Investing thousands of pounds in the recruitment and training of each new graduate recruit may be just the beginning. Choosing the wrong candidate may leave an organisation paying for years to come.
Few companies will have escaped all of the following failures: people who panic at the first sight of stress; those with long impressive qualifications who seem incapable of learning; hypochondriacs whose absentee record becomes astonishing; and the unstable person later discovered to be a thief or worse.
Less dramatic, but just as much a problem, is the person who simply does not come up to expectations, who does not quite deliver; who never becomes a high-flier or even a steady performer; the employee with a fine future behind them.
The first point to bear in mind at the recruitment stage is that people don’t change. Intelligence levels decline modestly, but change little over their working life. The same is true of abilities, such as learning languages and handling numbers.
Most people like to think that personality can change, particularly the more negative features such as anxiety, low esteem, impulsiveness or a lack of emotional warmth. But data collected over 50 years gives a clear message: still stable after all these years. Extroverts become slightly less extroverted; the acutely shy appear a little less so, but the fundamentals remain much the same. Personal crises can affect the way we cope with things: we might take up or drop drink, drugs, religion or relaxation techniques, which can be have pretty dramatic effects. Skills can be improved, and new ones introduced, but at rather different rates. People can be groomed for a job. Just as politicians are carefully repackaged through dress, hairstyle and speech specialists, so people can be sent on training courses, diplomas or experimental weekends. But there is a cost to all this which may be more than the price of the course. Better to select for what you actually see rather than attempt to change it.
( )1. The purpose of this passage is to give managers the advice that .
A. Employers should select candidates for their potential.
B. Employers should select candidates for what they are rather than for their potential.
C. Employers should select the newly graduated and send them on training courses, diplomas or experimental weekends.
D. Employers should select experienced candidates to avoid spending thousands of pounds in training.
( )2. According to the passage, which of the following statements is true? .
A. Absolutely, People don’t change during their working lives.
B. Generally, people change to a large extent during their working lives.
C. Fundamentally, people stay the same during their working lives.
D. Normally, people don’t change at all during their working lives.
( )3. What does a fine future behind them (line 3 of paragraph 3) means? .
A. Some people will certainly have a promising future though they are not very competent in their present work.
B. Some people don’t have any potential for their work though they are employed.
C. Some people can have a bright future though they can’t do their work well.
D. Some people have potential when they are employed, but never realize that potential.
( )4. According to the passage, people’s basic abilities like language learning and numeracy .
A. change little over their working life.
B. never change over their working life.
C. change fundamentally over their working life.
D. change profoundly over their working life.
( )5. The word deliver (line 2 of paragraph 3) means .
A. to take goods to the places or people they are addressed to
B. to give a speech
C. to do what you promised to do
D. to help a woman to give birth to a baby.
