招聘广告背后的小秘密

    招聘广告看多了，很快就会发现它们听上去都差不多。“注重细节”、“有主动性”等字眼泛滥成灾，招聘职位看上去千篇一律，这种情况已经成为找工作时常见的现象。

    但如果你能停下来，想想这些招聘的热门字眼究竟意味着什么，就会发现字里行间隐藏着大量有用的信息，一不留神就会漏掉。首先，如果公司在招聘广告中采用这些套话，很可能是因为他们对于所要招的职位全无概念，只知道有一个空缺需要填补。

    “套话助长了企业文化中决策领域的懒惰，”高管发展和培训公司Grey Matters的所有人凯文•弗莱明说。“我们使用这些辞令来掩饰一些东西。它也可以掩盖矛盾的心态。”弗莱明的业务建立在神经科学的基础上，公司在怀俄明州杰克森霍尔和俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨都设有办事处。

    比方说，一家招聘公司可能要求应聘者同时具备两项看起来相互抵触的品质，如“创业精神”和“团队合作精神”，原因是招聘经理和人力资源总监对这个职位的要求有不同的想法。或者，招聘公司就是存在不切实际的预期，期望一个人能拥有所有的优秀品质。

    “招聘经理们想找的是理想人选，‘如果一个人的圣诞节心愿全部都能兑现，他会在清单上面写下什么心愿呢？’”《职场登顶战略》（Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success）一书的作者、硅谷招聘人凯瑟琳•乌尔里克称。“他们会列出现有的五个最优秀员工的杰出品质。”

    又或者，令人困惑的套话说明这家公司的定位或策略不清晰。弗莱明说：“大多数人对于发展计划并无概念；他们也不知道前进的方向在哪。”。

    鉴于此，我们特地请来弗莱明、乌尔里克和其他职业咨询专家帮助我们解读这些招聘广告中的常用词，同时也是充斥着求职者简历的热门字眼。

    注重细节。“当心控制狂，”弗莱明警告说。除非招聘职位的核心工作与细节相关——如法务会计或行政助理——否则，这个字眼可能意味着你的一举一动都将受到严密的监控和反复的揣测。

    具有团队精神。这听上去可能没什么，但要小心它的真正含义是你将承担老板“以团队名义”分派的任何工作。“具有团队精神，就是你要完完全全服从我们的安排，”弗莱明解释説。

    快节奏的工作环境，意味着招聘公司希望不惜代价获得高生产率，员工会不断地遇到紧急状况需要处理。“快节奏意味着你工作的时间将超过我们支付给你的薪水，”乌尔里克这样解读。如记者或传媒等行业节奏非常快，进入这些行业之前就应当了解这一点。“快节奏工作环境意味着办公室有点疯狂，”爱德曼公关（Edelman Public Relations）驻旧金山的高级招聘经理凯特•吉安尼尼说。

    Read enough help-wanted advertisements, and you'll soon realize that they all basically sound the same. Jargon like "detail-oriented" and "self-starter" is so overused that the positions advertised begin to sound unremarkable: part of the expected landscape of hunting for a job.

    But if you stop and think about what all of these buzzwords are signaling, you'll realize how much information you just might miss if you fail to read between the lines. First of all, when employers fall back on the same old jargon to advertise positions, it could very well be that they actually have no idea what they are looking for. They just know they have a spot to fill.

    "Jargon is our way to grow lazier decision making in corporate cultures," says Kevin Fleming, owner of Grey Matters, a neuroscience-based executive development and coaching firm based in Jackson Hole and Tulsa. "We use these words to cover up something. It could also be a way to hide some ambivalence."

    For instance, an employer may ask for two qualities that seem to conflict -- such as "entrepreneurial" and "team player" -- because the hiring manager and the human resources director have different ideas about what the position requires. Or, the employer may simply have unrealistic expectations of all the qualities that a single individual could possess.

    "The hiring managers are thinking about the ideal person. 'If I could get everything I wanted on my Christmas wish list, what would I put on that list?'" says Kathryn Ullrich, a recruiter based in Silicon Valley and author of Getting to the Top: Strategies for Career Success. "They'll take the best attributes of the five best people they have."

    Or perhaps, confusing jargon suggests that the company has an ill-defined mission or strategy. "Most people have no idea what the development plans really are; they don't know where they're going," says Fleming.

    With that in mind, we've asked Fleming, Ullrich and other career experts to help us decode the most commonly used jargon in job ads, often the same buzzwords that fill up resumes.

    Detail-oriented. "Watch out for control freaks," Fleming warns. Unless the position involves detail at its core -- like a forensic accountant or administrative assistant -- this phrase hints that your every move will be scrutinized and second-guessed.

    Team player. It may sound innocuous, but be wary that this innocuous phrase really means that you'll take whatever the bosses dish out, "for the team." "Team player is code phrase for someone who will allow us to do whatever we want to you," Fleming explains.

    Fast-paced work environment. This means that the employer wants high productivity at all costs and you'll be fielding a steady flow of emergencies. "Fast paced means you're going to work more hours than we're paying you," interprets Ullrich. Some industries, such as journalism or communications, are truly fast paced, but you should already know that going into those fields. "Fast-paced work environment means it's a little bit of a crazy office," says Kate Giannini, senior recruitment manager at Edelman Public Relations in San Francisco.