Chapter 40 Text: Eighteen Questions of Yu Minhong Faced with Freshmen in the Workplace

——Yu Minhong answered questions from the audience on CCTV's "We 5 Us" column Audience: You have interviewed many college students, please tell us frankly, what is your dissatisfaction with us the most? Yu Minhong: The most dissatisfied is impetuousness.First, college students generally have less knowledge of the humanities, and read fewer books than we did when we were in college. Of course, when we were in college, the state assigned jobs, so we didn’t have much utilitarian things, and we read a lot of books, but now Many students read "Poor Dad Rich Dad" and "How to Get Rich" as soon as they read it. They are too eager for quick success. Few of them have read...There is a saying that the thickness of your humanistic background will determine the thickness of your life, and the humanistic background is not obtained by reading "Poor Dad, Rich Dad", but by reading, "History of Western Aesthetics" and Tang Poetry and Song Ci.Although this has nothing to do with the work you will do in the future, it will lay your foundation and determine your future development, because when you think about one thing, you should not just look at this one thing, you should have a farther perspective, a little more philosophy, Be wise.Second, English must be able to communicate, even if you are not fluent, you must be able to understand and communicate.Third, the computer must be quite skilled.I found that some students are very proficient in computer operation because they play games, but they are not proficient in other office software.

Audience: After I graduated in 2006, I started a market research company with my friends.Our company has done a lot of surveys on college students, and found that 90% of the students don't know how to present themselves during the interview?I don't know if it's better to be conservative or more public. Can you give us some advice in this regard? Yu Minhong: This is very normal.Any inexperienced person will be nervous when standing in front of the human resources director or the boss. It is impossible for a person to mature all at once, and the boss will not dare to ask for a person who is too seasoned, and the boss will think, what So sophisticated before graduating from university?Of course, before the interview, some training on interview skills is still necessary, such as how to answer questions properly, how to express eyes and winks... But this is just a superficial thing, and the core is to show the true self, such as On the premise of being polite, it is necessary to laugh when you should laugh, speak when you should speak, and express yourself when you should express yourself.For a person who has just graduated from university, the boss will generally not consider his professional ability, but will consider whether this person will work hard and whether his words and deeds are in line with the company culture.In addition, make your resume a little better and show yourself.

Audience: I want to talk about my thoughts.We are still very young, and I sometimes think about what we are living for in this life. I have asked many people, and one sentence from my grandma impressed me deeply. She said that people live to earn enough memories for their gray-haired self. .Now we are very young, we have various stages, we are constantly experimenting, we may succeed, we may fail.I think that one day when we are the same age as Mr. Yu, or even older, we recall the road we have traveled, and our youth is filled with memories, which is very happy.In addition, on March 22, when Ma Ying-jeou was elected as the leader of Taiwan, he gave a speech that was quite suitable for employment-"Start from gratitude, start from humility". For college students, no matter how much annual salary they will get in the future, 100 10,000, 2 million, and when you graduate, you don’t have the time to get such an annual salary. In fact, the boss values ​​your future and the value you may create. Therefore, start from humility. When we are employed, we should not be arrogant. , but should start from the most humble thing, I believe it will be fine in the future.

Yu Minhong: How to make my life full of memories?A person is like an empty glass, it is not enough to fill the glass with things, you can fill it with messy things, you can also fill a glass of water, you can also fill it with something very tasty, it is not enough to just fill it with memories , but filled with what kind of memories.The six words of life, experience, experience and sublimation, center on these six words, fill the cup of your own memory with things that can move you, and when you are gray-haired, see you for your career The sweat you shed, that will outweigh the many things you do, not just the memories, but the ones that are truly worth it.As for what you said to do things with a grateful heart and a humble way, I think this is the case. People don’t have to start from the most basic and humble things when doing things. When people are pursuing a bigger platform, they must have The previous platform, no matter how big a platform you have at the beginning, you must cherish it and lay a solid foundation for yourself on this platform.People who are easy to succeed when they are young often have a very difficult future.Take New Oriental as an example. After entering New Oriental, some teachers of New Oriental began to lose themselves because they were eloquent, taught well, and paid a lot of money. But this is actually just an illusory success. It is successful in other ways.Many actors and stars who become famous overnight are often not very happy in their middle-aged to old age. Some take drugs and some commit suicide, but some stars do very well and walk into charity to help others. They can put the past Forget about your honor, to serve the society in a down-to-earth manner, and thus become a figure admired by the whole world.The higher the platform of a person, the better. If the boss gives you a high platform now, you should maintain a good attitude and work from this platform.

Audience: I have participated in several job fairs. Many companies require work experience, ranging from one or two years to three to five years. What do you think of the fact that college graduates have no work experience? Yu Minhong: Everything has a beginning. I have a suggestion for college students who are still in school, that is, don’t just go out to play during the winter and summer vacations. You must find a job. You should go to a relatively famous company to find a job. You don't need money, but you must be serious and get the company's recognition of your work.For example, if you come to New Oriental to work in the news and public relations department for a month or two during the summer vacation, I will give you a certificate to show that you are serious about your work. When you are looking for a job, it will be better to have this certificate.Of course, this does not mean that you will find a job, but this is a common practice in American universities.In addition, there must be some units that recruit college students without work experience. As far as I know, if New Oriental requires more than three years of work experience, it must be at least a supervisor or manager level position, and ordinary employees generally do not require such positions.Of course, large companies may recruit ordinary employees and require more than two or three years of work experience, so you can first target less well-known companies and accumulate experience first.Also, if you can't find a suitable job, then find a job that is not so suitable but acceptable to you, and accumulate work experience first.As for what to do if the job is not suitable for you, I think that your mentality and ability can be exchanged between different jobs. When you have work experience, you can switch to the job you like.

Audience: Statistics show that two-thirds of college students do not have accurate goals and career plans. How did you plan your life and reach the pinnacle of your career? Yu Minhong: Actually, I didn’t have any career goals when I was in college.Because we had a special situation at that time, that is, jobs were assigned by the state, and you could go to whatever unit the state assigned you to. We didn’t need a life goal, we just needed to study. This was our general mentality at the time.But for college students now, why I say to start as early as possible is because of this reason.When you are in college, you have to decide what you want to do in the future.If you like to study the current major, then stick to it and find a job related to this major; if you don’t like this major and you can’t change to another major, then I suggest that you learn your major well. At the same time, you must find a way to choose a major that you like, so that when you graduate, you can tell the other party that I know this field very well, what books I have read, for example, if you are interested in marketing, what would you like? Read the three most famous marketing books in the world thoroughly, and then when you go to the interview, you can speak very attractively from the theory to the case, so that you can easily find a job.

Also, it doesn't matter if you don't have a career direction when you graduate from university.Because, between the ages of 20 and 30, people can have countless opportunities to adjust. You can think about what you are interested in and what you should do in the process of working, and then turn in that direction, and there is still time. Not in one step.After graduating, college students must first find a job, then a job, and then a career.Just find a job first, don’t rely on your parents to support you. It’s shameful for a college student to have your parents support you after the age of 22. Your parents have supported you for 22 years, and they are almost 50 years old. They don’t have any burdens. Under the circumstances, you can still have spare money to travel and spend your old age with peace of mind, but if you are already 22 years old and still ask your family for money, what are you, a bastard?So after the age of 22, you must first have a job to support yourself. As for whether you like this job or not, it is not your first consideration.While working, you can think about what kind of work you like.For example, if you go to an organization and do human resources work, but you don't like it, what you like is marketing, you can learn marketing through your own efforts, and transfer to a marketing agency.At New Oriental, many employees have moved from one position to another, and sometimes, we deliberately let employees flow, because flow can make employees more motivated to learn.The so-called career is a lifetime career, from accountant to accounting manager, and finally to the company's CFO, to the company's financial manager, this is a career.Occupation is the same for a lifetime. I work at Peking University as a teacher and support myself. After 25 years old, I am determined to be a teacher for the rest of my life. This is a profession.Many people can also have a third step, career.If you are an accountant, you can come out and open an accounting firm, or become the world's greatest accounting firm like Deloitte and Ernst & Young.I came out of Peking University and started New Oriental School, which became my career.Therefore, we have to divide it into three steps, and the most fearful thing is unemployment.If you do a good job in employment, career, and career, unemployment will never find you; if you remain unemployed, you will never have a career and career at all.

Audience: You talked about a core thing, which is persistence.But the saddest situation is that if I persist in doing a wrong thing, besides intuition, what other indicators can I use to judge whether my persistence is correct? Yu Minhong: Judging based on two basic elements, the first is your interest, if this matter is wrong no matter what others say, but you are interested in doing it, you can stick to it.Even if you play game consoles, as long as you want to become the greatest game design expert in the world, this persistence is not wrong. If you play game consoles just for fun and to upgrade, then this persistence is wrong. Persistence comes from your interest.In addition, whatever you do, as long as the society needs it, it is right. For example, if you learn Vietnamese, which is more correct, learning English or learning Vietnamese?Some people must say that learning English is more correct, but you speak Vietnamese very fluently. When Chinese leaders visit Vietnam, if they want to find an interpreter, maybe you are the one they are looking for.The premise of persistence is that you are willing to do this thing, not that this thing will bring you money and social status. Of course, money and status should also be considered, but they can only be considered as additional conditions, not as the core.Second, it depends on whether you are suitable for this job.Once, a student chatted with me. He was very introverted. He told me that he was studying management and leadership, so I told him, you don’t need to study management and leadership. Your best career is one that can be completed independently , A profession that can be completed without communicating with anyone. There are many such professions. Novelists and philosophers have written great works behind closed doors. There are also accountants who do not need to deal with people, and you learn If you study leadership, you will definitely not be a leader in the end, but you will definitely become a conspirator, because you will think about people.

Audience: What people don't know the most is themselves. When we are not sure about our own interests and personality, what can we rely on to judge? Yu Minhong: The best way is to chat with two kinds of people: one is your friends, you must let them tell you frankly where your strengths and weaknesses are, you gather four or five good friends around you, Ask you what this person's personality is and what are their shortcomings. If you write down their words, they are 80% or 90% correct.Second, you seek advice from someone with experience.For example, talk to those who have good employment experience, tell me what I want to do, what I think my personality is, and let them judge.Combining these two judgments, you can probably understand yourself, and this is what you have been trying to figure out.

Audience: It is relatively easy to persevere on your own. When New Oriental was in a difficult early stage of development, how did you make the people around you stick to a belief like you? What are the core elements? Yu Minhong: The core element is the development prospect.Doing this thing makes people feel that there is a future, which is also the premise for anyone to do anything.Now there are only two things that can unite people's hearts. One is religion, because religion has beliefs, which cannot be stopped.Second, it is difficult for an enterprise to create beliefs, so what does it create?It is an inevitable encouragement for everyone to create future success, personal growth and wealth increase.How does this encouragement manifest itself?Confidence in the future through leaders.In New Oriental, if I showed no confidence in New Oriental even for a minute, people would disperse.The smaller the company is, the more confident it is. This confidence cannot be pretended, but must come from the heart. Even if it is stepped on the ground, it will come out of the confidence. Let people see that this business is constantly developing middle.

Audience: You told us two short stories, salmon and Sisyphus. The revelation of salmon is that we should have the experience of salmon, which is to change jobs, while Sisyphus is to do one thing in a down-to-earth manner. These two views Are they contradictory? Yu Minhong: Salmon does not mean job-hopping, but a process that life has to go through. A person should live in a space of continuous growth, constantly meet new environments and new difficulties and challenges, and overcome these difficulties, and finally make himself growing up.You mentioned the concept of job hopping, I personally do not object to employee job hopping, I only object to job hopping without purpose, or just for high wages.The job-hopping I agree with is that after job-hopping, you are one step closer to your future life goals and ideals. People always grow up. When you can’t make progress in the middle of your work, you should consider whether you should change your position, whether you should jump to a place where you can learn new things and make yourself grow, and jump to a place that is far away from your lifelong goal. I went to a nearby place, this is not called job hopping.At New Oriental, I have always encouraged employees like this. If you can’t learn something at New Oriental, please go to a place where you can learn something, otherwise you will destroy yourself and New Oriental.The story of Sisyphus is about the most ordinary thing, as long as you have the mentality to do it for a long time, it will become meaningful.As I just said, everyday things are very trivial. When I started New Oriental, I taught 8 hours of classes a day. Someone asked me why I could continue to teach?Many teachers teach for how much money they get for a class, but I teach to make New Oriental bigger. Audience: I graduated with a major in Chinese Studies. People who study Chinese history and philosophy have very bad prospects after graduation, but these are people with very good humanistic qualities. What are your suggestions for us and how do you view this phenomenon? ? Yu Minhong: Let me give you a suggestion. While insisting on studying Chinese culture, if you really can’t find a job, you must have a skill that will allow you to find a job. It can be your second degree, or you can develop it yourself some kind of skill.If your English level is very good, you can become an English teacher. You can earn more money and don’t spend too much time. The remaining time and money can support your Chinese studies. 55% of our New Oriental teachers are not Graduated with an English major.For example, you can study journalism to be a reporter, or you can study finance. Anyway, it is a skill that can find a job. This skill is not a skill that you should dedicate yourself to, but a skill that you don’t hate and can continue to do it. Otherwise, you can’t find a job if you study Chinese culture , can't support themselves.In fact, I don’t like English either. I like history and philosophy. The reason why I insist on learning English well is because I found that studying history and philosophy really can’t support me, but in my spare time, I still spend more energy on history books. Of course, this will prevent me from becoming a literary master or a historical master, but it does not hinder my interest in and research on history.Therefore, unless you can use Chinese studies to find a job to support yourself, if there is no such hope, you should learn a profession or skill that will allow you to find a job, go to work first, and then come back to study Chinese studies. Audience: Honesty is advocated in society now. I am about to graduate and look for a job. If during an interview, the examiner asks me to talk about my shortcomings, should I be honest or conservative?If asked, how would you answer? Yu Minhong: I will answer honestly.Moreover, the way you speak out will also affect whether the other party can accept your shortcomings.There is a relatively big shortcoming in my personality, which is indecision. This is an important characteristic of me, and other people's opinions are more likely to influence me.But this shortcoming also has advantages. For example, I am very tolerant. Many things will not happen immediately, so it is not easy to hurt others. If I want to fire someone, I can’t do it at all. New Oriental is almost never fired by me. people.In this way, I will talk about my shortcomings as advantages, because a person's shortcomings are often also his advantages. These are actually two roads, which can make you go uphill or downhill. The key is that you How to turn your shortcomings into your strengths and advantages.For you, the shortcomings of college students are generally similar, such as impetuousness, lack of work experience, lack of determination to stick to the end, etc., so when you are employed, your strengths are actually more important than your weaknesses. Audience: I feel that you appreciate people who are low-key and restrained, but you don't like people who show their sharpness. Is this a phenomenon caused by Chinese culture?In my opinion, it is really difficult to grasp the degree between sharpness and non-sharpness. Yu Minhong: I like people who show their sharpness, and the teachers of New Oriental praise it very much.The key is to see where you work. If you become a manager, entrepreneur, or leader in the future, you must be restrained, because restraint can leave room for others, and others can work with you.And when you do things by yourself, you have to show yourself, show your personal charm, and you must show your sharpness.I must show my sharpness in the classroom, and I must be restrained in managing New Oriental. It depends on what I do. If I don’t show my sharpness, then I can’t manage New Oriental. Audience: How do you judge a good employee?How do you judge whether he is the employee you need? Yu Minhong: One thing, go all out to do well, that is a suitable employee.It's okay to fail, because maybe the job isn't for you.Regardless of whether the work can be recognized by others, since you are doing this job, you must do it well, and learn what you can learn, and accumulate your own work experience.The second question, I mainly look at this person's personality, if he is more bold, sincere, and works hard, I will ask for it.Professionalism is a prerequisite. If you are a human resource, I will consider you to work in the human resource department first. In addition, what is more important is your overall quality and temperament, which is difficult to measure with a certain standard . Audience: When I graduated, I found a job very smoothly. I interviewed for four jobs and got three. I chose a TV production company. Among these three jobs, it was not the best paid job, but it was my favorite.It's a pity that I went to another company after only four months in this job. It was a five-star cinema that had just invested. I support myself with royalties.But I am a bit confused about life, so I would like to ask Mr. Yu to give me some evaluation of these two jobs. Yu Minhong: These two jobs are completely different, or that sentence, are you willing to do it or not.Is the second job something you like to do, and what exactly do you want in the future.Let me tell you a story to see what kind of result a person will have in the end if he sticks to what he likes to do.I once met a student who was a graduate of a business school. She could also find a job in this field, but she was very interested in television, and she was particularly interested in being a TV presenter. For such a job, she applied to Tianjin TV Station to carry bags for the program production team, and she didn't get paid.Everyone thinks this little girl is okay. Since she doesn’t need salary, she can carry bags. She helps people carry bags, carry machines, carry tripods, and pack things. One year later, the program team began to pay her wages, starting from 1,000 yuan. Later, it was 2,000 yuan, and then everyone found that this little girl was very good at speaking and capable, so she was allowed to appear on the scene. Now she has become the host of Tianjin TV Station. The next step is to study media abroad and then return to China to develop. The current salary is 8000 yuan a month. Audience: I graduated last year. I would like to ask when should I go back to school to continue my studies?Many people go back to school without finding a job. Do you think this is suitable? Yu Minhong: It is inappropriate to go to school after unemployment, it is a kind of escape.Many people go to graduate school directly after graduating from university, because it is difficult to find a job outside, so they continue to study, but the more you do this, the harder it is for you to understand the working atmosphere, the harder it is for you to accept the state of work, and the harder it is to find a job.In fact, going back to study should be in such a state: you have gained a lot of new experience at work, and you find that in the field of work you like in the future, your professional knowledge and comprehensive ability are not enough. At this time, you can go back Continue to study, come back to work after reading, and go to a higher level.I was in New Oriental at the time, and wanted to go back to study, but I found that I couldn’t leave New Oriental, so I continued to do so. Later, I thought, if New Oriental was young, I went to study for an MBA, maybe it would not be so difficult now Yes, but now some people say that you should stop reading, you can just ask someone who understands to manage it, so I invited some people who have more research in this area to teach me alone, so that I learned what I should How to go public, how to control after listing, how to deal with capitalists, how to integrate into the international capital market, how to conduct New Oriental's financial operations... I also understand all these knowledge. With a heart that wants to learn, no matter what, you can learn the abilities you need in your work.But I still encourage some students. If you feel that your knowledge is still relatively poor after working for a few years, it is very important to go back and study again at that time. Audience: In some areas, companies dare not ask for postgraduates, but use undergraduates. Why do companies have this phenomenon?Because postgraduates have higher salaries and higher ambitions, they are easy to change jobs. On the same balance, I prefer to use undergraduates. Do you think we really don’t need so many high-end talents?Or is there something that needs to be improved in the employment mentality and career planning of our graduate students? Yu Minhong: This problem also exists in other countries. Doctoral students are not as easy to find a job as undergraduates. In principle, the salary of doctoral students is higher than that of undergraduates.Moreover, postgraduates in China have no work experience at all after graduation, and they have no advantage over undergraduates. Therefore, if undergraduates are competent, most companies will choose undergraduates. The starting point is the same, and the salary is lower.Some units are afraid that after graduate students have studied too much, they will use theory to set everything up, and it will be difficult to correct it in reality, and their ability will be relatively weak. This is the case among the people who work under me.In fact, if you are a manager, supervisor, or very high-end professional and technical personnel of an enterprise, in principle, everyone is more willing to use graduate students. If graduate students can perform better than undergraduate students in the middle of work, many companies are willing to pay a higher price for graduate students. This is a matter of the mentality of enterprises, not that enterprises do not need graduate students. When graduate students have no work experience like undergraduates and require higher wages, and undergraduates can adapt to this position, undergraduates will become the first choice, because enterprises are very Realistically, cost must be considered.So this is a normal occurrence and it doesn't mean grad school is useless. Audience: Graduate graduates have higher career expectations than undergraduate graduates, and they may have a greater psychological gap with their first job. Do you have any suggestions? Yu Minhong: There are a lot of postgraduates in China now. If you have no work experience, you must have a down-to-earth attitude when looking for a job. In addition, postgraduates must show more advantages than undergraduates, even if the starting point is low, but the speed of growth It will be very fast. I have such experience that the rate of rise of postgraduate graduates is about four times faster than that of undergraduates. It takes undergraduates four years to reach the salary standard, and postgraduates do it in one or two years. Their abilities are stronger than undergraduates. Audience: I found that many of my classmates are likely to find a good job, but they don't have a complete plan for their entire career.And when I went to Columbia University in the United States, I saw that they would make a five-to-ten-year plan for their students and guide their future development direction, but this kind of guidance is not yet available in Chinese universities. What will China use to fill it? this vacancy? Yu Minhong: There is no vacancy, and foreign countries are indeed doing better than China.As far as I know, only half of American college students stick to their majors after graduation.In fact, for college students, whether the job is consistent with the major is not the condition for judging your success or failure.What I want to say is that, on the one hand, China should strengthen the employment guidance work for college students, and find people who have worked in enterprises to work in the university employment office. When doing employment consultation, there is a gap in the middle.On the other hand, in fact, the students themselves are not sure. They are not sure what they want to do. They may not feel that this job is suitable for them until they find a job. This is the job they want, so there is an adjustment in the middle. process.It will be very difficult if the employment office is allowed to complete the employment guidance work of students for a lifetime.Therefore, whether you are a graduate student or an undergraduate student, it is inevitable that you have to start thinking about your career from the beginning of employment. Many people cannot escape the confusion and swings in the middle.