lunes, 12 de diciembre de 2011

Vestimenta y Señalización en el Job Market

Un interesante artículo sobre la vestimenta de los aplicantes en el Job market... de economistas.... ¿qué piensan?
.
Ultimately, the economics job market is a matching game - each candidate and each employer is trying to find the candidate that's right for them. Hence a candidate's signal should be tailored to the type of employer he or she wishes to attract. Jeans and a t-shirt say "I'm not willing to put on a suit just to please students or clients or hiring committees". Since that would be a bad signal to give to a teaching oriented university, jeans and a t-shirt is a way of signalling interest in research. Matching also makes things tricky for female and minority candidates - a candidate who is demographically similar to the hiring committee can aim to fit in, to dress like one of the guys. Others can try, but they are less likely to succeed.

In other words, it's a complete total and utter minefield - everything from your hair to your shoes is a signal, and you could get it wrong. Looking on the bright side, as Amartya Sen once observed, economic man is close to being a social moron.** You might have been the least fashion-conscious and most clued out person in high school, but in a group of economists, you too can be a fashion star. And even if you aren't, the average economist is unlikely to notice.

No hay comentarios: