Job Market Tips

This tips is for economic academic job market. This note was prepared based on information adapted from many different sources and experiences of me and others. Now I can no longer tell which part is mine and which part is other. Good luck!

Timeline

Job Market Process usually starts from summer until the April the year after.

  • Summer: Get approval from advisor
  • September: Final version of paper
  • October: Register for AEA conference and get ready for application
  • November: Send applications
  • December: Schedule and prepare for interviews
  • January: AEA meeting and flyout
  • February-April: Flyout and offers

Summer: Get approval from advisor

  • Get one main paper ready (Job market paper; JMP)
  • Polish the paper and send it to your committee.
  • Only plan to go to the market if your advisor says yes.
  • Start preparation of application materials:
    1. Personal website
    2. Professional picture (U-Town has photo taking service)
    3. CV (1-page)
    4. Research statement
    5. Teaching statement (with teaching evaluation)

September: Final Polishing of Paper

October: Register for AEA and get ready for application

  • Register for the AEA conference
    • Make flight and hotel reservations.
    • Choose a hotel closet to the Head-Quarters (HQ) hotel but NOT in the HQ hotel. (because HQ hotel has too many people!)
    • Aim to arrive at AEAs for Wednesday night or Thursday morning.
    • Make hotel arrangements immediately as rooms get booked really quick
  • JOE: LOTS of openings
    • Look specifically at openings in
      1. Within your field
      2. Any Fields: check with your network to see any insider information
      3. General Economics/Teaching
    • Check for late October/early November deadlines. Most are mid or late November or December.
      • Create an spread document to organize openings and their dead- lines. (share with your classmates!)
      • Compile a list of schools you plan to apply Do NOT apply jobs not in your field or to places you would never go.
      • This wastes your and others time and bad for your fellow class- mates.
      • To aim too high or too low as other schools may know you are not making serious applications – Run the list with your advisors.
  • Get ready for your application material:
    • Check information of the schools you want to apply (You will need need it to mention it in your cover letter.)
    • Upload your website (with JMP, photo, CV, research/teaching state- ments)
    • Complete your CV
    • Polish your research and teaching statements.

November: Send Application Packages

  • JOE: LOTS of openings here. Some will repeat from October JOE.

    • Many will have deadlines of November 15th, 30th, December 1st or 15th

  • During this month, only do applications

  • Do all or almost all applications before the end of third week (Thanksgiving in US)

  • Pay attention to the deadline for the AEA 2 job signals you get to send. Details on AEA signaling

  • Most applications are done online at econjobmarket.org or via the institu- tions website.

  • A typical application packet for mailing includes:

    1. Cover letter. Different letters for research, teaching and non-academic jobs. Customize for a few places you are most interested in.
    2. JMP.
    3. Other research papers only if well-polished and approved by your advi- sor
    4. 3–4 letters of recommendation. Perhaps a teaching letter as well.
    5. Your CV (modify the ordering of your research fields depending on the listed opening).
    6. Teaching evaluations (if academic).
    7. Teaching statement (if academic, particularly liberal arts schools).
    8. Research statement (summary of your papers, and your ongoing re- search)
    9. An unofficial or official graduate transcript (sometimes).
    10. Chinese CV (for chinese schools)

  • Keep your advisors/secretary posted on where to send e-mail, upload or mail reference letters. Let them know your deadlines.

December: Schedule and Prepare Interviews

  • December JOE: some relevant openings here but not as many as in the prior 2 months.
  • Places start calling or e-mailing to set up interviews at the AEAs (before Christmas).
  • Be polite (and sound happy they called!) and ask for the following informa- tion:
    1. Institution 2.
    2. Person who called/e-mailed and their contact information.
    3. The name and contact information for the contact person at the AEA meetings.
    4. Day and time of the interview and hotel it will take place in.
    5. Disclosure code (this is the code you will get and look up online during the meetings to find out the exact room the interview takes place in).
    6. Other people who will be at the interview
  • Scheduling of interviews:
    • Act quickly! Good spots fill up quickly. o
    • Put less important interviews on Thursday night or early Friday morn- ing as warm up.
    • Put the most important ones at the times you are in the best shape!
    • AT LEAST 15 minutes between interviews, especially for switching ho- tels.
    • Look at a map when you are scheduling (Game is over if you are late for interview)
    • Try to have a string of interviews in the same hotel.
    • Try to leave a little bit of room for lunch if you can.
    • If you do not have enough (less than 10) interviews, talk to your advi- sors.
  • Interview Preparation:
    • In late December, set up mock interviews with faculty members.
    • Do 6-8 and mix and match faculty so that you have 2 faculty members in different fields.
    • Prepare 2-, 5-, and 15-minute versions about your JMP!
      • Embed them into each other.
      • Be flexible and be prepared to be derailed.
      • Dont sounding like you are memorizing! No one like to talk to machine.
      • 2-minute version: simple enough for people outside your field to understanding; give people a big picture; make your idea interesting to people outside your field
      • 5-minute version: Go into greater details of what you are doing; you should tell how your work different from existing literature
      • 15-minute version: Let the expert in your field to know what you are doing and let people outside you field to also feel that they know you are doing something seems interesting and useful
      • Questions:
        • Have you submitted the paper?
        • Where you are going to submit it?
        • How you come up with this idea?
        • Prepare to talk to other papers
          • What’s next in terms of research?
        • Teaching questions:
          • What classes can you teach?
          • Which textbook you are going to use?
          • What topics you are going to cover?
        • Do research on the school you are going to interview.
          • Why you would like to come to our place?
          • Try to understand the research of the people who are in the inter- view
        • Get your suits ready:
          • 2 suits, 4 shirts, 1 handbag and 2 good shoes.
        • Have a good hair cut

Early January: AEA Meetings!

  • If you followed the advice, you should have:
    • Booked a hotel that is very close to but not in the headquarters
    • Arrive Wednesday night. (or before)
    • Have 1-2 suits and comfortable shoes.
  • In your handbag, you should have
    • Snacks (energy bars)
    • Some bottle of water.
    • Bring change for paying cab drivers, so that you are not running around with a $100 bill unable to get change.
    • Some copies of CV (especially for walk-in interviews for industry jobs)
  • During interview (usually 30-45 minutes)
    • Usually in a hotel room
    • Talk about your JMP for 15-20 minutes
    • Asked questions related to research and teaching for 5 to 10 minutes
    • You are introduced with the institutions and place
    • Last 2-5 minutes, you will be asked to ask questions.
      • Do have some good questions (dont ask question that you can an- swer from the website)
      • You might ask research support, quality of students
      • Tell them if your spouse/partner is also looking for academic jobs
      • NEVER talk about salary

Mid-January through March: FLYOUT

  • If you passed interviews, you will get to visit the place.
  • Scheduling flyout:
    • Try not to put the most important the first one.
    • You should call the other nearby schools you have interviewed so that costs can be shared.
    • You usually pay for transport and get reimbursed later but hotel is usually covered by the school.
    • Keep all original receipts.
    • Make copies and mail the originals.
    • Never check your baggage! Bring a carry-on with your suits.
    • A typical fly-out:
      • Arrive the afternoon/night before.
      • Morning:
        • Someone may pick you up for an informal breakfast.
        • When you arrive, you will be given a schedule with a list of people to meet.
        • Most of time, you talk about your research.
        • Some of the times, you listen their research or even something unrelated.
      • Lunch:
        • Usually at the faculty dining hall with a large number of faculty, and not many within your field.
      • Afternoon:
        • Job talk: usually 1.5 hrs, make sure that most people understand the first 30 minutes
        • Meet more people
        • The last one to meet is either the department chair or the Dean. – Dinner:
        • Typically with the search committee and department head.
        • A chance to show that you are good person to be colleague.
        • Be relaxed, polite and engage in conversation during these dinners. – Some questions to ask during flyout:
      • What are the tenure requirements?
      • What has the tenure success rate been in the last few years?
      • Do you find the department to be collegial?
      • Where would you recommend living?
      • Is there any housing subsidy/allowance?
      • Does the department do a good job of supporting new faculty?
      • In terms of research support, mentorship, shielding from service duties, minimizing teaching preps, etc.?
      • Living environments: Are there good schools nearby? Good restau- rants?

February-April: Flyout and Offers

  • Congratulation! You get an offer after 6-month search process!

    • Most of offers are verbal. Written formal offers need to get to the administration so they take a lot of time.
    • Offer always come with deadline. Usual case is two weeks.
    • Ask other schools that you have done a flyout to see if they would also like to make you an offer before the deadline.
    • Try to extend deadline for a few days if necessary but should avoid asking for too many days.
    • Bargaining is usually ONLY possible if you have another offer.
    • Make sure you dont bargain too hard.
    • Make sure you are aware of allowance (education, housing, and medi- cal).
    • Check if you are offered a standard package or not.

  • JOE: Post-docs and other teaching positions are posted

Additional Reading:

  • Cawley (2012) guide (Must read! Can also read earlier version). Available at [AEA]( http://www.aeaweb.org/joe/articles/2011/job market guide.pdf)
  • William Thomson (2012): Being a graduate student in economics published in A Guide for the Young Economist, MIT Press. Available in working paper version

Supplemetary information: other Job Market Advice

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Last updated on Apr 21, 2019

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