Arbitrage
Volume 42
You ever see those occasional news stories where some amateur antique collector stumbles upon some priceless antique at a yard sale? They think it might be worth a lot even if the person selling it has no idea. The collector buys the antique for a low price, validates its provenance, and immediately turns around and sells on eBay for a significant profit. Not bad for an hour of work (and a lifetime of learning about antiques!).
That’s a simple example of arbitrage: finding an inefficiency in the market and using that to create nearly risk-free profit. And while today’s hyperconnected world full of information about the prices of historical antiques has made it harder to exploit the potential for arbitrage for purely financial gain, there is still a great opportunity to take advantage of arbitrage in your job search.
Here are three ways:
Information arbitrage: Many organizations are siloed with information from one department rarely making its way to another. I had one former student earn a role at a major financial services organization not because of how he fared in the interview (he didn’t earn the role), but instead by how he was able to share information that he learned via his various coffee chat conversations across the organization. His proactive communication and sharing of relevant information between departments highlighted his ability to break down silos, even though he didn’t even work at the firm yet, earning him another interview and subsequent job offer.
Timing arbitrage: You don’t know when you might need a new job. Sure, you have plans but life sometimes gets in the way. And when the proverbial stuff hits the fan, it’s nice to have someone in your corner who can advocate for you even when you’re not in the room. But you can’t develop those relationships overnight. Enter timing arbitrage. A small investment of time meeting people now and developing that relationship over time can translate to fruitful relationships and even job offers down the road because they already know you and the value you can bring. And even if you never earn an offer from those relationships, you will have built relationships that can be potential mentors.
Help arbitrage: As someone who is exploring a particular function or industry, you are doing a ton of research, reading industry publications, and having interesting conversations with people in that space. Take that information and use that to help someone by sending over a book that they would appreciate or offer an introduction to someone in your network. It’s super easy for you because you’ve already done the work (the research) or the work is a low-lift (making an email introduction), but it can have a huge impact on the recipient. Being seen as someone who helps others, especially when it’s not transactionally connected to a role you’re targeting, is a great way to reinforce your status as someone that they want on their team.
Job search arbitrage is a way to take advantage of riskless investments of your time into other people to move your job search forward. The foundational premise of the Upside Down Job Search is to reduce risk by making it easier to see what they will get if they hire you. You do the job in order to get the job. Arbitrage can help you get there.