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Hunting for a job late last year, lawyer Gant Redmon stumbled across CareerBuilder, a job database on the Internet.

去年年末，甘特·雷德曼律师在找工作时偶然在网上发现职业资料库“职业建筑师”。

He searched it with no success but was attracted by the site's “personal search agent.”

他找来找去并没有找到什么工作，但被这个网址上的“个人搜索代理”所吸引。

It's an interactive feature that lets visitors key in job criteria such as location, title, and salary, then E-mails them when a matching position is posted in the database.

它的特点是互动，允许访问者自定义诸如工作地点、职位和薪水等求职要求。当资料库里出现与个人要求相匹配的工作岗位时，它就会通过电子邮件通知求职者。

Redmon chose the keywords legal, intellectual property, and Washington, D.C.

雷德曼选择关键词“法律”、“知识产权”和“华盛顿特区”。

Three weeks later, he got his first notification of an opening.

过了三个星期，雷德曼接到第一份有职位空缺的通知。

“I struck gold,” says Redmon, who E-mailed his resume to the employer and won a position as in-house counsel for a company.

他说：“我掘到了金子。”他把个人简历用电子邮件寄给了雇主，接着就得到了一份驻公司顾问的职务。

With thousands of career-related sites on the Internet, finding promising openings can be time-consuming and inefficient.

因特网上与求职相关的网址数以千计，寻找可能的职业空缺费时效率又低。

Search agents reduce the need for repeated visits to the databases.

有了搜索代理，就没那么多必要反复访问资料库了。

But although a search agent worked for Redmon, career experts see drawbacks.

不过，虽然有一个搜索代理成功地为雷德曼找到了工作，就业专家却还是认为搜索代理并不如人意。

Narrowing your criteria, for example, may work against you: “Every time you answer a question you eliminate a possibility.” says one expert.

比如缩小你的要求条件就有可能对你不利。某位专家说：“你每回答一次问题你就丧失一次机会。”

For any job search, you should start with a narrow concept-what you think you want to do -- then broaden it.

寻找任何职业，你都要从一个狭窄的概念开始，即你想干什么工作，然后再加以扩展。

“None of these programs do that,” says another expert.

有一位专家说：“任何这些程序中都没有那种扩展功能。”

“There's no career counseling implicit in all of this.”

“所有这一切都不包含职业咨询。”

Instead, the best strategy is to use the agent as a kind of tip service to keep abreast of jobs in a particular database;

相反，最佳的策略是把代理当作一种提示服务用以及时跟踪某一资料库里的工作岗位信息。

when you get E-mail, consider it a reminder to check the database again.

当你收到电子邮件时，你就把它当作一种提醒再去查一查资料库。

“I would not rely on agents for finding everything that is added to a database that might interest me,” says the author of a job-searching guide.

一位职业搜索指南的作者说：“我不会依赖代理在数据库增加的每一项内容里去逐一寻找可能令我感兴趣的东西。”

Some sites design their agents to tempt job hunters to return.

一些网络谋划让代理诱惑寻职者成为回头客。

When CareerSite's agent sends out messages to those who have signed up for its service, for example, it includes only three potential jobs -- those it considers the best matches.

比如，当求职网代理向注册服务的用户发送信息时，它只提供三个它认为最可能匹配的岗位。

There may be more matches in the database;

可能，在资料库里还有更多的匹配项；

job hunters will have to visit the site again to find them -- and they do.

求职者于是只好再次访问这个网址来寻找一求职者的确会一而再、再而三地来上网寻找。

“On the day after we send our messages, we see a sharp increase in our traffic,” says Seth Peets, vice president of marketing for CareerSite.

求职网销售副总裁塞思·皮茨说：“我们发送这些信息的当天访问量就急剧增长。”

Even those who aren't hunting for jobs may find search agents worthwhile.

即使非求职的人士也会发现搜索代理值得一览。

Some use them to keep a close watch on the demand for their line of work or gather information on compensation to arm themselves when negotiating for a raise.

有些人利用搜索代理密切观察对于本行业的需求或搜集有关加薪的信息以备增薪谈判时胸有成竹。

Although happily employed, Redmon maintains his agent at CareerBuilder.

雷德曼虽然已愉快就职，但他与“职业建筑师”网代理的联系依旧保持着。

“You always keep your eyes open,” he says.

他说：“你要永远睁大眼睛。”

Working with a personal search agent means having another set of eyes looking out for you.

使用个人搜索代理等于多一双眼睛替你在观察。