Econ majors- is it easy to find a job?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, FWIW when I was in law school I thought that econ majors had a much easier time than I did as a history major....

History is probably the best major for law school. Not sure why you thought econ majors had an easier time. Econ is a fine major but the history skills are a direct transfer.

Is it because there is tons of reading in law school?

Yes and the critical thinking involved. Law school is mostly about reading.

That sounds really boring. Can’t AI summarize the reading for you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can be hard to get a job especially if not from a top school. Take the math version of Econ plus some accounting and finance. There is huge supply of Econ majors and a lot of mediocre undergrad Econ programs.

What is the math version?

This, absolutely. Make sure he gets a BS in economics, not a BA. Big difference in starting and projected salaries.

Big difference is where you get the degree not BS/BA. Top school is matters not. Many top 20 schools only have the BA. Still get those jobs. The 100k jobs are going for the smarts not the expertise.

What are these 100k jobs? Management consulting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can be hard to get a job especially if not from a top school. Take the math version of Econ plus some accounting and finance. There is huge supply of Econ majors and a lot of mediocre undergrad Econ programs.

What is the math version?

This, absolutely. Make sure he gets a BS in economics, not a BA. Big difference in starting and projected salaries.

Big difference is where you get the degree not BS/BA. Top school is matters not. Many top 20 schools only have the BA. Still get those jobs. The 100k jobs are going for the smarts not the expertise.

What are these 100k jobs? Management consulting?

Investment banking/analyst, topmost jobs only available to top schools for the most part, but some companies hire outside the T20 for regional analyst roles.

[Anonymous]

Look for a school that is considered a "target" school for in person recruiting for consulting/IB/finance and also does not have a business school option. If you're majoring in econ at a school with a business track, it will be much harder to get those internships and offers... not impossible, but will need to find ways to stand out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Economics is a solid degree.

Job and career opportunities are enhanced by having a solid understanding of statistics, knowledge of the R programming language for statistics, and Python programming. Those are the tools that let one analyze economic data - which is a typical entry-level role.

Aren’t data analysts of every stripe ripe for AI replacement?

Somebody needs to tell the AI what to do (choose the task), modify the task depending on AI results, and monitor or interpret the AI's results. AI is wildly overhyped right now AND if it does achieve productive time savings as a tool that means employees can specify more tasks and analyze more things. If AI really is going to be a massive job killer, do you think people will just say "Oh, I guess I won't do any work then". Or will they say "I will find new and different ways to be useful with the set of tools I have"?

Have you ever used a fully automated chatbot that accomplished what you wanted? I haven't. Chatbots suck! That is what a lot of AI is like right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can be hard to get a job especially if not from a top school. Take the math version of Econ plus some accounting and finance. There is huge supply of Econ majors and a lot of mediocre undergrad Econ programs.

What is the math version?

This, absolutely. Make sure he gets a BS in economics, not a BA. Big difference in starting and projected salaries.

Big difference is where you get the degree not BS/BA. Top school is matters not. Many top 20 schools only have the BA. Still get those jobs. The 100k jobs are going for the smarts not the expertise.

What are these 100k jobs? Management consulting?

Investment banking/analyst, topmost jobs only available to top schools for the most part, but some companies hire outside the T20 for regional analyst roles.

Way more consulting than IB at really any top school. Consulting is the easiest launching point for a successful career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, FWIW when I was in law school I thought that econ majors had a much easier time than I did as a history major....

History is probably the best major for law school. Not sure why you thought econ majors had an easier time. Econ is a fine major but the history skills are a direct transfer.

Is it because there is tons of reading in law school?

Yes and the critical thinking involved. Law school is mostly about reading.

Yes. The ability to read and digest large amounts of text is key.

The other helpful piece is analysis - especially the ability to consider and evaluate multiple (often conflicting) arguments at the same time.

My econ/public policy major was very helpful in law school. It shaped the way I thought (broadly and flexibly) and taught me to communicate my analysis clearly in writing, which helped with exams. I was surprised by how often the Econ concepts came up - sometimes explicitly, sometimes more subtly. Key pieces of the framework for legal analysis.

[Anonymous]

I’d live to hear from people who actually graduated with an Econ major in 2015 or later, or from their parents. What was your/their first job out of college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d live to hear from people who actually graduated with an Econ major in 2015 or later, or from their parents. What was your/their first job out of college?

I'll answer this one for you. Son graduated from Michigan State (the horror! Not a top 10, the poor guy. /s) in 2022. First job was with a Tier 2 Business Defense Contractor in Business Dev. Spent some time overseas and in US plants, then working military sales. After 1.5 yrs applied for sales position in Federal Team at a FAANG. First job paid $75k no commission, now base is $80k but big commission so making quite a bit more (I'm not sure exactly how much although I could ask him).

Full disclosure: father and I have long carriers as execs in tech (him) and defense (me). So while we didn't get him the jobs, he got lots of help and coaching behind the scenes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, FWIW when I was in law school I thought that econ majors had a much easier time than I did as a history major....

History is probably the best major for law school. Not sure why you thought econ majors had an easier time. Econ is a fine major but the history skills are a direct transfer.

I was a finance major that took a lot of economics classes and then went to law school. The econ background was actually extremely helpful. There are a fair number of legal theories highly tied to economic theories.

Broadly speaking, I believe that the “how to think like a lawyer” mindset that law school really teaches (much more than the substance of the law) tracks well with “thinking like an economist” in that you need to follow the precedent, information and data before coming to a conclusion (as opposed to having a personal opinion and framing your writing around that opinion, which a lot of humanities majors come in with). Business and technical writing skills are actually closer to what’s required for legal writing skills than the types of writing skills from a history major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, FWIW when I was in law school I thought that econ majors had a much easier time than I did as a history major....

History is probably the best major for law school. Not sure why you thought econ majors had an easier time. Econ is a fine major but the history skills are a direct transfer.

I was a finance major that took a lot of economics classes and then went to law school. The econ background was actually extremely helpful. There are a fair number of legal theories highly tied to economic theories.

Broadly speaking, I believe that the “how to think like a lawyer” mindset that law school really teaches (much more than the substance of the law) tracks well with “thinking like an economist” in that you need to follow the precedent, information and data before coming to a conclusion (as opposed to having a personal opinion and framing your writing around that opinion, which a lot of humanities majors come in with). Business and technical writing skills are actually closer to what’s required for legal writing skills than the types of writing skills from a history major.

+1

Well-said. Pair all of that with the ability to stay focused and actively engaged when reading large volumes of text, and you’ll do great in law school. And likely as a lawyer, too.

I cant overstate how important it is to have a strong attention span, especially when it comes to reading. I worry about how prepared the current generation will be in that respect, not just with law school but with other careers that require sustained focus, too.

I do see how taking a handful of history or English classes would be helpful to develop that skill. It’s all about slogging through long texts or novels while being able to zoom out to synthesize information / understand the big picture while ALSO being able to zoom in for close-read analysis. (In contrast, the ability to rote memorize is less useful than I expected. Law school is about concepts, not facts.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d live to hear from people who actually graduated with an Econ major in 2015 or later, or from their parents. What was your/their first job out of college?

Son graduated WASP with Econ major. Got a funded masters to Cambridge then went to Booth and now works as an economist. His peers mostly went into finance, a few went into Software Engineering, and one controls a startup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d live to hear from people who actually graduated with an Econ major in 2015 or later, or from their parents. What was your/their first job out of college?

I'll answer this one for you. Son graduated from Michigan State (the horror! Not a top 10, the poor guy. /s) in 2022. First job was with a Tier 2 Business Defense Contractor in Business Dev. Spent some time overseas and in US plants, then working military sales. After 1.5 yrs applied for sales position in Federal Team at a FAANG. First job paid $75k no commission, now base is $80k but big commission so making quite a bit more (I'm not sure exactly how much although I could ask him).

Full disclosure: father and I have long carriers as execs in tech (him) and defense (me). So while we didn't get him the jobs, he got lots of help and coaching behind the scenes.

Thanks for sharing a specific example. I find these types of posts more helpful than generalities. And I’m thrilled for your son - what a great outcome!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Economics is a solid degree.

Job and career opportunities are enhanced by having a solid understanding of statistics, knowledge of the R programming language for statistics, and Python programming. Those are the tools that let one analyze economic data - which is a typical entry-level role.

Exactly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can be hard to get a job especially if not from a top school. Take the math version of Econ plus some accounting and finance. There is huge supply of Econ majors and a lot of mediocre undergrad Econ programs.

What is the math version?

This, absolutely. Make sure he gets a BS in economics, not a BA. Big difference in starting and projected salaries.

My son is going to be an econ major. At his school it is in the College of Arts and Sciences. He has a few options, a BA, BS or "joint degree" Econ and Statistics or Econ and Math.