一个算法如何决定你的职业？
想在一家成功的跨国公司谋取职位？你将面对激烈的竞争。两年前，高盛集团曾收到25万学生和毕业生的求职申请。这不仅使得求职者成功几率变小，对于公司也是一个实际的问题。假设高盛一个五人的人力资源团队，包括周末在内每天工作12小时，每份申请花5分钟，他们需要接近一年才能完成筛选这些简历的工作。
难怪多数大公司使用计算机程序或算法来筛选初级职位候选人。这意味着，确切的知道算法关注的要点对于求职者十分有利。
Victoria McLean在创立City CV之前曾从事银行业猎头和招聘经理，City CV就是帮助求职者准备简历的公司。她说，在人审前经候选人管理系统（ATS）拒绝的履历或简历最多可达75%。这样的系统搜索满足雇主标准的关键词。一个技巧是研究招聘广告使用的语言，如果其中项目经理使用了缩写PM，那就确保PM出现在你的简历里。
这意味着一般的简历可能在第一关就无法通过。Victoria McLean的一个客户曾是部队的高级官员。他的经验表明他在培训和教育、国防采购或销售等方面有潜在的工作机会。最佳策略是使用不同的关键词组打造三个不同的履历。求职者还需要确保其领英上的介绍和履历互相印证。很多招聘人员都会上网验证候选人的资格，Victoria McLean说。
通过候选人管理系统（ATS）可能并不是求职者需要面对的唯一技术关卡。包括沃达丰和因特尔在内的很多公司使用名为HireVue的视频面试服务。在候选人做问答测试时，人工智能程序分析他们的面部表情（建议与摄像头保持眼神接触）和语言模式（技巧是听起来要有自信）。挥舞手臂或瘫坐在椅子上的人更容易失败。只有通过这项测试，求职者才能见到真人。
你可能会希望AI程序能够避免一些传统招聘方法存在的偏见，尤其是面试官对于与自己相似候选人的偏好。但歧视还是以难以预料的方式出现。两位经济学家Anja Lambrecht和Catherine Tucker将科学、技术、工程和数学类的招聘广告放到脸书上，发现这些广告显示给女性的几率更小。
这并不是因为脸书算法存在有意识的偏见。相反，脸书将年轻女性作为更应关注的人口统计学群体（因为她们通常控制了很高比例的家庭支出），推送给她们的广告也更昂贵。算法只是自然的将投资回报最高的页面作为目标：这导致上述招聘广告推送给男性而非女性。
多伦多罗特曼管理学院的Ajay Agrawal、Joshua Gans和Avi Goldfarb关于人工智能的书中认为，公司不能简单的将这类结果作为算法的“黑盒”特性所带来的副作用。如果发现AI系统结果是歧视性的，公司需要找出原因，调整程序直到这种歧视消失。
从刑事司法到保险的很多领域，人们开始担心AI系统存在潜在的偏见，招聘也是一样。如果招聘方法被证明是不公平的，公司将面临法律和名誉风险。同时公司也要考虑，除了简化流程，程序是不是做了更多？比如，符合条件的受聘者有长期高效的职业生涯吗？毕竟员工流失是公司的最大招聘成本之一。
当候选人学会如何调整履历来通过最初的AI筛选，算法也要适应变化筛去更多的候选人。这时“军备竞赛”就出现了。这又造成另一种潜在的偏见：家庭出身较好的候选人（以及来自特殊群体）可能更快反应过来从而更新他们的履历。相应的，这也要求公司再次调整算法避免歧视。看来，人工智能的代价就是要永远保持警惕。
原文拾粹：
Get with the program
How an algorithm may decide your career
WANT a job with a successful multinational? You will face lots of competition. Two years ago Goldman Sachs received a quarter of a million applications from students and graduates. Those are not just daunting odds for job hunters; they are a practical problem for companies. If a team of five Goldman human-resources staff, working 12 hours every day, including weekends, spent five minutes on each application, they would take nearly a year to complete the task of sifting through the pile.
1、multinational：作为名词意为跨国公司
2、daunting odds：成功几率非常低的
3、sifting through the pile:从成堆的文件里筛选。sift，筛选，过滤
Little wonder that most large firms use a computer program, or algorithm, when it comes to screening candidates seeking junior jobs. And that means applicants would benefit from knowing exactly what the algorithms are looking for.
4、screen：筛选。上文用了sift，语言富有变化
Victoria McLean is a former banking headhunter and recruitment manager who set up a business called City CV, which helps job candidates with applications. She says the applicant-tracking systems(ATS) reject up to 75% of CVs, or résumés, before a human sees them. Such systems are hunting for keywords that meet the employer’s criteria. One tip is to study the language used in the job advertisement; if the initials PM are used for project management, then make sure PM appears in your CV.
5、 CVs vs résumés：两者通常都被翻为简历，论其区别，résumé尽量简洁，一两页内容，常用于商业领域、政府以及其他非学术性的个人简历。CV很少有长短限制，应把重点放在学习成就上，更像是教育经历的客观陈述，常用于学术申请
This means that a generic CV may fall at the first hurdle. Ms McLean had a client who had been a senior member of the armed forces. His experience pointed to potential jobs in training and education, procurement or defence sales. The best strategy was to create three different CVs using different sets of keywords. And jobhunters also need to make sure that their LinkedIn profile and their CV reinforce each other; the vast majority of recruiters will use the website to check the qualifications of candidates, she says.
6、the vast majority of：绝大部分
Passing the ATS stage may not be the jobhunter’s only technological barrier. Many companies, including Vodafone and Intel, use a video-interview service called HireVue. Candidates are quizzed while an artificial-intelligence (AI) program analyses their facial expressions (maintaining eye contact with the camera is advisable) and language patterns (sounding confident is the trick). People who wave their arms about or slouch in their seat are likely to fail. Only if they pass that test will the applicants meet some humans.
7、... is advisable, ...is the trick：...是建议的做法，...是诀窍。一是句型，这样的用法地道又简洁。二是前后紧挨的表述，互相联系又富于变化
You might expect AI programs to be able to avoid some of the biases of conventional recruitment methods—particularly the tendency for interviewers to favour candidates who resemble the interviewer. Yet discrimination can show up in unexpected ways. Anja Lambrecht and Catherine Tucker, two economists, placed adverts promoting jobs in science, technology, engineering and maths on Facebook. They found that the ads were less likely to be shown to women than to men.
This was not due to a conscious bias on the part of the Facebook algorithm. Rather, young women are a more valuable demographic group on Facebook(because they control a high share of household spending) and thus ads targeting them are more expensive. The algorithms naturally targeted pages where the return on investment is highest: for men, not women.
8、demographic：人口统计学的
In their book on artificial intelligence, Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans and Avi Goldfarb of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management say that companies cannot simply dismiss such results as an unfortunate side-effect of the “black box” nature of algorithms. If they discover that the output of an AI system is discriminatory, they need to work out why, and then adjust the algorithm until the effect disappears.
9、side-effect：副作用
10、the “black box” nature of algorithms：算法的“黑盒”属性
Worries about potential bias in AI systems have emerged in a wide range of areas, from criminal justice to insurance. In recruitment, too, companies will face a legal and reputational risk if their hiring methods turn out to be unfair. But they also need to consider whether the programs do more than just simplify the process. For instance, do successful candidates have long and productive careers? Staff churn, after all, is one of the biggest recruitment costs that firms face.
11、Staff churn：人员流失
There may also be an arms race as candidates learn how to adjust their CVs to pass the initial AI test, and algorithms adapt to screen out more candidates. This creates scope for another potential bias: candidates from better-off households (and from particular groups) may be quicker to update their CVs. In turn, this may require companies to adjust their algorithms again to avoid discrimination. The price of artificial intelligence seems likely to be eternal vigilance.
12、vigilance：名词，警戒，警惕
译者注：本文选自《经济学人》（2018年6月23日）
