What's the job market like for Econ majors from a top 10 school?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I thought you need post graduate degree in Econ to get any entry level analyst job

We (economists) have jobs for kids with bachelors. Research assistants generally earn a masters degree within a few years, part time at night.

If your kids want a good job with an Econ degree, they should take plenty of math.

Econ majors from top 10 schools are getting their masters degrees part-time at night?

Yup. While they have day jobs as research assistants at top research agencies and think tanks. Then in a few years they go off for PhDs.

What part-time programs are they doing? This is in NYC?

Johns Hopkins around here

And then NY for PhD? Don’t they want to end up in the NY area?

No, why would they prefer to be in NYC?

Columbia and NYU are very good for economics but typically people would pick the two top Boston Schools (Harvard/MIT) over them.

I'm pretty sure there has never been and never will be a Clark Medal winner from a part-time economics program. You go to Columbia if Joe Stiglitz wants you as a grad student. PhD decisions are driven by the individual faculty you will be working with, not the ranking of the program.

There is a big difference between gaining a master's to help advance one's career in the private sector - (for which a part time program or approach may make a TON of sense, especially if the employer is paying for all or part of the degree) and pursuing a position in higher education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any info on starting salaries for Econ majors and Business school grads?

I know that our firm offers $75,000 for new hires out of U.

I forgot to say what we do. Consulting - economic research, damages, etc.

[Anonymous]

Have your kid take more computer programming classes and more math classes. A PHD in econ goes a long way than a masters degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought you need post graduate degree in Econ to get any entry level analyst job

We (economists) have jobs for kids with bachelors. Research assistants generally earn a masters degree within a few years, part time at night.

If your kids want a good job with an Econ degree, they should take plenty of math.

Econ majors from top 10 schools are getting their masters degrees part-time at night?

Yup. While they have day jobs as research assistants at top research agencies and think tanks. Then in a few years they go off for PhDs.

What part-time programs are they doing? This is in NYC?

Johns Hopkins around here

And then NY for PhD? Don’t they want to end up in the NY area?

No, why would they prefer to be in NYC?

Columbia and NYU are very good for economics but typically people would pick the two top Boston Schools (Harvard/MIT) over them.

I'm pretty sure there has never been and never will be a Clark Medal winner from a part-time economics program. You go to Columbia if Joe Stiglitz wants you as a grad student. PhD decisions are driven by the individual faculty you will be working with, not the ranking of the program.

There is a big difference between gaining a master's to help advance one's career in the private sector - (for which a part time program or approach may make a TON of sense, especially if the employer is paying for all or part of the degree) and pursuing a position in higher education.

+1 Nobody is going to a part-time program because they want to pursue a career in academia. They are doing it for career advancement and as the PP pointed out, they are also working at the same time and usually getting most or all of the degree paid for by tuition reimbursement.

[Anonymous]

I was actually accepted to a few very solid full-time PhD programs but did a part-time Master's program combined with work.

As a pp pointed out, I had ZERO desire to work as an academic and my part time program was mostly paid for by tuition reimbursement. Most of my part time classmates were in the same boat.

They are completely different tracks based on different career goals.

[Anonymous]

My kid was an economics major at a top 20 school. Class of 2019. He works as a financial analyst at a Fortune 20 company making about $65K/year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was an economics major at a top 20 school. Class of 2019. He works as a financial analyst at a Fortune 20 company making about $65K/year.

He doesn't work for Allstate, but this is an example of the kind of job that he applied (and was qualified) for:
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/financial-analyst-entry-level-at-allstate-1582589692?utm_campaign=google_jobs_apply&utm_source=google_jobs_apply&utm_medium=organic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid was an economics major at a top 20 school. Class of 2019. He works as a financial analyst at a Fortune 20 company making about $65K/year.

Very nice! Congrats!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Any info on starting salaries for Econ majors and Business school grads?

I know that our firm offers $75,000 for new hires out of U.

I forgot to say what we do. Consulting - economic research, damages, etc.

That's a great starting salary, and is exactly what my son is looking to do. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought you need post graduate degree in Econ to get any entry level analyst job

No, all the investment banks have 2 year analyst programs for kids coming straight from college. Total compensation - including salary, signing bonus, and annual bonus - about $150k for north of 100 hours/week. If they do well, they get sponsored to get their MBA afterwards and get hired back as associates. Some econ majors choose consulting at McKinsey/Bain, some get pulled into private equity. 10-20% at the top programs push on to academia.

Is the total compensation package at a top consulting firm comparable to those at IB firms? Are those jobs also a 100 hour work week?

No, compensation is lower.

The hours are very bad though not quite as bad as M and A but the difference is at McKinsey/Bain you will spend a lot of hours on-site and in transit (traveling in planes, rental cars, etc.). You often don't have a real desk at your home office, just a hoteling spot. A lot of these travel assignments are to where businesses have offices or headquarters, which is often random company towns so it's not all glamour. When you're fresh out of college, the flights are usually economy class, too.

Do you have an idea of what the starting salary range is for consulting?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought you need post graduate degree in Econ to get any entry level analyst job

We (economists) have jobs for kids with bachelors. Research assistants generally earn a masters degree within a few years, part time at night.

If your kids want a good job with an Econ degree, they should take plenty of math.

Econ majors from top 10 schools are getting their masters degrees part-time at night?

Yup. While they have day jobs as research assistants at top research agencies and think tanks. Then in a few years they go off for PhDs.

What part-time programs are they doing? This is in NYC?

Johns Hopkins around here

And then NY for PhD? Don’t they want to end up in the NY area?

No, why would they prefer to be in NYC?

Columbia and NYU are very good for economics but typically people would pick the two top Boston Schools (Harvard/MIT) over them.

I'm pretty sure there has never been and never will be a Clark Medal winner from a part-time economics program. You go to Columbia if Joe Stiglitz wants you as a grad student. PhD decisions are driven by the individual faculty you will be working with, not the ranking of the program.

There is a big difference between gaining a master's to help advance one's career in the private sector - (for which a part time program or approach may make a TON of sense, especially if the employer is paying for all or part of the degree) and pursuing a position in higher education.

+1 Nobody is going to a part-time program because they want to pursue a career in academia. They are doing it for career advancement and as the PP pointed out, they are also working at the same time and usually getting most or all of the degree paid for by tuition reimbursement.

Not true. They are doing it to toughen up their academic credentials and skills before they apply to academia. It is common to take a few years off before starting a PhD in econ. A chunk of the Americans in my program had been in RA programs and done those masters. I was in a top ten program.

And I do know academics who got those Hopkins-style masters. They got another one from their highly ranked grad programs, but they got in after being RAs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Not true. They are doing it to toughen up their academic credentials and skills before they apply to academia. It is common to take a few years off before starting a PhD in econ. A chunk of the Americans in my program had been in RA programs and done those masters. I was in a top ten program.

And I do know academics who got those Hopkins-style masters. They got another one from their highly ranked grad programs, but they got in after being RAs.

Why would they do this? Wouldn't you just have to repeat the Micro/Macro core of the first year that presumably is taught in part-time Masters programs? I wouldn't think that being an RA would be particularly helpful as prep for a PhD program. The only relevant experience is likely experiencing the drudgery of data cleaning and modest econometric exercises. The one area where undergraduates are likely underprepared for an Econ PhD program is math and I would think that pursuing these courses directly would be better prep than an Econ Masters program.

[Anonymous]

Since behavioral economics became the mainstream in the field, economics has taken over whatever policy influence that all the other social sciences had. It used to be that a standard methods course and some SAS/STAT comfort was enough for junior staff starting out. Now, every wants assistants with economics training to work with their big datasets. Boring work with little chance to learn how to be a policy maker.

[Anonymous]

Any top school econ major interested in consulting but in doing work that is more rigorous and related to economics than management consulting is should look into economic consulting. The firms that do this include Analysis Group, Bates White, Charles River, Compass Lexecon, Cornerstone, and NERA. These firms support lawyers in various types of litigation, such as antitrust cases, and clients in front of various government bodies such as the DOJ, FTC, or SEC. The entry-level jobs have little travel, around 50 hours a week of work, lots of responsibility rather quickly, and the chance to learn how to work with large datasets.

[Anonymous]

As someone working opposite these economic consulting firms, I highly doubt that RAs are doing anything more than econometric drudgery. The economic work these firms do is not all that sophisticated because, after all, it needs to be presented to lawyers. I certainly would not view this as ideal prep for a PhD program.

That said, the work likely pays well and might be an ideal first job out of a undergraduate or Masters program.