如何判断你总体职业前景有多好?

How To Tell How Good Your Overall Career Prospects Are?

当我面试候选人时，他们经常问我有关对于他们目前职业处境的看法。他们很想知道在我眼里，就他们目前的状态来看，他们的未来发展究竟如何？他们是否在职业发展正轨上？

When coaching candidates, many want my thoughts on how good I think their career situation is, or how good I feel their career prospects are for the future. They want to get a sense for whether their overall career is in a promising situation, or not.

在我每次回答这样的问题前，我首先会指出目前中国就业市场的两大重要，且又看似矛盾的现实。一方面，现在有越来越多的机会可让中国职业人晋升到高级管理层。另一方面，整个人才市场的竞争相较以前也更加激烈。那么就你个人的职业发展好坏，我是这样的看的。

情况变好,如果你:

It's likely to get better if you're...

• 身处良好的职业发展环境.这样的环境关乎你的责任范围,是否可以接触到国际水准的经理与资源,商业模式,领先的服务与产品,以及职业化的环境。

• 拥有优秀的软技能,如沟通交际能力,问题解决能力,能适应目前国内越发偏重消费行业发展的思维。

• 拥有强大的领导能力.例如:培养发展他人,建立团队,帮助公司发现新机遇等。

• a mainland Chinese in a situation where you have access/exposure to good development opportunities. These can relate to scope of responsibilities, global-caliber managers and resources, best practices, leading products/services, and a professional environment.

  
  

• a mainland Chinese w/strong soft skills, like good communication and people skills, problem-solving skills, and proactive mindset that apply to China’s growing emphasis on developing its consumer and service industries.

  
  

• a mainland Chinese w/strong leadership skills to develop others, build a team, and identify new opportunities for a growing organization, especially w/the constant search for top management talent by leading companies here.

情况变糟,如果你:

It's likely to get worse if you're...

• 你的职业环境制约了你能力的培养.那与市场中的其他人相比,你定会落后。

• 软技能不尽如人意.无法帮助你获得更好的职业机会,达到更高的职业高度,跟上中国日新月异的经济发展。

• 是非本土中国人，且又不懂中文，零中国工作及市场经验，不知道如何在本土市场竞争，如何发现机会。

• a mainland Chinese in a situation where it’s difficult to improve your capabilities and skill sets. Then relative to the rest of the market you’re getting worse.

  
  

• a mainland Chinese w/weak soft skills that are needed to capture attractive opportunities, attain higher levels of success, and keep up w/China’s shifting economic landscape.

  
  

• a non-mainland Chinese w/no China work experience, poor Mandarin skills, and a weak sense of China’s talent and hiring market to know how to compete and identify opportunities.

前途未卜,如果你:

It's hard to tell if it will get better or worse if you're...

• 是非本土中国人，但已经在本土市场工作多年。那你的未来主要取决于你在本土市场取得过怎样的业绩，及未来你对本土市场投入的精力程度。

• a non-mainland Chinese who's worked in China for several years. While it’s still a great market of opportunity, whether you continue to see good ones depends mainly on your track record of success here and continued commitment to this market.

更多机会/更多竞争

More Opportunities, More Competition

作为猎头公司，我们看到，如今跨国公司正致力于将本土的员工培养为关键的管理层及领导层，目标是建立其本土的管理团队，使得高级的职位可以有更好的连续性和稳定性，从而减少他们昂贵的海外招聘开销。事实上，在过去的几年中，大多数我们被授予的总监及以上级别职位的招聘，甚至指定要本土人才。

From what my recruitment firm sees, multinationals are committed to placing local staff into key leadership roles as a key objective to build their local management teams, develop better continuity for their top-level positions, and reduce expensive overseas hires. In fact, most of the hiring mandates we get today for director and above positions even specify a clear preference for local talent.

虽然有更多的晋升机遇可以进入顶级职位，但人才市场和雇主方的持续成熟，使如今就业市场的标准越来越高，竞争越发激烈。例如，在过去，名校毕业，跨国公司工作，海外经历，或MBA学位等能够为你提供绝对的职业竞争优势，但如今，他们已不像以前那样能给雇主留下深刻印象。

But while more opportunities are available into top-level roles, the continuing maturation of both the talent and hiring sides is creating higher standards and more competitive job market realities for everyone. For instance, while attending a top university, working for a multinational, time overseas, or an MBA used to provide clear competitive advantages, they no longer impress employers like before. 

更好的人才评估能力

Better Ability To Assess Talent

雇主对于候选人素质和背景的评估，也更加透彻及规范。他们会更加深入地评估其关键的软技能，职业成熟度，职业兴趣及期望，以及是否适合该角色。过去，雇佣决定通常在HR及招聘经理的面试后就可以完成，如今，你可能需要通过4 – 6位关键人物的面试，其中会包括区域及总部级的高管。

In addition, employers are more thorough and disciplined in assessing the true quality of a person’s background. They go much deeper into evaluating your key soft skills, career interests and expectations, and fit for a role. And where hiring decisions used to be made after interviews with the HR and hiring manager, today you may meet 4-6 people for key positions, including at the regional and HQ levels.

关键是能力

Do You Have The Right Capabilities?

总的来说，本土化的持续深入，越来越多优秀的职业发展资源及国际化接触，意味着你的职业前景将更有利，因为跨国公司会积极寻求全面的、能力出色的经理和高管来担任重要的角色。

但关键是，要抓住这些机会，你需要知道这些高级职位的责任领域，技能要求是哪些，以及如何能展现你相应的能力。无论你觉得如今就业市场的机会是多还是少，这些机会是更容易还是更难获得，关键还是取决于你的实力及你目前的职业处境。换句话说，这主要取决于你对自己的职业发展到底投入了多少精力，成效究竟如何！

The localization emphasis, greater access to career development resources, and more international exposure means strong career prospects for local talent, as multinationals seek well-rounded mainlanders w/the capabilities and qualities to handle bigger roles. That’s the key point though. You need to show your ability to perform in those critical areas for handling these higher-level positions. Whether you feel more or less opportunities in today’s job market, better or worse career prospects for your future, or if these opportunities/prospects well be easier or more difficult to attain depends on who you are and what your current situation is. And this mainly comes down to how proactively and effectively you’re pursuing your career development for this market.