Preparing for the Job Market Camille Hémet Institut d'economia de Barcelona University of Barcelona, April 27 th, 2015
What is THE job market? Nothing else than a market for jobs (for economists): Universities and research institutes with vacant positions (soon to be) PhD looking for a job Purpose: match oer and demand in an ecient way Highly competitive market: Most of the jobs from good research places are oered Most of the candidates from good research places search
Setting of the game: players and stakes Candidates: PhD students who are in their last year Any PhD holding a position who wants or need to change Recruiters: Universities Business schools Research institutions Central banks Stakes: Assistant prof. position (e.g. tenure track) Economist Post-doc
How does it usually work? Candidates: Get their application package ready Register to the main job market meetings Recruiters post their job oers Selection process: First round: application to the job oers Second round: interviews during the meetings Third round: y-outs at the hiring place
What is the timing? May-June: Inform thesis committee and contact placement ocer Choose your JMP and present it in seminars July-August: Get your JMP ready, present it at conferences September: Polish your JMP Register / present it in seminars, PhD workshops... Start asking for recommendation letters Register for the Spanish job market (SAEe) 10-12 December 2015, Girona Deadline for job market submissions: September 14 th, 2015 Submit through Conference Maker
What is the timing? October: Register, book ight and hotel room for the US job market (AEA / ASSA meeting): 3-5 January 2016, San Francisco Have your recommendation letters done Get your package ready: CV, cover letter, teaching statement Get your webpage done Start looking at job oers November: Send Applications (better before Thanksgiving)! Register to the RES meeting: 15 November December: SAEe meeting + organize AEA interviews schedule January: AEA meeting + RES meeting Winter: y-outs
Getting ready: Job Market Paper This is the most important piece of your package! It is your "book", your "business card" It reveals what you are worth as a researcher: Can you ask relevant and interesting questions? Do you master the appropriate tools and techniques? Are you able to innovate and contribute to the literature? Preferably single authored: Clean information about your personal contribution If co-authored, better with a junior
Getting ready: Recommendation Letters Usually you will be asked up to 3 recommendation Whom to ask letters? Your supervisor Informative: know you and your work Inuential: good academic record, from good institutions Credible: not too many of own students going on the market! From a dierent university as yours Ask them early: They might refuse They need to have time to read your JMP... They are very busy! Make sure they send their letter on time
Getting ready: Curriculum Vitae Dene yourself in two pages Clearly indicate your primary and secondary elds Usual information: Research: JMP, publications, working papers, ongoing projects Education: degrees and institutions, visiting experience Grants, prizes, research funds Presentations in seminars, workshop and conferences Teaching experience References Useful tips: Prepare an extended version including papers' abstracts Indicate the date of last update Phone number: preferably not shared, and with a voice mail Your mobile might be a good option Look at others' CVs
Getting ready: Rest of the Package Research statement State the main message of your thesis (1/4) Quickly summarize each of your major contributions (1/4) Describe your ongoing projects and your future research (1/2) Teaching statement (+ Teaching evaluations) Classes you have taught Expose your teaching philosophy Which classes you want to teach in your future job Cover letter Do not overdo it (one page is enough) Summarize your research in 1-3 lines, JMP title Good opportunity to signal if you have a strong preference for the position (co-author, location, research center) Briey describe which documents are attached
Getting ready: Webpage Do it as early as possible (i.e. when you have time!) Google sites is a good and user friendly tool, largely used You can follow your audience with google analytics Indicate clearly that you are on the job market + meetings: I am on the job market this year. I will be available for interviews at the SAEe meeting in Girona in December 2015 and at the AEA / ASSA meeting in San Francisco in January 2016 Get a good looking / professional picture Emphasize your JMP in the research section Make all your papers downloadable, even if not very polished Gives an idea of how advanced you actually are Recruiters are unlikely to read them anyway!
Applying to oers Where is the information? Job Openings for Economists (JOE): www.aeaweb.org/joe EconJobMarket (EJM): www.econjobmarket.org/ Inomics (also for conferences): www.inomics.com For jobs in the UK: www.jobs.ac.uk Where should you apply? To any position that is better than your outside option (e.g. unemployment) As long as you have some chance of being at least interviewed (do not spend too much time applying at Harvard!) Target the oers that are specically in your eld Be mobile! Do not apply for a position you do not want Keep track of all your applications (job description, specicities, teaching load,...): online oers may disappear! Keep your adviser, placement ocer and references informed
Preparing for the interviews: research presentation Train on how to present your JMP and your research : Prepare talks of 2, 5, 10 and 20 minutes Attend seminars, especially y-outs in previous years! Meet the speakers giving talks at your university Participate in training sessions organized by the university Mock interviews between PhD students Present your JMP in PhD workshop / seminars... Think in advance how to answer dicult questions What is your contribution to the literature? How does your paper relate to some seminal papers? Why did you start working on this question? Why do we care? Where is your eld going? What is a real-life example of what your job market paper is about? What is the intuition behind that result?
Preparing for the interviews: other questions Be ready to talk about anything on your CV Old project that you did during your undergraduate studies Ongoing and future research projects Teaching: What was the main challenge in each course you taught? What is your teaching philosophy? What are your teaching interests? If you are to give an advanced Ph.D. class in your eld, what papers will you teach? Prepare questions to ask to the interviewer Do not ask anything that you could have learned from the department's webpage Keep questions about salary, teaching load, research funds, etc, for post-oer negotiations You can ask what elds the department plans to grow in over the next few years
Preparing for the interviews: practical advice Check where the interviews take place and where is your hotel: keep enough time to go from one place to another between interviews Try to schedule interviews for positions that are low on your preference list at the beginning of the conference: learning by doing Try to schedule important interviews towards the end of the conference for the same reason as above, and early in the day to avoid being late and have fresh interviewers Try to nd out who's on the interview committee Try to arrive a few days in advance (avoid delays and jetlag) Avoid checking luggage: you don't want to lose you interview suit! Always have water and power bars with you Smile, be nice and show some fun: people are also hiring a colleague!
Fly-out: general setting After the interviews, the universities select a short-list of candidates they invite on the campus for a seminar The people that interviewed you liked you. Your real challenge is to convince the rest of the department that you are a good hire How it works: a full day at the university During all day, half-hour interviews with members of the faculty, individually, usually in their oce At some point, a 1h-1h30 seminar Lunch and dinner with faculty members
Fly-out: tips for the seminar The presentation is for a general audience of economists: you should provide some technical details but keep non-specialists on board with lots of intuition Prepare a presentation for less time than asked: there are always more questions than you expect If you are ahead of time, you can give more details about "robustness checks" that you have on back-up slides, or talk about the rest of your research or future project Be as clear as possible, give intuitions: show them you have good teaching skills Explain your entire set-up: don't assume your audience knows it
What happens next? You get an oer: congratulations Time to negotiate: salary, teaching load, research funds, travel budget Usually 10-14 days to give an answer: you can use it to put some pressure on other departments to give you an answer You don't get any oer: don't get depressed! Talk to you supervisors, they may have backup solutions Go on the "scramble" market Look for a post-doc: spring is the good period for this type of position The scramble (in March): The secondary market: unmatched job candidates and employers During a specic time period, register to the American Economic Association scramble website to show you are still available You go again through the whole process!
Looking for a post-doc position Good option if you are not ready to go on the job market in October: a lot of post-doc oers circulate during the spring Good opportunity to have enough time to publish some papers before actually going on the job market Good if you want to have an academic experience abroad but do not want to stay there for the rest of your career Avoid one-year positions: you would have to go on the market as soon as you start Some post-docs are very long (5 years at the ZEW) Most post-docs have no teaching or very little Oers are on the same websites as other positions Check specic post-doc grants, like Marie-Curie fellowship
For more detailed information (my sources) Job market information pages: Harvard, Stanford John Cawley's Guide and Advice for Economists on the U.S. Junior Academic Job Market (2014-2015 Edition) Christian Zimmermann's (Connecticut) tips Additional tips on the RES job market meeting webpage Guide to the scramble market, AEA Inomics annual report