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

[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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

[Anonymous]

My spouse works for an economic consulting firm. The pay is good but the hours are long for entry level. They hire any undergraduate major, including Econ. Most leave after a year or three for grad school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Very helpful info here - son is applying to some of these firms. thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

Which certificates did he do?

My DC has an summer internship offer that is equivalent to $150k a year - i am in the wrong profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

Which certificates did he do?

My DC has an summer internship offer that is equivalent to $150k a year - i am in the wrong profession.

AWS certified solution architect and AWS big data specialty. His job to to help companies migrating from on-prem into the cloud. He might leave AWS for Microsoft Azure for 160k/yr job. It is a crazy IT world out there. His goal is to finish his degree and MBA school at UVA and work for VC firms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

Wow. Congrats to your son on being a completely superior human being! Yea! You and your child are so much better than us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

Wow. Congrats to your son on being a completely superior human being! Yea! You and your child are so much better than us!

Weird that a UVA family would be so douchey. Unheard of.

[Anonymous]

Interesting salary info here for consulting : 2019 Management Consulting Salaries for Undergraduates, MBAs/PhDs, & Interns

https://managementconsulted.com/consulting-salaries/consulting-salaries-for-2019-management-consulted/

[Anonymous]

Unclear why your son would not go to Wall Street. Private equity and hedge funds out earn all these jobs by year two and if the kid is lucky they are making millions within 5-7 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

65K/yr with a bachelor degree? My 20 years old son is finishing his 2nd year of finance at NOVA before transferring to UVA but he is also working for Amazon Web Service (AWS) as a solution architect and he gets paid 120k/yr. He has some AWS certifications.

Wow. Congrats to your son on being a completely superior human being! Yea! You and your child are so much better than us!

Wow —jealous much?!

[Anonymous]

Whoosh over your head PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Because the undergrad Econ major isn’t sufficiently rigorous. The masters level isn’t half as advanced as the PhD one. Many of them take more math as part of the masters. I don’t know if it is still true, but Michigan State used to have a masters designed for prepping people to enter the PhD programs. Those people were very prepared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

We treat our RAs better than your paragraph suggests.

[Anonymous]

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

Speaking as a complete outsider, it would seem that a double major in econ and computer science (BA not BS) would be very valuable and "doable".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Because the undergrad Econ major isn’t sufficiently rigorous. The masters level isn’t half as advanced as the PhD one. Many of them take more math as part of the masters. I don’t know if it is still true, but Michigan State used to have a masters designed for prepping people to enter the PhD programs. Those people were very prepared.

Traditionally, PhD programs were designed for folk with bachelor degrees and an MA was rewarded as a booby prize for those that failed the Micro/Macro core exams or decided to quit early. This is why getting a Master's prior to a PhD program seems a waste of time. If going into a PhD program, supplement the math you didn't get as an undergraduate, if necessary.