Job Seeking Is Like Dating and eHarmony Intends to Prove It

Remember George Costanza from the old Seinfeld show? He had problems with jobs and women, which makes sense to anyone who believes job seeking is like dating, which is pretty much most everyone who has done both.

For you doubters and naysayers, proof is on the way from none other than eHarmony. Late next year, the company, which insists it takes a “scientific approach to matching,” will launch a career site employing the same principles as its dating site.

A company executive told The Washington Post, “We have 29 dimensions that we match on for marriage. It would not surprise me if we have even more for a worker relationship.” Relationship-seekers answer about 200 questions before eHarmony computes a profile and does its magic. Not coincidentally, among the questions are a number related to work and career.

With eHarmony jumping into the job matchmaking business, it just goes to show you what intimate lifestyle site Lelo said about a healthy sex life making for a healthy career.Incidentally, I/O psychologist Charles Handler predicted we’d be going in this direction back in 2005.

Creatively Not Working

George Costanza (remember me mentioning him earlier?) was a master at not working at work. He even got praised for doing a great job when he was doing nothing at all.

Compared to some of the folks over at Quora though, George was an amateur. His methods included looking harried and annoyed, which happened to be a popular answer to the Quora question: “What are your favorite methods for looking busy at work?”

Another was always carry a document or a clipboard and walk the halls with purpose and determination. Co-workers and bosses assume you are on your way to a meeting or are busy with whatever it is you have in your hand, so won’t ask you do any real work.

For sheer ingenuity in the use of technology to look busy while also establishing proof of your late nights at the office, the award goes to Bernard Yoo, Co-founder of Bombfell.com:

If your company has internal IM or gchat, connect an old cellphone or beeper to your computer mouse with a rubber band. Call/page it late at night so that it activates and shows you logged in and active.

There were 52 responses to this question as of the beginning of this week. Only a few suggested it might be a good idea to simply do work. George, whose 10 Commandments is an Internet institution, would be proud.

And about Bombfell: It’s a site for men too busy to do their own clothes shopping.