How Much Is That Danish Professor In The Window?

Steen Mengel was walking down a busy street a few weeks ago when he stumbled onto a sign reading 'an available academic is sitting here.' An arrow pointed to people sitting in the window of a storefront.

几周前，门格尔(Steen Mengel)在哥本哈根一条热闹的大街上行走时偶然看到一块标牌，上面写着“这里坐着一位求职的学者”，并有一个箭头指向坐在店面橱窗里的人。

The 47-year-old real-estate developer didn't have a job to offer anybody, but he was intrigued. 'The idea, though, I like, ' he said, as he stood a few feet from the big picture windows framing the scene. 'It catches people's attention.'

47岁的门格尔是一位房地产开发商，当时他手头没有要招人的职位，但眼前的情景激起了他的好奇心。他站在离展示这幅场景的大橱窗几英尺的地方说：“我还是挺喜欢这个创意的。它能吸引眼球。”

Catching people's attention is exactly what more than a dozen job hopefuls in Denmark's capital are looking to do, even though they seem to be ripping a page from Amsterdam's famous red-light district to achieve their goal. After pounding the pavement for two years in some cases, highly trained professionals -- ranging from lawyers to former CEOs to tax experts -- are standing in line to get a seat in the 'exhibit.'

吸引眼球正是这些求职者的目的。在哥本哈根，有十多位求职者都在用这种方式找工作，虽然他们给人的感觉就像是在模仿阿姆斯特丹著名的红灯区。这些训练有素的专业人士（其中有律师、前首席执行长，还有税务专家）在排队等待“展位”，其中有些人曾经求职两年而无果。

'I'm willing to try anything, ' said Hannibal Camel Holt, an unemployed political scientist, as he took his place in the window one afternoon. Armed with a laptop computer and wearing a dark blue button-down shirt, Mr. Holt has been 'kicking doors in and chasing leads, ' as he puts it, on and off for four years, striking out despite qualifications that include speaking six languages. For him, sitting-in represented a necessary, albeit awkward step.

失业的政治学家霍尔特(Hannibal Camel Holt)在某一天的下午坐进了橱窗里，他说：“我什么都愿意试试。”霍尔特拿着一台笔记本电脑，身穿深蓝色的扣角领衬衫。用他自己的话说，四年来他一直在断断续续地“上门求访和寻找门路”，尽管他拥有包括掌握六种语言在内的诸多资质，但求职之路一直不顺。对他来说，坐在橱窗里虽然尴尬，却是必要的一步。

'I feel like a monkey . . . in a cage as people walk by and just stare at me, ' the former tax ministry employee said as he sat behind a desk and occasionally glanced at passersby. After he had recently missed out on a job that had attracted 265 applicants, he realized that 'there comes a point when your CV is, like, dead.' A resume, in other words, doesn't necessarily do the trick.

这位税务部前雇员坐在办公桌旁边，偶尔瞥一眼路人。他说：“我感觉自己像一只猴子……在笼子里，行人经过时会盯着我看。”近期他在竞聘一个有265名求职者的岗位时遭遇失败，于是他意识到“现在到了简历就像废纸一样的时候了”。换句话说，靠简历不一定能达到目的。

Before resorting to sitting in the window, Mr. Holt had worked with the program's organizers to compose a video and create a Facebook profile that pedestrians could access by using a smartphone to zap a Quick Response bar code displayed on a banner next to the job seeker.

在坐进橱窗之前，霍尔特与该活动的组织者一起制作了视频，并创建了Fcebook个人主页，行人要查看这些信息，可以用智能手机读取求职者旁边标语上显示的二维码。

Mr. Holt was slated for several shifts in coming weeks sitting in the window, joining 14 others planning to do the same between late April and early May. To pass the time, he planned to hunt for jobs online, update his curriculum vitae and freshen up his social profile.

在接下来的几周里，霍尔特被安排参加了数轮橱窗求职。从4月下旬到5月初，还有其他14人也参加了这项活动。为了打发时间，霍尔特坐在橱窗里的时候同时上网找工作，更新简历和社交网站个人信息。

Denmark has been insulated from Europe's deepest economic problems because of its low public debt, but municipal finances are tight and wages have been under extreme pressure in recent years amid concerns about exports and low productivity. Unemployment remains relatively low, but for higher-rank employees it is a tough slog.

由于公共债务水平较低，丹麦未受到欧洲最严重的经济问题的影响，但出口和生产率的低迷导致近年来丹麦市政财政紧张，薪酬也面临极大压力。丹麦的失业率依然较低，但高级雇员求职还是很艰难的。

DJOEF, the professional trade union behind the windows gambit, estimates that 41% of Danes with new master's degrees are still searching for work one year after graduating. The organization thinks the root of the problem lies in a surplus of white-collar talent and a reluctance among small companies to hire in-house lawyers and other professionals. So the union is encouraging job seekers to take the initiative more aggressively.

策划此次橱窗求职活动的专业人士工会DJOEF估计，在新获得硕士学位的丹麦人中，有41%的人毕业后一年仍在找工作。该工会认为，问题的根源在于白领人才过剩，而小企业不愿聘用内部律师和其他专业人士。因此，该工会鼓励求职者采取更加积极的行动。

Alexander Peitersen, managing director of Reputation, was one of the architects of the program and offered his agency's windows as the display case for the unemployed. He has used the windows for a variety of campaigns -- including a 12-hour karaoke competition two years ago staged to launch a new Microsoft Corp. Xbox product. He figured the venue would work well for a job hunter's 'exhibition' since there are many business professionals nearby.

创意公司Reputation的总经理派特尔森(Alexander Peitersen)是该项目的策划人之一，他把他公司的橱窗拿出来作为失业人士的展柜。这些橱窗曾在多项活动中被使用过──包括两年前为配合微软(Microsoft Corp.)新款Xbox产品推出而举行的12小时卡拉OK比赛。派特尔森认为这块场地适合举办求职者“展览”，因为附近有许多商务人士。

'Companies can get 50 applications every week and all of them start to look the same, ' Mr. Peitersen said, while sitting in an office not far from the job seekers sitting in windows.

派特尔森坐在一间离橱窗不远的办公室里说：“很多公司每周会有50人上门求职，导致这些求职者看起来都差不多。”

Mr. Peitersen, running an office with 36 creative staffers, said he has learned to appreciate go-getters, especially in a place like Denmark, where a social safety net and generous unemployment benefits shield many young people from the harsh realities of business.

派特尔森的公司共有36名创意职员，他说，他已经学会去欣赏积极主动的人，尤其是在丹麦这样的地方。社会安全网和慷慨的失业福利使丹麦的许多年轻人无需面对职场的残酷现实。

'I was sitting at my desk one day and my phone rang, ' Mr. Peitersen recalls. 'Some guy on the other line said, 'Hey, I'm at the Barresso [coffee bar] and I'm ordering coffee now, what's your favorite?' ' Mr. Peitersen took the bait, ordering a double latte and eventually taking on the caller as an unpaid intern.

派特尔森回忆道：“有一天我坐在办公桌前，突然电话铃响了，电话那头的人说：‘嘿，我在Barresso（一家咖啡馆），正在点咖啡，你想喝什么？’”派特尔森接受了这枚“糖衣炮弹”，他点了杯双份拿铁，并最终录用打电话的人为无薪实习生。

The windows stunt appears to be working. Organizers have extended a two-week run to accommodate demand from job seekers.

这种用橱窗吸引眼球的做法效果似乎还不错。组织者后来延长了原定两周的活动时间，以满足求职者的需求。

Lene Damgaard Jorgensen and Christel Werenskiold were the first two people to take seats in the program on April 25. As she prepared to take part, Ms. Jorgensen, a former economist seeking work in 'change management, ' fielded questions about the obvious connection to Amsterdam's red-light district, where prostitutes sit in windows and are ogled by passersby.

乔根森(Lene Damgaard Jorgensen)和韦伦肖尔(Christel Werenskiold)是首批参加该项目的人员，她们在4月25日坐进了橱窗。乔根森从前是名经济学家，她想找“应变管理”方面的工作。由于橱窗求职和阿姆斯特丹的红灯区（妓女坐在橱窗里，行人们可以驻足观望）很像，她在准备加入该项目时回答了一些提问。

'They asked me 'what are you going to wear?' ' Ms. Jorgensen said, who was wearing a floral skirt, a black shirt and a jean jacket with a pink scarf wrapped around her neck. 'I honestly didn't think anything of it.'

乔根森身着花裙子、黑衬衫和牛仔夹克，脖子上系着粉色围巾，她说：“当时他们问我：‘你准备穿什么？’说实话，我根本没考虑过这个。”

She got a job in a week.

她在一周之后找到了工作。

Ms. Werenskiold, a former CEO in a school district who has a master's degree in public administration, was laid off in 2011 after spending two decades in the workforce without ever having a problem finding work. But out of a job in a tough economy, she got on a plane to Honduras for 10 months on a religious mission. 'I came back to a crisis and it seems to have gotten a lot worse, ' she said.

韦伦肖尔曾是一个学区的首席执行长，拥有公共管理学硕士学位。在二十年的职业生涯中，她从没遇到过找工作的问题，但2011年她遭遇了裁员。由于失业时经济形势严峻，当时她乘飞机去了洪都拉斯做了10个月的传教工作。她说：“我回来的时候危机还没有结束，而且似乎比以前还要严重得多。”

With hard times in mind, she put a dancing shoe in the window along with a CD of gospel music for good luck and to tell onlookers something about herself.

考虑到就业的艰难，她在橱窗里放了一只舞鞋和一张福音音乐CD，以祈求好运，并借此向人们传递一些有关她的信息。

Within one week, she had been approached by seven headhunters and her LinkedIn profile had attracted 539 hits, quadrupling the traffic she experienced the week before the campaign. Her Facebook page was littered with comments like 'well done, ' 'good luck, ' 'great initiative' and 'I wish my union had the same kind of creativity.'

在此后一周之内，有七名猎头与她接触，她的Linkedln主页被点击了539次，是活动前一周点击量的四倍。她的Facebook页面上满是“做得不错”、“祝好运”、“你很有进取心”和“真希望我们工会也能有这样的创意”等评论。

Ms. Werenskiold quickly landed a job as an organizational-development consultant.

很快，韦伦肖尔就找到了一份组织发展顾问的工作。