硅谷如何吸引斯坦福畢業生？.mp35:05
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Congratulations, you got into Stanford University. You beat 22 other candidates vying for each coveted place.For you, competition doesn't quite stop there: being best in class boosts your prospects. But the real fighting now will be over 7,100 undergraduates and 9, 400 graduate students, not between them. Technology giants and sexy startups all want this brainpower. So do venture capital (VC) funds. All go to sometimes absurd lengths to get it.
恭喜，你被斯坦福大學錄取了。你擊敗了22個競爭對手才得到這一炙手可熱的入學名額。不過對你來說，競爭並未就此結束:如果能在班上名列前茅，將會.提升你的畢業前景。但現在真正的比拼並不發生在你和同學之間，而是一場對斯坦福7100名本科生和9400名研究生的爭奪戰。科技巨頭和光彩奪目的創業公司都想要這些頂尖頭腦。風投基金也一樣。它們為此不遺餘力，有時還用力過猛。
Accelerator programmes, such as StartX or Alchemist Accelerator,court budding entrepreneurs with burritos, desk space and thousands of dollars in earliest-stage funding. They hope to ferret out the next HP, Cisco,Google, PayPal, Netflix or other tech success story that can trace its roots to Stanford's campus in sleepy Palo Alto,Silicon Valley's spiritual epicentre.
StartX或鍊金術士( AlchemistAccelerator)等創業加速器以墨西哥捲餅、工位空間和成千.上萬美元的早期融資來吸引嶄露頭角的創業家。它們希望發現下一個惠普、思科、谷歌、貝寶(PayPal) 、奈飛(Netflix) ，或其他起源於斯坦福校園的科技創業成功故事。斯坦福所在的寂靜的帕洛阿爾託( Palo Alto)是硅谷的精神中心。
To beat others to top talent, some deep-pocketed investors take on teaching appointments. Venture capitalists from Flood gate teach acourse in how to evaluate startups.Many wanna be founders attend-and are evaluated in turn. Those who sparkle in final exams, which look a lot like startup pitch days, are invited to meet investors. Many such meetings turn into funding rounds.One student recounts how a Silicon Valley luminary who sometimes teaches at Stanford's Graduate School of Business has funded students on the spot.
為了搶先爭取到頂尖人才，一些財大氣粗的投資機構通過授課來促進招聘。Floodgate的風險投資人開設了一門評估創業公司的課程。許多想要創業的學生參加了這門課繼而也就接受了評估。結課考試看起來很像創業公司的推介日活動，在考試中脫穎而出的人將受邀與投資者見面。許多此類會面都變成了融資會議。一名學生講述了一位硅谷大佬當場投資了一-些學生的故事，這位大佬有時會到斯坦福大學商學院授課。
Partners from VC firms like Accel, Threshold Ventures and Mayfeld sponsor fellowships for entrepreneurial students--and host regular soirées and annual weekend get aways to Lake Tahoe. With such opportunities about, gushes Patty Sakunkoo, a PhD-student-turned-entrepreneur who has created multiple photo and video apps, "you can't help but catch the startup bug while at Stanford."
來自Accel、Threshold Ventures和Mayfield等風投公司的合夥人為創業的學生設立了獎學金，還定期舉辦晚宴,並每年安排一次太浩湖( Lake Tahoe )週末之旅。面對這樣的機會，“在斯坦福讀書你會情不自禁地加入創業大流。”帕蒂薩庫古( Patty Sakunkoo )難掩激動地說道。他由一名博士生變身為企業家，創建了多個照片和視頻應用。
Some VCs hope at least some students can resist-and come to woIk for them instead. They hang out with other company recruiters--from technology giants and small startups alike--at one of Palo Alto's half-dozen Coupa Cafés, a local coffee-shop chain. They treat prospective hires to lattes--and promises of a rich career.
一些風投公司希望至少有一些學生能抵住創業的誘惑，來為它們工作。它們和其他公司( 科技巨頭和小型創業公司都有)的招聘人員一起在CoupaCafe(這個本地咖啡連鎖店在帕洛阿爾託有五六家分店)裡閒坐，招待未來可能加入自己公司的學生喝拿鐵，向他們許諾報酬豐厚的職業生涯。
Now that stock options are falling out of favour as one tech initial public offering after another fizzles,for smaller startups the richness relies more on the emotional appeal of founders' missions. Either that,or they offer dibs on their product:Josh Wolff, a computer-science and bioengineering undergraduate,recalls being repeatedly approached by someone on LinkedIn who wanted to contract him as a consultant--and pay with his own cryptocurrency (Mr Wolffwisely declined). In the end, though, ."it iS SO hard to compete with BigTech," sighs one founder.
隨著一家又一家科技公司上市失利，股票期權逐漸失去吸引力，對小型創業公司而言，“錢途”更多地依賴創始人的使命感召力。要不然就是用自己的產品作酬勞。計算機科學和生物工程專業的本科生喬什沃爾夫(Josh Wolff)叵憶，曾有人通過領英多次與他聯繫，想聘請他擔任顧問，並用他自己創建的加密貨幣來支付報酬(沃爾夫明智地拒絕了)。不過說到最後，“和大科技公司競爭太難了。”一位創始人嘆息道。
The giants, many with headquarters nearby, rule the roost at Stanford.They, too, play up their mission and the importance of each job.But mostly, they shower students with goodies. The annual job fair in October is an insane arms race of free corporate swag", says Ashwin Siripurapu, a computer-science graduate. Students exchange résumés for trinkets (USB sticks, Rubik's cubes) or, occasionally, heftier gifts(bluetooth speakers, tablets). Within days offers start flooding in, including from firms that students never approached.
在斯坦福稱雄的還是科技巨頭，其中許多公司的總部就在附近。它們也極力鼓吹自己的使命和每個工作崗位的重要性。但它們主要還是用大把的好東西籠絡學生。計算機科學專業畢業生阿什溫.西里普拉普( Ashwin Siripurapu)說,每年10月舉行的招聘會就是一場"喪心病狂的公司贈品軍備競賽”。學生遞簡歷可以拿到小禮品(U盤、魔方等)，偶爾也會有更大件的禮物( 藍牙音箱或平板電腦)。學生在幾天之內便會收到大量的工作邀請，其中有些公司他們從未接觸過。
Once they identify a keeper, cash-rich firms--be they listed behemoths or multibillion-dollar unicorns- spare no expense. They wine and dine students at glitzy Palo Alto restaurants like Reposado or Il Fornaio and putthem up in five-star hotels on visits to offices in places like New York. One Stanford graduate recalls a big unicornpaying for an Uber Copter to fly him from Manhattan to JFK airport.
無論是已上市的巨頭還是價值數十億美元的獨角獸，那些現金充裕的公司一旦鎖定了可造之材就不惜成本志在必得。它們在Reposado或Il Fornaio等帕.洛阿爾託的豪華餐廳裡用美酒佳餚款待自己看中的學生，邀請他們參觀紐約等地的辦公室併入住五星級酒店。一名斯坦福畢業生回憶到，一家大獨角獸公司曾花錢租了一架Uber Copter直升機把他從曼哈頓送到肯尼迪國際機場。
When all is said and done, it is hard to resist a starting salary of $150,000-200,000, great health insurance,wellness reimbursements and unlimited vacation time (including at company retreats)-and a signing bonus of $10,000-20,000,for good measure.A job at today's conglomerates-Alphabet, Apple,Amazon or Facebook- increasingly resembles one at General Electric inthe 1980s: making up in perks what itlacks in sizzle.
說到底，15至20萬美元的起薪、完備的醫保、健身等報銷福利和無限假期(包括公司團建) ，再加上一筆一萬至兩萬美元的簽約獎金，任誰都很難拒絕。在今天的大企業集團- Alphabet、蘋果、亞馬遜或Facebook--工作與上世紀8o年代在通用電氣供職的情形越來越相似:豪情不夠，福利來湊。
重點單詞：
vye for v.競爭，搶奪
epicentre ['ɛpɪ'sɛntɚ] n.中心，震源
conglomerate [kən'ɡlɑːmərət] v.使聚集；聚在一處 n.綜合性大企業；集合體
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