爱思英语编者按：越来越多的人意识到他们不可能在毕业后将学历证递上就得到一份工作。以前教育体系的承诺是如果你在校期间努力学习，作为奖励，你得到一份工作的机会会很大。不仅如此，过去企业的实习生可以直接转正成为全职人员。这些承诺由于经济发展的限制和全球化竞争的加剧，已经被打破。

Why Students Should Gain Entrepreneurship Experience Before Graduating

为什么学生应该在毕业前就去创业

Dan Schawbel/文

liuyiming1/译

More and more students are realizing that they can’t pass their degree in for a job upon graduation anymore. The old promise made by our education system was that if you worked really hard in school, you would be almost guaranteed a job as a reward for your efforts. Furthermore, corporations used to hire most of their interns into full-time positions. Both of these promises have been broken due to economic constraints and global competition. Based on a recent report by my company, we found that employers expect students to have at least one internship, yet only half of them are bringing on new interns and few have hired them into full-time positions. The normal path to growing your career is non-existent. In today’s world, you can’t rely on anything or anyone to make you successful – you have to be accountable for your own career and create your own path.

越来越多的人意识到他们不可能在毕业后将学历证递上就得到一份工作。以前教育体系的承诺是如果你在校期间努力学习，作为奖励，你得到一份工作的机会会很大。不仅如此，过去企业的实习生可以直接转正成为全职人员。这些承诺由于经济发展的限制和全球化竞争的加剧，已经被打破。我公司最近的一个调查显示，雇主预期学生至少已经实习过一次，然而只有一半是招新的实习生，能够将实习生转正的就更少了。过去职业生涯发展的路已不复存在。在今天的世界，你不能依赖任何人去取得成功——你必须为自己的事业负责，创造自己的路。

Students are stressed out because there are few paid internships and it’s even hard to get unpaid ones. To me, the solution to this mess is clear: Students who can’t get internships should start a small business or a side project, both of which can act as an internship. If the business fails, they still learn something and have experience on their resume. If the business is successful, they don’t have to worry about getting a full-time job upon graduation. Instead of sending resumes, praying and begging your friends, you can do things your way. Years ago, it would be rare for a student to have entrepreneurship experience on their resume because the cost of starting a business was so high and because they didn’t have the resources or expertise to pull it off. Times
have changed!

学生的压力很大，因为实习生很少有薪水，就连无薪水的实习岗位也很难申请。对我来说，解决问题的方法很简单：无法获得实习的学生应该去创办一个小企业或者一个项目，两者都能起到实习的作用。如果创业失败了，他们也可以从中学到东西，并将其写到简历上；如果成功了，他们就不用担心毕业后去找全职工作了，不用网申、托关系、求人，完全可以按照自己的想法做。几年前，创业的学生很少，一来开拓新生意的成本太高，二来他们也没有足够的资源和专业技能。但现在时代已经变了。

Now, hundreds of colleges offer entrepreneurship courses and employers are starting to understand the importance of that type of education. In our research, we found that some employers are actually looking for students with entrepreneurship experience when hiring for entry-level positions. Why do you think? Well, it’s because students who have an entrepreneurial mindset are accountable for their own actions, aggressive and know how to execute. They also have the communication and sales skills that are necessary to be successful in business today. Smart companies fully understand that if they don’t innovate, they won’t exist in the future. By recruiting young entrepreneurs, they bring new perspectives and youthful ideas into the workplace.

现在，数以百计的大学开设了与创业相关的课程，而且雇主也开始意识到这种教育的重要性。我们的研究发现，一些雇主在招聘初级职位时实际是在找有企业家精神的人。为什么会这样呢？因为有企业家精神的学生会对自己的行为负责，敢作敢为，知道如何执行。他们也有在今天的商业社会成功的必要技能——沟通和销售技能。聪明的企业深深意识到，如果他们不创新，就会灭亡。通过招聘年轻的企业家，他们往工作环境里带入了新颖的视角和新鲜的观点。

When speaking to employers about this phenomenon, some of the top executives said that they would rather hire a student with entrepreneurship experience over a student that had five internships. Entrepreneurs naturally develop soft skills, such as communication skills and teamwork skills that employers are desperately looking for right now as they scout to find the next generation of leaders at their companies. If you’re a student right now, make it your mission to take your career into your own hands and start a project or small business, whether you’re selling clothes on eBay, selling products to fellow students or you come up with the next big Facebook idea. Employers don’t care if it succeeds or fails, just that you gave it a shot and learned something from it. If you want to graduate with a job, then you better brush up your entrepreneurship skills today – your future depends on it!

当与雇主谈起这种现象时，一些高层管理人员表示，他们更愿意招收有创业经验的学生，而不是有五次实习经验的学生。企业家很自然地就发展了一些雇主看重的软技能，如沟通技能和团队合作技能，这也是企业下一代领导者所必须具备的。如果你现在是一个学生，就把你的目标确定为将自己的事业掌握在自己手中，不管是在eBay上卖衣服，卖东西给同学，还是下一个Facebook的创意，现在开始一个项目或小企业。雇主不在乎你曾经成功或失败过，他们在乎的是你尝试了，并从中学到了东西。如果你想在毕业前就找到工作，那么你最好现在就锻炼自己的企业家才能——你的未来全靠它了！