig. "This job is definitely not the right fit for someone who wants clearly delineated responsibilities or doesn't want to have to take out his own trash from his desk," says O'Connor.
有創業經驗。同樣地，任何描述爲“創業職位”的招聘廣告都要求求職者必須樂於接受老闆指派的任何任務。奧康納表示：“這項工作肯定不適合那些希望明確劃分職責的人，也不適合那些連自己辦公桌都不願清理的人。”

Creativity for "out of the box" solutions. If you relish charting your own course, respond to the job ads that reference creativity, problem solving and "out of the box" thinking. "That's jargon for: we don't have it figured out yet," Ullrich says.
擁有“打破常規”解決問題的創造力。如果你喜歡開拓創新，可以試着回覆一下那些提到“創造力”、 “解決問題的能力”和“打破常規”思維方式的招聘廣告。“這句套話的意思是我們自己都還沒有想明白，”烏爾裏克說。

To be sure, any one of these phrases might appear in an ad for a position that you'd happily fill. But when you understand the hidden meaning, you'll be in a better position to decide whether the tradeoffs that come with this job make sense for you. And don't expect the jargon to disappear from help wanted ads any time soon.
當然，這些套話也有可能會出現在你心儀的招聘廣告中。明白了它們的潛臺詞就能更好地判斷這項工作是否適合你。而且，不要指望招聘廣告中的套話會很快消失。

"Job ads are full of jargon for the same reason sugar is part of good fattening food: it feels good," Fleming says. "There's a little bit of a high when you say the job you're looking for has impact and has a bandwidth that's powerful."
“招聘廣告滿是套話，就跟發胖食品中加糖是一個道理，因爲它會讓人感覺良好，”弗萊明說。“招聘廣告中說這份工作舉足輕重、責任重大，多少會讓人有些飄飄然。