Career Options for Economists Anton Kim Assistant Professor

Career Options for Economists Anton Kim, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, NU

Non-Academic Careers: Your Roles Consultant Analyst Forecaster

Non-Academic Careers: Industries Undergraduate economics degree prepares you for a wide range of careers. Understanding how markets function, logic behind individual and group choice, game theory, and the role of constraints prepares you for analytical careers in Business (with niche-specific training) Finance (with much additional training) Government International Organizations

Sampling of Careers Industry (with niche-specific training) Transfer pricing analyst, Management consulting, Macro and micro forecasting Finance (with re-training) Commercial and investment banking, Fund management Government Analysis of revenues, expenditures, CBA in education, environmental policy, health, transportation International Organizations Pure macroeconomics, Construction of indices, Data analysis, Forecasting

Academic Career Undergraduate econ degree is a good preparation for MBA MPA Law School Ph. D in Economics, Operations Research, Finance

Academic Career: Getting a Ph. D in Economics Skip Master’s degree and apply directly for a Ph. D program Deemphasize economics and focus on math Choose not the school, but the department Do not sweat the verbal GRE section Co-author your reference letters Do not worry about work experience Use Jedi mind tricks when applying Do not accept an offer of admission right away

Skip Master’s Degree Skip it even if all you want is a Master’s degree Most Ph. D Programs have Master’s degrees embedded in them Sometime it may be easier to get into a Ph. D program You are likely to receive full funding vs no/partial funding No need to reapply if Econ Ph. D is what you want Saves two years of your life Higher social status Professors will treat you as an long-term investment, rather than a short-term operating cost

Do not skip a Master’s Degree If your math and econ grades are bad If you do not have the right course mix of courses on your transcript If you are a late bloomer and you cannot learn at a neck-breaking speed BUT EVEN THEN Do not go for a Master’s degree in Economics! Go for MS in Statistics, Operations Research, or Math

Focus on math, not econ Admission committees are looking for three things Research aptitude (difficult to demonstrate) Mathematical maturity (easier to demonstrate) Good English if you are a foreign applicant (easiest to demonstrate)

Focus on math to get into an average Ph. D program Courses you need to take Calculus I, III Linear Algebra Probability and Statistics Econometrics I, II

Focus on math to get into a decent Ph. D program Additional courses you need to take Differential equations Systems of Differential equations

Focus on math to get into a top Ph. D program Additional course you need to take Real Analysis

Focus on math, not economics Economics courses you need to take Intermediate Microeconomics Intermediate Macroeconomics One 300 or 400 level economics course, addressing subfield in which you want to pursue your Ph. D Micro: Industrial Organization, Topics in Microeconomic Theory Macro: Advanced Macroeconomics, Public Finance: Financial Economics, Financial Markets and Institutions, Public Finance Environmental/Resource/Energy: Environmental Economics, Energy Economics

Choose not the school, but the department Remember the ultimate goal you are getting a Ph. D in Economics Advance the science of economics Get a good and well-paying job Your future employers will not care about the ranking of your school. They will care about how your department compares to other econ departments in terms of research productivity in the field in which you wrote your dissertation.

Choose not the school, but the department Use National Research Council Ranking, known as ‘The Ranking’ for Econ Departments Conducted once every ten years Specifically measures research productivity in econ departments Go to http: //www. phds. org/rankings/economics Select Edit Priorities Select “ 5” for Research Productivity as it is the only thing that matters! Rank

Do not sweat the verbal GRE section As a foreign applicant, your verbal skills will be judged not by your Verbal GRE score, but your TOEFL score and the Analytical Writing component of the GRE exam Do well on quantitative section: must score above 700 (in old scoring system) Do well on the Analytical Writing section: must get 4. 5 or above Get at least 25 for the Speaking Part of the TOEFL test

Write your own reference letters Two must-send reference letters One should focus on your research potential (the most important one) Get it from a professor One should attest your mathematical maturity Get the second from a professor or a teaching assistant No, it really does not matter who writes it Accompany the request with a detailed list of bullet points you want the recommender to mention and even a draft of the reference letter itself

Do not worry about work experience You must have work experience to get admitted into a decent MBA school Economics is not like business. It is a science, not trade! Having extensive work experience is a unlikely to influence the admission committee in any way, unless your work experience had to do with research (e. g. , research associate in Central Bank)

Use Jedi mind tricks when applying Exude enthusiasm about a specific research topic in your SOP Mention specific names of the professors who you would like to be your advisors and explain why exactly you want them to guide you in your research Produce your statement of intent and vita in La. Te. X Documents produced in La. Te. X have a distinctive (elegant, fine) appearance They scream “I belong to the club!” Many economics papers and Ph. D homework assignments are written in La. Te. X and to collaborate with a La. Te. X using colleague you will need to know La. Te. X yourself

Do not accept an offer of admission right away Wait until you hear from all schools Priority 1: Choose the school with cooperative, rather than competitive cultures Priority 2: Leverage several offers of admission to bang out higher student stipend from the department of your choice Ex. : Zeb Cooley, my classmate at the University of Wyoming, was able to up his monthly stipend from $1700 to $2500 by writing just a couple of emails to the Department Chair Remember, once you were made an offer, you are the king, as the department really wants you to come!

Once you are in: Publications(!) is the name of the game! The only meaningful measure of academic achievement, success, and employability is your publication record: Being the best Ph. D student does not count Being Dean’s pet does not count Having the highest doctoral GPA does not count Extracurricular activities do not count Letters of reference from Nobel Prize winners count for very little Ex: Consider a Ph. D Candidate from KIMEP with a publication in AER and a Harvard Ph. D graduate with no pubs. The Harvard graduate does not stand a chance against the KIMEP graduate.