作者簡介

本文譯者李舒心，2012級中山大學(xué)國際商學(xué)院學(xué)生。小時候的夢想是當(dāng)世界上最棒的畫家，沒想到現(xiàn)在居然在學(xué)會計，說不定老了以后還能開一家咖啡店？所以相信生活有無限種可能。對ACCA又愛又恨，總之把枯燥的知識變得有趣起來吧。

正 文

Thomas Jefferson once said that “honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom”. Though truth-telling abounds in grade school platitudes, it seems scarcer the older we get. But this decline in honesty — let’s call it dishonesty — isn’t necessarily innate. Dishonesty can be taught. In my experience, I’ve noticed that, of all culprits, college career centers are exceptional traffickers of such miseducation. In the process, they’re hurting their brightest students’ chances of making it in the world of startups by convincing them to give dishonest answers to tough interview questions.

美國總統(tǒng)托馬斯·杰斐遜有句名言：“誠實，是智慧之書的第一章。”在上小學(xué)的時候，我們總是被教導(dǎo)要誠實；然而，隨著我們逐漸長大，這似乎變得越來越困難。這種誠實的式微——姑且稱之為不誠實吧——并非與生俱來的，不誠實也可以是后天“學(xué)”來的。在我的經(jīng)歷中我注意到，大學(xué)里的就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心尤其是這種現(xiàn)象的誘因。這些中心讓學(xué)生在尖銳的面試問題中給出不誠實的回答，斷送了這些他們進(jìn)入創(chuàng)業(yè)公司的機(jī)會。

Full disclosure: I work at a startup, and it’s my job to quickly build a team of the right people. Throughout my earlier career in larger companies, honesty and being self-critical have always been obvious qualities to look for in candidates, but it wasn’t until I joined Medallia that I realized their special significance for startups. Brandon Ballinger’s now famous blog post about his experience with Y Combinator’s Paul Graham shows why. To cut a long story short, Graham told Ballinger (to his face) that his startup idea sucked — a tough-love approach Ballinger now extols. Why? Well, in a startup, it’s much more comfortable to be a “team player” than “the bad guy,” as Ballinger describes it. The real hard work in a startup, however, is being able to openly admit that the current strategy is just not working — no matter how uncomfortable it is, or how much has been invested in getting to that point.

說說我自己吧。我現(xiàn)在任職于一家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司。我的任務(wù)是正確并且快速地選擇人才，組建一個優(yōu)秀的團(tuán)隊。在我早期在一些大型公司的職業(yè)生涯中，誠實和自我批評的能力一直被視為求職者的必備素質(zhì)。但直到我加入Medallia[1]后，我才意識到這些素質(zhì)對于創(chuàng)業(yè)公司特別重要。Brandon Ballinger有篇著名博客文章，提到他自己和Y Combinator[2]公司Paul Graham的過往，正好說明了原因所在。長話短說，Graham曾直截了當(dāng)?shù)馗嬖VBallinger，說他的創(chuàng)業(yè)理念糟糕透了——而Ballinger現(xiàn)在卻特別推崇這種“嚴(yán)厲的愛”。為什么呢？Ballinger認(rèn)為，在一家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，當(dāng)一個“團(tuán)隊參與者”比當(dāng)一個“壞人”要簡單多了。對于一家創(chuàng)業(yè)公司，真正難的是坦承現(xiàn)在的戰(zhàn)略完全不起作用——不管這有多么難以開口，或者大家已經(jīng)投入了多少成本。

In other words: one of the biggest dangers for a young company is that a roomful of smart people who aren’t being honest could easily be steering their rocket ship into the ground.

換句話說：對于一家正在起步的公司，最大的危險之一是那些聰明卻不夠誠實的人，因為他們隨時可以將公司置于險境。

And yet college career centers continue to operate in a 20th century world in which top talent was funneled into careers in mature, staid organizations and industries. These are cultures where people are much more likely to divulge their net worth than a weakness. While a mature organization might have once been able to get by with a “don’t stick your neck out” culture, that attitude is simply lethal to startups.

然而，這些大學(xué)就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心的運作模式仍然停留在20世紀(jì)。那時，頂尖學(xué)生都被送進(jìn)了成熟刻板的組織或產(chǎn)業(yè)中。在那樣的組織文化下，人們更傾向于展現(xiàn)自己的價值而非缺點。一個成熟的組織或許可以將就“不要承擔(dān)太多風(fēng)險”這樣的文化，但這種文化對于創(chuàng)業(yè)型公司來說卻是致命的。
Nonetheless, the importance of this simple truth seems to still be elusive for the Office of Career Services at many of the nation’s top colleges and universities. Besides guidance on basic items like resumes, cover letters, how to dress, and how to eat, many of these schools are providing either no advice or bad advice on how to adequately answer important questions. Take a very common question that I always like to ask, for example:

What is your greatest weakness?

盡管如此，很多頂尖大學(xué)的就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心依舊沒有意識到說真話的重要性。雖然他們在基本事項例如簡歷、求職信、衣著、用餐禮儀上給予詳細(xì)指導(dǎo)，他們根本沒有告訴學(xué)生怎樣好好回答這些重要的問題。比如下面一個很常見的問題（也是我本人很喜歡問的問題）：

你最大的缺點是什么？

Even if you’ve only had just one professional interview in your life, then you’ve probably still been asked some version of this question. Do you remember how you answered? Did you say that you work too hard? That you have perfectionist tendencies? Or that you’re too passionate? Be honest.

就算你只經(jīng)歷過一場正式的面試，你也很可能被問到過類似的問題。你還記得你是怎么回答的嗎？你工作太過認(rèn)真？你自己有完美主義傾向？或者你太過熱情？誠實點吧。

The truth of that matter is that a quick search of career center websites indicates that students are being encouraged to apply this type of spin to their answers. Even for those that advocating for honesty, there’s often still the contradiction that one’s answers must always be positive. The result of which? Answers that focus on lesser skills (but still skills) rather than actual problems or challenges. One school goes as far as to call it an “angelic weakness.” And if you’re pressed to give a real answer about a flaw, nearly every career center in the universe has apparently decided that “public speaking” is an appropriate response.

快速瀏覽這些就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心的網(wǎng)站，我們發(fā)現(xiàn)學(xué)生們被鼓勵用類似的陳述去回答這些問題。就算是少數(shù)鼓勵學(xué)生要誠實的中心，也會自相矛盾地讓學(xué)生盡量從正面回答。結(jié)果呢？答案變成了不太熟練的技能（但到底也是技能）而非真實的問題和挑戰(zhàn)。一間學(xué)校給出的答案甚至可以稱之為“天使般純良”。萬一你被要求給出一個真正的缺點，幾乎每一個就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心都把“公共演講”當(dāng)作一個穩(wěn)妥的回答。

Others are more direct at giving the advice that everyone seems familiar with — to make weaknesses into strengths (and vice versa). Northwestern tells grad students, “Turn a negative into a positive.” Boston College advises students to “Turn your weakness into a positive (for example) ‘Because I tend to procrastinate, I have learned to work well under pressure in order to always get work done on time.'

還有一些中心直接給出了一些我們耳熟能詳?shù)慕ㄗh——把缺點變?yōu)閮?yōu)點（反之亦然）。西北大學(xué)告訴學(xué)生：“把消極的缺點變得積極”。波士頓學(xué)院也這樣建議學(xué)生：“把你的缺點變成優(yōu)點，例如‘我有拖延癥，因此我學(xué)會了如何在壓力之下按時且出色地完成工作。

This is terrible advice. Responses like these tell me little about how a candidate faces challenges and immediately implies a lack of sincerity. It doesn’t demonstrate to me how they think — beyond their ability to creatively avoid being honest or self-critical. It indicates to me that they’re not willing to stand up and say what’s not working — the opposite of what a startup needs. That’s why my recent interviews with college graduates have all started to follow the same pattern. I start with two sentences: “Forget what your career center has taught you about interviews. I want to have a real conversation with real answers, and I promise to do the same.”

The candidates take a minute to evaluate whether I’m somehow tricking them. If they lean into their discomfort and take me at my word, the level of conversation improves dramatically — we have a great time getting to know one another in an authentic way. I’m not really looking to find out whether their organizational skills could use improvement, or that they struggle with presenting to large groups or even leading large teams. I’m trying to find out whether they have self-awareness; whether they are able to be critical; and most importantly, whether they’re able to tell the truth — when it’s difficult.

不得不說，這樣的建議真是糟透了。這些回答根本沒有告訴我求職者是如何面對挑戰(zhàn)的。相反，它告訴我求職者缺乏真誠。它沒有告訴我他們是如何思考的，反而告訴我他們是如何自作聰明地回避這些問題。它告訴我他們并不愿意勇敢地指出問題所在——而這恰恰是創(chuàng)業(yè)公司最不想看到的局面。這就是為什么我最近的面試都采取了相同的模式：我會在最開始的時候告訴他們：“忘了那些就業(yè)指導(dǎo)中心給過的指導(dǎo)吧。我想要的是真誠的回答，我保證我也會同樣真誠。”這些面試者往往要花一分鐘的時間來判斷我是不是在逗他們。如果他們相信我，并且說出他們的不安，對話的質(zhì)量就會有顯著提升——因為雙方都非常享受這個了解真實對方的過程。

其實，我并不是真想知道他們的組織能力是否有待提高，或者他們正努力向大公司展現(xiàn)自己甚至領(lǐng)導(dǎo)大規(guī)模的團(tuán)隊。我的真正目的是考查他們是否有了解自己；他們是否敢于批評；最重要的是，他們是否能夠說出真話——尤其當(dāng)這很困難的時候。

For those candidates who don’t buy in, however, I spend the majority of the interview trying to pry off their layers of canned responses. I leave the interview wondering: Who are you? And what’s worse — I’ll never know. Because they’ll never get the job.

但是，對于那些不相信我的面試者，我卻要花大部分時間撬開他的層層偽裝。在結(jié)束面試的時候我會想：你到底是誰？不過我恐怕永遠(yuǎn)不會知道。因為他們永遠(yuǎn)不可能拿下這份工作。

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