[Note: I started writing this post in early April 2013, soon after going on the job market for the second time in my career and receiving four offers. Since then, I have added to this post whenever I thought of a helpful piece of job market-related advice. – MFB.]
It’s that time of the year again, when graduate students who are about to enter their final year in economics and related disciplines are getting ready to go on the job market.
Going on the job market is a harrowing experience for most people, however, so I thought I should help job-market candidates by sharing my advice.
This post is the first in a series of three. Today, I’d like to discuss what you should be doing the summer and fall before you go on the job market. The next installment will be posted in the fall and will cover ASSA interviews.
Before Interviewing at ASSA
- Your number one priority at this time should be finishing and polishing your job-market paper (JMP). This isn’t so much because search committees will read your JMP closely when trying to select candidates to interview but because once the academic year starts, you will realize that being on the job market is a job in and of itself. The more complete your JMP by the time the academic year starts, the less you’ll have to worry about it during the year, and the more time you’ll have to devote to other things. Perhaps more importantly, the more complete your JMP by the time the academic year starts, the more time you have to fix the potential mistakes it contains and to incorporate the comments you receive on it.
Big Dumb Data?
This month’s issue of Foreign Affairs has a great article (you’ll need to log in to read the whole thing, ufortunately) on the rise of big data, which Wikipedia defines as
So far, so good. As a development economist, I have to make do with 500 observations more often than not (the largest dataset I have ever worked with had about 8,000 observations), so I obviously welcome ever larger datasets.