As graduation draws near, those who haven’t landed a job yet may be desperate to find one. Perhaps some of the job offers they have received are below their skill and experience levels. Is it better to take these offers, or reject them and remain unemployed¹?

毕业临近，还没找到工作的同学可能迫切想找到一个职位。也许，他们得到的工作机会以自己目前的技能和经验远远可以胜任。那么，究竟是该接受这样的职位，还是拒绝掉继续等待机会呢？

A recent study conducted by a University of Texas sociologist² may give soon-to-be grads some food for thought. It’s about how taking a job below your skill level could affect your prospects³ for future employment. The result of the study is: It matters a lot.

最近，美国德克萨斯大学的一位社会学家做了一份调查，结果可能会让即将毕业的同学们好好思考一番。这份有关“接受低于自身技能水平的工作，可能会影响未来就业前途”的调查。其结果证明：这两者之间关系紧密。

“A history of skills underutilization is as scarring for workers as a year of unemployment,” according to David Pedulla, whose study on the topic appeared in the American Sociological Review.

“自身能力不能充分施展，对于就业者来说，就像待业一年那样可怕，”大卫•裴多拉表示，他的研究登上了《美国社会学评论》期刊。

Pedulla explored his interest in what he calls “labor market inequality” by developing resumes for imaginary job applicants⁵. The job seekers he created had a few things in common. They had a college degree, worked nearly two years at their first job, and worked about four and a half years at their second job.

通过给虚构的求职者设计简历裴多拉探索了他感兴趣的领域，他称之为“劳动力市场不平等”。他在试验中设计出许许多多应聘者，他们有很多相同之处。比如，都具备大学本科学历，第一份工作干了两年，第二份工作干了4年半等等。

What differed was their third job – the one Pedulla created for them for the most recent year. His imaginary workers either had a full-time⁶ job that matched their skills, a part-time job, a job below their skill level, or were unemployed.

然而不同之处出现在第三份工作——这也是裴多拉对于应聘者的特殊设计。他设想中的就业者，要么拥有一份匹配能力的全职工作，要么是一份低于自身技能水平的兼职工作，要么干脆待业。

Then Pedulla submitted 2,420 resumes based on his imaginary job seekers, along with cover letters, to online ads for 1,210 real jobs. Each of the applicants had an email address and real phone number that employers could contact if they were interested in talking with the applicant⁴ further.

裴多拉为其设想中的求职者一共提交了2420份简历和相应的求职信，去应聘网络广告中的1210个真实岗位。每份应聘资料中都有电子邮箱地址以及真实的电话号码，如果雇主对于应聘者感兴趣可以进一步联络。

The callback rates varied⁷ widely based on how the imaginary job seeker had spent their last year. Pedulla said employer interest in his fictional⁸ applicants reflected what kind of signals the applicant’s most recent job history sent to hiring managers, including how competent they were and how committed they were to their careers.

就业者最后一年经历的不同，导致了雇主回电率的不同。裴多拉表示，雇主对于这些虚拟应聘资料的兴趣，反映出的是应聘者最近一段经历释放给雇主的信号，比如他们的竞争力，以及他们对于职业的投入程度。

Male and female applicants who had full-time jobs the previous year were called back 10.4 percent of the time. Those whose most recent year of employment was in a job that was below their skills level were only called back about 5 percent of the time. Male applicants who had been unemployed for a year were called back 4.2 percent of the time, while unemployed females were called back 7.5 percent of the time.

在众多应聘者中，前一年拥有全职工作的人，雇主回电率为10.4%。而前一年的工作技能要求不如自身水平的应聘者，回电率只有5%。男性应聘者待业一年的回电率为4.2%，而待业的女性应聘者的回电率为7.5%。

The study also showed that holding a part-time position over the previous year hurt men much more than it did women. Men with a year of part-time work only were called by employers 4.8 percent of the time, while the figure is 10.9 percent for women. “Men face severe penalties for part-time work histories, but women experience no penalties,” Pedulla wrote.

这份研究同样表明，应聘前一年做兼职工作，对于男性的伤害要大于女性。兼职一年男性的得到雇主回电率为4.8%，兼职一年的女性应聘者得到的雇主回电率为10.9%。裴多拉在研究中写道：“男性面临兼职工作经历带来的严重影响，然而女性拥有这样的经历并没有多大影响。”

However, Pedulla cautioned that there are some limits about what lessons can be taken from the experiment. It only measured the initial interest of employers in his fictional job candidates, not whether the employer would hire them or what they would be paid based on their most recent job experience. And he only conducted the study in five major cities, and doesn’t know whether he would have gotten the same results in smaller labor markets.

然而，裴多拉也提醒大家，从实验中学到的东西有局限性。实验只测算出了雇主对于虚拟应聘者的最初兴趣，但是并没有测算出雇主是否会雇用他们，或者应聘者最近的工作经历会让他们获得什么样的薪水。而且，裴多拉的实验只在五个城市进行，他并不清楚在其他小规模的劳动力市场中，是否还会得到相同的结果。