为了找到一份好工作，谈谈你为什么热爱它

When interviewing for your next job, how can you impress your recruiter and increase your chances of securing a job offer? Of course you may wish to emphasize your ambitions and goals you hope to achieve as a result of working at the company — your extrinsic motivation for the job. But to what extent should you also emphasize your love for your work and what you hope to achieve as part of the process of working at the company? This comprises your intrinsic motivation for the job, and most of us understand how important it can be to sustained engagement at work; but do recruiters care to hear this?

在面试下一份工作时，你怎样才能给招聘人员留下好印象，并增加你获得工作机会的机会？当然，你可能希望强调你在公司工作的雄心和目标——你工作的外在动机。但在何种程度上，你还应该强调自己对工作的热爱，以及在公司工作过程中希望达到的目标？这包括你对这份工作的内在动机，我们大多数人都知道持续参与工作是多么重要；但是招聘人员是否愿意听到这些呢？

Our research suggests that they do — and that job applicants aren’t taking advantage of that. Indeed, we have found that people fail to predict the power of such a statement of intrinsic motivation on the impression they make.

我们的研究表明确实如此，而求职者并没有利用这一点。事实上，我们发现人们无法预测这种内在动机的陈述对他们给人的印象的影响。

To examine this prediction problem — the discrepancy between what candidates think will impress recruiters and what recruiters actually find impressive — we surveyed 1428 full-time employees and MBA students across five studies. Some provided their predictions, guessing what recruiters would find impressive when hiring a job candidate. Others told us what they actually valued when making hiring decisions.

为了研究这个预测问题——这两个问题的分歧：求职者认为什么会给招聘者留下深刻印象，什么会给招聘者留下深刻印象——我们在五项研究中调查了1428名全职员工和MBA学生。一些人提供了自己的猜测，猜测招聘人员在招聘求职者时会对哪些职位印象深刻。其他人告诉我们，在做招聘决定时，他们真正看重的是什么。

As a first test, we asked full-time employees to view several statements that they could make during a job interview. Some statements emphasized intrinsic motivation, for example, wanting a job that is interesting and meaningful. Other statements emphasized extrinsic motivation, for example, caring for career advancement and financial security. Candidates indicated how impressive they thought each statement was for recruiters. Another group of employees viewed these same statements and told us how impressed they would be by a job candidate who expressed each of these during an interview. Whereas job candidates accurately predicted how impressed recruiters would be by statements of extrinsic motivation, these individuals failed to realize how much recruiters would be impressed by expressions of intrinsic motivation. Emphasizing love for a particular job was more important for recruiters than candidates anticipated.

作为第一个测试，我们要求全职员工查看他们在工作面试中可能说的话。一些描述强调内在动机，例如，想要一份有趣而有意义的工作。其他描述强调外在动机，例如，关心职业发展和财务安全。应聘者表示，他们认为每一份简历对招聘人员来说都是多么令人印象深刻。另一组员工看到了同样的描述，并告诉我们，如果一个求职者在面试中表达了这些观点，他们会对这个求职者印象深刻。尽管求职者准确地预测了招聘人员对外在动机的描述的印象有多么深刻，但这些人没有意识到招聘人员对内在动机的表达的印象也会有多么深刻。对招聘人员来说，强调对某份工作的热爱比应聘者预期的更重要。

We found this same pattern — that people fail to predict the value of expressing intrinsic motivation — when the roles were reversed. In this study, recruiters predicted what recruits find appealing in a company and what would convince them to accept a job offer. Specifically, we asked MBA students to view statements about company culture, including current employees’ intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and predict how useful each one is in convincing an admitted candidate to join the company. Other MBAs viewed these same statements and told us whether they would accept a job offer from a company who expressed each of these in its culture. Whereas recruiters correctly predicted that recruits wanted to work at a company where the culture emphasized extrinsic motivation, they underestimated how much recruits valued working at a company where the culture emphasized intrinsic motivation. Emphasizing that employees find their job interesting and meaningful impressed job candidates more than those in the role of recruiter anticipated.

我们发现，当角色互换时，人们无法预测表达内在动机的价值。在这项研究中，招聘人员预测了应聘者对公司的吸引力，以及什么能说服他们接受这份工作。具体来说，我们让MBA学生查看关于公司文化的描述，包括当前员工的内在和外在动机，并预测每一项陈述在说服被录取的求职者加入公司方面有多有用。其他MBA学生看到了同样的描述，并告诉我们他们是否会接受这样的工作机会：在企业文化中表达了上述观点的公司。尽管招聘人员正确地预测到，新员工希望在一家文化强调外部动机的公司工作，但他们低估了新员工对在一家文化强调内在动机的公司工作的重视程度。强调员工觉得自己的工作有趣且有意义，会给求职者留下比招聘人员预期的印象更深刻的印象。

Why do candidates, and recruiters, underestimate how much others value intrinsic motivation? We found that although people know that they care about intrinsic motivation, they don’t know that others also care about this just as much. People’s lack of awareness that others value intrinsic motivation influences what they say when trying to impress others.

为什么求职者和招聘人员会低估其他人对内在动机的重视程度？我们发现，尽管人们知道他们关心的是内在动机，但他们不知道其他人也同样关心这个。人们没有意识到别人看重内在动机，这影响了他们在试图给别人留下深刻印象时所说的话。

This failure to appreciate that others care to be intrinsically motivated has consequences for what we say in job interviews. In one study, we asked MBA students to choose a pitch for a job interview: One pitch emphasized intrinsic motivation (e.g., “I love doing my work”) and the other pitch emphasized extrinsic motivation (e.g., “the position would be a great place for me to advance my career”). If students chose the pitch that the majority of recruiters (another group of MBAs) selected as more convincing, they could be eligible to win a prize. We found that while only 43% of the candidates chose the intrinsic pitch, 69.5% of the recruiters thought it was superior and more likely to land the job.

这种未能意识到别人关心的是内在的动机对我们在工作面试中所说的话有影响。在一项研究中，我们让MBA学生为求职面试选择一种说辞：一种强调内在动机（比如，“我喜欢做我的工作”），另一种强调外在动机（比如，“这个职位对我的职业发展很有帮助”）。如果学生们选择了大多数招聘人员（另一组MBA）认为更有说服力的方案，他们就有资格获得奖金。我们发现，虽然只有43%的求职者选择了固有的推销方式，但69.5%的招聘人员认为这种方式更好，更有可能得到这份工作。

How can job seekers ensure they emphasize motivations that recruiters care for? One tip is to take the recruiter’s perspective. We asked employees to view two job pitches that emphasized either intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, and to the choose one that would impress a recruiter. Before choosing, we instructed one group to take the recruiter’s perspective. This group first considered who they would hire if they were the recruiter, before choosing a pitch they believed would impress a recruiter. The other group did not take the recruiters’ perspective before choosing.

求职者如何确保他们强调了招聘人员所关心的动机？有一个技巧是站在招聘人员的角度。我们让员工看两种强调内在动机或外在动机的工作方式，以及选择一种能给招聘人员留下深刻印象的工作方式。在选择之前，我们指导一组人从招聘人员的角度考虑问题。这群人首先考虑如果他们是招聘人员他们会雇佣谁，然后选择一个他们认为能给招聘人员留下深刻印象的职位。另一组在选择之前没有考虑招聘人员的观点。

Perspective-taking helped those in the role of job candidate better intuit that recruiters are impressed by intrinsic motivation, leading 45.9% of them to choose this message compared with only 31.7% who did not take the recruiters’ perspective.

换位思考能帮助那些扮演求职者角色的人更好地直觉地意识到招聘者对内在动机印象深刻，他们中有45.9%的人选择了这种信息，而没有采取招聘者观点的人只有31.7%。

The takeaway is clear: candidates interviewing for a job should highlight the meaning they derive from their work, and recruiters looking to attract job candidates should emphasize that their employees do work they love. Engaging in perspective taking — putting yourself in the other person’s shoes — is one way to ensure intrinsic motivation is emphasized.

结果很明显：求职者面试时应该强调他们从工作中获得的意义，而招聘人员为了吸引求职者，应该强调他们的员工做着自己喜欢的工作。从不同角度看待问题——设身处地为别人着想——是确保内在动力得到强调的一种方式。