异类之不一样的成功启示录 第81期:法学院毕业生的面试难题

 "To get a job, the students should be long enough on family connections,

为了获得一份工作，学生们应该有广泛的家族关系，

long enough on ability or long enough on personality, or a combination of these.

具备各种能力及完善的人格，或者是这些特点的综合。

Something called acceptability is made up of the sum of its parts.

这些特点加在一起就构成了所谓的可接受的资格。

If a man has any of these things, he could get a job. If he has two of them, he can have a choice of jobs.

如果一个人具备其中任何一个特点，他就可以得到一份工作；如果他具备其中任意两个特点，他就可以挑选工作；

If he has three, he could go anywhere.

如果他三个特点都具备，那么他到哪里都没问题。”

Bickel's hair was not fair. His eyes were not blue.

比克尔没有金黄色的头发，也没有迷人的蓝色眼睛，

He spoke¹ with an accent, and his family connections consisted,

说话还带有口音。如果追溯其家族根源，

principally, of being the son of Solomon and Yetta Bickel if Bucharest, Romania, by way, most recently, of Brooklyn.

基本上属于居住在罗马尼亚首都布加勒斯特的耶特·比克尔的所罗门的后裔，近来，才搬到布鲁克林。

Flom's credentials² were no better.

即便弗洛姆带着证明信，也没有使面试的情况好到哪去。

He says he felt "uncomfortable" when he went for his interviews downtown, and of course he did:

他说，当他来到市区面试时，感觉非常“不舒服”，确实如此：

he was short and ungainly and Jewish and talked with the flat, nasal tones of his native Brooklyn,

他身材矮小，一看上去就像犹太人，他比较笨拙，说话时语音单调，还带有布鲁克林式的鼻音。

and you can imagine how he would have been perceived by some silver-haired patrician³ in the library.

你可以想象，那些坐在书房里的“银发贵族”们会用什么样的眼光打量他。

If you were not of the right background and religion and social class and you came out of law school in that era,

如果在那个时代，你是法学院毕业生，然而你却没有恰当的背景、宗教背景以及不属于适当的社会阶层，

you joined some smaller, second-rate, upstart law firm on a rung below the big names downtown,

你只能加入一些次于大牌公司的二流小公司，

or you simply went into business for yourself and took "whatever came in the door",

或者你只能自己开一个公司，处理一些找上门来的案子，

that is, whatever legal work the big downtown law firms did not want for themselves. That seems horribly unfair, and it was.

就是那些知名的大公司不愿处理的案子。这实在太不公平了，然而事实就是如此。

But as is so often the case of outliers, buried in that setback⁴ was a golden opportunity.

不过，对于那些出类拔萃的人来说，这种事太平常了，而且，挫折对他们来说，往往很有价值。

The old-line Wall Street law firms had a very specific idea about what it was that they did.

华尔街那些老牌法律公司有他们自己独特的行事方法。

They were corporate⁵ lawyers.

他们属于企业律师。

They represented the country's largest and most prestigious⁶ companies,

他们代表着美国最大而且最有声望的公司。

and "represented" meant that they handled the taxes and the legal work behind the issuing of stocks and bonds

所谓的“代表”，指的是他们主要处理企业股票、债券发行的税收和法律工作，

and made sure that their clients did not run afoul of federal regulators.

保证他们的客户的行为不会和联邦政府的法规发生冲突。

They did not do litigation; that is, they rarely had a dividion dedicated⁷ to defending and filing lawsuits⁸.

他们不接收诉讼案例。那就意味着，他们基本没有人会愿意花心思去打官司，做辩护。

As Paul Cravath, one of the founders⁹ of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, one of the very whitest of the white-shoe firms, once put it,

就像非常非常绅士的“白鞋公司”——美国凯威律师事务所 (Cravath,Swaine and Moore)的创始人之一的保罗·克拉瓦什（PaulCravath）说的那样，

the lawyer's job is to settle disputes in the conference room, not the courtroom.

律师的工作就是把纠纷解决在会议室内，而不是在法庭上。

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 credentials   

n.证明，资格，证明书，证件

参考例句：

• He has long credentials of diplomatic service.他的外交工作资历很深。
• Both candidates for the job have excellent credentials.此项工作的两个求职者都非常符合资格。

3 patrician   

adj.贵族的，显贵的；n.贵族；有教养的人；罗马帝国的地方官

参考例句：

• The old patrician was buried in the family vault.这位老贵族埋在家族的墓地里。
• Its patrician dignity was a picturesque sham.它的贵族的尊严只是一套华丽的伪装。

4 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

5 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

6 prestigious   

adj.有威望的，有声望的，受尊敬的

参考例句：

• The young man graduated from a prestigious university.这个年轻人毕业于一所名牌大学。
• You may even join a prestigious magazine as a contributing editor.甚至可能会加入一个知名杂志做编辑。

7 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

8 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

9 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句