We Survived the Econ Job Market

I just finished a marathon in Boston. No – not the Boston Marathon (yet!), the 2014 ASSA Econ Job Market marathon. The Boy is on the Job Market this year and it has been an interesting and exciting experience. For those of you outside of the Econ world, I feel like I need to explain how the job market works.

I’m writing this post as the soon-to-be-spouse AKA an outside observer AKA not an expert on the job market or economics (although I was forced to take 2 econ classes in my MBA program haha). There are plenty of resources out there in the interwebs for information on the Econ Job Market. I hope that someday, someone might find mine useful…but these might be even more useful:

• John Crawley's Job Market Advice Paper
• Noah Smith's "How I Survived the Econ Job Market" 
• J Anthony Cookson's "Job Market Memoir"

When a PhD candidate is in the 5^th year of their program, they begin to apply for jobs. The Boy is on the academic job market but obviously economists can have jobs outside of academia as well.  The Boy applied for almost 100 jobs (you can read about that HERE). He’s a micro guy and enjoys research on environmental and education topics. Teaching is his passion and applied to smaller liberal arts schools as well as larger research institutions. The Boy landed TWENTY-FIVE interviews. TWENTY-FIVE. Considering the average is 6 or 7, I’d say that’s pretty good :)

What’s cool about this round of interviews is that they are all held in one place – this year it was Boston. The interviews take place during the 3-day AEA conference. We weren’t able to get a room at the official conference hotel (they sell out fast!), but we were about two blocks away. ADVICE: hotel location is clutch. There are 25+ conference hotels and a candidate can have interviews at any of the locations. We were lucky to be right in the mix which made it easy to get from interview to interview. We arrived in Boston a day early and took the time to map out our routes for the 3 days. We knew there were a couple of transitions that would be tight so we walked them the night before so that we would be prepared. Before we walked the route, we had a Sam Adams (Boston, duh).

There are 100ish schools that host their interviews in “the big zoo.” Each school had a table in this huge conference room and we were given a map when we registered for the conference. I laughed at the awkwardness of it. It is so weird that you could interview with a school and a few hours later be interviewing with another school WITHIN EARSHOT of the first interview. Oh well – I guess it works!

The Boy (should I start calling him The Professor?) also had interviews at other hotels. In the other hotels, the interviews were held in the actual hotel rooms. At most places, I was able to camp out in the lobby while he interviewed. At some hotels, the lobby was PACKED with other candidates and we had to camp out in hallways. #classy

Interviews lasted an average of 30-45 minutes. This gave us 15-30 minutes to get from hotel to hotel. ADVICE: try to schedule interviews happening at the same hotel next to each other. The Boy did this and it was a lifesaver. It worked out well because he usually had a few minutes in between interviews to read his notes and prep. There were 2 interviews on Saturday that we literally had to run to. It was late in the day, we were tired, and it was snowing. I was laughing so hard, I could barely run! We were late to one of his interviews, but he called beforehand and the school was really understanding.

We were so tired at the end of each day it was all we could do to eat dinner and change into our pajamas. I am so proud of this guy – I don’t know how he survived. I was exhausted and all I had to do was keep the coffee coming and read my book :) He actually had to interview!

Our next step is to wait for flyouts. Over the next 2-3 weeks, the schools will be calling candidates for second interviews. Most schools interview 15-20 candidates in the first round and they fly their top 3 candidates out to visit the campus, meet the rest of the department, and present their research. The average number of flyouts a candidate receives is 2-3 (based on the 6-7 average first interviews). I have a feeling The Boy (The Professor?) will get more than that!

We have silver stars waiting to go on the map and are so ready to find out where we might be living next year. In the meantime, it’s back to the real world after a whirlwind “vacation.” Work for me – teaching and dissertation writing for The Boy.

Here are a few Job Market tips from the candidate himself

 (reworded and written by me):

• Be prepared for slow elevators. Interviews begin and end at the same time which means candidates are trying to enter and exit at the same time. Take the escalator if you can!
• Schedule your most important interviews earlier in the day when the interview committee {and you!} are fresh and energized.
• Take a travel buddy and make sure they have a copy of your schedule. Your brain will start to get fried and it’s nice to have someone who can get you to the next place on time.
• Have a backpack stocked with water, snacks, cell phone charger, towel, extra tie (The Boy is a spiller), etc
• Know about the people who will be interviewing you and be prepared with a list of specific questions for each school.
• Be yourself (but smooth your rough edges!). Remember that this is a match program and fitting in at the school and with the people is key to success.
• Have fun, laugh, and drink a beer at the end of the day.

Good luck to everyone on the market this year (and to everyone who is currently in the job search process).

HELLO 2015

It’s a pretty calm New Year’s Eve in the Huber/Roush house. The Boy is working on his interview prep and I’m working on the blog. Our plan is to be in bed by 9pm since we have to be up and on the road by 4am tomorrow – party animals!

Throughout the year, I felt like this day would never get here. Now that it’s December 31^st, I feel like this year has flown by, especially these last two weeks.

I graduated from Duquesne University with my MBA this month and I consider that one of my biggest accomplishments for 2014 (and pretty much ever so far!). I had lots of visitors in Pittsburgh that weekend to help me celebrate. I can’t even begin to describe the feeling of walking across that stage and getting my diploma! I was SO happy. Grad school is hard and figuring out how to wear that graduation hood on is even harder! But I am so glad I did it. I’m looking forward to the opportunities that lie ahead and can’t wait to use all of the skills and knowledge I gained over the past two years.

 On December 30^th, I turned the big 2-7. I think this means that I am officially in my late 20s now (or my late 80s according to my New Year’s Eve plans). 26 was a good year, but I’m really looking forward to 27. There are a few things I want to accomplish in 2015. It seems like a good year to get married, run a marathon, move a few times…and maybe a few other things in between!

 I hope everybody had an exciting (and safe) New Year’s Eve. 

New Year, Same Goals

I've written about goals in the past: fitness goals, educational goals, blogging goals, and New Year’s resolutions. Since it’s January, I figured there is no better time to talk about some of my goals for 2014. As I was thinking about it this morning, I realized that my goals haven’t really changed from last year. A lot of them are long-term goals that are continuing into 2014. The good thing is that I can look back and see the process from where I was in January of 2013. I feel like I’m one step closer on my journey to accomplish all of my goals. Here are some of the goals & milestones I’m working on this year:

Career: I once had a mentor who told me you should never do the same thing for more than two years. I've been in the same role at my company since February 2011. We are quickly approaching the three year mark, but I’m cutting myself some slack since during that three year period, I transferred to our Pittsburgh office (which was definitely a change!). I've been talking to my boss about where I want to focus on my career and I’m hoping that I can make some changes in 2014. It’s time for a new project, a new challenge, and a new opportunity.

Education: I just started semester 4 of 6 in the MBA program at Duquesne University. I’m on track to graduate this December and my goal is to finish strong. “Christmas Break” (can you call it that if you still have to work 5 days a week?) could not have come at a better time. I was feeling a bit burnt out at the end of last semester, but felt refreshed when classes started last week. One of my goals for education this year is to find a better balance of school work, work, and a personal life…I really struggled with this one last year, so send me some helpful hints!

Health: I am a pretty healthy person in general, but there are definitely some areas I can work on. Eating healthy is the biggest area where there is room for improvement. My goals for 2014 are to shop healthier, cook more, and stop snacking as much in the evening (or maybe just to snack healthier in the evening), and drink more water. I started using MyFitnessPal.com to log everything I’m eating. It's awesome because I can access my log from the computer, my phone, and my iPad to keep track during the day. It has definitely been eye opening these last two weeks!

Fitness: Continuing on from eating healthy is the fitness goal. Moving to Pittsburgh and starting grad school put a huge damper on my running in 2013. This year, I've already signed up for a 10K and a half marathon in the Spring. Knowing what my work/school schedule looks like, I had to set a realistic plan of running three days a week. It’s tough reminding myself that I’m training not to PR these races, but to keep myself in shape slowly build back up to where I was at in 2012.

A couple that sweats together........eats lots of FroYo together

Those are just a few of the big ones for this year. I’m pretty excited to see what all this year brings. 

What are your goals for 2014?

Back At It

This week marked the start of the Fall Semester and for some crazy reason I decided to take 3 classes again (actually, it’s not a crazy reason – I want to graduate ASAP!). I survived taking 3 classes in the summer, but that was just 8 weeks. Luckily, this is the last semester I have to take 3 classes…only 13 weeks to go.

I’m really excited about this semester. What am I taking? Well, I’m glad you asked!  

Marketing Management

Did someone say marketing plans? I do this for a living…if I fail the class, I’m in trouble :)

Consumer Behavior

Individual consumer? I shop all. of. the. time. I wonder if we can get extra credit for shopping? That would be a really good excuse to shop every day now through December…

Public Affairs Management

I don't have a witty comment for this one...help me out people!

I have a few goals for Fall Semester, outside of the classroom.

The first goal is to keep up with my workouts. Since I started grad school in January, it’s been a struggle to fit in runs between work, class, and sleep. This semester I have a plan. It’s in writing – in pen, even – so I have to stick to it. I only have class 3 days a week, which means I should definitely be running or doing some workout on the other 4 days. I’ll do my best to post recaps on the blog (see goal 2) so that you all can keep me accountable!

The second goal is to keep up with the blog. I barely blogged at all during the spring and summer semesters. I’m going to blame it on the whole “move to a new city, attempt to survive 14 hour work/class days” thing. Blogging is a good outlet/stress reliever for me so I am going to try to make time to write during the week.

The third goal is to keep my apartment from looking like it is constantly in battle with a tornado. Last semester it was shoes, clothes, books, papers EVERYWHERE. This is the least likely of the three goals that I will actually achieve because, let’s be honest, if I have to pick, running and blogging trump cleaning any day. 

Now, for all of my readers: YOUR GOAL is to help meet achieve all of my goals! Hold me responsible when I skip workouts, calm me down when I get stressed out, and remind me to do laundry every once in a while....seriously...that last one is important!

Any readers out there working on their MBA or other graduate degree?

What's your best tip for staying organized?