考研英语阅读命题思路透析和真题揭秘(57)

Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet. He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site's personal search agent. It's an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database. Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C. Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening. "I struck gold," says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.

With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient. Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases. But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks. Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: "Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility." says one expert.

For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept--what you think you want to do--then broaden it. "None of these programs do that," says another expert. "There‘s no career counseling implicit in all of this." Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database；when you get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again. "I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me," says the author of a job-searching guide.

Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return. When CareerSite's agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs--those it considers the best matches. There may be more matches in the database; job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them--and they do. "On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic," says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.

Even those who aren‘t hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile. Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise. Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder. "You always keep your eyes open," he says. Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.

Gant Redmon律师去年年底找工组的时候，偶然发现了互联网上的一个工作数据库"打造事业"。虽然他没有搜索到合适的工作，但却被这个网站的"个人搜索代理"所吸引。这是一种互动功能的搜索器，访问者可以键入诸如地点、职位和薪水等的求职要求，等到资料库里有了相应的工作职位，系统就会发电子邮件给他们。Redmon输入了法律、知识产权和哥伦比亚特区华盛顿这些关键词，三周后，他收到了第一份职位空缺通知。"我可找到金矿了，"Redmon说，他用电子邮件把自己的简历发给了那位老板，由此得到了该公司内部法律顾问的职位。

互联网上有成千上万个与找工作有关的网站，要找到一个好的机会需要花很多时间，而且往往效率不高。搜索代理使人们不必一直去查阅数据库。但是，虽然有一个搜索代理帮了Redmon的忙，就业专家们还是看到了一些缺点。例如，将自己的工作标准范围设定得过窄反而对你不利，"每回答一个问题，你就失去了一个找到另外一种工作的机会，"一个专家说。

无论找什么样的工作，你都应该从一个小范围的概念开始--你认为你想干的工作--然后拓宽这个范围。"这些电脑程序中没有一个是这么设计的，"另一个专家说。"整个系统中没有任何关于就业咨询的内容。"因此，最好的办法就是将软件代理当成一种提示服务，通过它来掌握某个数据库中的求职信息；收到电子邮件的时候，就当它是提醒你再去那个数据库里看一看。"我不会指望只靠搜索代理功能帮我找到数据库中所有吸引我的信息，"一个求职指导书的作者说。

有的网站尽力设计自己的代理系统，以吸引求职者的回访。例如，"事业网站"的代理系统只给登记过的访客发送包含三个工作职位的邮件--即该网站认为最好的三个职位。数据库中或许还有更多信息；求职者必须回到网站中才能看到它们--而他们也确实是这么做的。"我们发出邮件的第二天，网站的流量就会急剧增加，"职业网站的市场部副经理Seth Peets说。

即使那些并不需要找工作的人也觉得搜索代理很有用处。有的人通过这些代理密切关注市场对自己这个职业的需求，或者搜集薪酬待遇方面的信息、比便在和老板谈判工资时更有底气。Redmon虽然工作得很开心，但他仍保留着在"打造事业"网站的搜索代理。"这样你就知道外面的一切，"他说。有了个人搜索代理就等于有另外一双眼睛在帮你巡视着外面的世界。.