哲學專業畢業怎樣找到好工作

On a Friday in late August, parents of freshmen starting at Wake Forest University, a small, prestigious liberal-arts school in Winston-Salem, N.C., attended orientation sessions that coached them on how to separate, discouraged them from contacting their children's professors and assured them about student safety. Finally, as their portion of orientation drew to a close, the parents joined their students in learning the school song and then were instructed to form a huge ring around the collective freshman class, in a show of support.

8月底的一個週五，規模不大卻享有盛名的維克森林大學(Wake Forest University)召開新生培訓會，大一新生的父母們來到這所位於北卡羅來納州溫斯頓-塞勒姆市的文理學院參加會議，這些培訓教導他們如何適應與子女分開的生活，勸他們不要聯繫子女的教授，並向他們確保學生的安全。最後，在他們的培訓進入尾聲時，家長與學生們一起學唱校歌，然後圍成一個巨大的圈，把大一新生圍在中央，向他們表示支持。

When it was time for the parents to leave, their children kissed them goodbye — fully independent for the first time and on the brink of academic adventure — and headed, en masse, to their next session, one that catapulted them directly from orientation to the job market: "From College to Career."

家長們該離開了，他們的孩子與他們吻別——第一次完全獨立，站在學術探險之旅的邊緣——然後一起走向下一個培訓環節，它把他們直接從培訓地點彈射到了求職市場：“從大學到職場”。

Rock music played as the students entered the school's chapel, and then Andy Chan, vice president in charge of the Office of Personal and Career Development — the O.P.C.D., it is called — introduced his team with a video spoof of the television show "The Office." The students played a game in which they could guess, by text, which majors had been chosen by various gainfully employed alumni of the school. (Human-capital analyst at Deloitte? And the answer is . . . German!) And a panel of students shared their own glamorous work experiences: a fellowship in Paris, an internship at a start-up.

搖滾音樂伴隨着學生們步入學校禮堂，負責個人與事業發展辦公室（Office of Personal and Career Development，簡稱O.P.C.D.）的副總裁陳安道(Andy Chan)用一個模仿電視劇《辦公室風雲》(The Office)的視頻來介紹他的團隊。學生們玩起了遊戲，從給出的資料中猜測多位收入不錯的本校畢業校友當初都選擇了哪些專業（比如說德勤[Deloitte]的人力資源分析師？答案是——德語專業！）還有一羣學生來分享他們自己獨特的工作經驗，像是取得巴黎的獎學金項目，或在一家初創公司實習。

Staff members from the O.P.C.D. had handed out forms asking the students what fields they'd like to work in and where they'd like to live. At the end of the session, Chan directed the students to fold them into paper airplanes. Then, as a group, they let them fly, a symbol of "them launching their careers," as he had put it. Some planes soared, others took nose-dives. A young man flinched when someone else's plane clocked him on the side of his head. Celebratory in midair, planes quickly littered the floor. The career-office staff, who would input the information on the forms into databases, walked around with boxes, picking them up. A few students helped, but many watched, as if curious, but not that curious, to see what would happen next to their professional dreams.

個人與事業發展辦公室的工作人員們分發表格，詢問學生們想要工作的領域以及想要生活的地方。在培訓的最後，陳安道讓學生們將表格折成紙飛機。然後，作爲一個集體，他們一起放飛紙飛機，用他的話來說，這象徵着“他們職業生涯的起航”。有些飛機翱翔高飛，其他的則俯衝急降。一隻別人折的紙飛機直直地撞到一個年輕人頭部側面，他只好往邊上避了避。在空中快樂地飛翔過後，飛機很快就落滿一地。辦公室工作人員拿着箱子四處走，將它們撿起來，以便稍後把表格上的信息錄入數據庫。有一些學生幫忙撿拾，但許多人只是看着，好像是好奇地想要看看他們的職業夢想將會變成怎麼樣，可他們其實也並沒有那麼好奇。

For years, most liberal-arts schools seemed to put career-services offices "somewhere just below parking" as a matter of administrative priority, in the words of Wake Forest's president, Nathan Hatch. But increasingly, even elite, decidedly non-career-oriented schools are starting to promote their career services during the freshman year, in response to fears about the economy, an ongoing discussion about college accountability and, in no small part, the concerns of parents, many of whom want to ensure a return on their exorbitant investment.

用維克森林大學校長內森·哈奇(Nathan Hatch)的話來說，許多年來，在管理優先次序上，大多數文理學院似乎都把就業服務辦公室的重要性放在“停車位之後的位置”。但越來越多地，甚至連那些根本就不以就業作爲導向的精英學校也開始在大一學年就向學生推廣他們的就業服務，用以迴應對經濟的恐慌與對高校責任的持續討論，還有很大一部分是爲了迴應家長們的擔心，他們之中的很多人都想要確保自己這筆昂貴的投資能得到回報。

The University of Chicago has extensive pre-professional programming and a career center that engaged with roughly 80 percent of its freshmen last year. Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., has a new career center prominently located on campus; its Web site urges freshmen to stop by and start their four-year plan. Michael S. Roth, the school's president, says he wants the career program "to work with our students from the first year to think about how what they're learning can be translated into other spheres." Like Chan, Roth believes that the process can make for more thoughtful, meaningful careers choices; but he also told me that the demand from parents for better career services has pushed resources in that direction (for those schools that can afford it; many schools have been forced to cut back their career-center budgets). "My parents didn't expect me to have an easy time when I graduated," said Roth, who recalled finishing college in the challenging economy of the late '70s. "I think families atthese, dare I say, fantasy schools — they're used to kids getting what they want, and they expect that to happen at graduation."

芝加哥大學(The University of Chicago)擁有全面的職前教育項目以及一個在去年接觸到了大約80%大一新生的就業中心。位於康涅狄格州米德爾敦的衛斯理安大學(Wesleyan University)擁有一個新的就業中心，坐落在校園中很顯眼的位置；它的網站鼓勵新生們去那裏逛逛，開展他們的四年計劃。學校校長邁克爾·羅斯(Michael S. Roth)說，他希望就業培訓項目“和學生們一起從第一年就開始思考，怎麼樣才能將他們的所學推而廣之到其他領域中去”。像陳安道一樣，羅斯也相信這樣的項目能夠讓學生們做出更多深思熟慮的、有意義的職業選擇；但他也告訴我，是來自家長方面要求提供更好就業服務的呼聲將資源推到這一方向的（那些負擔得起的學校可以如此；可也有很多學校被迫將他們的就業中心預算砍掉）。“當我畢業時，我的父母並沒展望我走得順風順水，”羅斯說，他回憶起自己在上世紀70年代末期不景氣的經濟環境下從大學畢業的情景，“那些孩子們在著名學府就學的家庭，我敢說——他們習慣於看到孩子們得到他們想要的，而且希望在畢業時也能如此。”

No other school has marketed its career center quite as successfully as Wake Forest (which, at No. 27, falls between the University of Virginia and Tufts on the U.S. News & World Report rankings but has struggled with name recognition nationally). In 2009, the university hired Chan, who was running Stanford Business School's career center and had led a Silicon Valley start-up. Chan has made a name for himself as an oft-quoted expert on getting young people employed. He has given a TEDx talk on the subject of reinventing career services and hosted, at Wake Forest, a symposium that was attended by representatives from some 75 schools. His theme: If universities want to preserve the liberal arts, they have a responsibility to help those humanities majors know how to translate their studies into the work world.

沒有學校能像維克森林大學這樣成功推銷他們的就業中心（在《美國新聞與世界報道》(U.S. News & World Report)的大學排名中，該學校排在第27位，位列弗吉尼亞大學(University of Virginia)與塔夫斯大學(Tufts University)之間，但它一直在努力爭取在全國範圍內得到更廣泛的品牌認知度）。2009年，這所大學僱用了陳安道，他是原斯坦福大學商學院就業中心負責人，還在硅谷創立了一個公司。作爲一名在促進年輕人就業方面經常被各界引用言論的專家，陳安道爲自己贏得了聲望。他做過一個以就業服務再創新爲主題的TEDx演講，他在維克森林大學主辦的一個專題討論會有來自75所學校的代表參加。他的主旨是：如果大學想要保留博雅教育，他們就有責任去幫助這些人文學科瞭解如何將他們的研究轉化到職場中去。

Chan, who can earn up to $350,000 a year, raised more than $10 million, mostly from parents, for a sunny, glass career center with video displays and healthful snacks for students ("It looks like Google," Chan told me). He likes to say he has "supersized" the career-services office, creating an elaborate Web site and hiring enough staff members — close to 30 — to offer conciergelike services to students.

年收入最高可達35萬美元的陳安道籌集到了超過1000萬美元的款項，多數是從家長們手中募得的，用以建造一個明亮的玻璃建築作爲就業中心，其中可以進行視頻演示，爲學生們提供健康有營養的小點心（“它看上去就像是Google公司一樣，”陳安道這樣告訴我）。他很喜歡說，他將就業服務辦公室“超大型化”，他不僅建立了一個精美的網站，還僱到了足夠的員工——將近30人——來爲學生們提供禮賓式的周到服務。

At orientation, Chan gave a rousing talk to parents, encouraging them to let their children follow their interests, knowing that his office was looking after their employability: 95 percent of Wake Forest's graduates, he told them, were either fully employed or in graduate school within six months of graduating. (Eighty percent of the class of 2012 responded to the survey.) The room suddenly felt festive with affirmation. "Wow," one parent said, loudly enough to be heard across the room. The parent might have been even more surprised to learn that for schools in the high end of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, that statistic is not unusual. The University of Chicago's comparable number is 96 percent, and N.Y.U.'s class of 2012 was 93 percent. Dickinson College, a less competitive school in Carlisle, Pa., said that 92 percent of its graduates were either employed or had been in graduate school a year after graduation. Wake Forest didn't keep those statistics before Chan arrived, so it's hard to know whether employment has increased during his time there. The survey doesn't reflect students' satisfaction with their jobs, but tracking down the number was a high priority for Chan. And with good reason: citing it clearly reassures parents.

在培訓中，陳安道在家長們面前發表了一場激動人心的演說，鼓勵他們讓孩子遵從自己的興趣，讓他們知道他的辦公室會照管他們的就業情況：他告訴他們，在畢業後的6個月內，95%的維克森林大學畢業生都會找到全職工作或者進入研究生院學習（有八成的2012年畢業生參與了此數據的調查）。整個房間立刻就陷入了歡欣鼓舞之中。“哇，”有一位家長感嘆道，聲音響亮得全房間都聽得見。如果得知對於《美國新聞與世界報道》大學排名前列的學校來說，這個數據並不罕見，這位家長也許會更吃驚。芝加哥大學的此項數據爲96%，對紐約大學的2012年畢業生來說則達到了93%。位於賓夕法尼亞州卡萊爾的狄金森學院(Dickinson College)相對來說競爭力沒那麼強，但他們也表示，在本科畢業一年之後，有92%的畢業生都成功就業或者繼續讀研。在陳安道到來之前，維克森林大學並沒有保留這些數據，所以我們很難知道在他任職後就業比例有沒有上升。這個調查並不能反映出學生們對他們工作的滿意度，但陳安道將大力追蹤相關的數據。原因很有力：引用這些數據很明顯能夠安撫擔憂的家長們。

Chan explained to me that his chief strategy is "to create a kind of ecosystem where everyone has a vested interest in helping our students be prepared for life and for careers and for work" — a universitywide, collective assumption that the faculty was there not just to expand students' intellectual horizons but also to help however it could in creating job-ready students.

陳安道向我說明，他的主要戰略是“建立一個生態系統，在這個系統內部，每個人都有極大興趣去幫助我們的學生，讓他們爲生活、爲職場、爲工作做好準備”——這是一個全校範圍內的、羣體性的期望，所有教職人員的工作不僅是拓展學生們的才智極限，也是爲了儘可能地讓他們爲邁入職場做好準備。

A lot of that vision entails executing practical ideas, like improving the quality of mentoring on campus or persuading the faculty to encourage students to use the O.P.C.D. But Chan seemed especially enthusiastic about more innovative collaborations between the faculty and the O.P.C.D., some of which would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. He more than once mentioned a history professor named Robert Hellyer, a 46-year-old with a Ph.D. from Stanford, who had voluntarily transformed his teaching style from a straight lecture to a teamwork approach.

這樣的願景需要執行很多實際的想法，比如提高校園指導的質量，或者說服教職人員去鼓勵學生們使用個人與事業發展辦公室提供的服務。但看起來，陳安道對促進教職人員與個人與事業發展辦公室之間產生更多革命性的合作有着特殊的熱情，其中有些合作放到20年前是根本不可想象的。他不止一次地提到一個叫羅伯特·赫勒(Robert Hellyer)的歷史學教授，這位46歲的教授擁有斯坦福大學博士學位，他主動將教學方式從直接授課轉變爲小組合作學習。

When I spoke to Hellyer, he said he was sensitive to widespread attacks on the liberal arts and was happy to work with someone from Chan's team to focus, in class, on fostering in his students two of the skills the career office has identified as "core competencies": communication and collaboration. He decided to have students in his Japanese-history class work in groups of three and take turns leading class discussion. And he invited the O.P.C.D.'s assistant director, Amy Willard, into his classroom on three occasions. "In the very beginning of the semester," Willard told me, "I presented to the class, Here are the skills that employers are looking for, and I had them actually analyze their syllabus and say what the skills were that they hoped to gain from this class." The hope was that when those students then went on job interviews, they could speak confidently about how their experiences in class prepared them for the skills the employers most needed. On a separate occasion, Hellyer and Willard brought inan alumna of Wake Forest, a history major, who was working locally at Wells Fargo, to discuss how her academic experience had helped her professionally.

當我與赫勒交談時，他說他深切地意識到了現在社會上對於人文學科的廣泛抨擊，很樂意與陳安道的團隊一起努力，關注在教學中如何讓他的學生們掌握兩項在職場辦公室中被稱爲“核心競爭力”的技能：溝通與合作。他決定，在他的日本史課堂上，學生們三人組成一組，輪流帶領全班進行討論。他還邀請個人與事業發展辦公室的助理主管艾米·威拉德(Amy Willard)參加了他的三次課。“在學期剛開始時，”威拉德告訴我，“我走進教室，然後告訴他們職場上僱主們都需要哪些技能，再讓他們分析一下自己的教學大綱，分析一下他們想從這門課程中獲得什麼技能。”他們希望當學生們在進行求職面試時，可以自信地說，他們在課堂上體驗到的東西是何以有助於他們儲備僱主所需的技能的。還有一次，赫勒和威拉德邀請到了一位維克森林大學的女校友，她是歷史專業畢業的，現在在本地的富國銀行(Wells Fargo)分行工作，他們與她一起討論學術經歷如何對她的職業生涯起到幫助。

Many of the students later said that they loved Hellyer's innovative team-based approach to instruction and got more out of the material as a result; and some appreciated the professional component. But many complained frankly about the explicit career education. "I felt like I signed up to take a history course, and sessions on professional skills were not what I was looking for," one student said on a teacher evaluation. Another said, "I just think that the team-building exercises were a waste of time that could be better spent on class topics."

不久後，很多學生說他們非常喜愛赫勒極具創新精神的以小組爲基礎的教學方式，能從教材中獲益更多；還有一些人很欣賞這一做法對職業發展的好處。但也有很多人直率地抱怨過於清晰的職業化教育。“我覺得，我本來選的是一門歷史課，而那些關於職場技能的培訓並不是我想要的，”一個學生在教師評估中這樣說道。另一位則表示：“我只是覺得，這些團隊合作的訓練是在浪費時間，這些時間原本可以被更好地花在課堂主題上。”

Hellyer sounded almost relieved by the responses. "In some ways, I was gratified that students were saying, 'I really want to learn about Japanese history — why are you diluting what we're doing?' " he said. Even so, now he is brainstorming with Willard about how to make the history of the young, revolutionary samurai in Japan an explicit opportunity to talk about leadership skills.

對於這些迴應，赫勒聽上去簡直鬆了一口氣。“從某些方面來說，我很感激學生們這麼說，'我真的是想要學習日本歷史——爲什麼要稀釋課程濃度呢？'”他說。儘管如此，現在他正在與威拉德進行頭腦風暴，如何從年輕、有革新精神的日本武士歷史出發，來闡述一下領導力。

Colleges and universities have noted parents' seemingly boundless concern for their children's well-being and have shifted strategies in response. They have boosted parental involvement, or engagement, as it is known in the fund-raising industry. Schools have doubled the number of on-campus parent associations in roughly 10 years, according to the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and parents, in turn, have given generously, even as college costs have hit new highs. Parent donations to higher education, from 2001 to 2010, increased by nearly 50 percent, according to a study published by the Council for Aid to Education.

大學院校注意到了家長們對於他們孩子前途無休止的焦慮，並轉變戰略來對其作出迴應。他們提高了父母的參與度，或者說投入程度，就像之前提過的資金募集。根據教育促進及支持委員會(Council for the Advancement and Support of Education)提供的數據，在最近10年內，學校們將校園內家長協會的數目提高了一倍，而在家長方面，即使大學學費又創新高，他們還是一直樂於慷慨解囊。根據美國教育財政資助委員會(Council for Aid to Education)發佈的一項研究，由從2001年到2010年，家長對高等教育的捐助增長了近50%。

Andy Chan is particularly gifted at cultivating the bond between parents and Wake Forest. He writes a blog for parents about career development to help them guide their children. And he interacts with parents and employers as much as he does students: even during the school year, he is actually on campus only every other week, because his family is still in Palo Alto and he spends a third of his time traveling to raise funds.

陳安道尤其擅長於培養家長與維克森林大學之間的情感聯繫。他爲家長們寫了一個關於職業發展的博客，幫助他們指導自己的孩子。他與家長之間的交流，與和僱主以及學生之間的交流一樣充分：甚至在學年之中，他也是隔一週纔會在校園裏辦公，因爲他的家人仍然在帕羅奧圖，而且他將自己時間的三分之一都用來四處出差籌集資金。

This summer, Chan had lunch in San Jose with Alan Naumann, whose son, Bradley, is a sophomore at Wake Forest. Naumann, the president and C.E.O. of 41st Parameter, an online-security company, has pledged a significant amount for entrepreneurial programming. He had also spoken to a group of Wake Forest students and been part of a team of business leaders who gave rapid feedback to student entrepreneurs who presented their business ideas.

在今年夏天，陳安道與阿蘭·諾曼(Alan Naumann)在聖荷塞共進午餐。諾曼的兒子布拉德利(Bradley)是維克森林大學的一名大二學生。作爲網絡安全公司41st Parameter的CEO，諾曼承諾爲多項創業項目投入大量資金，與一羣維克森林大學的學生交談過，還參加了一個企業領袖團隊，在學生創業者陳述創業想法之後，迅速給予他們反饋與指點。

Chan started by giving Naumann his professional assessment of Bradley, whom he met that summer. Bradley, an undeclared major who acts in a comedy troupe at Wake Forest, was working in a sports-marketing internship at Stanford (a position he learned of through his sister, who knew someone in the office). Chan told Naumann what a terrific kid he has. "The sense I have is that he's learning so much," Chan said. "I was telling him that at Wake Forest, there's tons of internships in the athletic program. And I said, you know, 'Obviously if you need any introductions, just let me know.' "

陳安道與諾曼的談話，從他爲之前在這個夏天見過的布拉德利給出專業上的評價開始。布拉德利就讀的專業並未公開，他參與了一個維克森林大學的喜劇演出社團。當時他正在斯坦福做一個體育市場方面的實習（他是從他姐姐那裏得知有這個職位的，她認識辦公室裏的某位工作人員）。陳安道告訴諾曼，他是一個十分優秀的孩子。“我感覺到他學到了很多東西，”陳安道說，“我告訴他，在維克森林大學，我們有無數體育相關的項目。我對他說，你知道，'顯然，如果你需要任何介紹指導，就告訴我。'”

Naumann was most enthusiastic about the school's entrepreneurial program. Chan has raised money for a popular minor in entrepreneurship and social enterprise, which is open to liberal-arts majors. As Chan took notes on his iPad, Naumann talked about the qualities he thought were most essential for the school to cultivate in its students: fearlessness, communication, analytic skills and teamwork. Working well with others, he pointed out, was precisely the kind of skill that could not be learned online and one that brick-and-mortar liberal-arts schools could pride themselves on providing as they sought to stay relevant.

諾曼對於該校的創業項目尤爲熱忱。陳安道爲在創業與社會企業領域的一個熱門輔修課籌集到了資金，該課程面向所有文理專業的學生。陳安道一邊在自己的iPad上做着記錄，一邊聆聽諾曼談起他認爲學校最應該培養學生們獲得的素質：無畏、溝通、分析技能與團隊合作。他指出，和他人一同出色地工作，這正是那種不能在網上所學到的技巧，而傳統的文理學院想要與時俱進地提供這種技能的培訓，他們有理由爲自己感到驕傲。

Chan asked Naumann for feedback on a board meeting Naumann had recently attended. "What I like to see is the big thinking," Naumann told him. And Chan, he thought, could be thinking more boldly. What about proposing an entire new building, a lab for creative innovation? His enthusiasm for Chan's mission was deep: it seemed that whatever Chan was asking for from parents, he could probably ask for more.

陳安道請諾曼對他最近參與的一次委員會議給出反饋。“我喜歡看到更大的想法，”諾曼這樣告訴陳安道。他認爲，陳安道應該思考得再大膽一些。提議再建一座新大樓，一個創造革新實驗室，怎麼樣？他對陳安道的工作極具熱情：看上去，不管陳安道要求家長們什麼，他還可以提更多要求。

Some professors have welcomed Chan's role in managing parents' anxiety about the liberal arts precisely because it relieves them of the burden of doing it themselves. "The parents of one student asked me to have a meeting," recalled Alessandra Von Burg, a professor in the department of communication at Wake Forest. "I was kind of flabbergasted. They wanted to know what a communication degree could do for their son." (She agreed to meet with them and their son to discuss it.) Michael Sloan, a classics professor, fielded a similar call during which he found himself explaining to a mother how a background in classics could help prepare her daughter for a career as a lawyer. And if professors know to direct students to résumé workshops, Von Burg added, students won't expect those services from the professors. "They can be like demanding customers," she said.

對於陳安道擔任家長們對文理教育焦慮情緒疏導者的這一角色，有些教授很歡迎，因爲他將他們從親力親爲的負擔中拯救了出來。“有一個學生家長要求我與他們見一次面，” 維克森林大學傳播學系的教授亞歷桑德拉·範博格(Alessandra Von Burg)回憶道，“我當時大吃一驚。他們想要知道，一個傳播學的學位對他們的兒子來說能夠有什麼用處。”（她後來同意與他們一家見面，並討論了相關事宜。）邁克爾·斯隆(Michael Sloan)是古典文學教授，他接到過一個類似的電話，只好對着話筒那頭的學生母親解釋，擁有古典文學的學術背景，如何能有助於她的女兒成爲一名律師。範博格進一步說，如果教授們知道如何指點學生們去參加簡歷研討會的話，學生就不會再要求教授提供此類服務了。“他們會跟非常難伺候的顧客一樣呢，”她說。

Still, Susan Rupp, a professor of Russian history at Wake Forest, said she had misgivings about the push from the O.P.C.D. She said she would not be very likely to invite someone from that office into her classroom to explain the class's professional value. "It reduces an education to the marketplace," she said. Instead, she says, teaching history should be about helping young people to understand "the relationship of the individual to the larger society."

不過，維克森林大學的俄羅斯史教授蘇珊·魯普(Susan Rupp)表示，她對個人與事業發展辦公室做出的種種動作感到疑惑。她說她不會請那個辦公室裏的某位工作人員到她的課堂上來解釋這門課程的職業價值。“這把教育降格成了市場，”她說。她認爲，與之相反，教授歷史應該是幫助年輕人理解“個人與廣闊社會之間的關係”。

Andrew Delbanco, a professor at Columbia, writes in his book, "College: What It Was, Is and Should Be," that colleges should help students develop "a skeptical discontent with the present, informed by a sense of the past." Can liberal-arts schools encourage students to question the status quo while simultaneously reminding them from their first days on campus to keep their employability in mind?

安德魯·德爾班科(Andrew Delbanco)是哥倫比亞大學(Columbia)的教授，他在他的《大學的過去、現在和應有的未來》(College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be)一書中寫道，大學應該幫助學生們“懷有對過去的感知，因而對現狀質疑不滿”。文理學院能夠鼓勵學生對現狀發問，與此同時從他們進校的第一天起持續地提醒他們要時刻警醒自己在職場上的競爭力嗎？

Michele Gillespie, another history professor at Wake Forest, has been receptive to the O.P.C.D. but has concerns about some of its innovations — among them, classes on career development for academic credit that teach students how to "brand themselves," how to identify themselves through personality tests and form a customized, consistent description of the self. "These kids' frontal temporal lobes are barely formed," Gillespie says; as teachers, she and her peers "are trying to open their minds, to see complexities and tensions." The emphasis on translating academics into skills also struck her as problematic. "They want to know what the calculus is: How will doing an honors thesis translate into my ability to persuade my manager to put me on the management track? How can I sell this? How can I market these things? I fear that the students see the learning as a means to an end and don't connect as much to the learning that's taking place."

另一位維克森林大學的歷史學教授米歇爾·吉萊斯皮(Michele Gillespie)接納了個人與事業發展辦公室，但對它的某些革新有一點擔憂——比如說，有一些計入學分的課程是關於職業發展的，教導學生如何“打造個人品牌”，如何通過性格測試來認識自己，形成一個規範化的、連續性的自我描述。“這些孩子的大腦前庭和顳葉還沒發育完全呢，”吉萊斯皮說。作爲教師，她和她的同事們“正在試圖打開他們的視野，看清複雜與緊張的形勢”。對於將重點放在把學術轉化成技能上這一點，她也覺得有些問題。“他們想要知道這其中的運算法則：要怎麼樣將一篇優秀的大學論文轉化成說服我的經理讓我晉升入管理層的能力？如何才能讓它有信服力？怎麼樣才能推銷這些東西？我擔心學生會把學習當作是達到某個目的的手段，而沒有投入到當下的學習中去。”

Academics are expected to express reservations about the encroachment of career planning on intellectual development, but their doubts are not that different from those voiced by Brad Henderson, a 34-year-old partner at Boston Consulting Group, who is in charge of the firm's Midwestern recruiting. Henderson, an alumnus of the University of Chicago, does not object to career programming in principle but worries that at some colleges, "this race to get jobs becomes more important than the actual 'let's educate our students,' " Henderson said. "It's not uncommon to encounter a 20-year-old who has not benefited from the maturation you get from higher education, from true engagement in a classroom — it becomes more about taking classes as an extended way to build your résumé. You think you're talking to a 20-year-old who should have bright ideas and enthusiasm, and they can't get out of the mode of: 'What are the words I'm supposed to use in this conversation?' And you see that the risk has been taken out of résumés — that's the part that's most disheartening."

人們一般認爲學者們總是表達對職業規劃侵佔學術教育的保留意見，但他們的疑問其實與布拉德·亨德森(Brad Henderson)的意見並沒有什麼不同。34歲的亨德森是波士頓諮詢集團(Boston Consulting Group)的合夥人，他負責公司在中西部的招聘工作。作爲一位芝加哥大學校友，他在原則上並不反對就業項目，但他對有些大學存有疑慮，“這種求職競賽變得比真正的'讓我們教育學生們'的那一部分更加重要，”亨德森說。“對一個20歲的年輕人來說，還沒有從高等教育中變得成熟，還沒能全心投入在學習中，這並不罕見——現在情況變成了，上課是填充簡歷的一種擴展手段。你覺得你在和一個本應擁有奇思妙想與熱情的20歲年輕人聊天，但其實他們無法擺脫這樣的思考模式：'在這次對話中，我應該使用哪些措辭？'你會看到，過於關注簡歷會產出風險——這就是他們會喪失勇氣的原因。”

Some schools have expensive climbing walls; others have wellness centers worthy of five-star hotels. Wake Forest has Andy Chan. At orientation, he addressed the parents wearing a navy jacket and white shirt, roaming freely with a headset and using his hands for emphasis with the skill of a seasoned public speaker. "I believe, and many believe, that a liberal-arts education is the key to navigating the changes that come ahead," said Chan, a former political-science major, reassuring parents who may recall fondly their years studying 18th-century art history or the Romantic poets but who still want results for the high cost of tuition. He had a bit of advice for them: They should see themselves, he explained, as their children's executive coaches, there primarily to listen, to encourage their clients to use their best judgment. Your son wants to be a philosophy major? Chan paraphrased the response of many a parent: "How do you get a job in philosophy?" But hold your tongue, he urged them. Let them think big. Two months later, they might decide they love math anyway, he said. And even if they don't, he and his team will help them turn academic risks into résumé-ready experiences. They could take it from him, a Silicon Valley pro and Stanford veteran: Your child can be academically happy and still end up successful, like me, like you.

有些學校有昂貴的攀巖牆；另一些學校有如同五星級賓館那樣豪華的保健中心。維克森林大學所擁有的，是陳安道。在培訓上，他穿着白色襯衫和海軍藍的外套出現在家長面前， 頭戴式話筒解放了他的雙手，他一邊走來走去，一邊在說到重點時用手勢做輔助，這是極具經驗的公衆演講者的一個技巧。“我相信，很多人都相信，博雅教育是指引即將來臨的形勢變換的關鍵，”陳安道向家長們一再保證，他本人之前的專業是政治學，這也讓許多家長愉快地回想起他們當年學習18世紀藝術史或者浪漫主義詩歌的經歷，不過他們還是想要知道，他們付出的高額學費將會取得什麼樣的成果。他向他們提供了一個建議：他們應該反觀自身。他解釋說，他們就像是自己孩子的高管教練，最重要的是要傾聽、要鼓勵他們的客戶去運用個人的最佳判斷。你的兒子想選哲學專業？陳安道複述了許多家長此時會給出的迴應：“那你要如何去找一份哲學方面的工作呢？”但先別急着說這句話，他提醒道。讓他們大膽思考。他說，兩個月之後，他們說不定會發現自己還是更熱愛數學。即使如果他們沒有改變主意，他和他的團隊會幫助他們把學術上的探險轉化成爲簡歷所服務的經驗。從陳安道這位硅谷專家以及斯坦福畢業校友身上，他們可以學到這樣一件事：你的孩子可以在學術上快樂探索的同時，最終仍能獲得成功，就像我一樣，就像你一樣。

Sitting near the front of the auditorium were the parents of a freshman — an investment manager from Bronxville, N.Y., and his wife. The father went to Dartmouth, and when their son announced that he was applying for early decision at Wake Forest, his father asked, "Are you sure you couldn't do better?" Under the spell of Chan's reassuring message on finding a career, he turned to his wife and looked at her intently. "This," he told her, "is the greatest school."

一位新生的父母坐在靠近禮堂前排的地方——他們來自紐約州布朗克斯維爾，父親是投資經理。這位父親當年上的是達特茅斯學院(Dartmouth)，當他的兒子宣佈自己在申請維克森林大學的提前錄取時，他問：“你確定自己進不了更好的學校嗎？”在陳安道對學生就業做出保證的講話間歇，他轉向妻子，熱切地注視着她。“這所大學，”他告訴她，“是最好的學校。”