文章來源：《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》Jul 1th 2023 期 United States 欄目 Student?entrepreneurs

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The email?had a businesslike tone.?From a “client recruitment director”, it was “reaching out” to offer The Economist services. In the next sentence, the word “l(fā)everage” was used as a verb, relating to a “perspective”.?It concluded with a question: “Would you be able to hop on a 15-minute call”??Yet it stood out from the guff that clutters journalists’ inboxes for one reason: it came not from an established firm but from an undergraduate economics student at Yale University.?The perspective to be “l(fā)everaged” was that of “Gen Z”, a marketing term for people now aged from roughly 11 to 26.?The offer was made on behalf of the Yale Undergraduate Consulting Group, a student club with around 60 members.

這封電子郵件的商業(yè)化氣息很濃。來自一位 "客戶總監(jiān)"，他 "伸出援手 "為本報(bào)提供服務(wù)。下一句話中，“l(fā)everage充分利用 "一詞被用作動(dòng)詞，與 "觀點(diǎn) "有關(guān)。最后提出一個(gè)問題："你方便接聽一個(gè)15分鐘的電話嗎？"然而，這條消息從記者的垃圾郵件中脫穎而出，原因是：它不是來自一家知名公司，而是來自耶魯大學(xué)的一名經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)本科生。要 "充分利用 " "Z世代"的觀點(diǎn)。Z世代是一個(gè)營(yíng)銷術(shù)語，指的是目前年齡約為11-26歲的人。這項(xiàng)提議是以耶魯大學(xué)本科生咨詢小組的名義提出的，咨詢小組是一個(gè)擁有約60名成員的學(xué)生俱樂部。

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Postgraduate students have long provided paid services to corporate clients. But over the past decade or so, undergraduate “consulting clubs” have proliferated.?The idea is to band together and offer to do work for firms for a fraction of the cost of hiring regular consultants, and in the process learn a lot about business.?Like real consultants, they pitch for clients, cold-calling or emailing.?Some student clubs have a charitable bent: 180DC, a network of clubs founded in 2007 that has spread to scores of universities around the world, targets “social-impact organisations”.?Others are more mercantile: Milan Singh, the sender of the Yale email, says the group he belongs to has also worked with several large companies, doing jobs like market research for fees.

長(zhǎng)期以來，研究生一直為企業(yè)客戶提供有償服務(wù)。但在過去十年左右的時(shí)間里，本科生 "咨詢俱樂部 "激增。理念是通過組建團(tuán)隊(duì)，以低于常規(guī)顧問的成本為企業(yè)提供服務(wù)，并在此過程中學(xué)習(xí)一些商業(yè)知識(shí)。像真正的顧問一樣，他們?yōu)榭蛻暨M(jìn)行電話推銷或電子郵件推銷。一些學(xué)生俱樂部有慈善屬性：180DC是一個(gè)成立于2007年的俱樂部網(wǎng)絡(luò)，已經(jīng)擴(kuò)展到世界上其他幾十所大學(xué)，目標(biāo)是成為 "有社會(huì)影響力的組織"。另一些俱樂部則更加商業(yè)化：耶魯大學(xué)電子郵件的發(fā)件人米蘭·辛格說，他所屬的團(tuán)體也與幾家大公司合作，從事市場(chǎng)調(diào)研等收費(fèi)業(yè)務(wù)。

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Students quickly adopt the jargon of the industry they are aping, appointing themselves “project managers”, gathering information from “subject-matter experts” and, at the end, producing “deliverables” for clients: typically in the form of slide presentations.?Work is carried out under legally enforceable non-disclosure agreements. All this is done alongside normal studies.

學(xué)生們迅速學(xué)習(xí)并使用了行業(yè)話術(shù)，任命自己為 "項(xiàng)目經(jīng)理"，從 "領(lǐng)域?qū)＜?"那里獲取信息，最后為客戶提供“可交付成果”：通常是以幻燈片的形式。學(xué)生是在具有法律效力的保密協(xié)議下進(jìn)行工作。所有這些工作都是在他們正常學(xué)習(xí)的同時(shí)完成的。

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It consumes plenty of time. Alexandra Koullick, a 21-year-old member of a 180DC-affiliated club in Berkeley that was founded in 2016, says she puts in up to ten hours a week of unpaid work for her clients.?Practical skills, like managing spreadsheets, are passed down by “bigs”, as in “big brothers”, to new members.

這需要大量的時(shí)間。21歲的亞歷山德拉·庫利克是伯克利大學(xué)180DC附屬俱樂部的成員，該俱樂部成立于2016年。她說她每周為客戶無償工作達(dá)10小時(shí)之久。管理電子表格等實(shí)用技能由“大佬”（如“老大哥”）傳授給新成員。

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Why devote a chunk of precious undergraduate years to this? The students defend it creditably.?Ms Koullick joined as a way to make friends at a time when a normal university experience was impossible because of covid-19”.It was a big family of folk to spend time with,” she says.?Mr Singh points out that the fees his group earns pay for great parties.?Both extol the benefits of being able to experiment with different types of work before they commit to a career.

為什么要把大量寶貴的本科時(shí)光投入其中？學(xué)生們的辯護(hù)很有說服力。庫利克加入俱樂部是為了結(jié)交朋友，因?yàn)樵谝咔槠陂g，大家沒有正常的大學(xué)生活。“這是一個(gè)值得共度時(shí)光的大家庭，”她說。辛格說，他團(tuán)隊(duì)所賺取的費(fèi)用可以用于舉辦盛大派對(duì)。兩人都談到在投身職業(yè)生涯之前能夠嘗試不同類型的工作，簡(jiǎn)直太棒了。

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There are potential financial rewards, too. Clubs provide a fast track to well-paid jobs later.?John Paul Rollert, an academic at the Booth Business School at the University of Chicago, notes that uninhibited ambition in America’s youth is not new: “These kids are going to make a fortune,” he says.

此外還有可能獲得經(jīng)濟(jì)回報(bào)。俱樂部為未來獲得高薪工作提供了快速通道。芝加哥大學(xué)布斯商學(xué)院的學(xué)者約翰·保羅·羅勒特指出，美國(guó)青年不羈的雄心壯志并非新鮮事：“這些孩子們將會(huì)賺大錢，”他說。