校園生活:大學裏要做的16件事

美國的文化教育一向很看重學生的綜合素質。四年大學生涯,大學生的身份不僅僅是學生,他們把大學視作從學生到成人的轉型期。他們的活動已不僅僅限於青蔥校園內,他們通過互聯網出售創意、從大一開始積累各種經驗:自我心態的調整、處事能力的提升到與人相處的技巧。在生活中,既要當好演員,也要當好觀衆;在大學中,既要當好學生,也要當好初涉社會的預備人才。

Get out of the library. You can have a degree and a huge GPA and not be ready for the workplace. A student should plan that college is four years of experience rather than 120 credits.

第一,走出圖書館。就算有了學位和很高的GPA, 你也不見得就爲工作做好了準備。作爲一名學生,應該把大學生涯看作是四年人生經驗而非只是一堆學分來好好計劃。

Start a business in your dorm room. It’s cheap, Google and Yahoo are dying to buy your website, and it’s better than washing dishes in the cafeteria.

第二,從宿舍開始做生意。這很便宜,谷歌、雅虎都會爭先恐後地收購你的網站,這比在大學食堂裏洗盤子好多了。

Get involved on campus. When it comes to career success, emotional intelligence—social skills to read and lead others—gets you farther than knowledge or job competence.

第三,積極參加校園活動。論及事業成功,情商——具有讀懂並領導別人的社交技能——比起知識或工作能力,對你更有幫助。

play a sport. People who play sports earn more money than couch potatoes, and women executives who played sports attribute much of their career success to their athletic experience. You don’t need to be great at sports, you just need to be part of a team.

　　第四,參加體育運動。玩運動的人要比整天看電視的人收入高。參加過體育運動的女性行政人員事業成功的原因很大程度上要歸功於其運動經歷。你無需在運動上表現出色,而只需參與其中。

Separate your expectations from those of your parents. Otherwise you wake up and realize you’re not living your own life.

第五,別遵循父母的期待生活。否則你醒來後會發現你過的不是屬於自己的生活。

Try new things that you’re not good at. Ditch the superstar mentality that if you don’t reach the top, become president, get an A+, or get promoted to editor-in-chief, then the efforts were worthless. It’s important to learn to enjoy things without getting recognition.

第六,嘗試一些你並不擅長的新事物。拋棄那些名繮利鎖:覺得如果不能成爲第一名,當不了學生會主席,拿不了A+的優異成績,或晉升到總編的位置,那麼一切努力都是無意義的。重要的是學着去享受那些無需他人讚賞肯定的事情。
　
Define success for yourself. Society defines success very narrowly. Rather than defining success as financial gain or accolades, define it in terms of individual interests and personal happiness.

第七,自己定義成功。社會對成功的定義很狹隘。與其把成功定義爲經濟上的收穫或嘉獎,不如將其定義爲個人興趣和快樂所在。

Make your job search a priority. Jobs do not fall in your lap, you have to chase them. Especially a good one. It’s a job to look for a job. Use spreadsheets to track your progress. And plan early.

第八,要優先考慮求職此事。工作要自己去找,特別是好工作,不要等着天上掉餡餅。把找工作看成是一項工作。使用電子表格來記錄你的進度,並早日作計劃。

Take a course in happiness. Happiness study is revolutionizing how we think of psychology, economics, and sociology. Preview: Learn to be more optimistic.

第九,修讀關於“幸福”的課程。關於“幸福”的研究就是要革新我們對心理學、經濟學和社會學的認知。首先要學會更積極地看待問題。

Take an acting course. The best actors are actually being their most authentic selves. You need to learn to communicate authentically so that people will listen and feel connected.

第十,修讀表演課。實際上最好的演員只是在演繹最真實的自己。你要學習真誠地與別人溝通,讓他人願意聆聽併產生共鳴。

Learn to give a compliment. The best compliments are specific. Practice on your professors. If you give a good compliment the recipient will think you’re smarter: a big payoff in college, but a bigger payoff in the work world.

第十一,學會讚美別人。最好的讚美該是言之有物的。可以把你的教授當作練習對象。如果你讚美別人得當,對方會覺得你較爲聰敏:在校園內能有豐厚的回報,在工作中更顯其效。

Use the career center. These people are experts at positioning you in the workforce and their only job is to get you a job. How can you not love this place? If you find yourself thinking the people at your college’s career center are idiots, it’s probably a sign that you really, really don’t know what you’re doing.

第十二,好好利用求職中心。這些專業人員會幫你在勞動市場中找準定位,他們的唯一工作就是幫你就業。你怎能不愛上這個地方?如果你覺得在大學求職中心裏面的人是傻子,那很可能是因爲你根本不知道自己在幹什麼。

Develop a strong sense of self by dissing colleges that reject you. Happy people have a more durable sense of self and aren’t as buffeted by outside events. When bad things happen, don’t take it personally. This is how the most successful business people bounce back quickly from setbacks.

第十三,增強自我意識,敢於鄙視那些沒有錄取你的大學。快樂的人擁有更持久的自我意識,不容易被外界的事情擊倒。當不幸的事發生,不要往心裏面去。大多數商業成功人士就是這樣從挫折中迅速重拾自信的。

Get rid of your perfectionist streak. It is rewarded in college, but it leads to insane job stress and an inability to feel satisfied with your work.

第十四,戒掉完美主義的脾性。在大學,力求完美會使你有所回報,但在工作中則會產生令人抓狂的工作壓力,並使你無法對你的工作產生滿足感。

Work your way through college. Getting involved in student organizations counts, and so does feeding children in Sierra Leone or sweeping floors in the chemistry building. Each experience you have can grow into something bigger. A great bullet on the resume for a junior in college.

第十五,大學期間要積累工作經驗。投身到學生組織中行得通,到塞拉利昂救助饑荒中的兒童或在化學樓裏清潔地板也行。你所經歷的每一種體驗都有聚沙成塔的作用。對於一個大學新生來說,這些舉動在你的履歷上是光彩的一筆。

Make to-do lists. You can’t achieve dreams if you don’t have a plan to get there.

第十六,列出行動清單。沒有計劃你是不可能實現自己的夢想的。