谷歌CEO访谈：硅谷吸引人才是因为天气好

谷歌CEO施密特认为气候宜人也是硅谷吸引很多年轻人蜂拥而至的原因之一。

　　Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has snapped up Bay Area talent for years, first as an executive at Sun Microsystems Inc., then as CEO of computer maker Novell Inc. and now as the 54-year-old boss at Google.
　　谷歌(Google Inc.)首席执行长施密特(Eric Schmidt)多年来都在网罗湾区的人才──先是在他担任Sun电子计算机公司（又名：升阳电脑）的管理人员的时候，然后是在电脑生产商网威公司(Novell Inc.)担任首席执行长时，一直到现在54岁的他做谷歌老板时。

　　The hiring has been particularly fast and furious at the Internet search giant, which has grown to more than 19,600 employees world-wide. Roughly a third of those workers live in the Bay Area, according to Google.
　　这家互联网搜索巨头的招聘工作尤其可以说是充满了“速度与激情”。目前谷歌全球员工已达19,600多人。据谷歌说，其中约有三分之一的员工生活在湾区。

　　Google recruits from Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley, among other places, and has set off hiring wars with rivals such as Microsoft Corp. Now Google is poised to beef up its work force again as the tech industry comes out of a recession and workers remain plentiful amid high unemployment rates in Silicon Valley.
　　谷歌从斯坦福大学(Stanford University)和加州大学伯克利分校(University of California, Berkeley)等地招兵买马，发起了与微软(Microsoft Corp.)等竞争对手的招聘大战。如今，随着科技业走出衰退，在失业率仍居高不下的硅谷有着充足劳动力的情况下，谷歌准备再次扩大员工队伍。

　　Here's what Mr. Schmidt, a 33-year resident of the Bay Area, had to say about Silicon Valley hiring and the role of the weather in the local labor market:
　　以下是在湾区居住了33年的施密特对硅谷招聘的看法，以及气候对当地劳动力市场有着怎样的影响。

　　Q: With so many other schools in the U.S and around the world doubling down on engineering and technology, is Silicon Valley at risk of losing its edge?
　　问：美国和全世界有那么多学校都在大力发展工程和技术专业，硅谷是否有失去竞争优势的危险？

　　A: Anyone who bets against Silicon Valley is betting against a successful track record of 40 or 50 years.
　　答：不看好硅谷的人就是不看好硅谷四五十年的成功史。

　　You've got the universities. You've also got a very, very effective venture-capital industry, which is very well honed and you have the creations of at least a biotech revolution and a high-tech revolution, and the possibilities of the green revolution being created here.
　　这里有大学。还有非常、非常有效精良的风险投资业。有至少包括了一场生物技术革命和一场高科技革命的创举。还有创造绿色革命的可能。

　　When I'm asked about this, and I've been asked this for years, I answer this the same: It is the weather. There's a reason why generations of young people who are willing to challenge assumptions and so forth have ended up in the Bay Area, and the weather is not a small part.
　　当有人问我这个问题时──多年来经常有人问我这个问题，我的回答都是：是气候的原因。一批批愿意挑战假说的年轻人最后落户湾区，这是有原因的，而气候可不是一个小因素。

　　Q: What makes Silicon Valley and Silicon Valley workers different, and can that be replicated elsewhere?
　　问：是什么使硅谷和硅谷人与众不同，其他地方可以进行复制吗？

　　A: You need a bunch of things. You need a venture-capital industry, you need a culture that will be tolerant of failure and the laws have to allow you to fail and not be criminalized. You have to obviously have a global perspective.
　　答：你需要具备一系列的条件。你需要有一个风险投资业，要有对失败宽容的文化，法律也必须允许人失败而不会被当作罪犯看待。你显然需要有放眼全球的眼光。

　　It has been remarked many times in Silicon Valley that when you walk through Silicon Valley, the majority of the people do not look like WASP-y Americans. They at least visually appear culturally different and they are often from India, for example. These are all reproducible but they aren't reproducible easily.
　　在硅谷有这样一种说法，当你走过硅谷时，大部分人看起来都不是白种盎格鲁撤克逊新教徒这样的美国人。他们至少外表看上去就是来自不同的文化，比如常常是来自印度。这些都是可以复制的，但是复制起来并不容易。

　　Q: Many of the industries you have outlined, like biotech and energy, require sustained investment and lots of investment in capital-intensive infrastructure. Does Silicon Valley have the culture to wait for those sort of transformative initiatives to bear fruit?
　　问：你提到的很多行业，比如生物技术和能源，都要求持续性的投资和在资本密集型基础设施上有大规模的投资。硅谷是否有这样的文化，要等待这类转型性的措施推出后才能产生结果？

　　A: I think it is a mistake to assume that the only interesting businesses are the ones which require no capital like Web-based businesses. I don't see any particular reason why high-cost capital business cannot also be built in the same cauldron as these low-cost ones.
　　答：我认为，认定只有基于网络的业务这类不需要资本的业务才是有趣的，这种看法是错误的。我认为，没有什么特别的理由说明高成本资本业务无法和低成本业务并存。

　　Q: As Google starts hiring again, what percentage of your new hires will come from the Bay Area, and how does that compare to previous years?
　　问：随着谷歌重新开始招聘，有多大比例的新人将来自湾区，与历年相比怎么样？

　　A: I suspect it will be pretty similar. The supply lines are pretty much the same every year.
　　答：我猜将基本相同。供应线每年都差不多。

　　Top universities, key technical companies, talent that wants to move to Google and so the primary hiring has been, if you think of universities, has been Stanford and Berkeley. And then you have a couple places like MIT and Carnegie Mellon.
　　一流的大学、主要技术公司、想搬到谷歌的人才，所以主要的招聘是在──如果是大学的话就是斯坦福和伯克利。还有像麻省理工学院(MIT)和卡内基梅隆大学(Carnegie Mellon)这样的几个地方。

　　But I would say that if you include people who are currently students and therefore they already live in Bay Area, it is probably a very healthy percentage.
　　不过我要说，如果你将那些湾区的在校生包括在内的话，比例或许相当大。

　　Q: A lot of workers in Silicon Valley have been laid off. Do you think they will end up back in the tech sector? Will Google hire them?
　　问：硅谷很多人都被裁员了。你认为他们会回到技术行业吗？谷歌会聘用他们吗？

　　A: I don't know about Google.
　　答：谷歌这方面的事情我不好说。

　　I do think that they will be rehired and especially if they have maintained their currency.
　　不过我确实认为，他们将重新就业，特别是如果他们业务上不落伍的话。

　　The problem with being laid off in Silicon Valley is if you are laid off for a few years, which would be terrible, during that time, the technology moves forward, so you have to keep yourself current.
　　在硅谷失业的问题是，如果你失业几年──这样的情况很糟糕，你失业的那段时间技术却在进步，所以你必须保持自己与时俱进。

　　If they maintain their currency, I think there are very good hopes for them.
　　如果他们能与时俱进，我认为他们有很大的希望。
　　
　　Jessica E. Vascellaro