A good way to tie the money and non money aspects of signaling is to change the definition capital. Sure there's financial capital, but also social capital (who you know can often be an asset) and intellectual capital (i.e. what you know).
Different groups have different methods of valuing the different types of capital, so the serious engineer example can be someone who has a lot of one type, an an average amount of the other types of capital. Basically just a paraphrasing of the signaling point but a useful model nevertheless IMO.
Different groups have different methods of valuing the different types of capital, so the serious engineer example can be someone who has a lot of one type, an an average amount of the other types of capital. Basically just a paraphrasing of the signaling point but a useful model nevertheless IMO.