Dear Annie: My division recently got a new top manager, who will be overseeing a restructuring of the organization after the first of the year, with a couple of new, bigger roles being created. I am one of the people here who is in line for a promotion. But now I wonder if I’ll get the job I’m expecting, because I overheard my boss on the phone saying that his team has retained a search firm to look for candidates from outside the company. Obviously, this is pretty upsetting news. Should I ask him why they’re looking outside, or — since I heard about the headhunter by accident — at least try to find out what my chances are? What do you think? — On Tenterhooks

亲爱的安妮：我的部门最近来了一位新主管，他将负责明年伊始的机构重组，届时将会出现几个高层职位空缺。我很可能有机会升职。但现在我不知道自己是否还能得到期待已久的新工作，因为我偶然听到老板在电话里说，他的团队雇佣了一家猎头公司，正在从外部寻找相应人选。这显然是个令人沮丧的消息。我是否该正面询问老板为什么要从外部寻找候选人?因为我是偶然间听说的猎头一事。又或许我至少应该尝试了解一下自己是否还有机会?您怎么看?——O.T.

Dear O.T.: It’s interesting that you consider yourself “in line for” a promotion. The new executive in charge of your division may see things differently. “When I retained a search firm to look outside for candidates, it was sometimes because I had ‘inherited’ people who weren’t ideal for what I wanted to get done,” says Rose SpanoIannelli, who held a series of executive jobs before co-founding recruiting firm Spano Pratt. “With a new leader, internal candidates are often at a disadvantage.”

亲爱的O.T.：有趣的是你认为自己“很有可能”得到升职。但你所在部门的新主管可能有不同看法。露丝•斯帕诺•伊安内利表示：“当我聘用猎头公司从外部寻找职位候选人时，有时候是因为现成的那些‘接手人’，并不是能够按照我的设想完成工作的理想人选。面对新上任的领导者，内部人选往往会处于不利地位。”伊安内利曾担任过多个高管职位，后来与其他人合作成立了猎头公司Spano Pratt。

Not only that, but higher-ups at your company may see next year’s overhaul as calling for skills that in-house candidates don’t have, or at least haven’t proven. “Businesses that are changing fast often want to find someone who can show experience at executing the strategy they see for the future, rather than people who have excelled in the past, particularly if an outside hire can bring new revenue opportunities,” says Iannelli. “So even the best internal candidate is not always the best person for a new role.”

不仅如此，你所在公司的高层可能认为，明年的重组需要一些内部人选所不具备或至少尚未展示出来的能力。伊安内利说道：“处在快速变革的公司通常希望寻找具有执行未来战略经验的人，而不是那些过去很优秀的人，尤其是通过外部招聘可能给公司带来新的收入机会。所以，即使最优秀的内部人选，也并非总是一份新职务的最佳人选。”

Ominous as that sounds, keep in mind that companies’ reasons for bringing in a recruiter usually go beyond searching for outside talent. Here are four of them:

虽然听起来有些令人沮丧，但你要记住，公司之所以聘用猎头公司，通常不是只为寻找外部人才那么简单。以下是聘用猎头公司的四个理由：

Talent benchmarking.Even with promising candidates in-house, an outside search “can be a way of comparing internal talent with what’s available on the open market,” says Iannelli. “How do you know you have the best unless you look?” It doesn’t necessarily mean an outside candidate will get the job, in other words; only that hiring managers are curious about who’s out there.

人才基准调查。伊安内利认为，即便公司内部有前途无量的人选，进行外部搜索“可以将内部人才与公开市场里的人才进行对比。没有经过对比，你如何知道公司内部拥有最佳人选?”从另一方面来说，这也意味着外部人选不一定能得到这份工作;只是招聘经理对人才市场的情况比较好奇而已。

Competitive intelligence. Without revealing anything proprietary, so-called passive candidates — that is, people already working, often for competitors — can be a valuable source of knowledge. Iannelli notes that meeting with these folks can “give the organization, and hiring managers, a clearer understanding of the marketplace in their industry.”

竞争情报。所谓的被动候选人通常正在为竞争对手工作，他们不需要披露任何专有信息，对于公司而言也是宝贵的知识来源。伊安内利表示，与这些被动候选人交流可以“让公司和招聘经理对行业和市场有更清晰的了解。”

Sharpening the employment brand.“Meeting recruiters and external candidates is usually the equivalent of entertaining strangers,” says Iannelli. “Explaining your company’s culture to people who are unfamiliar with it is a helpful exercise, because it forces hiring managers to sharpen the message about why someone might want to work there.”

提升雇主品牌。伊安内利说道：“接触猎头和外部候选人，通常相当于在招待陌生人。向不熟悉公司的人介绍你的公司文化，是一种有益的练习，因为它迫使招聘经理必须言简意赅地传达为什么人们可以考虑来这里工作的信息。”

Answering outsiders’ questions about what success in a given role would look like, she adds, can help define the job by “creating measurable requirements that might otherwise be overlooked.” That may be especially true in the case of jobs that haven’t existed until now, like the new roles your company’s restructuring will create.

她补充道，当外部人员询问一个职位如何才算成功时，回答这个问题可以帮助你确定这个职位“以往可能被忽视的可计量要求。”尤其是之前不存在的职位更是如此，比如你的公司重组后创造出的新岗位。

Refining the company’s mission.Iannelli has seen some clients use a search as “a professional development tool for hiring managers and search committees,” she says. “Revisiting and defining the company’s mission and core values every now and then is useful. It can provide confidence in management’s day-to-day decisions” — or cause some of those decisions to be re-examined in a different light.

完善公司的使命。伊安内利表示，她的几位客户将猎头公司作为“招聘经理和遴选委员会的职业发展工具。时常完善和确定公司的使命与核心价值，对公司很有帮助，可以为管理层的日常决策提供自信”——或者从不同的角度重新审视这些决定。

None of this tells you, of course, whether you’ll get the promotion you’re hoping for. The only way to get a clue about that is to sit down with your boss and, without putting him on the spot, have a candid discussion about your future. If you don’t get the job you have your eye on, what does he see you doing instead (assuming, of course, that you’re willing to stay)? How do you fit into the restructured organization? This is doubtless not the last chance you’ll have to move up, so try to take the long view and focus on this as “an opportunity for professional development,” Iannelli suggests. Good luck.

当然，本文并没有明确你能否得到自己期待已久的升职。要弄清楚这件事，唯一的方法就是与上司坐下来，在不让对方为难的情况下，坦诚讨论一下你的未来。如果你最终并未得到那份心仪的工作，他认为你可以做什么(当然，前提是你还愿意继续留在这里)?你如何融入到重组后的公司?这肯定不是你最后的升职机会，所以伊安内利建议，尽量将眼光放长远，把这件事作为“一次职业发展的机会。”祝你好运。