美國大學生找工作前必做的二十件事
out of the library. You can have a degree and a huge GPA and not be ready for the work.lace. A student should plan that college is four years of experience rather than 120 credits," says William Coplin, professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, 10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College."
第一，走出圖書館。就算有了學位和很高的GPA你也不見得就爲工作做好了準備。大學是四年人生經驗，不是高學分。在美國的大學，課外活動常常和功課一樣重要。
2. Start a business in your dorm room. It's cheap, Google and Yahoo are dying to buy your website, and it's better than washing dishes in the cafeteria. Note to those who play poker online until 4 a.m.: Gambling isn't a business. It's an addiction.
第二，從宿舍開始做生意。這很便宜，雅虎、谷歌都會爭先恐後地買你弄出來的網站，這比餐館裏洗盤子好多了。至於那些通宵在線玩撲克的人，記住賭博不是生意，賭博是癮。
3. Don't take on debt that is too limiting. This is not a reference to online gambling, although it could be. This is about choosing a state school over a pricey private school. Almost everyone agrees you can get a great education at an inexpensive school. So in many cases the debt from a private school is more career-limiting than the lack of brand name on your diploma.
第三，別債務纏身。這和在線賭博關係不大，雖然可能有關係。這是關於應該選擇一所州立大學而不是昂貴的私立學校的問題。幾乎所有人都同意在不那麼貴的學校裏也能得到良好的教育。所以從個人前途上看，無債一身輕比花錢買個名牌要有利得多。
4. Get involved on campus. When it comes to career success, emotional intelligence -- social skills to read and lead others -- get you farther than knowledge or job competence, according to Tiziana Casciaro, professor at Harvard Business School. Julie Albert, a junior at Brandeis University, is the director of her a capella group and head of orientation this year. She hones her leadership skills outside the classroom, which is exactly where to do it.
第四，積極參加校園的活動。通過這種活動，可以學會怎麼理解、幫助別人，滿足別人的需要和別人溝通。這在美國文化中，是所謂“領袖素質”的基礎。找工作時會被別人另眼相看。千萬不要認爲自己的生活只有校園而已。
5. Avoid grad school in the liberal arts. One in five English Phd's find stable university jobs, and the degree won't help outside the university: "Schooling only gives you the capacity to stand behind a cash register," says Thomas Benton, a columnist at the Chronicle of Higher Education (who has an English degree from Yale and a tenure-track teaching job.)
第五，不要讀文科博士，五分之一的英語博士能找到大學裏的穩定的工作，如果走出校門，學位沒什麼用處。除非你離了學術不能活。讀博士對實際工作毫無幫助。
6. Skip the law-school track. Lawyers are the most depressed of all professionals. Stress itself does not make a job bad, says Alan Kreuger, economist at Princeton University. Not having control over one's work does make a bad job, though, and lawyers are always acting on behalf of someone else. Suicide is among the leading causes of premature death among lawyers.
第六，別上法學院。律師是所有職業中最壓抑的。律師總是代表別人去爭利，壓力奇大。自殺是律師中第一號非正常死亡的原因。
7. Play a sport. People who play sports earn more money than couch potatoes, and women executives who played sports attribute much of their career success to their athletic experience, says Jennifer Cripsen of Sweet Briar College in Virginia. You don't need to be great at sports, you just need to be part of a team.
第七，參加體育運動。調查表明，大學從事體育的人，畢業後比那些不沾體育的同學明顯收入高。美國人從事體育不僅是鍛鍊身體，而且是培養競爭的才能和領袖素質。一個大*動隊的隊長到華爾街找工作，優勢不可限量。
8. Separate your expectations from those of your parents. "Otherwise you wake up and realize you're not living your own life," says Alexandra Robbins, author of the popular new book "The Overachievers." (Note to parents: If you cringe as you read this list, then you need to read this book.)
第八，別按着父母的期待生活，“否則你醒來後會發現你過的不是自己的日子。”
9. Try new things that you're not good at. "Ditch the superstar mentality that if you don't reach the top, president, A+, editor in chief, then the efforts were worthless. It's important to learn to enjoy things without getting recognition," says Robbins.
第九，幹一些你並不擅長的新事物。你對自己未必瞭解，這是蘇格拉底給人類的教誨。所以，請給自己一個機會。
10. Define success for yourself. "Society defines success very narrowly. Rather than defining success as financial gain or accolades, define it in terms of individual interests and personal happiness," says Robbins.
第十，以自己爲中心來定義成功，別以外在的東西(比如金錢)來定義成功。
11. Make your job search a priority. Jobs do not fall in your lap, you have to chase them. Especially a good one. It's a job to look for a job. Use spreadsheets to track your progress. And plan early. Goldman Sachs, for example, starts its information sessions in September.
第十一，好工作要自己去找，不要等着天上掉餡餅。
12. Take a course in happiness. Happiness study is revolutionizing how we think of psychology, economics, and sociology. How to be happy is a science that 150 schools teach. Preview: Learn to be more optimistic. This class will show you how.
第十二，選修關於“幸福”的心理課程。在哈佛，這一課程是最熱門的課之一。
13. Take an acting course. The best actors are actually being their most authentic selves, says Lindy Amos of communications coaching firm TAI Resources. Amos teaches executives to communicate authentically so that people will listen and feel connected. You need to learn to do this, too, and you may as well start in college.
第十三，上表演課。美國社會整個就是個舞臺。從教授、政治家、企業總裁，到律師、將軍、記者，不會表演就很難出頭。
14. Learn to give a compliment. The best compliments are specific, so ``good job" is not good, writes Lisa Laskow Lahey, psychologist at Harvard and co-author of ``How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work." Practice on your professors. If you give a good compliment the recipient will think you're smarter: Big payoff in college, but bigger payoff in the work world.
第十四，學會讚美別人。在生活中，既要當好演員，也要當好觀衆。很多時候我總是感覺和別人有距離，其實就是缺那簡單的幾句問候和一個擁抱。
15. Use the career center. These people are experts at positioning you in the workforce and their only job is to get you a job. How can you not love this place? If you find yourself thinking the people at your college's career center are idiots, it's probably a sign that you really, really don't know what you're doing.
第十五，使用職業諮詢服務機構。美國大學一個重要部門就是求職諮詢機構。專業人員幫你分析自己的長短，以及就業市場，幫助你準備面試，修改申請信。
16. Develop a strong sense of self by dissing colleges that reject you. Happy people have ``a more durable sense of and aren't as buffeted by outside events," writes Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California-Riverside. When bad things happen, don't take it personally. This is how the most successful business people bounce back quickly from setback.
第十六，被拒後應該坦然以對。要自己定義自己，不要用外在指標定義自己。
17. Apply to Harvard as a transfer student. Sure people have wild success after going to an Ivy League school but this success is no more grand than that of the people who applied and got rejected. All people who apply to Ivy League schools seem to have similar high self-confidenceand ambition, even if they don't get in, according to a study by Kreuger.第十七，以轉校生的身份申請哈佛。人們從常春藤名校畢業無疑會取得巨大的成功，但是那些申請後被拒的學生也不差。所有申請常春藤名校的人都有同樣的自信和野心，即使不能入校就讀。
18. Get rid of your perfectionist streak. It is rewarded in college, but it leads to insane job stress and an inability to feel satisfied with your work. And for all of you still stuck on number 6, about ditching the law school applications: The Utah Bar Journal says that lawyers are disproportionately perfectionists.
第十八，不要過分追求完美，不要給自己不必要的壓力。生活不止是工作，學習，它還有很多很多。
19. Work your way though college. Getting involved in student organizations counts, and so does feeding children in Sierra Leone or sweeping floors in the chemistry building. Each experience you have can grow into something bigger. Albert was an orientation leader last year, and she turned that experience into a full-time summer job that morphed into a position managing 130 orientation leaders. A great bullet on the resume for a junior in college.
第十九，要靠打工讀完大學，積累工作經驗。這很重要，大部分中國學生做不到，甚至認爲打工沒有必要，其實打過工的人才會真正珍惜生活。
20. Make to do lists. You can't achieve dreams if you don't have a plan to get there.
第二十，把你的目標列成表，因爲你沒有計劃就不可能成功。不要整天沒事幹老胡思亂想，只有真正的行動才能拯救你！
