本文从雇主的视角告诉我们应聘者需要具备什么样的技能和潜质。准备找工作的人或正忙着找工作的人都应该好好看看这篇文章。
Qualities Employers Seek
Knowing what an employer is looking for in a potential employee can help an applicant to prepare for an interview①. An interviewer for a major corporation was asked these questions: What specific skills are you looking for in applicants? And how do you identify these skills? He responded:
The most important for us in the way of skills is the ability to communicate — Can people speak clearly? Can they articulate the kind of person they believe themselves to be? In what kind of work situations do they perform well? What are their strengths and weaknesses? We want to know about the personal qualities of the individual, so I try to ask questions to draw them out and attempt to find out if they have a sense of themselves. If they do have good communication skills, they will be able to do this logically and concisely．
I am looking for creativity — Can they be instinctive? I will ask some “offthewall”questions just to see if this throws them. How do they respond in these tough situations — can they be creative with their answers? This is very important when they are out in business situations with customers. They will have to respond to very sudden changes and problemsolving situations that they are not necessarily familiar with, and I want to know if they can handle them．
What we look for the most are personal qualities — assertiveness, selfmotivation, drive, ambition, and a competitive instinct. They should be high achievers and want to work hard. I can usually tell about these qualities from the way the person presents himself or herself and some of the activities they have engaged in. I pick up things from the applications and resume — how they have written them and the kinds of things they say. How they present their experiences is often very informative. For example, an assertive person will say, “I can do these things”and “I decided on this course of action”,whereas a more passive person might say, “These are the experiences I have had．”All of these things describe the person in some way．
［372 words］
文章开篇指明作者的写作意图：了解雇主寻求的雇员的素质,有助于应聘者为面试做准备。从第二段开始，通过一位大公司面试官的回答，具体阐述了雇主寻求的雇员素质：the ability to communicate，creativity，personal qualitiesassertiveness, selfmotivation, drive, ambition,
