第一份工作來了：接受還是繼續等待？

Anyone who has searched for a job fresh out of college knows how difficult it is to get that first job. Sending out hundreds of resumes, only to get a few interviews in the end – if you’re lucky! — and if you’re VERY lucky, eventually there’s a job offer on the table.
每一個剛出校園的人都知道找第一份工作有多麼不容易。海投了數百份簡歷，運氣好的話，可以得到幾個面試機會，運氣再好一點，則有可能得到一個工作機會。

Should you take it, or wait for something better to come along the way?
拿到了第一個工作offer，是果斷接受還是等待更好的機會呢？

It depends on whether you are a “maximizer” or a “satisficer,”. Maximizers want to explore every possible option before buying a camera, settling on a television show, ordering takeout, choosing a job. They gather every stick of information in the hope of making the best possible decision, even if they exhaust themselves in the process—and drive themselves mad when they realize, inevitably, there’s more information they missed. If you are a satisficer, however, you make decisions based on the evidence at hand, not all the evidence that might possibly exist anywhere ever.
這取決於你是“完美主義者”還是“易於滿足者”。完美主義者無論是買攝像機、看電視節目、訂購外賣還是選工作，都想要探索每一種可能性。他們收集了自己能找到的每一條信息，以期儘可能做出最好的決定，哪怕付出的代價是讓自己在這個過程中精疲力竭——乃至把自己逼瘋，因爲他們總會不可避免地意識到自己遺漏了某些信息。但是如果你是個易於滿足的人，你做決定的依據就會是手頭掌握的資料，而非可能散落在天涯海角的零散信息。

Simply put, satisficers are more likely to cut their job search short and take the first job offer. Maximizers are more likely to continue searching until a better job offer comes along.
簡單說來，易於滿足的求職者傾向於速戰速決，抓住第一個工作機會。完美主義者則傾向於繼續求職，直到更好的工作機會來臨。

Which type of approach yields the better payoff?
哪種類型的求職者能得到更好的收益？

A maximizer.
完美主義者。

Specifically, quoting the results of a study of the job search of 548 members of the Class of 2002 by Sheena Iyengar, Rachael Wells, and Barry Schwartz, the maximizers put themselves through more contortions in the job hunt. They applied to twenty jobs, on average, while satisficers applied to only ten, and they were significantly more likely to make use of outside sources of information and support. But it turned out to be worth it: the job offers they got were significantly better, in terms of salary, than what the satisficers got.
看一個具體的例子吧。這是一項由希娜-艾揚格、蕾切爾-威爾斯和巴里-施瓦茨針對548名2002屆畢業生求職經歷展開的研究。完美主義者在求職之路上會繞更多的彎子。他們平均申請二十個職位，而易於滿足者只申請十個。而且完美主義者利用外部信息來源和支持的機率要大很多。但是從結果上看，這樣做事值得的：從薪水上看，完美主義者比易於滿足者找到的工作要好得多。

Satisficers were offered jobs with an average starting salary of $37,085; the average starting salary offered to maximizers was $44,515, more than 20 percent higher.
易於滿足者找到的工作，平均起薪是37,085美元；完美主義者拿到的平均起薪則是44,515美元, 高出20%以上。

The trouble is, however, that higher pay doesn’t make maximizers a happier group than satisficers. In fact, maximizers were significantly more likely than satisficers to be unhappy with the offers they accepted.
問題是，更高的薪水並沒有讓完美主義者比易於滿足者更快樂。事實上，完美主義者對自己找到的工作不滿意的機率比易於滿足者要大得多。

Evidently, being a maximizer can help you earn more income, but that income doesn’t buy more happiness, as the maximizer’s likely to agonize over the prospect of a better job offer out there he or she missed. Maximizers may have objectively superior outcomes, but they’re so busy obsessing about all the things that they could have had, they tend to be less happy with the outcomes they do get.
很明顯，完美主義者可以拿到更高的薪水，但高薪並不能買到更多的快樂，因爲完美主義者很可能會患得患失，因爲自己可能得到更好的工作機會而苦惱不已。可能從客觀上講，完美主義者得到的結果更好，但他們太執迷於自己本來可以得到的一切，因此容易對已經得到的結果不那麼滿意。