I’ve been in my current position at the bank for a little bit less than a year now. I started Nov 15, 2004. Generally it’s great, I love the folks I work with, and I get to look at/play with fairly interesting numbers all day. My boss has said he’s impressed with my work, and that everybody is glad to have me as part of the team.
What’s struck me, though, is how little of my degree I actually use on a regular basis. Sure, I use bits of the math, and some of the concepts every now and again, but it’s not like I spend all day in my cubicle calculating cross-price elasticities of demand. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for that one.
That said, I think I’m in a pretty good position to dole out a bit of advice to you other denizens of undergraduate Economics departments. Because one day, believe it or not, you will have to find work. And you will do a lot of interviews, and they will mostly be either not very productive or entirely useless. Aside from math. And econometrics. Which I know you all hated. So, just what is one to do? Well, I think the following is a pretty sound approach to course planning and job hunting. Advice below the cut.
1) Take Accounting. Oh yes, I know you don’t want to count beans. I don’t want to count beans either. I spend a lot of my time at work devising all sorts of ways to avoid having to count beans so I can look at the bean trends, which are more interesting and more fun. But I kid you not, just a cursory knowledge of accounting gained in school would’ve made the on-the-job learning curve a lot less steep. I’ve picked it up just fine, but I still find myself having to ask questions somebody with a few upper-division accounting courses wouldn’t need to ask. So take some accounting, you might hate it but it will be well worth your time.
2) Do Something That Isn’t School. It doesn’t really even matter what it is, so much as you have some sort of experience besides school showing you’re willing and able to actually work. I spent four, unpaid, years at a libertarian magazine: almost none of which had anything to do with banking. However, I did learn to keep deadlines, do research, and communicate. I also got a pretty good handle on working in a “team”, and the two-ish years I spent managing the business aspect of the magazine didn’t exactly put me in a bad position. Do something you like with your spare time, learn how to sell it.
3) Consider An Internship. Didn’t have any, would’ve made my job search a lot easier. Enough said.
4) Plan on sending 10x as many resumes as you get interviews. I probably applied for 50+ career-track jobs right out of school. I ended up with five interviews. A lot of places use automated screening these days, and even talking to a human in HR is bloody difficult at times. The on-line forms will eliminate you if you don’t meet the requirements, where a person might be willing to at least talk to you. I love technology, but it makes for much more difficult entry-level job searches.
5) Prepare To Flub A Few Interviews. No matter how well prepared you are, no matter how much you like the company, you will probably mess up. One interview you will likely simply self-destruct. I interviewed for a position with the IHS over the phone, and I basically just stammered like an idiot. I’ll admit to being under prepared, but I still could’ve done better. My favorite blog is written by two professors who, you know, work at the Mercatus Center. So prepare more than you think you need, and don’t let doing poorly in an interview shake your confidence for others.
6) Low-ball Your Salary Request. If you manage to get to the part of the interview where they ask what sort of compensation you’d like, take what you really mean and knock a few thousand dollars off of it. Most positions will mention a salary range in the description, shoot for the middle even if you know you’re better. You don’t look like you haven’t thought about what you’re worth, and you don’t seem to be overly egotistical.
That’s about all I’ve got. It worked reasonably well for me, good luck. Oh, and one other thing, don’t waste the time and money on those resume & cover letter guidebooks, just ask your more experienced friends for help. They can be more personal, and they’re free.
