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Comment by OldHand2018 | Hacker News Reader

OldHand2018

I find the market for lemons analogy to be unconvincing.

It makes sense if employers sold employees to other employers, but it falls apart in the standard labor market.

If I am currently employed and job searching, it is because my current employer is a lemon, not me. The prospective employer should be focused on determining my value to them. Everyone has some value (possibly negative, in extreme cases) and if we both agree then we should both be happy.

In this context, an employer could be a lemon for a million different reasons.

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No, it does not. It is information asymmetry.

A good employer assumes that only bad employees are left in the market. As do good employees think that only bad employers are looking via job ads.

Hence more and more god jobs are filled via referrals from fiends etc. I basically think the same about job ads. Why bother applying?

Yes, there is information asymmetry. For sure.

But the market for lemons does not describe the labor market. Good companies grow and need more employees. Good employees do not get market-competitive salary adjustments and thus look for different jobs. It's the complete opposite!

There are exceptions, without a doubt.

EDIT - and let me also say that if the market for lemons accurately describes the labor market, why is it that tech is the only industry with such broken hiring practices?

" Good companies grow and need more employees."

Yes. But it is incredibly hard to get into a good company.

"and let me also say that if the market for lemons accurately describes the labor market, why is it that tech is the only industry with such broken hiring practices? "

In other "tech" industries it is the same. How do you get into a blue chip company?

1. contacts of your parents

2. contacts of your professor at University

3. you work for a start-up that they buy

In my experience this is true for 9/10 people I know.

I did my PhD in NYC and I once was asked in an interview for a med-sized medical company what the street name in Brooklyn is with all the hipsters. Think deeply what could be the reason for such a question.

I get what you're saying, I just don't agree. Fair enough.

Did you answer "all of them"?

I don't understand the question. But regarding the street in Brooklyn (this interview as in Europe), obviously they did not believe I really got a PhD there and lived there. Totally insane. Today I would walk out in such a situation. At that time I answered like a diligent student.

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