20240913|写求职信到底有什么意义

Business

商业版块

Bartleby

巴托比专栏

The mystery of the cover letter

求职信之谜

Why do recruiters still ask for them?

为什么招聘者依然要求写求职信？

Dear Sir/Madam

敬启者：

You asked for a short cover letter to accompany my application to work in your sales department.

您要求我在申请贵公司销售部门工作时附上一封简短的求职信。

I could spend time telling you that your company is the one place I have always wanted to work.

我可以花时间告诉您，贵公司是我一直想要工作的地方。

My mother tells me that my very first words were Dassault Systemes/Sequoia Capital/change as needed.

我妈妈告诉我，我最早学会说的几个词就是达梭系统/红杉资本/可根据需要任意更改。

I have a tattoo of your logo/founder's face on my lower back.

我在腰部有贵公司的标志/创始人的头像纹身。

I have named all of my pets after your various product lines.

我给我的宠物们取的名字就是贵公司各种产品系列的名字。

I am grateful just to be given the opportunity to be rejected by you.

即使被您拒绝，我也对这个机会深表感激。

But if you do hire me, you won't just be getting an employee, you'll be getting a brand evangelist.

但如果贵公司真的雇佣我，你们得到的将不仅仅是一名员工，还是一个品牌传教士。

Or I could use up precious words exaggerating my experiences and skills.

或者我也能用尽词句来夸耀我的经历和技能。

To pick out just a few, in a previous role I inherited a team with annual revenues of $10m and quadrupled them in less than three minutes.

举几个例子，在之前的职位上，我接手了一个年收入1000万美元的团队，用了不到三分钟就使年收入增长了四倍。

I have lived in all of the world's most important emerging markets, and speak fluent Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish and Portuguese.

我在世界上所有最重要的新兴国家都生活过，能流利地说普通话、印地语、西班牙语和葡萄牙语。

I can sign in all these languages, too.

我也会这些语言的手语。

I once negotiated a multilateral trade treaty on my own.

我曾经独立谈判过一项多边贸易协定。

In my spare time I like to meditate, kickbox and teach underprivileged children how to read.

在业余时间，我喜欢冥想、练跆拳道，并教贫困儿童如何阅读。

If I am extremely busy, I do all three of these things at once.

如果我非常忙，我会同时做这三件事。

Or I could devote paragraphs to describing my problem-solving credentials.

或者我可以用好几段来描述我的问题解决资历。

To do so, I would use the STAR(situation, task, action and result) method that your own website says is a crucial part of your interview process.

为此，我会用STAR方法（情境、任务、行动和结果），贵公司网站上说这是面试流程中的关键部分。

To take just one example, I previously worked for a chickpea distributor in Alaska.

举个例子，我之前在阿拉斯加的一个鹰嘴豆经销商那里工作过。

A colleague was underperforming badly and I was asked to mentor him.

一个同事业绩很不好，我被派去指导他的工作。

I worked intensively with him, accompanying him on all his client calls until I transformed his numbers and he became the best-performing salesperson in the entire chickpea industry.

我与他密切合作，每次拜访客户时都陪同他一起去，直到我改变了他的业绩，使他成为整个鹰嘴豆行业里业绩最好的销售。

As a result, the bastard was promoted to run the department and I find myself looking for work.

结果，那个混蛋被提拔为部门负责人，而我则还在找工作。

Or I could tell you more about my character and values.

或者我也可以告诉你我有什么性格和价值观。

I am passionate about everything, which some might say shows a complete lack of discrimination.

我对一切都充满激情，有人可能会说这显示了我完全没有辨别力。

I have a growth mindset: growth means more to me than anything! (That's a joke, code for showing that I understand that work should be fun, too.)

我有成长思维：对我来说，成长比任何事情都重要！（这是个笑话，也是一个秘密代码，表明我明白工作也应该是有趣的。）

I am extremely resilient: this is the 435th cover letter that I have sent out in the past month, even though your company is the only place I truly want to work.

我非常有韧性：这是我在过去一个月发送的第435封求职信，虽然贵公司才是我真正想工作的唯一地方。

I am led by the data and have a strong sense of purpose.

我以数据为导向，有强烈的使命感。

I am focused on results and believe in the power of kindness.

我专注于结果，也相信善良的力量。

And so on and so forth.

诸如此类等等。

Or I could just use this letter as an excuse to repeat keywords from the job advertisement for this position.

或者我也可以把这封信当作一个借口，重复职位招聘广告中的关键词。

In fact, that's basically all I have been doing so far, with the exception of "chickpea" and "bastard".

实际上，除了“鹰嘴豆”和“混蛋”之外，这基本上是我到目前为止一直在做的事情。

Passionate, problem-solving, purpose? Tick. Tick. Tick.

充满激情、解决问题、目标明确？打勾。打勾。打勾。（这些我都有。）

I smuggled "code" in there, too, as a subliminal signal that I might be able to program.

我还在信中夹带了“代码”这个词，作为一个潜意识信号，表明我可能会编程。

But I could always spend more of my word count on things that you have told me you want.

但我可以用更多篇幅来写一写你们想要的东西，反正你们已经告诉我了。

Dynamic. Goal-oriented. Persuasive. Confident. Proven.

有活力，目标导向，雄辩，自信。这些都被证实了。

Or I could ask what the hell is the point of me writing a cover letter at all?

或者我也可以问，写求职信到底有什么意义？

If the idea is to prove that I am willing to put in extra time, then ChatGPT has reduced the effort of writing a generic cover letter to almost nothing.

如果写求职信是为了证明我愿意投入额外的时间，那么ChatGPT已经将写一封通用求职信的工作量减少到几乎为零。

You would be better off insisting that all applicants submit a handwritten note and train their own pigeon to deliver it directly to your offices.

您还不如要求所有申请人提交手写便条，并训练他们自己的鸽子直接将便条送到您的办公室。

Nor are you likely to get a lot of new information out of this letter.

您也不太可能从这封信中获得多少新信息。

I know you have to filter people out somehow.

我知道贵公司必须以某种方式筛选人员。

But wouldn't getting us to do some kind of aptitude or personality test tell you more about my candidacy?

但是，让我们做某种天赋或性格测试会不会告诉你更多关于我的应聘资格的信息呢？

I can make all of the same boasts in the CV you also asked for, and on LinkedIn (where I may be less likely to make things up).

我可以在你们要求的简历和领英上同样夸耀自己（在领英我不太可能撒谎）。

I have followed all of the usual advice on cover letters, as has almost every other applicant.

我遵循了所有关于求职信的常规建议，几乎所有其他申请人也是如此。

I am playing your own words back to you, as I have already admitted.

我正在将你们的话原封不动地送回给你们，这我已经承认了。

I have been careful to use lots of action verbs, like "transformed" and "quadrupled", to reinforce the impression that I am an entrepreneurial go-getter with a hunter mentality. Tick. Tick. Tick.

我注意使用了许多行为动词，比如“改变”和“增加四倍”，以加强我是一个具有企业家和实干精神以及猎人心态的印象。打勾。打勾。打勾。

In other words, this is almost certainly a waste of your time and mine.

换句话说，写求职信几乎肯定是浪费您和我的时间。

The only defensible argument that I can think of for requesting a cover letter is that you might stumble across something a bit different.

我能想到的唯一站得住脚的要求一封求职信的理由，就是您可能会偶然遇到一些不同寻常的东西。

You might even come across a candidate honest enough to tell you what they think and memorable enough to warrant an interview.

您甚至可能找到一个诚实地说出真正的想法，而又令人难忘的、值得进行面试的候选人。

I look forward to meeting you in person soon.

我期待着不久后与您见面。

Yours sincerely,

祝好

Frank Lee

弗兰克·李