亚历克斯即将大学毕业。这一年的3月，他异常忙碌。一边忙着毕业考试，一边在积极地找工作。另外，除了这两件事情，他对那位经常在课间碰见的名叫苏的女孩也越来越感兴趣……
AAfter class, on a Wednesday in March. Alex and John are walking back to their 1)respective dorms…
John: Hey Alex!
Alex: Hey John. What’s up?
John: Not too much. How’s life?
Alex: Dude. It is really busy.
John: Oh yeah? What’s keeping your plate so full?
Alex: Three things. First, studying for the impossibly hard Advanced Corporate Finance exam that’s
tomorrow.
John: Yeah. That test is going to be killer. No survivors! [both laugh]
Alex: Second, I’ve been looking for jobs, which happens to be an extremely draining proposition.
John: Really? I haven’t started yet.
Alex: You’ve always been a 2)procrastinator, John…saving things till the last minute.
John: Yep! That’s my strategy. It’s worked well my entire life, so why stop now? [both smile]
Alex: That’s totally fine, man. Just a word of warning, though—start soon!
B
John: Why the rush?
Alex: There is so much to do in a proper job hunt. It’s crazy. You have to meet with individuals
at different companies just for informational interviews in order to include their names on your
3)cover letter with your job application. You have to tailor each cover letter to each specific company,
and that means researching the company and knowing it well.
John: Wow.
Alex: In addition to that, you have to tailor your resume to each position—you can’t just use the same
resume for everything. If, and it’s a big if, you make it through the first round and they ask you to
interview, that’s when it gets really fun.
John: I’m getting stressed…
Alex: As an interviewee, you have to prepare answers for several types of questions—general,
behavioral,
technical, among others.
John: How long does that take?
Alex: All of it?
John: Yeah.
C
Alex: I’ve been working on researching companies, doing informational interviews, performing mock
interviews,
and editing my resume for a couple of months now.
John: A couple of months!?! Are you serious?
Alex: Serious as a heart-attack.
John: Whoa. We graduate in about a month and a half, right?
Alex: That’s right.
John: Wow. Alex, you have succeeded in officially making me panic.
Alex: Don’t panic, man. Just work on one thing at a time. Everyone else is in the same boat—everyone
that wants a good job has to do their homework to get it. There aren’t any shortcuts, unless you’re the
son of some super famous person.
John: Alas, I am not. I am really behind, Alex.
Alex: You’ll catch up, Johnnie! Don’t worry. How about we get dinner tonight at Chipotle and I give you
a few tips? What do you say?
John: That would be great. Thanks a ton!
Alex: No problem.
A3月的一个星期三，下课后。亚历克斯和约翰走回各自的宿舍……
约翰：嘿，亚历克斯！
亚历克斯：嘿，约翰。最近有什么新消息吗？
约翰：没有。你的生活怎么样？
亚历克斯：老兄。忙死了。
约翰：哦，是吗？什么事让你如此忙碌？
亚历克斯：三件事。首先，我要复习备考明天难度极大的高级企业财务考试。
约翰：是的。这个考试很让人崩溃。没有人能幸免。（都笑了）
亚历克斯：第二，我一直在找工作，这碰巧也很让人头疼。
约翰：真的吗？我还没开始找呢。
亚历克斯：你一直都是一个拖延者，约翰……总是爱把事情拖到最后一分钟才做。
约翰：没错！这是我的策略。我一直都是这样做的，而且效果很好，所以为什么现在要改变呢？（两个人都笑了）
亚历克斯：那就好，老兄。只不过是个忠告罢了——很快就要开始了！
B
约翰：为什么这么着急？
亚历克斯：要想求职成功要做的事情太多了。太疯狂了。你必须去不同的公司和不同的人交谈来获取信息，这样才能把他们的名字写在你的求职信里。你还要根据每个公司的特点来写求职信，这意味着你研究过这个公司，并且了解得很好。
约翰：哇。
亚历克斯：除此之外，你还要根据应聘的不同岗位制定不同的简历——你不能都用相同的简历去应聘。如果你通过了第一轮面试，他们让你去面试的时候，事情会变得十分有趣。
约翰：我开始紧张了……
亚历克斯：作为一个应聘者，你要准备回答几个类型的问题——一般问题、个人问题、技术问题等。
约翰：需要准备多长时间？
亚历克斯：所有这些吗？
约翰：是的。
C
亚历克斯：我一直在研究各种公司，找有经验的前辈谈话以获得信息，进行模拟面试，还要写我的简历，为这些我已经准备几个月了。
约翰： 几个月！？！你是认真的吗？
亚历克斯：非常认真。
约翰：哇。我们还有一个半月就要毕业了，对吗？
亚历克斯：没错。
约翰：哇。亚历克斯，你已经成功让我感到恐慌了。
亚历克斯：别慌，兄弟。一次只能做一件事情。大家都在同一条船上——每个想要找到一份好工作的人都必须为此做功课。没有任何捷径，除非你是那些超级成功人士的儿子。
约翰：唉，我不是。我真的落后了，亚历克斯。
亚历克斯：你会迎头赶上的，约翰尼！别担心。我们今晚在Chipotle餐厅吃晚餐，然后我给你一些建议？怎么样？
约翰：那太好了。非常感谢！
亚历克斯：不客气。
1) respective[] (a.) 各自的
2) procrastinator [] (n.) 拖延者
3) cover letter求职信
A
John: Earlier you said there were three things keeping you busy. What is the third one?
Alex: Can you keep a secret?
John: Of course.
Alex: It’s a girl named Sue. We’ve said hi a few times together, but haven’t really ever gotten the
chance to talk at all yet.
John: Where did you meet her?
Alex: It was just 1)randomly in the library one night. Our study desks were fairly close to each other
and she had a super loud 2)sneeze! I said “bless you”, she said “thank you”, and then we just
chatted a little bit. Ever since then, I’ve seen her in hallways in between class, and every once
in a while in the cafeteria, but I’ve never truly gotten to talk to her.
John: That’s awesome, Alex. Maybe I should go to the library sometime… [both laugh]
Alex: Maybe you should! I gotta go do a couple things. What time do you want to meet at Chipotle?
John: Does six work?
Alex: Sounds awesome. See you then, John!
John: Peace out.
BAt Chipotle later that night…
John: Thanks again for meeting with me, Alex. I really appreciate it.
Alex: No problem Happy to help a friend. I know you’d do the same for me.
John: I would, but we both know I’ll probably never be far enough ahead of the game to actually
help you. [both laugh]
Alex: We’ll see… So, did you look at anything this afternoon for job stuff?
John: I did, actually. It all seems pretty overwhelming, though. Where do I start?
Alex: There are three things to do first. First, you need to make your resume look awesome.
Second, you need to begin 3)networking with companies in the field you would eventually like to work in.
Finally, you need to begin working on your interviewing skills. Interviewing well is key.
C
John: Okay. That helps. It helps to have a few main things to work on. How did you edit your resume?
Did you take it in to somewhere or have a professor look at it?
Alex: Yes, I did both. I took it into the Career Management Office and had people look over it with me.
I then asked a couple professors to look at it, and finally had a couple of people actually in business
take a peek at it. It was hard, but it was well worth the effort.
John: Okay. I think I’ll probably try to go to the Career Office this week sometime. That’s a good idea.
Alex: Great.
A
约翰：刚才你说你在忙三件事情。那么第三件事是什么？
亚历克斯：你能保密吗？
约翰：当然。
亚历克斯：是一个叫苏的女孩。我们打过几次招呼，但是还没有真正的机会在一起聊天。
约翰：你是在哪里认识她的？
亚历克斯：一天晚上在图书馆。我们的课桌离得很近，她打了一个超级大喷嚏！ 我说“上帝保佑你”，她说“谢谢”，然后我们闲聊了一会儿。从那以后，我课间在走廊里见过她，偶尔在食堂也碰到过，但是我从未真正和她说过话。
约翰：那真是太棒了，亚历克斯。也许哪天我也应该去图书馆……（都笑了）
亚历克斯：也许你应该去！我还有一些事情要去做。你想什么时候在Chipotle餐厅见面？
约翰：6点可以吗？
亚历克斯：听起来很棒。待会见，约翰！
约翰：再见。
B当晚在Chipotle餐厅……
约翰：再次感谢你来和我见面，亚历克斯。我真的很感激。
亚历克斯：不客气，我很乐意帮助朋友。我知道如果是我，你也会这么做的。
约翰：我会的，不过我们都知道，我可能永远不会走在前面来帮助你。（都笑了）
亚历克斯：我们看着吧……那么今天下午你看了有关工作的东西吗？
约翰：实际上我看了。但是这一切看起来很有压力。我要从哪儿开始呢？
亚历克斯：要先做三件事情。首先，你要让你的简历看起来很酷。第二，你要与你最终选择的行业里的公司建立联系。最后，你还需要学习一些面试技巧。面试很关键。
C
约翰：好吧。这对我很有帮助。起码我知道了有几件重要的事情要做。你是怎么编辑你的简历的？ 把它送到了某个地方还是找教授帮你看？
亚历克斯：是的，我两个都做了。我把它送到了职业生涯管理办公室，让他们帮我检查。然后我又找了几位教授帮我看，最后又找了几个在商业领域工作的人帮我看。虽然很不容易，但是很值得。
约翰：好吧。我想这个星期找个时间我也要去趟职业办公室。这是一个好主意。
亚历克斯：好极了。 |
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