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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Big Blunders Job Hunters Make
Daphne Batts sometimes wonders if practical jokers with hidden cameras are spying on her as she interviews people for jobs at Bankrate Inc., an online publisher of financial information in North Palm Beach, Fla.
达芙妮?贝茨(Daphne Batts)有时会想,当她在Bankrate Inc.面试求职者的时候,会不会有喜欢恶作剧的人用暗藏的照相机偷拍她的一举一动呢?Bankrate Inc.是佛罗里达州北帕姆比奇(North Palm Beach)的一家网上金融信息发布公司。
That's because job candidates-including experienced professionals-behave so inappropriately that Ms. Batts, vice1 president of human resources, suspects she's the target of a prank2.
这是因为求职者们,包括经验丰富的专业人士在内,举止都很不得体,以至于人力资源副总裁贝茨怀疑她成了被恶搞的对象。
带孩子或任何亲属去参加求职面试都是很大的失礼。
'I find myself peering out my blinds to see if Ashton Kutcher is on my office balcony with a camera crew,' she says, referring to the host of the former MTV show 'Punk'd,' which featured pranks3 being played on celebrities4.
“我会盯着百叶窗外,看看阿什顿?库切尔(Ashton Kutcher)和他的摄制组有没有出现在我的办公室阳台上。”她说。库切尔是以前MTV电视台整人节目Punk'd的主持人,捉弄的对象都是大明星。
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Of course, there's nothing funny about a bad job interview, especially for the long-term unemployed5. Yet hiring managers say many job hunters don't take their search efforts seriously enough and make the kind of mistakes that they should know better to avoid. In fact, many say they are frequently amazed by some of the colossal6 blunders they witness at a time when there are five job seekers for every job opening, according to the Labor7 Department.
当然,一场不理想的面试无论如何也算不上是什么有趣的事,对长期失业的人来说更是如此。但是,招聘经理说,很多求职者并没有足够严肃地对待他们的求职,犯下了那些他们本应避免的错误。实际上,很多招聘经理说,他们在面试的时候经常会因为一些严重的错误感到吃惊。而眼下,根据劳工部(Labor Department)的统计,每出现一个职位空缺,就会有五名求职者前来应聘。
Here's a look at eight bone-headed moves job hunters commonly make.
让我们来看一看求职者通常会犯的一些低级错误
1. 特权综合症
At the conclusion of a job interview last year, a candidate for an administrative9 position at PopCap Games Inc. in Seattle asked human-resources executive Pamela J. Sampel if she could take him out to lunch on the company's dime10. 'He said he was a poor student and that I could just write it off,' says Ms. Sampel, adding that for a moment she thought he was joking but his demeanor11 indicated otherwise. 'I was so startled I almost started laughing.'
去年,就在一场面试将要结束的时候,一位应聘PopCap Games Inc.行政职位的求职者向人力资源主管帕梅拉?山姆普尔(Pamela J. Sampel)问道,能否由公司出钱请他出去吃午饭。“他说他是一个穷学生,而这笔餐费对我来说不算什么,”山姆普尔说。她说,她还以为这个应聘者是在开玩笑,但是他的神情证明他是认真的。“我吃惊得差点都要笑起来了”。
Also last year, Ms. Sampel says she received an unsolicited résumé full of grammatical and spelling errors with a note asking her to have someone on the company's staff correct them. 'I'm sure you have people there that could fix them before they put it into your online database on my behalf,' the applicant12 wrote, according to Ms. Sampel.
同样也是在去年,山姆普尔说,她收到了一份求职者主动提供的简历,上面满是语法和拼写错误。随简历还附有一张便条,请她让公司的员工纠正简历中的错误。山姆普尔说,”这位求职者如此写道,“我相信在以我的名义把它存入你们的在线数据库之前,你们公司可以找到能够纠正其中错误的人。
2. Behaving rudely.
2. 举止粗鲁
Earlier this year, a candidate for an administrative position at BankRate showed up to an interview with a preschooler in tow. 'She didn't try to make any excuses or apologies, such as her babysitter backed out,' says Ms. Batts, who conducted the meeting anyway, but didn't extend the candidate a job offer.
今年早些时候,一名应聘BankRate行政职位的求职者带着一个小孩子出现在了面试场。“她没有想要找个借口或者道歉的意思,比如说保姆突然不干了什么的,”贝茨说。虽然她还是照常进行了面试,但是没有给这位求职者工作机会。
Similarly, a recent candidate for an entry-level outsourcing job at Accenture Ltd. unwrapped a sandwich during an interview and asked the hiring manager if he could eat it since it was lunchtime, says John Campagnino, senior director of recruitment for the global consulting company.
与此类似,最近有一位申请全球咨询公司埃森哲公司(Accenture Ltd.)初级外包工作的求职者在面试过程中拿出了一个三明治,然后问招聘经理他能否吃东西,因为已经是午餐时间了,公司高级招聘主管约翰?坎帕尼诺(John Campagnino)说。
Job hunters have also acted rudely by showing up more than an hour early for interviews, interrupting interviewers in mid-sentence and refusing to fill out a job application, referring hiring managers to their résumés instead, say hiring managers and recruiters.
招聘经理和主管人员说,求职者粗鲁的行为还包括比预定的面试时间早到一个多小时,打断面试人说话,拒绝填写求职申请表而且还让招聘经理自己去参考他们的简历。
3. 行为傲慢
Recruiter Peter Polachi recently met with a candidate for an executive-level marketing15 job at a midsize technology firm. In the middle of the meeting, Mr. Polachi says he suddenly heard Madonna singing-it was the ring tone for the candidate's cell phone and the person took the call, which lasted about a minute.
招聘专员彼得?波拉奇(Peter Polachi)最近见过一位求职者,后者申请的是一家中等规模的技术公司销售主管的职位。波拉奇说,面试正进行到一半,他突然听到麦当娜的歌声──那是这位求职者的手机铃声。随后,求职者接通了电话,讲电话讲了大约一分钟。
Mr. Polachi, co-founder of Polachi Access Executive Search in Framingham, Mass., says the incident, plus the fact that the candidate was employed and arrived late to the meeting without apologizing, signaled that the executive considered himself a shoo-in for the job or just wasn't interested. Either way, 'to accept the call and have a conversation is over the top,' says Mr. Polachi.
波拉奇是马萨诸塞州弗雷明汉(Framingham)高管猎头公司Polachi Access Executive Search的共同创始人。他说,接电话这件事再加上这位求职者处于在职状态、面试迟到而没有道歉,说明这位高管认为自己肯定能获得这份工作,要不就是对这份工作不感兴趣。不管怎样,“接电话然后开始通话的做法实在是太过份了”,波拉奇说。
Other candidates show arrogance16 by demanding to bypass human resources, inquiring about salary and job benefits at the start of an interview and insulting former employers, say hiring managers.
招聘经理说,求职者其他傲慢的行为包括要求绕过人力资源部门的流程,在面试一开始就询问薪资和工作待遇,以及对以前的雇主出言不逊。
4. Lies, lies, lies.
4. 谎言、谎言、谎言
Six months ago, a candidate for an editing position at Factory VFX Inc. told hiring producer Liz Crawford that he came recommended by an artist on staff at the Santa Rosa, Calif., visual-effects company. After the interview, Ms. Crawford says she called the artist so the applicant could say hello to his supposed associate. That's when it became crystal clear that the two men didn't know each other. 'He admitted he had fibbed and walked out of the room,' says Ms. Crawford.
6个月前,一名申请Factory VFX Inc.剪辑职位的求职者告诉负责招聘的制作人莉斯?克劳福德(Liz Crawford),他是加利福尼亚州圣罗莎(Santa Rosa)视觉效果公司的一位艺术家推荐而来的。面试结束以后,卡劳福德说,她给那位艺术家打了电话,让求职者跟他自称的推荐人问声好。直到这时才真相大白,两人原来根本就互不相识。“他承认他撒了谎,随后便离开了,”克劳福德说。
Job hunters also commonly lie by taking credit for work they didn't do, inflating17 their salaries and saying they don't smoke when seeking positions at companies with no-smoking policies.
求职者通常会撒谎的内容还包括把没做过的工作算成自己的功劳,浮夸薪资,为了在有禁烟政策的公司得到职位而谎称自己不吸烟。
5. 着装过于随意
Last summer, Amy Demas says she was uncomfortable and distracted while interviewing a copywriter candidate for the small Los Angeles ad agency she co-founded in 2008, Standard Time LLC. 'She was wearing a t-shirt three sizes too small with bright red letters across her chest,' recalls Ms. Demas. 'I couldn't help but pay more attention to her breasts than her résumé.'
去年夏天,艾米?戴莫斯(Amy Demas)说,她在面试一位广告撰稿人的时候感到很不自在而且无法集中精力。那位求职者申请的是一家小型广告公司Standard Time LLC的职位,该公司是戴莫斯于2008年在洛杉矶参与共同创办的。“她穿的T恤简直比她的身材要小上三个码,胸部还印有一排鲜艳的红色字母,”戴莫斯回忆说。“我禁不住把更多的注意力集中在她的胸部,而不是她的简历上”。
While it might be acceptable to skip a suit and tie in some office environments, it's never appropriate to wear jeans, cleavage-revealing tops, flip-flops or skin-tight pants-all interview fashion don'ts hiring managers say they've seen.
虽然在一些工作场合不穿西装打领带或许是可以接受的,但面试时绝对不可以穿牛仔裤、露乳沟的上衣、人字拖或紧身裤──这些都是招聘经理们在面试中见到过的着装禁忌。
'You should also take out all your funky19 piercings and hide your tattoos,' says career coach Cynthia Shapiro, who is also a former human-resources executive. 'Even if you wear a business suit, if you have a piercing through your lip' it doesn't look good.
“你还应该取掉身上所有前卫的穿环饰品,把纹身遮挡起来,”曾经担任过人力资源部门主管的职业生涯教练辛西娅?夏皮罗(Cynthia Shapiro)说。“即使你穿着正装,但如果你的嘴唇上带一个唇环的话,”那看上去也不好。
6. Oversharing.
6. 过度分享
After learning that a position involved a great deal of travel, a candidate for a senior sales job at a midsize manufacturer told the interviewer he was worried about how his saltwater fish would get fed while he was away. The worst part of the exchange? 'He wasn't kidding,' says Russ Riendeau, an executive recruiter who set up the interview and confirmed the account with the job hunter. 'He was trying to say that it was his only concern.' The man, who had been unemployed for four months at the time, wasn't extended an offer for the position, adds Mr. Riendeau, a senior partner with East Wing Search Group in Barrington, Ill.
当了解到今后的工作需要经常出差后,一位申请一家中型制造企业高级销售主管职位的求职者告诉面试人员说,他很担心出差期间谁来喂他的海水鱼。最糟糕的部分?“他不是在开玩笑,” 组织了这场面试的招聘主管拉斯?李安德(Russ Riendeau)说。“他想表达出那是他唯一的担忧”。伊利诺斯州巴陵顿(Barrington) East Wing Search Group的资深合伙人李安德补充说,这位当时已经失业4个月的求职者没有得到那个职位。
Other things employers say that job hunters reveal-but shouldn't -include comments about their health problems, details about their love lives and tales of their financial hardships.
用人单位表示,求职者不应该透露的事情还包括自己的健康问题、爱情生活的细节以及面临的经济困难。
7. Saying thanks with gifts.
7. 赠送礼品表达谢意
A finalist for a head of business development job at a well-known Internet company recently sent a pricey fruit bowl from Tiffany & Co. to a hiring manager following a third interview. The candidate was instantly knocked out of the running. 'That was a real big faux pas,' says Erika Weinstein, president of Stephen-Bradford Search in New York, and the recruiter who introduced the candidate to the employer. 'It's trying to buy yourself a job. It's brown-nosing.'
一位申请一家知名互联网公司业务发展主管职位的求职者入围了最后的决选名单,最近在第三轮面试之后他送了一只Tiffany & Co.生产的价格不菲的果盘给招聘经理。这位求职者立即被淘汰出局了。“这么做实在是大错特错,”纽约Stephen-Bradford Search总裁埃丽卡?韦恩斯坦说,正是她把这位求职者介绍给那家互联网公司。“这简直就是想要给自己买来一份工作,他是在拍马屁”。
A thank-you note is really the only appropriate way to show appreciation20. But even so, hiring managers say they've received everything from pricey tickets to sporting events to bottles of alcohol-all big no-no's.
一封简短的感谢信的确是表达谢意的最佳方式。但是即便如此,招聘经理们说他们还是收到了从昂贵的体育赛事门票到名酒等各式各样的礼物,这些都是求职的大忌。
8. Sporting a mom-and-dad complex.
8. 体现依赖父母的情结
In the past two months, Accenture's Mr. Campagnino says he has received two emails from parents of applicants21 asking why the company hasn't extended their adult children job interviews. 'There's a significant lack of judgment22 when you have your parents intercede23 with a potential employer,' he says. 'We expect individuals to be able to represent themselves and sell themselves.'
在过去的两个月里,艾森哲公司的坎帕尼诺说他已经收到了两封来自求职者父母发来的电子邮件,询问公司为什么没有给他们成年的孩子提供面试的机会。“让自己的父母来为你向可能的工作单位求情,是一种严重缺乏判断力的表现,”他说,“我们希望每一位求职者都能代表并且推销他们自己”。
Hiring managers say they've also seen moms and dads accompany their offspring to job interviews and try to intervene in salary negotiations24.
招聘经理说,他们还看到过一些父母会陪着孩子参加面试,而且还试图干预双方的薪资谈判。
点击收听单词发音
1 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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2 prank | |
n.开玩笑,恶作剧;v.装饰;打扮;炫耀自己 | |
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3 pranks | |
n.玩笑,恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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4 celebrities | |
n.(尤指娱乐界的)名人( celebrity的名词复数 );名流;名声;名誉 | |
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5 unemployed | |
adj.失业的,没有工作的;未动用的,闲置的 | |
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6 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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7 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
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8 syndrome | |
n.综合病症;并存特性 | |
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9 administrative | |
adj.行政的,管理的 | |
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10 dime | |
n.(指美国、加拿大的钱币)一角 | |
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11 demeanor | |
n.行为;风度 | |
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12 applicant | |
n.申请人,求职者,请求者 | |
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13 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
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14 arrogantly | |
adv.傲慢地 | |
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15 marketing | |
n.行销,在市场的买卖,买东西 | |
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16 arrogance | |
n.傲慢,自大 | |
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17 inflating | |
v.使充气(于轮胎、气球等)( inflate的现在分词 );(使)膨胀;(使)通货膨胀;物价上涨 | |
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18 dressing | |
n.(食物)调料;包扎伤口的用品,敷料 | |
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19 funky | |
adj.畏缩的,怯懦的,霉臭的;adj.新式的,时髦的 | |
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20 appreciation | |
n.评价;欣赏;感谢;领会,理解;价格上涨 | |
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21 applicants | |
申请人,求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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22 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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23 intercede | |
vi.仲裁,说情 | |
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24 negotiations | |
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过 | |
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