Recruiting and the ‘Dual Coinidence of Wants’ problem

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Recruiting and the ‘Dual Coinidence of Wants’ problem

By Robert Merrill ⋅ July 27, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

Jason Alba blogged today about the difference in a company’s speed-to-hire versus a job-seeker’s speed-to-be-hired

When I explain this to people, I think back to Econ 101 when they explained the purpose of "Money" in that it prevents the problem of the Dual Coincidence of Wants (Wikipedia).

Wikipedia: "The problem is caused by the improbability of the wants, needs or events that cause or motivate a transaction occurring at the same time and the same place."

This applies to job-seeking (and recruiting, if you are an employer) in the sense that the person a company would most-like to hire is probably not looking right now.

And, it’s likely that, when the person is looking, the company that would have loved to hire her/him is now either not looking, or unable to create the position within their budget.

In fact, I go on a limb to say that it is more likely that company and candidate are not simultaneously interested in eachother.

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