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在帮助求职者发展职业计划的时候，我总是以问他们两个基本问题为开始。第一个也是最重要的问题是你真正喜欢做的事是什么？另一个则是什么是你认为自己最擅长或者是日后会擅长的？我想要知道他们认为自己具有怎样的特殊才能和力量，能以优越的方式潜在地将他们和其他人区别开来。

 你在寻求自己最擅长的才能吗？

几年前我开始向大陆的职业人士问这个问题，因为我遇到太多人表现得不能适应他们所追寻的事业。其中一些人具有优秀的沟通和人际交往能力，但是在工作中却作为会计师或是软件工程师而整天局限于办公桌。另一些人则是本身很害羞但却是职业客服人员， 或者作为销售人员但不喜欢推销的基本过程以及对谈判达成协议感到有压力。正如一名人力资源主管所说的，“个人特色和工作没有所谓的好坏之分。只有对于特定的工作来说，个人的才能与特色才分好与坏。”

在我事业的前期，我个人经历过这种自身才能个性与工作不匹配的情况。实际上我是一名经过培训的机械工程师。但在我职业的前五年里，我在一家有名的美国玩具公司作为设计工程师工作。虽然那是一个很棒的职位，可以提供很多机会，但我想作为一名设计工程师的职业生涯将完全不会用到我自己最棒的天赋。因此，我知道我对于这项工作永远做不到优秀。

虽然那个时候我也不知道我真正想要做的是什么，但我知道我是一个喜欢和他人打交道的人际型的人。我擅长对局势提出建议和见解。如今作为一名优秀的工业专家，我能够充分利用自身的这些个人力量。所以，每天我的工作都既是我真正感兴趣的，也是我最适合的。相信我，当你找到你喜欢的并认为有潜力擅长的事的时候，你的活力、干劲和热情都将自然而然的出现。

 最好在事业的前期就找到答案

对于我在中国遇到的大多数年轻工作者来说，他们相当聪慧，也足够努力去精通许多事物。并且从局外人的角度看，没有人可以指责他们不擅长自己在做的事。但是对于个人的事业和人生发展而言，以我的经验看来，那个人们努力寻求答案的问题不在于你认为你自己擅长什么，而是什么是你相信你可以真正擅长的。因此，当你拥有更好的可塑性和更多机会去做那些会深远影响自己未来的职业选择的时候，你就要在事业早期问自己这个基本问题。

 追求你认为有意义的事

我一直对候选人说，在职业目标选择上没有对错，也不分好坏，但我特别支持大家去做自己认为有意义的事。有些人可能认为，让这个世界的某个地方变得更健康、更干净、更安全、更美好就是有意义的事。绝大多数在职业发展中追求意义的人，不仅更有动力工作，活得更开心，也往往比别人更成功。

天下大事作于细

我在写第一本职业发展书籍时，曾经采访过一位公司经理，她之所以给我留下深刻印象，是因为她对自己的事业充满激情，十分笃定。我刚认识她时，她在一家生产医院和路标使用的安全材料反光粘合剂的公司担任经理。这是她第一份工作，而当时她已经在这家公司工作八年了。

“我刚在这里工作的时候，公司都不知道他们要我做的产品在中国有没有市场，”她回忆说，“他们没多少信心，所以只和我签了六个月的合同。我要负责调研和评估这一产品的市场潜力，撰写最初的产品经营计划。”

 做什么都要更用心

她很幸运，六个月之后，她发现中国存在巨大的安全用品市场潜力，但需要时间教育和培养客户，她的工作成果也说服了管理层。为了实现业务发展，公司又聘用她担任客户主任。在接下来的八年时间里，她逐渐接触到了大客户销售、销售和市场管理、内外市场培训和领导力与管理等工作。

为了让她和她的产品都更上一层楼，公司派她远赴海外，到更成熟的市场，看看这些产品在中国会有怎样的未来，从而为接下来的发展做出战略计划。她的职责慢慢变成开发公司对她管理的产品进行本地生产的能力。她曾接受过全方位的业务培训，在管理产品方面又表现突出，很多机会自然也就找上门来。但她还是选择不跳槽，不仅是因为这家公司给了她很多机会，让她承担了重要职责。她最终的目标是为中国做些有意义的事，这也是她在工作和处理产品时一直追求的理念。

 影响别人，乐在其中

她告诉我，中国的石棉肺状况是世界最糟糕的。目前，中国大陆有逾50万名患者，其中绝大多数是工厂工人，而这一数字比世界上其他地方病例的总和还要多。绝大多数工人都不了解这个问题，所以她想要帮助他们认识这种疾病。

由于她教育工人的努力，这家公司得到了政府批准，起草该行业工作场所石棉粉尘浓度标准，这让她离降低中国严重健康问题的发病率又近了一步，也让她看到了自己的努力起了效果。虽然不是每个人都觉得做有意义的事十分重要，但带着目的做事，做自己认为重要的事，往往可以让你在取得事业成功的同时，过最让自己满意的生活。

What Do You Feel You Can Be Really Great At?

In helping young candidates develop a career plan, I always start by asking them two basic questions.  The first, most basic one is, “What do you really enjoy doing?”  The other is, “What do you feel you’re especially good at, or could someday become great at?”  I want to know what they believe their special qualities and strengths are that can potentially distinguish them in exceptional ways from others.  In business and related to achieving success, these are often referred to as your unique competitive advantages.

Are You Pursuing What You’re Most Talented At?

I began asking this question to mainland professionals years ago because I was meeting so many who appeared to be a poor match for the career they were pursuing.  Some had excellent communication and people skills, but were in jobs that confined them to a desk all day as accountants or software programmers.  Others were customer service professionals who were fundamentally shy, or sales professionals who disliked the basic process and pressure of negotiating and closing deals.  As one HR director put it, “There’s no such thing as good or bad personalities, or good or bad jobs.  But there are good or bad personality fits for certain jobs.”

Early in my own career, I experienced this kind of personality and skills mismatch myself.  I’m actually a mechanical engineer by training.  For the first five years of my career I worked as a design engineer in a well-known, U.S. toy company.  Although it was a great position that offered plenty of opportunities, I knew a career as an engineer would never utilize my greatest natural talents.  As a result, I knew I’d never be exceptional at it.

Although I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do instead at the time, I did know that I’m a people person who likes dealing with others.  I’m good at giving advice and providing insights into situations.  As a talent industry professional today, I’m able to make excellent use of these personal strengths of mine.  As a result, I’m doing each day what I’m both genuinely interested in and best suited for.  Trust me, when you find something that you like and feel that you can be potentially great at, your energy, drive, and passion to do it well all comes out naturally.

Better To Know The Answer Early In Your Career

For many of the young professionals I meet in China, they’re clearly smart and hardworking enough to be good at many things.  And from an outsider’s view, nobody can accuse them of not being good at what they do.  But as your career and life progresses, in my experience, the question that many hope to find the answer to isn’t so much what you feel can you be good at, but what is it that you believe you can become really great at.  As a result, it’s a fundamental question you should ask yourself early on in your career when you have greater flexibility and more chances to make career choices that will significantly impact your future.

Most Big Things Start From Humble Beginnings

I remember interviewing one person for my first career development book who stood out to me because of how energetic and committed she was towards what she’s doing with her life.  When I met her, she was a manager in a company that manufactures safety reflective adhesives used in hospitals and road signs.  She’d been with her company for eight years, beginning her career there.

“When I began, the company wasn’t even sure if there was a market in China for the product they wanted me to work on,” she recalls. “They were so uncertain they only hired me on a six-month contract.  It was up to me to research and assess the product’s market potential and develop an initial business plan for it.”

Caring More About Everything You Do

Fortunately, her findings after six months convinced management there was huge market potential here for safety products, but it would take time to educate and develop customers.  To perform such a business development role, the company then hired her as an account executive.  In the next eight years, she progressively took on roles that focused on key account sales, sales and marketing supervision, internal and external marketing training, and leadership and management.

To help her and her product line reach the next level, she was sent overseas to more mature markets so she could see the future for China for the product line and come up with the next stages of her strategic plan.  Her responsibilities evolved into developing the company’s local manufacturing capabilities for the products she supervises.  With her well-rounded business training and success in managing product lines, many options in the market became available to her.  Her reasons for staying on her current company, however, go beyond just the opportunities and responsibilities her company gave her.  Her ultimate goal was to do something meaningful for China, a vision she could pursue in the work and products she was involved in.

Feeling Good About Having An Impact On Others

Abestos in the lungs is worse in China than anywhere in the world, she told me.  At the time, over 500,000 mainlanders, mostly factory workers suffered from this, more cases than the rest of the world combined.  Most workers weren’t even aware of the problem, so educating them was something she wanted to help do.

Through her education efforts, her company received the government’s permission to draft the standards for the industry on asbestos dust levels in the workplace, which brought her a step closer to significantly reducing this serious health problem in China and seeing the impact of her efforts.  While not everyone may find it so important to pursue something that is meaningful, pursuing things with purpose and that are important to you often leads to the type of success for your career that can also be the most satisfying for your life.

（责任编辑：职场达人）