我知道你在想什么，“谈谈我的不足和缺点？！？这怎么能说服雇主，虽然我以前从来没做过这工作但我相信我能做好？这不是扯淡嘛！” 

是的，你的反应很正常。我知道让你和潜在雇主谈论你的差距和弱点是有点逆向思维。但是接下来我会告诉你，为什么提到这些会比继续高谈阔论你的优点要更具说服力。

Yes, that’s a reasonable reaction. I know that talking to a potential employer about your gaps and weaknesses is counter-intuitive. But here’s why mentioning these things is much more convincing than continuing to talk about your strengths. 

雇主比你更了解实际情况！

因为当你面试一份未曾接触过的工作岗位时，招聘经理要比你懂得多，他更加了解这个职位的实际情况以及所要面临的挑战。而他最担心的，莫过于你高估了自己完成任务的能力，或者低估了你要面临的挑战。

Because when interviewing with the hiring manager for a position you lack experience doing, you’re speaking with someone who knows the realities and challenges of the role and what you’ll face much better than you. And his biggest concern is that you’re overestimating your ability to do the job he needs you to do, and/or underestimating the situation you’ll be facing. 

所以每当你告诉他，“我很有信心我能胜任这份工作。”你只是让他进一步确认了他对你的看法，那就是，你根本不知道你不知道。这不是雇主想要招的人，尤其当这是一份你从未做过的工作。

So every time you tell him, “I’m very confident I can do this job.” you’re just reinforcing to him what he’s thinking about you. Which is, you don’t know what you don’t know. That’s not a person that employers want to hire. Especially, for a position that you haven’t done before. 

恰恰相反，让别人相信你能成功的方法，就是让他们知道你对你的状况很清楚。这叫作自我意识，对雇主来说，这是一个非常吸引人的品质。尤其是你需要说服他们相信你可以很快地适应一个新的职位。你要告诉他们你很清楚自己需要克服哪些困难，以及你打算如何去克服。

Instead, the way to convince others you can be successful in their opportunity is by sounding like you know exactly what you’re getting into. It’s called self-awareness, and it’s a very attractive quality to employers. Especially ones that you need to convince you can quickly learn a new position. You show them that you clearly know what you’ll need to overcome, and how you plan to do it. 

要与众不同

举个例子，我们最近有一位候选人，他正在面试我们客户的一个与投资相关的职位。他有很强的战略咨询背景，但从未接触过投资领域。但我们的客户很喜欢他在洁净技术领域的行业背景(约占他咨询项目的50%)，而这正是客户的主要投资方向。

As an example, we recently had a candidate who was interviewing for an investment position with one of our clients. He had a strong strategy consulting background, but no previous investment experience. But our client liked his clean-tech industry background (about 50% of his consulting projects), which was their main investment focus. 

为了帮候选人提前准备招聘经理的面试，我让他说服我他能胜任这个投资角色。候选人分享了他对洁净技术行业的看法，以及他如何成为原来公司的顶级咨询顾问。他还谈到了自己在数据分析和金融建模方面的能力。这些都很好。但随后他开始简化这个职位所面临的挑战，并说他是如何确信自己能胜任这个角色。

To prep the candidate for the hiring manager interview, I told him to convince me that he could handle this investment role. He shared his knowledge of the clean-tech industry, and how he was viewed as a top consultant in his company. He also talked about his analytical and financial modeling skills. This was all fine. But then he began simplifying the challenges of the position and saying how he was certain that he could perform the role well.

我告诉他，“要知道，如果你所说的和他人没什么不同，那么最终结果就是我们的客户不录用你。如果你真的想要得到这份工作，那就说一些与众不同的吧。”

I told him, “You know, that’s exactly what every person with a background like yours sounds like that our client ends up not hiring. If you want this job, say something different from all these other candidates.”

告诉他们目前什么是你不知道的，

什么是你还做不到的

我告诉他，要想向别人更好地展示你的成熟度、可信度和高度，那就先承认自己需要克服的缺点和不足。招聘经理肯定会注意到你的缺点。所以不用担心，先指出自己的不足。这可以展示你对将要面对的挑战和你需要做的事情的自我意识，你会给人留下很好的印象。

I told him that what shows others your maturity, credibility, and stature more is your recognition of the gaps and challenges that you knows you’ll need to overcome. The hiring manager is going notice your shortcomings. So don’t be afraid to point them out first. By mentioning what the hiring manager is already thinking about you, you make a very good impression, not a bad one. By showing your self-awareness of what you’ll be facing and what you need to do.

说完这些，我让他告诉我，如果他被录用，他需要克服的三个主要的不足和挑战。他告诉我，首先，他需要突破市场和战略的层面，在产品和技术层面更深地了解洁净技术。第二，他需要学习如何评估一家公司的整体业务，而不仅仅是他们的市场和所面临的竞争。第三，他必须了解公司是如何看待和拓展新的投资机会。

After saying this, I then told him to tell me the three biggest gaps and challenges that in his mind he’d need to overcome if he was hired. He told me that, one, he’d need to go beyond a market and strategic level and understand clean-tech at a product and technology level. Two, he needed to learn how to assess the entire business of a company, and not just their market and competition. And three, he’d have to learn how the company approached and viewed new investment opportunities. 

重点是，要在更深层次上理解事物。对我来说，这听起来完全正确。他了解洁净技术行业，但并没有深入到产品、技术和业务执行的层面，而这些是所有成功的投资人士需要评估和管理的东西。

Essentially, understand things at a much deeper level. That sounded absolutely right to me. He had an understanding of the clean-tech industry, but not really at a product, technology, and business execution level. All things that successful investment professionals need to assess and manage.

你要怎样才可以迅速进入状态？

But then how you’re going to get up to speed!

在提到这些缺点和不足之后，我让他告诉我，他会如何克服这些不足，并分享他曾经历过的在新环境下快速学习和工作的经历。他到底是怎么做到的呢？

After mentioning these gaps and weaknesses, I then asked him to tell me how he’d overcome them. And to share similar situations he’s been in before where he’s had to quickly learn and perform in a new situation. And how exactly did he do it?

他说，他经常被安排去做公司中最重要、最具挑战性的咨询项目。例如，他去年就被分配到了一个已经延误了很久的项目中，时间非常紧迫。

He said that he’s often assigned to his company’s most critical, most challenging consulting engagements. For example，he was dropped into the middle of one last year that was far behind schedule, and where there was a huge urgency to what he needed to do. 

为了快速了解客户的业务，他直接去找到公司CEO，问他:“如果你是我，需要尽快了解你公司的整体业务，你会先和谁谈？”然后是谁？其次呢？”

To understand the client’s business quickly, he went directly to the CEO and asked him, “If you were me and needed to understand your company’s overall business as quickly as possible, who would you talk to first? And then who? And then who after that?”

他讲述了在这短短的几天内他是如何与这些人交流的，不仅是在办公室，在午餐时、晚餐时、下午茶时，甚至是在周末，以及与他人沟通的能力，如何让这些人与他分享他想知道的一切。这是一个很好的例子，说明他是多么的积极主动和足智多谋。

He described how he met all these people in a few days. Not just in the office, but over lunch, dinner, drinks, even on weekends. And how his ability to connect with others got them to share with him whatever he wanted to know. It was a great example of how proactive and resourceful he could be.

为了提高他在投资方面的能力以及对商业运作的理解，他谈到了他的朋友圈，他有一些在风险投资和私募领域工作的朋友，以及一些自主创业的朋友。这不是偶然。他原本就对这些朋友所做的事就很感兴趣。所以他马上要做的另一件事就是去找他们汲取知识。最后，他提到在业余时间，他会阅读投资分析报告，就像有些人会关心明星八卦一样。他让我看到了他对投资行业的浓厚兴趣，以及能够帮助他快速了解行业的强大的人脉关系。

To get up to speed on his investment skills and understanding of business operations, he talked about his network of friends who worked in VC and PC firms, and others who ran their own business. This wasn’t by accident. He was naturally interested in what they did. So another thing he’d immediately do is get together with them and “pick their brains” for everything related to his role. Finally, he mentioned that in his spare time, he read investment analyst reports, just like some people might read celebrity news. He painted a very good picture of his genuine interest in the investment world and the personal resources he could access to understand it better. 

我告诉他他做得不错。之后我们客户和他的面试进行得很顺利，他们后来告诉我们，候选人表现得很自信，但也很接地气，对他所知道的和他所不知道的事情都有脚踏实地的态度。因为对他的这种印象，客户最后录用了他。

Not bad, I told him. He had a very good interview with our client who told us afterwards that our candidate came across as confident, but also down-to-earth and grounded about what he knew and what he didn’t know. From this impression of him, they made him an offer that our candidate accepted.

当然，你总是希望在雇主面前表现得自信从容。但是你不需要向别人强调你多么多么好，或者一直保证你可以很好地完成任务。最好是通过向别人展示你的自我意识来表现适当的自信。尤其是当你没太多经验，但你很想抓住这个机会的时候。

Of course, you always want to be confident in front of potential employers. But you don’t need or even want to do this by selling yourself hard and just repeating how sure you are that you can do whatever they need you to do. Better to balance your confidence by showing others your self-awareness too. Especially, when trying to capture an opportunity that you don’t have much experience doing before.