In some years that meant competing with a hot new company that aggressively courted every fresh graduate with promises of stock options and IPO glory.
He does a lovely job explaining the idea of a matching market.
In a matching market each person wants only one of each item, each item is unique, and each item can be given to at most one person at a time.
Jobs are a classic matching market, and just like any market, matching markets can work well, or poorly.
Unraveling is one of the primary things that makes a matching market fail.
When a market unravels matches start to happen earlier and earlier, to the point where people no longer get a complete view of their options.
Many of these offers circumvent or outright break the guidelines set down by schools, and if past matching markets are a model for this one, next year will come with even earlier offers and worse conditions.