Sorry, College Grads, I Probably Won't Hire You

Dear college graduates:

The next month is going to be thrilling as you cross this major milestone in your education. Enjoy the pomp and circumstance, the congratulations, and the parties. But when it's all over and you're ready to go out into the world, you'd probably like to meet me, or others like me─I'm your next potential dream boss. I run a cool, rapidly growing company in the digital field, where the work is interesting and rewarding. But I've got to be honest about some unfortunate news: I'm probably not going to hire you.

This isn't because I don't have positions that need filling. On the contrary, I'm constantly searching for talented new employees, and if someone with the right skills walked into my office, he or she would likely leave it with a very compelling offer. The problem is that the right skills are very hard to find. And I'm sorry to say it, dear graduates, but you probably don't have them.

In part, it's not your fault. If you grew up and went to school in the United States, you were educated in a system that has eight times as many high-school football teams as high schools that teach advanced placement computer-science classes. Things are hardly better in the universities. According to one recent report, in the next decade American colleges will mint 40,000 graduates with a bachelor's degree in computer science, though the U.S. economy is slated to create 120,000 computing jobs that require such degrees. You don't have to be a math major to do the math: That's three times as many jobs as we have people qualified to fill them.

It's time to start addressing this crisis. States should provide additional resources to train and employ teachers of science, technology, engineering and math, as well as increase access to the latest hardware and software for elementary and high-school students. Companies─particularly those like mine that depend heavily on information technology─need to join the effort by sponsoring programs that help schools better train graduates to work in a demanding industry. But there's one more piece of the puzzle that's missing, and it's the one over which you have the most control: you.

I realize that you've a lot going on, and that the pressures of finding gainful employment are immense. But understand this, because your future might very well depend on it: If you want to survive in this economy, you'd be well-advised to learn how to speak computer code.

I don't mean that you need to become genius programmers, the kind who hack into NASA's computers for fun. Coding at such a level is a very particular and rare skill, one that most of us─myself included─don't possess, just as we don't possess the athletic ability to play for the New York Knicks.

What we nonexperts do possess is the ability to know enough about how these information systems work that we can be useful discussing them with others. Consider this example: Suppose you're sitting in a meeting with clients, and someone asks you how long a certain digital project is slated to take.

Unless you understand the fundamentals of what engineers and programmers do, unless you're familiar enough with the principles and machinations of coding to know how the back end of the business works, any answer you give is a guess and therefore probably wrong. Even if your dream job is in marketing or sales or another department seemingly unrelated to programming, I'm not going to hire you unless you can at least understand the basic way my company works. And I'm not alone.

If you want a job in media, technology or a related field, make learning basic computer language your goal this summer. There are plenty of services─some free and others affordable─that will set you on your way.

Teach yourself just enough of the grammar and the logic of computer languages to be able to see the big picture. Get acquainted with APIs. Dabble in a bit of Python. For most employers, that would be more than enough. Once you can claim familiarity with at least two programming languages, start sending out those resumes.

So congratulations again on your achievement─and good luck getting your real-world education.

亲爱的大学毕业生们：

在下个月，你们就要跨越你们读书生涯中的一个重大里程碑了，那将是激动人心的时候。尽情享受盛大的毕业典礼仪式、大家的祝福和欢快的派对吧。当这一切画上句号，你也准备好走出校园迈入社会时，你大概会想见见我或是其他像我这样的人，因为我可能就是你下一个理想中的老板。我管理着数字领域一家发展迅猛的出色企业，它的工作有趣又有价值。但是，我得坦诚告诉你们一些不好的消息：我可能不会聘用你们。

这并不是因为我没有需要招人的岗位。相反，我不断在寻觅有才华的新员工，假如有具备适当技能的人走进我的办公室，他/她很可能会带着一个相当诱人的工作邀约离开，问题在于合适的技能很难找到。很抱歉这么说，但是亲爱的毕业生们，你们可能都不具备这些技能。

在某种程度上，这并不是你们的错。如果你是在美国长大和上学的，在你接受教育的这个体系中，拥有橄榄球队的中学的数量多达开设大学预修计算机课程的中学的八倍。大学的情况也好不到哪儿去，近期一份报告称，美国高校在未来十年中将输送40,000名拥有计算机科学本科学位的毕业生，可是美国经济预计将创造120,000个需要此类学位的计算机技术岗位。不必学数学专业你就能算得清楚：工作岗位的数量是合格人选的三倍之多。

是时候着手解决这个危机了。各州应提供更多资源来培训和聘任科学、技术、工程和数学领域的教师，增加可供小学生和中学生使用的最新硬件和软件。同时，各大企业，尤其是像我所在公司这种严重依赖信息技术的企业需要参与进来，赞助那些帮助学校更好地训练毕业生在一个要求很高的行业工作的项目。尽管如此，这个难题还缺了另外一个部分，它正是你们拥有最大控制权的那部分──你们自己。

我了解你们要做的事情有很多，而且找到收入丰厚工作的压力非常之大。不过，你们还是要理解这一点（因为你们的未来或许很大程度上就取决于此）──如果你们想在这个经济中生存下去，学会如何运用计算机代码是明智之举。

我并不是说你需要成为天才程序员，那种入侵美国国家航空航天局(NASA)的电脑来取乐的天才。如此高水平的编程是一种极其独特和罕见的技能，包括我自己在内的大多数人都不具备，就像我们也不具备在纽约尼克斯队(Knicks)打球的那种运动天赋一样。

我们这些非专业人士具备的是，我们有能力去了解足够多的有关那些信息系统如何运作的知识，如此我们便可在与他人讨论这些问题时做个有用的人。想象一下这个情景：假设你正与客户一起开会，有人问你某个数字项目预计要花多长时间。

除非你了解工程师和程序员所了解的那些基本知识，除非你足够熟悉编程的原理和技巧所以你知道业务后端是如何运作的，否则你说出的任何答案都只是猜测，因此很可能都是错的。即使你理想的工作是营销、销售或另一个似乎与编程毫不相关的领域，我也不会聘用你，除非你至少能够了解我公司运营的基本方式，而且我不是唯一一个这么做的老板。

如果你想在媒体、科技或相关领域谋得一份工作，那么就让学会基本的计算机语言成为你今夏的目标吧。有许多服务项目（有些免费，其他一些价格比较合理）都可助你一臂之力。

学会能让你了解总体情况的足够多的计算机语言语法和逻辑知识；熟悉应用程序接口；涉猎一些Python语言的知识。对大多数雇主来说，这些大概已经绰绰有余了。一旦你能够声称自己熟悉至少两种编程语言，那就开始发送简历吧。

这里要再次祝贺你取得的成绩，也要祝你在获取现实世界教育的过程中有好运气。