跳槽正當時:現在是離職的黃金期嗎?

Dear Annie:

親愛的安妮：

A friend sent me your recent column about eight signs it's time to quit, and all eight of them apply to me. I would like nothing better than to leave the company where I work now. My performance reviews have been great, but this is a family-owned business, and I've come to realize over the past couple of years that nobody gets promoted (or gets a raise) unless they have the same last name as the CEO.

一位朋友給我看了你最近的一篇專欄，內容是辭職時機成熟的八個徵兆，而我的情況完全符合。我現在最想的，就是離開目前任職的公司。我的績效評估很出色，但是這是一家家族企業。我這幾年才意識到，除了首席執行官自家的人，沒有人能獲得晉升（或加薪）。

So it's clearly time to move on, and I've rewritten my resume to reflect the terrific track record I've built up as a brand manager since I graduated from college 12 years ago. But is there any point in going out looking? We keep hearing that 15 million Americans are unemployed, the job market is terrible, nobody's hiring, etc., etc. Should I start job hunting anyway, or just try to make the best of things here until the economy improves? — Hitting a Brick Wall.

顯然，現在是時候告別過去了。我重寫了自己的簡歷，展示了自己大學畢業12年以來作爲品牌經理的優秀業績。但是，現在跳槽靠譜嗎？我們不斷聽說，多達1,500萬美國人正處於失業狀態，就業形勢很不樂觀，沒有一家公司在招聘，等等，等等。我是否應該不管不顧開始找工作，還是在經濟好轉前，盡力在現在這家公司做到最好？——走到盡頭的人。

Dear HBW:

親愛的走到盡頭的人：

"The constant barrage of lackluster employment news can make finding a new job seem like an impossible goal," says John Challenger, CEO of outplacement giant Challenger, Gray & Christmas. "It is not."

“就業市場低迷的新聞鋪天蓋地，讓人們覺得找到一份新工作似乎是一個不可能實現的目標，”再就業諮詢行業巨頭Challenger, Gray & Christmas公司首席執行官約翰·恰林傑說。“但事實並非如此。”

That's especially true in your case, for at least two reasons. First, you already have a job. It's no secret that employers (loath as they may be to admit it) often give preference to the already employed. "Unfortunately, there is a stigma attached to being out of work," says Geoff Hoffmann, chief operating officer of global recruiters DHR International. "There are ways to mitigate it but, yes, a gap in a resume does create apprehension." Since you are working now, the 15 million unemployed are not your main competition.

尤其是你這種情況，原因至少有兩點。第一，你現在有一份工作。雖然僱主或許不願承認，但是他們常常優先考慮已經有工作的應聘者，這已經不是什麼祕密了。“不幸的是，失業確實是一個污點，”招聘公司DHR國際（DHR International）的首席運營官傑夫·霍夫曼稱。“當然，可以找到辦法來淡化失業造成的影響，但是，簡歷上的空窗期確實會讓僱主產生憂慮。”既然你現在有工作，那麼1,500萬失業人羣並非你的主要競爭對象。

Which brings us to a second advantage you may not realize you have: your college degree. The overall U.S. unemployment rate, while lower than it's been for three years, is still dauntingly high at 8.5%. But that figure doesn't apply to every segment of the workforce. For people with a high school diploma but no college degree, for instance, the rate is 8.8%. By contrast, for folks like you with a bachelor's degree or higher, joblessness is at 4.3%, or less than half the aggregate rate.

下面，再來看看你的第二個優勢，你自己或許都沒有意識到，這就是你的大學學歷。美國整體失業率雖然比過去三年都要低，但是仍然達到了驚人的8.5%。但是，這一數據並不適用於所有類別的勞動羣體。例如，擁有高中文憑但沒有大學學位的人，失業率爲8.8%。相比之下，像你這樣擁有學士學位或更高學歷的人，失業率僅爲4.3%，不到整體失業率的一半。

(To put that 4.3% in perspective, it wasn't long ago that economists considered 6% to equal "full employment" — meaning that unemployment is at the lowest point it can go, given seasonal and structural variations in workforce participation — and, obviously, 4.3% is well below that.)

（再來看看這個4.3%。不久之前，經濟學家認爲，6%的失業率可等於“充分就業”。也就是考慮到參與工作人羣的季節性和結構性變化，這已經是失業率所能達到的最低水平。顯然，4.3%遠低於“充分就業”點。）

"Headlines and sound bites mask enormous discrepancies in unemployment among different groups," notes Robert Hellmann, an executive coach who teaches career management at New York University. "For those with bachelor's degrees and some years of solid work experience, the job market is nowhere near as hopeless as people think, so do look around." The key, he adds, is to focus your search on industries that are thriving.

“報紙和廣播電視報道掩蓋了不同羣體間失業率的巨大差異，”紐約大學（New York University）的職業管理高級指導羅伯特·赫爾曼指出。“對於擁有本科學位和幾年紮實工作經驗的人來說，就業市場遠非人們想象的那麼無望，所以，務必四處尋找機會。”他補充說，關鍵在於把重點放在發展勢頭強勁的行業。

DHR's Hoffmann agrees: "Financial services, real estate, and construction are still weak. But from where we sit, it looks like almost everyone else is gearing up for growth. At the senior management level, we're seeing a lot of hiring that is expansionary, not just replacement hiring." You can get a new job now, Hoffmann adds, if you "understand which sectors are hot, and where the appetite for talent is."

DHR國際公司的霍夫曼對此表示贊同：“金融服務、房地產和建築業仍然疲弱。但是，在我們看來，好像幾乎所有其他行業都在蓄勢待發，謀求增長。我們發現，高級管理層中出現了許多擴張性的招聘，而不僅僅只是替換性的招聘。”霍夫曼補充說，只要“瞭解哪些行業屬於熱門，哪些行業需要人才”，現在就有希望找到新的工作。

Even in struggling industries, pockets of opportunity exist. Consider: Financial job board reported last week that Wall Street firms have posted 54% more sales-and-marketing openings than last year at this time.

即便在處境艱難的行業，也存在大把的機會。想想吧，金融就業平臺上週剛剛發佈報告稱，華爾街企業現在發佈的銷售和營銷職位比去年同期增加了54%。

Or look at retailing. A new study by workforce-management software maker Kronos shows monthly hires bouncing back from their recessionary lows, and suggests that the retail industry could make a "significant recovery" in 2012.

再來看看零售業。勞動力管理軟件製造商Kronos的一項新研究表明，每月的僱傭數量開始從衰退時期的低點反彈；報告同時稱，2012年，零售業有望“顯著復甦”。

Some of the job growth is behind the scenes. The New York City design department of Wisconsin-based Kohl's Department Stores, for instance, manages 13 designer brands and has just announced its third expansion since 2007. The office started with 30 employees and now has 140. "I've got clients who have moved into retailing from other businesses like publishing," says Hellmann.

還有一些就業增長則沒有進入外界的視線。舉個例子，總部位於威斯康辛州的科爾百貨公司（Kohl's Department Stores）在紐約市的設計部門管理着13個設計師品牌，而它剛剛宣佈將進行2007年以來的第三次擴張。這家公司的設計部門最開始只有30名員工，現在員工數已經達到了140。赫爾曼說：“我有一些客戶就從出版業等其他行業轉行進入了零售業。”

"It's still a buyer's market, but the opportunities are there if you look for them," he adds. So by all means, start looking.

“現在仍然是買方市場，但是隻要做個有心人，就能找到機會，”他補充道。因此，無論如何，一定要行動起來。