What
the Department Does for You
Job-Market
Visits and Seminars
Advice
from Previous Job Market Candidates
Your
placement team this year is Bob Hall, placement officer (REH) and Susie
Madsen, placement administrator (SRM).
Send REH
an email immediately if you plan to be on the job market this season.
Indicate the probability that you will actually see the process through.
If you have
any questions, click here: mailto:hall@hoover.Stanford.edu
or mailto:srmadsen@Leland.Stanford.edu.
We will post answers to questions on the site if they are of any likely
general interest. (Back
to top.)
October
8. Informational meeting
for job market candidates,
October
10: Mailing of job market
packet
November
5: Faculty placement
meeting,
The job-market
paper should look as much as possible like a paper in the JPE or
the AER. That is, it should be written at the highest professional
level for a wide audience of highly trained economists. You need to give
special attention to making your paper understandable to this kind of an
audience. You should not presume that your readers are immersed in the
particular literature you are working within. You should assume a strong
general knowledge of economics and high technical level in your audience.
One of the most important things to do in your paper is to be completely
clear about what you have contributed. Don’t write up existing results
as if you created them. But go out of your way to describe what is new
in your work.
You will need
to work out the logistics of preparing and mailing letters with your committee
members, as there is not a uniform system for this. Most letters will go
out in November. (Back to top.)
The department
holds a meeting at the beginning of November to aggregate information about
each candidate. This information is used by REH and the rest of the faculty
to guide discussions with prospective employers about good matches.
During November
and December, REH talks to prospective employers seeking to find good matches.
There is relatively
little the department or your advisor can do after December. It is not
generally possible to get employers interested in candidates not interviewed
at the meetings, or interviewed and not scheduled for flyouts. (Back
to top.)
An application
package comprises an appropriate letter from you, your CV, your job-market
paper, and possibly your letters of recommendation. Alternatively, your
advisors may mail the letters separately.
Discuss
with your advisor and other committee members what places would be good
matches, and see if they can help get in the door.
Respond immediately
when SRM informs you that an employer wants your package. (Back
to top.)
Most of your
interviewers will be Americans, and you will do well to observe American
customs during the introductions. Practice a really firm handshake. Really
firm. (See
“A Gripping Start” in Scientific American, September 2000.) Look the
person in the eye and try hard to keep the person’s name in mind. You do
not need to give your name. Say “How do you do” or “I’m very glad to meet
you.”
Be careful
of your posture during the interview. Lean forward and look attentive;
don’t lounge or sprawl. Keep your hands at your side, not in contact with
each other.
To the extent
practical, know the research of your interviewers and consider it in your
responses. It is successful flattery to acknowledge the contribution of
an interviewer, but be careful not to overdo it.
You will almost
certainly be asked to describe your job-market research. Have a 4-minute
presentation ready in your head. Stress what is new. Demonstrate your knowledge
of the related literature, but spend most of your time on what you have
done. Don’t go on longer than 4 minutes.
In most cases,
you will be interrupted with questions during this initial presentation.
Some may seem hostile. Give calm answers. Whenever possible, answer the
question directly and don’t run on too much on topics that come to mind
(though a bit of that is OK, if it comes out naturally). Questions are
often about related research. You may be asked about work that you don’t
know about. Do the best you can without making anything up.
Toward the
end of the interview, you will probably be asked about your teaching interests.
Show an interest in a broad variety of teaching. Remember that at most
places, the bulk of teaching is undergraduate. If you feel it at all, express
your enthusiasm for teaching undergraduates, especially intermediate micro
and macro. With respect to graduate teaching, be sure not to treat it as
an entitlement. “I’d also be interested in helping out in graduate public
finance, if something comes up” would be the right tone.
Also, be completely
ready to give a coherent answer to the question “What research do you plan
to do after your thesis?” Show that you have thought about other research
topics and that you are the kind of person who will build an interesting
portfolio of related research projects. One future project is enough.
Ask your advisor
to give you a mock interview. Often this is done in groups, so all of you
can benefit from advice given to each of you. (Back to
top.)
Your seminar
is key to getting a job. Not only are you selling the ideas in your research,
you are showing that you are good on your feet and will do well in the
classroom and other places where presentation skills matter.
Start your
presentation with the projector off. Spend a few minutes with the attention
strictly on yourself, explaining the question you are working on and giving
a general description of what you have added. Be careful to do this in
a way that does not invite distracting questions that you will be answering
later. One of the main reasons not to use slides at this point is that
the concreteness of a bullet on a slide often results in chaotic questioning.
Your slides
should show graphs, math, and simple tables of numbers. Don’t use any slides
that just have text bullets. These just distract from your presentation.
Your first slide should start a mathematical derivation, show a diagram,
demonstrate an anomaly in the data, or something like that.
Don’t try
to rush through dozens of slides. A good presentation for a 90-minute seminar
will usually have about 20 slides.
Use at least
24-point fonts for your slides. In graphs, use heavy colored lines. Tables
should be limited to 20 numbers at the very most. Tables must be reformatted
from your paper—usually they have to be broken into several slides.
You will get
lots of questions, and your skill in handling them is central to your success.
Always give friendly answers even if the questions seem hostile. A smile
is a good response to hostility. Remember that the other people in the
audience will be embarrassed by a hostile question and will be on your
side. Try to answer questions on the spot, but defer them if you can’t
make progress. Don’t try to do too much new theory on your feet—be ready
to say “I’ll have to think about that—maybe we could discuss it later.”
As in an interview,
you should try to be aware of who in the audience has contributed to the
area of your research.
You must schedule
a session of your seminar to present your finished job-market paper during
the fall quarter. Try to arrange another rehearsal just before you go on
the road in January. (Back to top.)
A. Definitely
send a packet directly to any individual requesting it.
Q.
How many packets should I send out?
A.
The average seems to be around 75.
Q.
Who pays for the packets?
A. The
department will provide supplies such as 9x12 envelopes, letterhead envelopes,
labels, and bond paper. These supplies are available in the academic
office on the shelf above the typewriter; help yourselves. You are responsible
for sending out your own job market packets and providing postage.
Q.
What do I need to prepare when sending unsolicited packages?
A.
If you are sending out unsolicited packets, you should provide the secretaries
with a complete list of accurate addresses (preferably on disk) so that
they can merge the addresses with the recommendation letters. They
would also like you to provide them with pre-printed mailing labels for
envelopes.
Q.
Should I ask faculty for teaching references as well as general employment
references, or do I only need to send teaching references if specifically
requested?
A.
The preferred solution is for faculty references to cover both research
and teaching. In some cases, it might be appropriate for a candidate to
have a separate letter covering teaching.
Q. Is a
cover letter essential if my package is specifically requested?
A. Yes,
for sure.
Q.
What happens if I drop out of the market?
A.
You will impose costs on the department if you drop out. Thus we ask you
not to go on the market unless you are quite sure you are ready, and have
the support of your advisors. You also lose the benefit of the efforts
you put in, which would have to be repeated next year. You would not lose
much in terms of reputation with employers if you dropped out before the
meetings. After that, you are likely to be remembered as a dropout if you
interview. It would be quite costly in reputation if you dropped out after
you start receiving flyouts or offers. (Back to top.)
qBest
to have two interview suits since you’ll have little time for dry cleaning.If
you only have one suit, use hotel dry cleaning.
qSome
universities may invite candidates to a campus visit even in March.As
some people say, this is because such schools wait for the market to clear,
or in some cases many offers are rejected so that they have to look at
the second part of the short list.So
please tell student on the market this year to be persistent and not to
be disappointed too much even if they don’t get any response to AEA interviews
within a month or so.
qMy
paper was not finished until mid November.It
made me very nervous seeing that many people had sent out their packages,
while my introduction was not even finished.However,
I think it had the big advantage that I was very much inside of my paper
during the flyouts.
qTom
Sargent gave me the advice to just say “I don’t know” instead of saying
something possibly wrong.I think
this advice helped me a great deal.
qAt
my interviews, some schools gave me the impression that they would fly
me out if I wanted, but did not say so directly.I
phoned one school and they were interested even though they hadn’t contacted
me.If a job market candidate were
to ask me for informal advice, I would strongly recommend that he or she
not be shy about phoning up schools and asking about flyouts. (Back
to top.)