The Job Hunt and Optimal Foraging Theory

   

Mostly domesticated, job hunters retain a subconscious appreciation for Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT).  At its core, OFT posits that organisms focus on consuming the most energy while expending the least amount of energy.  We survive by finding the most profitable ‘prey’.

   

Today, our favored hunting grounds are the electronic job boards, and our weapon of choice is the ‘search engine’.  OFT would seem to predict a migration to the job board with the most jobs (SimplyHired here we come), but availability of ‘prey’ is only half of the equation.  Rather than bringing our own weapons to the hunt, we must use the weapons provided by each job board.  So success rests on the interaction between ‘herd’ size and ‘weapon’ efficiency.

   

Enter Automaticity and job search design.  According to the Encyclopedia of Educational Technology, “Automaticity is the ability to effortlessly complete everyday tasks with low interference of other simultaneous activities and without conscious thought to step-by-step process.” 

   

The illustration at right “…shows how a scan of the brain might look before automaticity of a skill is acquired. The working memory is actively operating to process and categorize information.”

   

When the brain recognizes familiar tasks it processes the information and applies the correct rules to the procedure in order to reduce the demand on the working memory and allow for higher order processing of information.”

   

The illustration at right “…shows what the scan of a brain might look like after automaticity of a skill is acquired. There is a drastic reduction of activity in brain.

   

Applying ‘automaticity’ and ‘optimal foraging theory’ to job hunting – if search isn’t effortless, then we’re consuming more energy to capture our ‘prey’’, and we’ll continue looking for a more profitable hunting experience.

   

So let me ask you:

   

• Do Boolean operators confuse job hunters?
• Do job hunters infrequently seek a new job?
• Do you ask job hunters to choose between the simplicity of basic search and the power of advanced search?
• Have you optimized your basic search for short search strings?

   

The usual answers: yes, yes, yes and yes – which of course means that job hunters operate without the benefit of automaticity, expending substantial energy in an effort to overcome their limited understanding of search.   Furthermore, since the job hunt is infrequent, and Boolean operators have little use in daily life, ‘training users in the tricks of search’ is an impractical solution.

   

Frustration results, with the outcome predicted by OFT – job hunters seek a more profitable hunting experience.