宁缺毋滥求贤才

情景:英国麦凯帝管理咨询公司,大家正在讨论毕业招聘事宜。

John: So, we need to consider recruitment and internships for this summer. Does anybody want to work the graduate circuit?

Cathy: I don't mind. I quite like going to the job fairs.

John: Really? I always found them a terrible grind.

Cathy: I don't know – maybe I'm just nostalgic for university – but I quite enjoy doing them.Telling people about the firm, all this kind of thing.

Fredrik: Better you than me.

Cathy: Hey, I just like to get out of the office.

John: So, does anybody have any thoughts on what we should be looking for in an intern?

Vanisha: I liked the two we had last year. What was it – Lin and Paul? They were good.

Fredrik: Actually, Lin is applying for our graduate recruitment program this year. I think she's a shoo-in.

Vanisha: Really? Yes, she was excellent. The draft report she did on Bangladeshi power needs was really first-rate. I used it in the presentation I gave to the bank, and they loved it – they all thought I'd done it, actually, and I was too embarrassed to admit it was an intern. But she didn't mind – I brought her dinner afterwards to say thank you.

John: Her coffee was terrible, though. I mean, really, it tasted like it had been made out of mud.

Vanisha: Hee. Well, I guess she'll have an intern to do that for her this time!

John: Do we have any other old interns applying? Paul was only in his second year, wasn't he?

Fredrik: I think so. So, we might see him on the application next year.

John: But we're agreed Lin is a shoo-in?

Vanisha: Oh, definitely. I'd love to have her on board.

Fredrik: So, what are our targets for graduate recruitment, assuming we fill one spot with Lin?

John: Well, we've sketched it out at twelve, but we can be a little flexible on that. There's no need to accept sub-standard recruits just to fill in positions. Equally, we can probably squeeze out another place if we find thirteen really good people. But we're not going to be offering a recruitment package anywhere near as good as five years ago, or even last year, of course.

Fredrik: Is there still a signing bonus?

John: Yes, but cut right down. And no housing allowance.

Vanisha: I think that's a bad idea – we should be offering something to help with the move to London, at least, for those outside. Otherwise we end up restricting ourselves to people from families that can help support them while they are living on a graduate salary in London even more. I mean, no offense to anyone here, but do we really need more people from the Home Counties?

Fredrik: I think Vanisha has a point. We are a bit stacked with – how can I put this?

Cathy: Public schoolboys? And schoolgirls.

Fredrik: Yes. I think we could do with broadening the background of our recruits more. Especially regionally. We're very southern, after all.

John: Hey, I'm from Manchester.

Vanisha: John, you're from Alderley Edge, where all the millionaires and footballers live. I've been to your parent's house, it's massive. Isn't Alderley Edge one of the richest single areas in the UK.

Fredrik: See? We do have to change things.

Vanisha: Definitely. Though we should still be aiming for the top universities. Which reminds me; are we trying to recruit from overseas this year?

John: We have programs at some of the best Indian and Chinese universities this year, as well as the normal schedule in America. I'd like to get at least two recruits from developing countries – those markets are so big. We can probably look at people who've already studied overseas, though; I think we get the best candidates that way.

Cathy: And we should prioritize linguistic skills in general, I think. It's so useful to have somebody fluent on hand, rather than going through local translators.

John: Absolutely, yes. If we could get three people fluent in Mandarin and English, I'd be a happy man.

Vanisha: What else are we looking for?

John: Let's try not to get so many humanities grads this year. I realize that English and History and so on are all very good for presentation and analysis skills and so on, but it would be useful to have some people with a harder science background. I mean, do any of us here even have maths or science beyond the high school level? No? I didn't think so.

Cathy: Well, that all seems good. Let's write this up properly, and we'll begin interviewing people after the 27th.

约翰:那么,我们需要考虑一下今天夏季招聘和实习计划。有人想负责校园宣讲会吗?

凯茜:我不介意。我很想去招聘会。

约翰:真的?我一直都觉得它们是苦差事。

凯茜:我不知道——可能是因为我太怀念大学了——但是我非常享受做这些。向大家介绍公司,诸如此类的事情。

弗雷德里克:那就你去吧。

凯茜:嘿,我只是喜欢走出办公室而已。

约翰:关于实习生应该具备什么样的素质,大家有什么想法吗?

瓦尼莎:我喜欢我们去年找的那两个。叫什么来着,林和保罗?他们很不错。

弗雷德里克:事实上,林正在申请我们今年的毕业生招聘计划。我觉得她十拿九稳。

瓦尼莎:真的吗?是的,她很优秀。她做的关于孟加拉国能源需求的报告草案真的很一流。在给银行的报告中我用了里面的内容,他们很喜欢——事实上他们都以为是我做的,我太尴尬了都没敢承认是个实习生做的。但是林不介意——后来我请她吃晚饭表示感谢。

约翰:但是她泡的咖啡不怎么样。真的,我觉得喝起来像用泥冲的。

瓦尼莎:嘿嘿。但是我猜这次会有实习生帮她泡咖啡了!

约翰:还有别的原来的实习生申请吗?保罗才上大二是不是?

弗雷德里克:我想是。所以,他可能明年会申请。

约翰:但是我们都认为林稳操胜券?

瓦尼莎:哦,肯定地。我很乐意她加入。

弗雷德里克:那么,我们毕业招聘的目标人数是多少,假定我们留了一个职位给林?

约翰:那个,我们计划雇12个人,但是这个可以灵活一点。没有必要就为了填补空缺职位就接受不合格的应聘者。同样的,如果能发现13个特别优秀的人才我们也可能再设法挤出一个空缺。但是当然,我们不准备提供五年前那么好的招聘待遇了,甚至都不能达到去年的标准。

弗雷德里克:还有签约费吗?

约翰:有,但是削减了很多。另外没有住房补贴。

瓦尼莎:我觉得那是个馊主意——我们至少应该给伦敦城外的人提供一些补贴帮助他们搬到城里来。否则的话到头来我们更会雇佣那些拿毕业生级别的薪水但家里能帮忙住在伦敦的人了。无意冒犯在坐的任何人。但是我们真得需要更多来自“家乡郡”的家伙吗?

弗雷德里克:我觉得瓦尼莎说得对。我们有点充满了——怎么说来着?

凯茜:公学男童?还有女童。

弗雷德里克:是的。我觉得我们可以进一步放宽我们招聘新人的背景条件。尤其是地域方面。毕竟我们南方人太多了。

约翰:嘿,我可是曼彻斯特的。

瓦尼莎:约翰,你可是阿尔德利角来的,那百万富翁和足球明星扎堆。我去过你父母家,豪华着呢。阿尔德利角难道不是英国最富有的地区之一吗?

弗雷德里克:看到了吗?我们必须改变这种情况了。

瓦尼莎:当然了。不过我们应该仍将重点大学作为目标。这倒提醒了我,今年我们会雇海外员工吗?

约翰:今年我们在印度和中国一些一流大学有相关计划,美国一直都有。我想至少雇用两个发展中国家的新人——那些市场太大了。但是我们或许可以看看那些曾经留过学的人;这样的话能筛选到最好的候选人。

凯茜:我觉得总体上我们应该优先看重语言技能。身边的人能说一口流利的英语很有用,而不是通过当地的翻译。

约翰:这是当然。如果能雇到三个普通话和英语都非常流利的人,我会非常高兴的。

瓦尼莎:别的能力呢?

约翰:我们今年不要雇那么多文科毕业生了。我知道英语历史等对报告和分析能力等等非常重要,但是雇佣一些理科背景更厉害的人也很重要。我的意思是,我们在座的几位有谁的数学或理科水平比高中水平高吗?没有?就知道没有。

凯茜:好吧,一切看起来都很顺利。我们把这些适当地记录一下,然后27号之后就开始面试。

Links

Home Counties家乡诸郡

指伦敦周边的几个郡,包括赫特福德郡(Hertfordshire)、艾塞克斯郡(Essex)、肯特郡(Kent)、萨利郡(Surrey)、白金汉郡(Buckinghamshire)等等,这些地区和平宁静,风景优美,交通便利,并且比较富裕。

Alderley Edge阿尔德利角

位于柴郡的阿尔德利角是英格兰的十大豪宅区之一,聚集了众多名流,尤其是曼联球员。

Public school公学

公学专指英国的私立精英学校,实行完人教育,学费十分昂贵,教学质量非常高,社会影响深远。“公学”不表示是由政府设立,而表示学校公开招生,并不限定某种宗教、种族或地区的学生。

英国公学历史悠久,注重人文教育,提供普通中学所没有的古典与宗教课程,培养了众多社会精英,是全世界富家子弟梦寐以求的学府。

此外英国一般的私立学校称为independent school,公立学校称为comprehensive school。

Notes

1. apply for

意为“申请、请求”。

例句:He applied for a passport.

他申请护照。

Can I apply for a library card?

我可以申请图书馆卡吗?

2. shoo-in

意为“十拿九稳的取胜者、必胜者”。

例句:He is an apparent shoo-in for a top administration post.

看起来,他十有八九会到政府担任要职。

Diana is a shoo-in to win a scholarship.

黛安娜获奖学金十拿九稳。

3. on board

意为“在船/火车/飞机/汽车上 ”,文中意为欢迎林加入公司。

例句:When all passengers were on board, the train pulled out of the station.

所有乘客都上车后, 火车开出了车站。

Are meals served on board?

机上供应餐点吗?

4. sketch out

意为“概述、草拟”。

例句:He sketched out what he had said.

他概述了他说的话。

Sketch out what you intend to do.

把你要做的事概括地叙述一下.

5. squeeze out

意为“挤出、榨出”。

例句:She squeezed juice out of the lemon.

她从柠檬里挤出柠檬汁。

Lady Kew could squeeze out a tear over a good novel too.

寇女士对一本令人愉快的小说也能挤出泪来。

6. restrict to

意为“将……限制到、将……限定到”。

例句:He restricted himself to five cigarettes a day.

他约束自己每天只抽五支烟。

Speed is restricted to 30 mph in towns.

市内车速每小时不得超过30英里。

7. aim for

意为“力争……;计划、打算”。

例句:He aimed for her leg.

他企图抓住她的腿。

We aim for a 10% saving in fuel.

我们的目标是节省10%的燃料。

8. on hand

意为“在手边、在附近;在场”。

例句:We have plenty of money on hand to pay for the snacks.

我们手边有很多钱可以买零嘴。

He had to make do with what was on hand.

他只好用现有的东西将就应付。

Mr. Blake's secretary is always on hand when he appears in public.

布莱克先生在公开场合露面时, 他的秘书总在场。

9. grads

Graduates的简写,毕业生。

例句:Grads from our school are working all over the island.

我们学校的毕业生在全岛各地工作。

10. write up

意为“全部写出”。

例句:We have finally finished the research work. Now we must write it all up.

我们终于完成了调查报告, 现在我们要把它撰写成文。