????回首過去，我們發現，最嚴重的錯誤往往也是最不可思議的錯誤。例如，四家不同的圖書出版商都曾拒絕出版J?K?羅琳哈里波特系列小說的第一部。當時，所有人都覺得，一個少年巫師和他的朋友們的冒險故事根本不值得支付5,000美元的預付款?，F在看來，當時的人們真是太沒眼光了！

????普利策獎得主、華爾街日報（The Wall Street Journal）編輯，也是本文這本新書的作者喬治?安德斯宣稱， 大部分公司總是犯相似的錯誤。在他的新書《稀有的發現：搶占先機，鎖定人才》 （The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else）中，安德斯為讀者分析了最成功的企業挑選“千里馬”的秘訣。

????的確有這樣一群人：他們將自己包裝得光鮮亮麗，但實際表現卻差強人意。對于曾經和這樣的人人共事的人來說，安德斯所闡述的觀點也許并無新意。

????安德斯說，相對于一味死板地根據各種證書來評判求職者，招聘經理應該將重點放在真正的崗位需求上，更多關注從業經歷坎坷的求職簡歷。

????有些人的簡歷表明求職者“曾一度徘徊在成功與失敗之間”，他寫道。這樣的人往往“在特定的環境下可以超常發揮，而此時，他們的優點會將缺點完全掩蓋?！?/p>

????讓我們看看Facebook工程師埃文?普利斯特里的傳奇故事。他輟學以前曾三次調換所修專業，后來又到位于緬因州波特蘭市的一家小公司從事初級網頁設計工作。直到2007年，他偶然看到Facebook發布在互聯網上的一個程序難題。普利斯特里提出的解決方法堪稱絕妙，Facebook為此向他伸出了橄欖枝——提供免費機票，邀請他飛往帕洛阿爾托參加面試。最終，他憑借高超的技術征服了所有人。

????Facebook最終聘請了他，后來發生的事則是另一段佳話：普利斯特里帶領程序員團隊實現了Facebook網站架構的提速，使用戶能更加方便地添加游戲、地圖等應用程序。

????有一次，一小部分用戶無法正常使用Facebook網站，原因是一個功能界定不清且過時的安全程序阻礙了網站的正常運行；而唯一公開的可用指南居然是用丹麥語編寫的。但對于普利斯特里來說，這根本不是問題！他居然和一位同事通宵突擊丹麥語，掌握了諸如foutmelding（錯誤的）和beveilaging（安全）這類術語，最終將問題成功化解。

????重點在于：如果招聘經理只關注普利斯特里平淡無奇的簡歷，他恐怕永遠也沒有機會邁入Facebook的大門。

????本書囊括的案例來源非常豐富，包括美國聯邦調查局（FBI），美國國家籃球協會（NBA）和通用電氣（GE），也有來自安然公司的反面教材。對受挫于使用傳統方法無法挖掘到意外之“才”的招聘經理們來說，這些實例將會發人深省?！断∮械陌l現》一書本身就是一個“稀有的發現”：一本能給讀者帶來閱讀樂趣的商業著作。

????譯者：富來細特\汪皓

????In retrospect, the biggest blunders often seem inexplicable. Four different book publishers, for instance, passed on J.K. Rowling's first Harry Potter novel. A weird story about the adventures of a juvenile wizard and his friends just didn't seem worth a $5,000 advance. Oops.

????According to author George Anders, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at The Wall Street Journal, most big companies make comparable mistakes all the time. For a new book, The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else, Anders set out to analyze how some of the most successful enterprises choose extraordinary new hires.

????What he found will come as no surprise to anyone who has worked with someone who looked good on paper but turned out to be less than stellar in action.

????Instead of insisting on a rigid set of credentials, Anders says, hiring managers ought to focus on what the job really requires and give a fair shot to candidates whose resumes may be what Anders calls "jagged," or full of ups and downs.

????Someone whose background "appears to teeter on the edge between success and failure," he writes, can do "spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths dramatically outweigh their flaws."

????Consider, for example, legendary Facebook engineer Evan Priestley. He had changed his college major three times before dropping out altogether, and was working as a low-level web designer at a small firm in Portland, Me., when, in 2007, he happened to come across a programming puzzle that Facebook had put out over the Internet. Priestley's solution was so elegant that Facebook flew him to Palo Alto for an interview, where he impressed everyone with his skills.

????Facebook hired him, and the rest is legend: Priestley led a team of programmers that sped up Facebook's infrastructure and made it easier to add games, maps, and other applications.

????At one point, Facebook's site stopped working for a small group of users who, it turned out, were hampered by an obscure, out-of-date security program. The only publicly available manual was written in Danish. No problem! Priestley and a coworker stayed up all night learning enough Danish -- mastering terms like foutmelding and beveilaging -- to untangle the trouble.

????The point: If hiring managers had considered only Priestley's lackluster resume, he'd never have gotten a foot in the door.

????Drawing on other case studies from organizations as diverse as the FBI, the National Basketball Association, General Electric (GE), and (a cautionary tale) Enron, this is thought-provoking stuff for anybody who's frustrated with trying to find exceptional talent using the same, tired old methods. The Rare Find is also a rare find in itself: A business book that is actually fun to read.