招聘也讲究气味相投

    进入一家知名律师事务所或管理咨询公司工作就像是一场精英教育制度的博弈：最可能胜出的是那些文凭最高的人，其次可能是那些拥有高层关系的求职者。但是你下班后玩什么以及跟你一起玩是否有意思，这一点可能会比你想象的更重要。

    西北大学（Northwestern University）进行的一项新研究表明，在恰当的点上表现得出色，能够让你顺利晋级第二轮面试。表现得可爱一点，或者与你的面试官具有颇多类似之处，对于获得专业服务企业的职位来说可能非常关键。这种关联性能够让这些求职者相比其他人来说更有优势，尽管其他人可能能力更强，但他们却缺乏跟面试官相同的文化兴趣。

    根据《美国社会学评论》（American Sociological Review）12月刊发表的一篇研究论文，雇主们与求职者见面以了解其认知或者技术能力时，他们重视的是舒适、肯定或者兴奋的感觉。一些面试者甚至放宽规则，促使那些与其自身文化或社会经济背景类似的求职者晋级下一轮。如果面试者跟某些求职者擦出了火花，他们会有意识地降低这些求职者的技术门槛。

    西北大学管理学副教授劳拉﹒里维拉称：“因为工作时间很长，我很想要选择一个与我合得来，我也愿意与之相处的人。”她说，通常雇主们想要的是“能够成为他们的朋友”，甚至恋人的人选。

    在里维拉的研究中，一位投资银行家表示，他看重求职者的社交适合度，因为“人们与同事相处的时间要远比与老婆孩子和朋友相处的时间长……所以，你可能是有史以来最聪明的人，但我不在乎。我需要的是能够每天跟你相处得舒服……然后下班后一起喝喝小酒。我需要的是志趣相投。”

    里维拉采访过在投资银行、律师事务所和管理咨询机构工作的120位专业人士。他们都是在职的专业人员，并不从事人力资源工作或者招聘事务。他们被分派对来自常春藤盟校的本科生或者研究生进行面试。所有求职者都是人们眼中的精英，因为他们都来自顶尖高校。

    里维拉表示，这些职业人士都被告知，要雇佣那些头脑聪明、沟通能力出色、社交能力突出的人选，但是对于如何评估这些特质并没有给出相应的指导方针。“因此他们把自己当成了标杆来判断‘那个人是否能够胜任工作？’

    里维拉说，她出人意料地发现，在那些员工们经常出差、每周工作时间超过70小时的企业，求职者的休闲活动异常重要。她指出，这可能反映了面试者的观点，那就是工作应该是很有趣的，“你不仅仅是雇佣一名工作者，而是雇佣了整个人。”

    她表示：“一旦人们投入自己的事业，就没有时间来继续做这些业余活动”，参加马拉松赛跑就能赢得地位的几家公司除外。

    Getting into an elite law firm or management consulting firm may seem like a game of meritocracy: may the best-credentialed win, and may those with well-placed connections come in second. But what you play and whether you'd be fun to play around with after work may count much more than you think.

    Excelling in the right sport could advance you to a second interview, and being likable -- or a look-alike to your interviewer -- may be crucial to landing a position at professional services firms, according to new research from Northwestern University. Such connections could give candidates an advantage over someone more qualified who doesn't share the same cultural interests or background as their interviewer.

    Employers value feelings of comfort, validation, or excitement when meeting with job candidates over a prospect's superior cognitive or technical skills, according to the research paper published in the American Sociological Review's December issue. Some interviewers even bent the rules to advance a candidate with a similar cultural or socio-economic background as their own. They would consciously lower the technical bar for candidates with whom they had a great spark.

    "Because of the long hours on the job, I really want to select someone who I would personally get along with and would like," says Lauren A. Rivera, an assistant professor of management  at Northwestern University.  Often, employers want someone "who will be their friend" or even a lover, she says.

    One investment banker in Rivera's study said he emphasized a candidate's social fit because "you will see way more of your co-workers than your wife, your kinds your friends…. So you can be the smartest guy ever, but I don't care. I need to be comfortable working everyday with you … and then going for a beer after. You need chemistry."

    Rivera interviewed 120 professionals at investment banks, law firms, and a management consultancy. All were working professionals, not human resources professionals or recruiters, who were sent out to interview undergraduate or graduate students from Ivy League schools. All the candidates were considered talented because of their affiliation with those top universities.

    Often, these professionals were told to hire people who were intelligent, great communicators, and had solid social skills, with no guidelines on how to evaluate those qualities, Rivera says. "So they use themselves as a proxy to judge 'is that person going to be good on the job?'"

    Rivera says she found it surprising that leisure activities mattered so much at firms where workers often travel all week and devote 70-plus hours to their jobs, suggesting that it might reflect the interviewers' notions that work should be fun, and "you're not just hiring a worker, you're hiring a whole person."

    "No one has any time to pursue these extracurricular activities once they get in their career," she says, except at a few firms where running marathons gives you status.