The Job Auction

Now that I'm on the job market, I feel right at home, just like I would at an auction, only with those funny glasses that generate multiple copies of what the wearer sees. The people in possession of job openings have not one but dozens of recruiters casting around for bids. The job-seeking audience is huge, competitive, and bidding urgently, although in some cases it looks like the job owner is just kidding, or dyspeptic, or was drunk when writing the job requirement description.

It strikes me that the researchers in the audience are likely to be better at this than the engineers. After all, a bridge has to stand up to traffic first time out, whereas good research usually requires a very large scrap heap of failed tries. A job search is a lot more like the latter.