"The deal is the toast of the season globally. But do you know who advised Facebook? The logical answers would be Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and DeutscheBank, etc. Surprisingly, it’s a firm called Allen & Company." -Avadhut Nigudkar

Click here to read the rest of the article

In the Econ Department's 2019 Economic Research Conference (ERC), from April 30th to May 2nd, our third year graduate students presented and defended their dissertation proposals. The picture shows our macro graduate students and faculty at the successful completion of the research conference.

In November, Ramiro Burga presented his paper “Fixing an Instructional Mismatch: The Case of Bilingual Education among Indigenous Students in Peru” at the 2019 Fall Research Conference of the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management in Denver, Colorado. In this paper, he studies the effects of a bilingual education reform that targets indigenous populations and intends to correct the mismatch that exists between the language of instruction (status-quo language) and the students' mother tongue. The results of his research suggests that students progress faster towards upper grades as a result of the policy. 

Hello Majors!

Networking, building relationships! This blog is about this daunting, exciting, intimidating, and rewarding process of building connections.

I recently connected with 1990 econ alum Brian Ramsay, President of private equity firm, Littlejohn & Co. I met Brian through Professor Elzinga. Brian had written to Professor Elzinga because he had been interviewed on a podcast (link below) where he discussed the power of weak ties, something those of you who took Econ 2010 with Professor Elzinga may remember from lectures. Through this email, Professor Elzinga connected Brian and me at the ECO and now I'm sharing Brian's remarks about networking with you. And, it is my hope that in the coming year, Brian will spend time with our majors in the department in-person or virtually. This story demonstrates perfectly the power of networking and building relationships. (During the podcast, you'll also learn about private equity from Brian and the importance of financial analysis skills and . To reach Brian's networking remarks, skip to the 10:00 minute mark.) So much of the work that the ECO undertakes is to set the table for you to join the conversation with our economics alumni and employers.  And while we all have independent networks, which are forged from the building blocks of our own families, friends, and experiences outside of UVA, our goal in the ECO is to share the cultural wealth of our UVA community. We will talk much more about this together in ECO programs and individual advising, but for now, take a listen to Brian Ramsay's interview with "Top of the Pile."

https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/top-of-the-pile/career-path-private...

Then, take action and reach out to one professional to practice your informational interviewing. This could be a relative, family friend, friend's family member, your family physician...you get the picture. Use these links to draft your email/phone call script to secure the meeting and then this link to prepare for the call. Send me a message to let me know how it goes!  We will include your comments in an upcoming newsletter.

And, please believe me that asking for help now from alumni and other professionals is completely appropriate and expected. The day will come when you will pay it forward by helping upcoming majors who will be in the shoes you once filled.

Link to How to Write a Networking Email That Gets Results

For our students who have a general interest in business, but are less focused on the industry or a particular job function, these programs may be for you. They are typically private sector programs, span industry and sometimes even extend into the think tank space or public sector, such as the Council on Foreign Relations' Young Professional Program or the US Government's Pathways Program. Most though, exist in the private sector and are used to recruit young, talented recent graduates into a firm's management pipeline. Employees typically spend a short period of time (3-6 months) in a division of the firm, such as marketing, operations, finance, or talent management, and rotate through several. Often employees are assigned a mentor and attend cohort-training with other peers in the program. Toward the end of the full rotation period, employees along with their managers, select a permanent placement. 

Below, I've included a few links to pique your interest. I've also included a link to a full list of programs. For some links, you may need to do a little more digging to find the correct link because websites continue to evolve throughout each academic year. For example, Mastercard's link has expired, but I was able to search their website for jobs that are considered part of their leadership program. Some firms also host summer rotation programs, such as the NFL.

Another tip, in any job search engine/job board, search by the keywords "management rotation" or "leadership rotation" to source these programs. Check out my search results on indeed by plugging in "junior rotational analyst." (If you're reading this blog in May, rather than in November, likely the yield will not be as high.) Of course this strategy is not the Holy Grail of the job search, but one more tool for your toolkit. The ECO recommends a full complement of resources including TWP (Talking with People - networking) to learn more about any job you find interesting and to broaden your search if you are getting stuck.

Below are selected Leadership Rotation Programs recruiting now:

• Council on Foreign Relations - https://www.ypfp.org/
• GE Financial Management Development Program - Healthcare Track https://jobs.gecareers.com/healthcare/global/en/fmdp
• GEICO Management Development Program - https://careers.geico.com/us/en/c/leadership-jobs
• https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/leadership-developmen...
• Texas Instruments Rotation Program - https://careers.ti.com/students/ (scroll down when you reach the page)
• Unilever - Future Leaders Programme - https://www.unilever.com/careers/early-hires/
• Vanguard - https://www.vanguardjobs.com/students-and-recent-graduates/
• Visa - https://usa.visa.com/careers/university-recruiting.html#Rotational_progr...

Check out more programs here: https://www.careereducation.columbia.edu/resources/leadership-development-rotational-programs

Although the list of employers at the link above are categorized by industry, jobs across function exist with each firm. This means that you could work for a tech firm, but hold a finance position; or, you could work for a finance firm and hold a tech position. Please make an appointment with me to discuss your internship or job search in more detail.

"Today, Vault released its annual ranking of the 50 Most Prestigious Internships. This year, the ranking was based on a survey of more than 11,000 interns and former interns at more than 100 firms. Our survey asked interns to rate the prestige of other employers in order to determine which internships are the most desirable." (Derek Loosvelt)

Hundanol presents his paper, “The gains from market integration: The welfare effects of new rural roads in Ethiopia,” at the Midwest International Conference on Development Economics (MWIEDC), held at Purdue University. In his paper, he estimates the welfare gains from a massive rural road expansion project that doubled the total road length in the country between 2011 and 2015.  He uses tools from international trade theory and details household level data to quantify household-level welfare gains from the road expansion and how much of that is attributed to trade mechanisms. He shows that the road expansion increased market integration and village specialization in comparative advantage crops. One of the paper’s novel contributions is that it shows how increased road connectivity would cause household production decisions to be dictated by market prices rather than consumption preferences – commonly known as separability. That is, road connectivity decreases the correlation between household land allocation across different crops and budget allocation across crops. This leads to significant efficiency gains because land will be reallocated to crops that have higher market value.   

August 2, 2021

Hello Economics Majors,

My name is Jennifer Jones and I'm the Director of your Economics Career Office (ECO), which is dedicated to the career planning and preparation of our Economics majors. I'm looking forward to working with you this academic year as we all return to the Grounds. Hundreds of students used the ECO's services over the last year, and we welcome back our new and returning students. If you're just meeting us, please check us out at economics.virginia.edu/career, then click on "Students" to get to know us better.
It is truly a privilege for me to work in the Department of Economics focusing on career preparation and for you to have your very own career services office in Monroe Hall. The office was founded by your faculty and generous donors, the latter who are recognized on a donor plaque outside of Monroe 120. Check it out sometime!  Many of these alumni are working in jobs and fields that will surely interest you. 

A few items of note as we begin the year together and a couple of action items:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn and join the Economics Alumni Group on LinkedIn. This will quickly connect you to hundreds of other economics alumni. (You need not have a comprehensive profile to connect with others. The basics are fine.) LI is also the place I post jobs for our graduates - entry-level and experienced.
• I'm including here a link to our ECO timeline, which recommends a "syllabus/strategy" for your career planning based on your class year/graduation date. 
• Different industries and sectors recruit at different times. Check out the recruiting timeline in the Hoos Career Guide (page 47) to learn more about who recruits when. Early fall tends to bring in large firms that know their hiring needs in advance.
• You will receive a newsletter from the ECO most weeks when classes are in session. Currently, newsletters are being sent via Mailchimp, but we may move to Salesforce/Marketing Cloud over the next few weeks. We will keep you posted.
• Attend the ECO Orientation on August 23! For those of you looking for internships and full-time jobs for this fall and beyond, please join me and alumnus Kenton Kivestu (Econ 2010 and Founder of RocketBlocks) on Monday, August 23 from 11 am-1 pm. Here you will be oriented to:
  • the dozens of resources available to you as Economics majors
  • a Resume Review session with real resumes from your peers in the department
  • Interviewing Techniques for Management and Strategy Consulting
  • a demonstration of the RocketBlocks platform, which the ECO licenses to help you prepare for consulting, product management, and product marketing
• Update your profile in Handshake. Choose industries that interest you, geographic locations, and consider making your profile viewable to employers. Career Counselors and employers use this information to message you with relevant opportunities.
• ECO appointments are held on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Check out Handshake for appointments. If our schedules don't align, please write to me at jlh7b@virginia.edu.
• Our online resources include:
  • A database of alumni, who want to answer your career-related questions, housed in Collab/ECO Resources
  • A list of pre-doc research opportunities and undergraduate research opportunities on the Grounds
  • Career Guides by Vault, an industry leader in college career development materials 
  • ECO Events, which typically are informal, low-stakes networking events with alumni or professional development workshops facilitated by our director, employers, or alumni
  • Industry Overviews created/curated by the ECO 
  • Lists of Think Tanks and Government Agencies that typically hire our majors
  • Professional Development advice and guides created and curated by the ECO. Examples are resume guides and samples, elevator pitch templates, informational interviewing tips and strategies to organize your materials.
  • Salary, hiring, and graduate school outcomes for the last seven graduating classes
  • Youtube videos highlighting many of our alumni panels
  • and more!

Our wonderful ECO student staff this year includes the students listed below. If you receive emails from them, please open them! We send Job Blasts (from alumni and employers), Event Blasts, and Resource Blasts. 

• Carly Dotson (Economics and English Lanaguage and Literature 2022) Writer
• Ella Fendley (Media Studies, 2024) Marketing Coordinator
• Flora Kim (Economics and Commerce, 2023) Senior Event Coordinator
• Chloe Leo (Psychology, 2022) Senior Event Coordinator
• Luca Pfeiffer (Media Studies, 2022) Media Designer
• Maggie Rutherford (Economics and Media Studies, 2024) Event Coordinator
• Mithra Dhinakaran (Economics and Foreign Affairs, 2023)
• Robbie Eriksson (Economics and Computer Science, 2022) Salesforce Coordinator

Our Student Advisory Board (ECOSAB) meets bi-weekly to discuss career office programming and to plan the annual Economics Undergraduate Career Forum. You may reach out to the Chairperson with questions or comments in addition to writing to me. The Board Members are:

• Brian Buck (Economics, 2024) Board member
• Bryson Webb (Economics, 2022) Board member
• Jenna Short (Economics and Statistics 2022) Board member
• Kaitlyn Ockerman (Economics and Statistics, 2022) Chairperson
• Wendy Tang (Economics and Computer Science, 2022) Board member
• Zach Garfinkel (Economics, Statistics, Commerce, 2023) Board member

Please remember to join us for the August 23 ECO Orientation and on September 3 for our Major to Major Career Coaching Fair.

Until next week when I'll write with more tips and advice, wishing you a wonderful week.

Best regards,

Jen Jones Director, Economics Career Office

An extremely common interview question these days is some form of "What sets you apart from the rest of the candidates for this job?" Other incarnations of this question include "Why should we hire you?" and "What makes you so different from all the other people interviewing for this position?" No matter exactly how this question is worded, it's getting at the same thing: what are your greatest strengths and skills, what might make you unique, and how those strengths and skills and uniqueness will translate into success in the position you're interviewing for.

ECO Blog: Interviewing

I enjoy interviews! Sounds crazy, right? You may be thinking that I'm referring to being on the giving side of the interview. True! But, I also enjoy being interviewed. Each conversation is an opportunity to speak about my experiences and make the case for why I am a good fit for a job, volunteer opportunity, or leadership opportunity. It's also a great opportunity to learn if the interviewer's organization is a good fit for me. I always learn something. And along the way, I usually meet some interesting people and hear their stories. Did I like interviewing when I was a student at UVA and looking for a job? After the first couple of times - somewhat - I came to understand and appreciate the process. Was I anxious during my first case interview? You bet, but I got through it and so will you. And today, I really enjoy the process. What has led to this general increase in enjoyment? In one word...Practice! 

Most of our majors will enter the labor market as full-time employees at some point in the next 3 years, some as soon as January 2022. Many of you have interviewed for part-time jobs, internships, and even full-time jobs already. Many more will follow suit this fall. For those headed to graduate school, the job interview may be postponed a couple of years, but likely by the quarter-century mark, most of you will have participated in several job interviews. My guess is that each person who has interviewed for more than one job is more confident and comfortable the second time than the first, and even more so after the tenth or twentieth. The biggest takeaway from today's blog posting is to practice for your interviews.

There are many categories of interviews and interview formats and here's a link here for you to review those. Most important for our purposes are the Screening Interview/HireVue format, Behavioral Interview, and the Case Interview. The Screening Interview may be resume-based or behavioral. And all of these interview types likely are virtual these days. The screening interview may be a recorded interview, and this recorded interview often replaces an initial call with a recruiter. Following the interviews or between interviews, candidates may be asked to take assessments for technical abilities and a personality assessment. Some personality assessments are built in-house by employers and others are sourced from third-party firms like Pymetrics.

Below is a list of tips to help you succeed in your interviews, followed by some of my favorite interviewing articles. Will you ever enjoy interviewing the way I do? Maybe, maybe not. But either way, you can be successful in the process through research, preparation, and practice. You've got this econ majors!

• Research and practice. Find the interview style/format for your market and job function and prepare. You can find the info from recruiters, alumni, people in the jobs currently, employer websites, and websites like glassdoor.com. 
• Prepare the answers to the essential interview questions before every interview. 
• Be on time.
• Look the part - dress professionally and if this is a virtual meeting - have good lighting and be sure the area in your camera's perimeter is neat and clean. 
• If possible, research your interviewer before the interview. This will allow you to consider the perspective from which they are approaching the interview. For example, if they manage budgets, they may be looking at the employers' fiscal health. Asking budget-related questions would make sense, whereas questions about the firm's HR policies may not be as applicable.
• Refer to your interviewers by their names in the interview. Using someone's name is memorable.
• Craft your story and share it genuinely. Think about what led you to apply for the job and weave your narrative to arrive at that point.
• You are interviewing the employer also. Assure the employer is a good fit for you by asking questions that allow you to determine if the employer fits your needs (your values, work style, compensation, career mobility, cultural fit etc.).
• Relax and keep things in perspective.
  • You will receive job offers and you will get hired.
  • The interviewer wants you to do well. They want to hire you!

Articles:

The Muse Interviews
Are you like, saying something without, like knowing, that it's like hurting your career? (I'm not a fan of the photo, but the topic is relevant for students of any gender.)
How to Master Effective Storytelling in Interviews

Resources

Behavioral Interview Question Bank from the ECO 
Interview Prep from the UVA Career Center
Consulting Case Interview Prep Materials in Collab
Sample Financial Analyst Interview Questions
Deloitte Federal Case Interview Practice Tips
ECO Prep Sign up Sheet for Case Interviews - Fall 2021

Emma Harrington is a labor economist. Her research focuses on remote work and systemic discrimination in the criminal justice system.  In her research, she has investigated remote work's consequences on workers' productivity, on-the-job training, and career progression in the context of a Fortune 500 retailer. In addition to remote-work topics, her current projects evaluate the extent to which prosecutors in criminal courts either check or pass through racial biases introduced by police.

Harrington is an affiliate of JPAL North America. Her research has been funded by the Lab for Economic Applications and Policy and the Bradley Foundation. Her research on prosecutors won the Donald M. Ephraim Prize in Law & Economics at the University of Chicago. Her research on remote work has been featured in The New York Times, The Economist, National Public Radio, Bloomberg, Vox, and other media outlets.  She has co-organized the Remote Work Conference at Stanford and a session at the American Economic Association meetings.

She received her Economics Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2021. She did a  postdoctoral fellowship in Princeton’s Industrial Relations Section in 2021-2022 and was previously an Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Iowa.

This fall, she will be teaching Graduate Labor Economics (Econ 8150).

Vladimir Smirnyagin is a macroeconomist whose research interests lie at the quantitative nexus of macroeconomics and finance. In his work, he combines large, comprehensive datasets with quantitative models to answer important questions in macro-finance. Vladimir's current research focuses on the macroeconomic analysis of supply chain disruptions and environmental regulations. Prior to joining the University of Virginia, he was a postdoctoral associate at Yale University.

He holds a B.A. in Economics from the Higher School of Economics, an M.A. from the New Economic School, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. During his doctoral studies, he worked as a research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. He also spent several months at the Bank of England as an academic visitor. His work has been supported by the Heller-Hurwicz Economics Institute and by the Tobin Center for Economic Policy at Yale.

This fall, he will be teaching Graduate Macroeconomics (Econ 7020).

One of the more common interview questions these days, especially for entry-level positions, is some form of "Why do you want to work for us?" Other forms of this question include "What attracts you to our firm?" and "What about our firm excites you?" Whatever the exact phrasing you receive, there are a few things you want to get across as clearly and concisely as possible when answering.

"Every year, Vault surveys thousands of investment banking professionals, asking them to tell us about life at their firms. We ask about culture, compensation, hours, training, and many more areas, including the hiring process. With respect to the hiring process, we ask professionals which traits an ideal job candidate needs to have to get hired. In the past, and again this year, banking professionals told us that the following traits are highly important (and, in some cases, required): a strong work ethic, team-playing ability, strong communication skills, strong technical skills, superior intellect, excellent problem-solving skills, and the ability to adapt to different situations." -Derek Loosvelt 

Click here to read the rest of the article. 

The study was referenced on June 25th in The Washington Post, Education Week, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution; the abstract can be accessed using the following link: https://www.aera.net/Newsroom/Missed-Exams-and-Lost-Opportunities-Who-Could-Gain-from-Expanded-College-Admission-Testing

Scroll to the bottom for alumni LinkedIn profile links and complete biographies.

The University of Virginia Department of Economics

Presents

The 2023 Economics Undergraduate Career Forum
Economics at Work

March 30-31, 2023

Charlottesville, Virginia

Program Description and Format:

The Economics Undergraduate Career Forum brings together professionals who hold undergraduate economics degrees with current students and faculty through networking events and educational programming to expose majors and prospective majors to potential professional experiences. The program combines informal networking opportunities with more structured career panels, talks, and office hours. Our hope is that these programs will provide valuable career-related information for students while facilitating and strengthening relationships between all participants.

By the end of the program, we hope that students will have an understanding of the industries, workplaces, and job functions of the panelists and some familiarity with internships, entry-level jobs and career paths. Students will learn how to prepare to be strong intern/entry-level candidates in the participants’ fields, which may include guidance about classes and extracurriculars, building industry-focused professional materials, upskilling resources, and relevant networking and interviewing. We hope that students and alumni will have fun and will emerge with new connections and ideas for next steps.

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

March 30       

• 5:00-6:00 pm Industry Talk: South Meeting Room, Newcomb Hall (Open to Students, Faculty, Guests)
• 6:30-8:00 pm Dinner (Guests, Invited Faculty, Selected Students) The Ridley, West Main Street, Charlottesville  (applications for students will be available March 1)

March 31       

• 8:30-9:15 am Breakfast, Monroe 120 (Faculty and Alumni Guests)
• 9:30-10:45 am Panel 1, Newcomb Hall, Commonwealth Room; Office Hours/Coffee Chats, Monroe 113, 235, and 236
• 11:00-12:00 pm Panel 2, Newcomb Hall, Commonwealth Room; Office Hours/Coffee Chats, Monroe 113, 235, and 236
• 12:30-1:45 pm Networking Lunch, Newcomb Hall South Meeting Room (Guests and Students)
• 2:00-2:30 pm Gift Ceremony before Departure, Newcomb Hall South Meeting Room (Guests, Steering Committee)

Program Descriptions Follow in Order. Please use the Event Schedule you will receive on 3/20/22 for Your Assignments:

Industry Talk:  
Forging Horcruxes in the Rotunda: Using the Power of Economic Analysis at Work
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1205068
Before the dinner at The Ridley, there will be an industry talk given on Grounds. Students, faculty, and alumni are invited to attend.
Speaker: Dr. Gian Domenico Sarolli, Senior Economist, Bank of America

Networking Dinner with Faculty, Alumni, and Students (By Application Only) 
Apply here: https://virginia.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0IE1QynIZkO6CRo

Career Panel 1
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1205072
Jennifer Floyd, Harris Williams
Gian Domenic Sorolli, Bank of America
Stella Yang, Echo Street Capital
Lindsey Walsh, Save 1 Challenge (formerly Gartner)

Career Panel 2
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1205073
Sarah Bufano, Guidehouse
Jenny Rae Le Roux, Management Consulted
Suhail Thahir, FTI Consulting
Amir Rasool, Hanover Research
Meagan Walters, Centers for Disease Control

Office Hours/Coffee Chats
Register here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/16ObhgDqEV6bC4mJXsCs1PT5mKA148pjU...
Office hours provide an opportunity for students to seek feedback about their career plans or contemplations and to ask questions about a guest’s background one-on-one. 
A virtual or in-person prep session may be required for office hours.

Office Hours/Coffee Chats Session 1
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1205070
Sarah Bufano, Guidehouse
Jenny Rae Le Roux, Management Consulted
Suhail Thahir, FTI Consulting
Amir Rasool, Hanover Research
Meagan Walters, Centers for Disease Control

Office Hours/Coffee Chats Session 2
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1205071
Jennifer Floyd, Harris Williams
Gian Domenic Sorolli, Bank of America
Stella Yang, Echo Street Capital
Lindsey Walsh, Save 1 Challenge (formerly Gartner)

Networking Lunch - All Alumni Guests
Industries Represented: Management Consulting, Economic Consulting, Investment Banking, PE, Health Economics, Government and Policy, AI, Non-profit, Entrepreneurship
Register here: https://app.joinhandshake.com/edu/events/1259898

Lunch provided by Take It Away
Tables will be arranged around the room and each alum will be stationed at a table as a “host.” Students will grab lunch and find their way to a table for the first 5 minutes.  Each alumnus will have 1-2 minutes to introduce him or herself to the room. Students will be provided with tips sheets to prepare for networking.

Part 2: Organized Rotations (2 at 10 minutes each for 20 minutes total)

Students will rotate between two different alumni tables. They should introduce themselves with their names, major, year, and a fun fact.

Part 3: Informal Networking (20 minutes)

Students will move about the room and visit alumni tables.

Alumni will share any information they have about internship and entry-level recruiting for students with their organization/relevant past organizations. This may include information about diversity/affinity group hiring.   

Alumni and Guests' LInkedIn Profiles: 

Sarah Bufano- Sr. National Security Consultant at Guidehouse 

Jennifer Floyd- Analyst at Harris Williams 

Jenny Rae Le Roux- CEO at Management Consulted 

Amir Rasool- Managing Director at Hanover Research  

Gian Domenico Sarolli- Senior Economist at Bank of America 

Troy Sweeney- Associate at NetCapital  (canceled as of 3/26)

Suhail Thahir- Consultant at FTI Consulting 

Lindsey Walsh- Business Co-Owner & Save 1 Challenge Founder, formerly Managing VP at Gartner 

Meagan Walters- Health Policy Analyst at the CDC 

Stella Yang- Senior Quantitative Analyst, Echo Street Capital

Alumni and Guests' Biographies

"Hiring managers rarely have the time or resources to look at each résumé closely, and they typically spend about six seconds on their initial fit/no fit decision. If you want to pass that test, you need to have some solid qualifications — and the perfect resume to highlight them."-Tayyiba Iram

Click here to read the rest of the article

How to Close the Networking Gap
The Wall Street Journal
March 17, 2022
By Ben Wildavsky

Ben Wildavsky is a visiting scholar at UVA's School of Education.

When Mark Granovetter was a Ph.D. student in the late 1960s, studying how white-collar men find new jobs, he zeroed in on social networks. When he asked interview subjects whether the person who told them about their current job was a friend, he repeatedly ran into the same answer. “Over and over again, they would correct me and say ‘No, no, he’s only an acquaintance,’” says Dr. Granovetter, now a professor of sociology at Stanford.
The idea, he explained in his classic 1973 article “The Strength of Weak Ties,” is that a job seeker’s close friends usually know the same people and can only share already familiar information. From acquaintances, by contrast, “you’re going to get new information, new ideas, new ways of thinking,” he says.

Nearly 50 years later, with a healthy assist from the force-multiplier of digital technology, personal and professional networking shows every sign of thriving. But that’s not true across the board. Low-income Americans, racial minorities and first-generation college students frequently struggle. Even when they have checked all the career-readiness boxes by earning college degrees or other credentials, these job seekers typically navigate their careers with the fewest networking advantages.

As a result, according to a 2021 study of Florida State University graduates in the Journal of Applied Psychology, first-generation students have a harder time getting high-quality jobs than better-connected classmates with the same credentials. Having more “occupationally focused relationships” and help with resume-writing and interview skills provides a big boost compared with “job seekers of lower social class who lack such networks,” the authors wrote.

The strikingly insular nature of massively popular platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn doesn’t help. Those social networks “tend to simply amplify users’ offline networks and tendencies, rather than forging new, different or expanded networks,” wrote Julia Freeland Fisher, director of education at the Clayton Christensen Institute, in her 2018 book “Who You Know: Unlocking Innovations That Expand Students’ Networks.”

Several years ago, Meg Garlinghouse, LinkedIn’s vice president for social impact, began to notice that the people contacting her on LinkedIn seeking informational interviews were all advantaged white women with four-year college degrees. “They were kind of in my network,” she recalls. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m unintentionally helping the people who look just like me.’”LinkedIn’s own research shows that a member raised in a well-off ZIP Code is three times as likely to have a robust network, with many connections from a range of places. Members who graduated from well-known colleges and had a first job at a top company are twice as likely to have strong networks.
In a recent analysis of survey responses from 55,000 U.S. college students at 91 institutions, the National Survey of Student Engagement and Strada Education Network found that first-generation students were significantly less likely than their peers to have networked with alumni or professionals, discussed career interests with faculty, or interviewed someone in a career field that interests them.

Entrepreneurs have noticed the problem. In 2014, three undergraduates at Michigan Technology University, frustrated with how few recruiters from companies outside the Midwest came to their campus, took matters into their own hands. Determined to democratize access to information and opportunity, they launched Handshake, a platform for professional networking and graduate recruitment. Today the company serves 20 million students and young alumni from 1,400 educational institutions. It works with 650,000 companies, including all of the Fortune 500, providing services such as video interviews and online career fairs.

Along the way, the company has significantly expanded career networks for low-income students. Six years ago, about 20% of undergraduates using Handshake were recipients of Pell grants, well below the one-third or so of students nationally awarded the need-based federal financial assistance. Today the figure has grown to 32%, thanks to the company’s new partnerships with hundreds of community colleges and historically Black colleges. “For someone who doesn’t have a lot of connections,” says Handshake’s chief education strategy officer, Christine Cruzvergara, “This is a non-intimidating place where the barrier is lower for them to initiate a conversation.”
The next step is getting students from disadvantaged backgrounds launched into strong first jobs. That’s the mission of Chicago-based Braven, which works with a number of university partners across the country. Students in the program are coached in, among other things, forming networks and using referrals and informational interviews to secure internships and career-focused jobs.

As a student at Rutgers University-Newark, Andrej Gjorgiev signed up for Braven, a program that helps launch students into strong first jobs.

Andrej Gjorgiev, 24, signed up for Braven as a criminal justice and psychology major at Rutgers University-Newark. He learned how to seek the kind of connections he would have had trouble making on his own as the child of a construction worker and night-shift lab technician who emigrated from Macedonia a decade ago. “A lot of the time, if you don’t know people, it’s hard to get outside of just your family,” he said.

Yet for too many low-income college students, graduation still means underemployment. Farzana Chowdhury, whose parents run a newsstand in Brooklyn, emigrated to the U.S. from Bangladesh when she was 17. She graduated from Brooklyn College and considers her education well worth the time and money. But, she says. “Nobody preps you for interview skills. Nobody preps you for ‘Hey, after you graduate, start applying for internships, start looking into jobs, start going into LinkedIn.’”

She got that help as a participant in the social-capital-and-skills nonprofit COOP Careers, which works with recent graduates who may be employed in one or more part-time jobs but are seeking more lucrative employment with a promising career ladder. “Skills don’t necessarily protect you. Relationships are what protect you,” says Markus Ward, COOP’s managing director of development. The organization collaborates with a number of large public universities and with major employers such as Google and Microsoft.

As for networking giant LinkedIn, when it came to recognize that networks aren’t distributed equally, it began to take steps to close the gap. Ms. Garlinghouse helped to introduce the “Plus One Pledge,” which encourages LinkedIn members to do informational interviews with people outside their existing professional network, to be mentors and to introduce job seekers to friends or colleagues.

Even as these new tools develop and gain popularity, breaking into new networks remains challenging, especially for low-income students with modest inherited networks. For them to build successful careers, education and skills are necessary but not sufficient. They need social capital, too.

—Mr. Wildavsky, a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development, is writing a book for Princeton University Press on education, social capital and career success.

Graduate students Tyler Wake and Mrithyunjayan (MJ) Nilayamgode attended the Midwest Macro Conference at Utah State University in Logan, Utah on May 20 and 21, 2022. They presented original research co-authored with their advisor Ana Fostel, “Collateral Expansion: Pricing Spillovers from Financial Innovation,” and attended a variety of talks, including two keynote speeches from Ayşegül Şahin and Tom Sargent. Other UVA Economics PhD graduates in attendance included Joaquin Saldain (Bank of Canada) and Ia Vardishvili (Auburn University).

The Midwest Macroeconomics Conference began meeting in 1994 and is one of the longest- running dedicated macroeconomics conferences in the United States. Its next meeting will be in Fall 2022 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas.

Fifth-year student Jiafeng Wu presented his paper, "Price and Efficiency in a Market for Generic Drugs in China," at the Models of Modern Markets session of the 91st SEA Annual Meeting. 

Article written by Career Fair Plus.

Do you have an elevator pitch ready for your next career fair? An elevator pitch is a quick and memorable summary of your background and career interests. The name is a throwback to a time when prospective employees (or salespeople) waited in building lobbies to jump in an elevator with an executive. If the pitch went well, they chat all the way to the executive suite. If not, they would get off on the next floor, return to the lobby, and try again.

What is your goal?

Career fairs are designed to give you multiple opportunities to meet recruiters from organizations looking for college hires like you. Instead of lurking among lobby foliage hoping for a receptive audience, you'll walk up to a table where recruiters will welcome you. Still, your goal is to sell yourself quickly by making a good first impression in 30 to 60 seconds.

What should you say?

Start with your basic information: name, year in school, and major. Follow this with at least one accomplishment or skill relevant to your job search. This is the perfect time to briefly describe an internship or research applicable to your career field. If you don't have any real-world experience yet, you can talk about a paper or project from one of your classes. Wrap-up your pitch by sharing your career interests and goals, then offer the recruiter a copy of your resume. Carnegie-Mellon University has an excellent guide to preparing your elevator pitch with examples.

Be prepared to succeed

If your introduction goes well, you may spend the next several minutes talking to the recruiter. Keep the conversation moving by preparing a list of questions that you can ask. See our article on 8 Questions to Ask Employers for ideas. Also be ready to describe your strongest skills and abilities. Making a list of your strengths is also a good way to boost your confidence before you go to the career fair. Include details and specific examples.

Customize to each employer

Customizing your introduction to each recruiter gives you the opportunity to show that you are a serious job candidate. Take a few minutes to research employers on Career Fair Plus or the company's website so that you know what job openings the recruiters are trying to fill. It will only take a few minutes to formulate a couple questions for each company, but even that short amount of time will make you stand out from other candidates. Review your question list between each recruiter so that you remember the details accurately.

Follow-up Quickly

Send each recruiter a thank-you email right after you leave the career fair to build on the success of your introductory meeting. Thank the recruiter by name, restate your elevator pitch, and attach your resume. If something went wrong during your first meeting, this is the time to recover. Your elevator pitch is important, but it isn't the end of the world if you stumble on your words or another student interrupts you. Instead, this gives you the opportunity to show that you have the professional skills to pick up and try again.

Conclusion

A good elevator pitch is useful beyond the career fair floor. A succinct pitch sets a professional tone to your LinkedIn and other social media accounts. After practicing, your elevator pitch will become a natural part of the way you meet new people whether you are networking professionally or just meeting friends of friends at a dinner party. Take time to perfect your introduction and keep it update to date as you build your life beyond college. Preparation is the key to successfully navigating a career fair. If this is your first career fair, see some of our other blog articles like 5 Things to Know Before You Attend a Career Fair.

Making the Most of Your Internship (from Goodcall https://www.goodcall.com/career/internship-tips/)

So – you landed an internship! Congratulations. But the work doesn’t end here. In fact, the real work is just beginning.

Internships are short – most last just a few months. That’s not very long to make an impact on the people around you – not to mention navigate a new industry, develop your skills and build a whole new base of knowledge. That’s why we’ve rounded up our top tips for making the most of your internship in a short period of time.

Be great, not just good

To make the largest impact on a company (and increase your chances of getting a job offer down the line, if that’s your ultimate goal), you need to go above and beyond just average performance. Krehmeyer shares some specific tips for figuring out what separates good from great: “Good interns understand the job. Great intern understand the company. Good interns are always on time. Great interns are the first in and last out. Good interns do exactly what is asked. Great interns anticipate the next step and ask for more. Good interns have strong technical skills. Great interns exhibit strong technial and soft skills. Good interns network well with leadership. Great interns are fully engaged with both peers and managers.”

Be active, not passive

It’s going to take more than just sitting back, keeping your head down and completing your assignments to really make the most of your internship. Take an active role when it comes to communicating with your manager and peers, asking for assignments and stepping outside the box. Palmer advises students, “From your interview to your exit, actively listen and summarize what you hear, be inquisitive and ask questions for clarification, keep your supervisor informed about your progress and activities, seek feedback and receive it in a gracious, professional manner.” He adds, “Don’t wait for assignments during a lull. See what needs attention and offer to help.”

Dowd agrees, suggesting that students take this opportunity as a chance to go outside their comfort zone. “Once you accept an internship,” he says, “it is time to focus on making the experience meaningful.  The more you go outside of your comfort zone on your internship, the more you will get out of it.”

Ask questions

One way to go outside your comfort zone? Talk to people at all levels of the company. Ask people in different departments, at different levels of seniority, to grab coffee or lunch or just to chat for a few minutes. Your new coworkers are the best resources you have to learn about the company and the industry, so just ask. Milliken says, “An internship is a wonderful opportunity for students to ask questions or request informational interviews with those in leadership positions at a company, because most professionals are eager and willing to share insight and advice with current students.”

Marzluff concurs, adding, “Ask someone in a role that you’re interested in to be your mentor. Maybe even suggest weekly or monthly meetings to check in, ask questions, and shadow.”

Reflect on your experience – both during and after

To really make the most of your internship, you need to think about the effect it’s having on your professional development – both after the fact and while you’re there. Palmer tells students, “Take the time to think about what you’re learning – not just about the organization, industry, or projects, but about yourself.”

Another great way to reflect on your progress is to ask for feedback often, from your manager and from others you work closely with. And don’t just take in the good. Marzluff encourages students, “Be open to receiving both negative and positive feedback. This is your time to fail fast.”

Stay in touch

The final thing you can do to make the most of your internship? Make sure you make a good impression right up until you leave, and then stay in touch with your contacts there. That means thanking your employer for the opportunity, saying goodbye to your manager and teammates and giving them the opportunity to connect with you in the future.

Palmer says that reaching out with thanks before you leave may make your employer more likely to write you a generous letter of recommendation down the line: “Appreciate the opportunities and support that you receive throughout your internship and always send a farewell message to your colleagues, not just your supervisor, extending your gratitude for the experience. In turn, your supervisor may show thanks to you by offering a letter of recommendation for you to share with future employers. Burrows suggests doing the same, as well as asking coworkers to connect on LinkedIn for future networking. “As they leave the internship,” she recommends, “students should thank anyone they have worked with and ask to connect on LinkedIn. Then, use the connection to stay in touch for future opportunities.”

Read more here!

Graduate school interviews can be a nerve wracking process. Learn how to impress from this helpful article.

Why oil prices are plunging despite U.S. sanctions on Iran’s energy sector

The oil market has had nearly six months to assess the possible effect of U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports. Surprisingly, the prospect of significantly tighter global supplies has resulted in lower prices.

President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that he would end the participation of the United States in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a 2015 pact aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear activities, signed by Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, and the European Union.

Read more...https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-oil-prices-are-plunging-despite-us...\

Read more 

Network, Network, Network!

By: Rebecca King-Newman

This article was taken from Firsthand

You know the old saying it’s not what you know, it’s who you know? One of the many things your law school does for you is set up networking events to allow students to interact with active lawyers. So, why should you network when you have already been in class all day and you have three papers to write? You should go because you want those attorneys to know you.

School Yourself

Your school sets up formal or informal events to connect the community and alumni with current students. They know that these events help create opportunity for both the attorney and the student. You may think it’s just another stuffy event to make the school look good, but it’s the perfect way to make in-person connections you wouldn’t otherwise make.

These events are also great practice for those on-campus interviews. Since they are usually informal, even if a suit and tie are required, they are not rigorous interviews that you need days to prepare for. Rather, they are a chance to meet people already practicing. Maybe there will be someone attending that is in the specialized field you think you want to target. Maybe there is someone present that works for that firm you covet a position with. No matter what, there will be someone at the event that will make attending worthwhile.

Another simple way to network is to join a student organization or two in law school. Most organizations will have a faculty advisor you can get to know outside of the classroom. Your fellow classmates can also surprise you. You will meet a diverse group of people, likely from all different parts of the country and world, who you may not normally socialize with. Those classmates can open doors to other interests and people that you might not have thought about. And that professor you feared and/or dreaded being in class with? He may be really funny or down to earth outside the classroom, and you can connect in a different way.

Speaking of professors and faculty, don’t overlook getting to know them, too! Many schools have professors with a wide swath of knowledge outside their current position. Most law school professors did not jump right into teaching. They had careers in the law before coming to teach, which means they have friends and associates from that practice life that can be beneficial to your future career. Hit up their office hours or invite them to lunch. Professors got into teaching because they want to help students, and this is your opportunity to reach out on a one-on-one level and get their help. You may find that one professor is more helpful than another, but give it a try and see who you connect with and who provides you with guidance.

Don’t forget to look at more fun, informal events. Many law schools will host casual meetups at local bars and restaurants, or golf outings with alumni and friends. Even though you have not graduated yet, these events are another opportunity to mingle with those already in the workforce. You may realize a person you admired is very approachable when they are in a restaurant as opposed to the corporate office. Seeing people you may be working for and with outside of the office is a good way to read how you interact with them—and how they interact with you and other students.

Don’t stop at events only put on by the law school. There are other non-traditional events and outside school events that can benefit your future career. Most law schools are attached to an undergrad university or college. Go to Homecoming events and start talking! You’ll be amazed who you meet and what industry they are in. And if a person is loyal enough to the school to come back for Homecoming—they’re loyal to fellow students and alumni. That can bode well for future career connections.

Go Off Campus

Many local and state bar associations also welcome law students to come to their meetings and events. This is especially useful when you want to practice in the same location as your law school. Attorneys love to promote themselves and their work, so start up a conversation with someone at a bar event, and you will likely come away knowing a lot about that person, the practice and the firm.

Think about attending continuing legal education (CLE) events. You don’t need to start racking up CLE credit yet, but many events will allow law students to attend for little or no cost. CLE sessions will teach you more about the real practice of law in the area you may have an interest in. Let’s face it, law school teaches you the mechanics of law, but at a CLE, you are learning about real life issues that come out of the actual practice. Usually they include case law updates, which are invaluable in your practice area. These events also address common issues in the area of law and how local attorneys are addressing them. Again, there is always someone to meet and learn about by attending.

Get Social

Social media is also an important way to network. Many schools have alumni pages and groups on Facebook where events are posted, and questions are asked. Twitter and Facebook often are informal and are a good way to learn about people and their careers. LinkedIn is also a way to connect in a more professional setting. LinkedIn also is a valuable tool to read company profiles, find out who works at a firm from your school, and see the job opportunities that are available. Make sure your social media presence is fit for the job, too. Check your settings on who can view your profiles, and clean up any older, less flattering posts. Many firms have people who will look at your online social media presence to make sure there are no red flags. Law school is a transitional phase of your life, where you are trying to form your future legal career. Remember the old lawyer joke that you should post like someone will read it later in court!

Making connections doesn’t have to be restricted to law-related events and organizations. If you like a certain charity or organization, volunteer and get involved. If politics is your thing, join the local party organization and attend their events and lunches. Recreational groups are also an excellent way to get out and meet people. Running clubs, biking groups, and cooking classes are all ways to meet people in the community and enlarge your circle. While it may not be traditional networking, from a law student perspective, you may be surprised at how adept you become at meeting new people and striking up conversations naturally, which will pay off for that more formal networking event or interview.

Know Before You Go

So now that you have decided to check out some of these events, despite your busy school schedule, what things do you need to do to prepare? First of all, know the audience. Is this an event put on by the school? If so, see if you can find out who may be in attendance. Do some homework on those attorneys and organizations before you go, but not with the aim of turning this into a full-fledged interview. Rather, you want to at least know a little about the person and firm before striking up a conversation.

Another thing to find out is if the event is formal or informal. Is a suit going to be required, or is business casual more appropriate? If it is an informal event, make sure you wear something appropriate and not your favorite sweatpants. Will there be food and drink provided? If so, make sure to curtail your drinking so you are presenting yourself in a responsible manner.

Don’t forget to brush up and practice your elevator speech. It may seem silly to practice out loud, but reciting the speech in your voice—and even to yourself into a mirror—helps you hone the message and make sure you come off as genuine. Make the speech how you normally would speak, and not like you were writing it out for submission. This is your chance to make an impression on someone who will be back to school for that on-campus interview, or someone who makes important hiring decisions at a firm.

Keep an open mind when you attend these events. You may go into it thinking you really want to meet a certain partner because she works at the firm where you want to work. After meeting this partner, you may realize she is not a fit with what you initially thought about the firm. Then you may turn around and meet someone else at the event you did not think you would want to meet, and find out that firm or that person does exactly what you want to do. Law school is as much about finding out what you like as what you do not like. If you go into the event with an open mind, you may surprise yourself on what you discover. Don’t forget to ask for a business card or contact information.

Networking can be fun and the most interesting part of law school. It can teach you a lot about people, firms, and yourself. If you make it a priority to network almost as much as you study, the rewards will be tenfold. It will help you be prepared for that on-campus interview. It will open your world to people and places you want to work, and maybe some that you want to avoid. Networking will round out that law school experience and get you outside the classroom. So, get that elevator speech ready, wear your best attire for the event, and have fun!

Do you "Like" Too Much?

Large companies are hiring recruits first then assigning a job role to them later. Review the insightful comments at the bottom of the articles.

It is a yearly tradition for current Econ graduate students to meet, greet, and challenge the incoming class to a friendly soccer game. Current students include Hunda 'Hazard' Kebede, Abiy 'The Ankle Breaker' Teshome and Joaquin 'El Matatopos' Saldain, among other stars. After this first dust-up, new students are invited to join the Econ Grad soccer mailing list and team. Though you couldn't tell from this picture, this 2018 game was a co-ed event, and we hope that in future years, more female students will participate!

Vault recently released its Top Internship Rankings for 2016. These included a prestige ranking, an overall best internship ranking, a best internship for quality of life ranking, and several rankings by industy. The rankings were created from the results from our annual internship survey, which asked nearly 6,000 current and former interns to rate their internships, as well as their dream internship employers, in various categories.

In addition, the survey asked interns to tell us if they received or expected to receive a full-time offer at the end of their internship from their internship employer and, if so, if they were going to accept that offer (note: the survey was administered at the end of this past summer, when some interns were still interning).

(You may need to login into HandShake to access this article).

Matt Chingos and Beth Akers from The Brookings Institution, who participated in an Econmics Career Office panel in 2013, have published their piece about student debt.  You may find the piece in its entirety here.

Hello Econ Majors,

As you consider your internship, externship, or job search, it can be helpful to know graduates, who have passed through Monroe Hall before you, are doing now and what they did immediately after graduating. 

The ECO recommends the following resources to help you review where recent graduates work and attend graduate school. Additionally, I've shared below resources, which more broadly, convey industry opportunities that Econ majors often pursue. With any questions, please feel free to schedule an appointment with me.

ECO First Destination Reports: Data gathered from graduate surveys and scraping data from the web.
UVA Career Outcomes Reports: Data gathered from graduate surveys and scraping data from the web (all majors).
ECO Alumni and Friends List: This list includes more than 500 economics majors, sorted by employer, who have offered to provide career advice to majors.
LinkedIn Group for Economics Majors: All majors are welcome to join this group.
LinkedIn Results of Economics Majors Query: These are the results of filtering our UVA alumni by reported major on LinkedIn. The results will populate in order of number of employees. More than 15,000 UVA LinkedIn members are affiliated with an economics major. Filter by recent graduation dates and internship information will be more accessible. Consider these employers for your own internships.
What Can I Do with an Economics Major: Lists employers by sector, industry, and job function. Includes dozens of majors to review.

Then, consider using these tools above to help you network with people in industries/job functions that interest you. Complement this research with your PathwayU results to even further refine your search. PathwayU is an online interest assessment endorsed by UVA career offices, which matches your reported interests with industries and job functions. The assessment takes about 30-45 minutes to complete and you may review the results independently or with a career advisor. 

Wishing you a fantastic week!

Jen Jones

Recent college graduates, I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that fewer employers than ever care about entry-level candidates’ GPAs—so all those exam and assignment grades that had you camping out in the library are worth less than you may have thought. 

The good news is that fewer employers than ever care about entry-level candidates’ GPAs—so the actual knowledge and skills you gained from your education and other experiences matter way more than the numbers on your transcript.

According to a new report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), 37% of employers intend on screening recent grad applicants by GPA—down from a recent high of 73.3% just a few years ago.

As a recent grad, you’re probably more aware than anybody that grades aren’t necessarily a reflection of how much you learned in school or what you’re capable of in a work environment. This shift “signals a recognition that screening by GPA may weaken efforts to build an inclusive workforce as it can put students who are balancing school with work and other responsibilities at a disadvantage in the job market,” NACE executive director Shawn VanDerziel said in a press release.

So what are employers looking for in recent grads? The skills and abilities that you’ll actually use in the workplace. Here are the attributes that the most employers ranked as very/extremely important for the 2022-2023 recruiting year:

1. Problem-solving skills (61.4% of employers said this was very or extremely important): Employers want workers who can identify issues and come up with solutions. Regardless of what your major was, you likely had to evaluate different aspects of an issue or question, decide on possible methods for finding an answer or drawing a conclusion, execute on one of these methods, and back up your decisions—all vital components of problem-solving.
2. Ability to work in a team (61%): Those group projects were good for something. You can also use team sports and other group extracurriculars to demonstrate your ability to work well with others.
3. Strong work ethic (52.4%): You just finished college, and you may have managed part-time jobs and/or extracurriculars on top of that. So you know how to work hard and get things done. (Read more about how to demonstrate soft skills—like work ethic—in your job search.)
4. Analytical/quantitative skills (50.4%): These are the skills that help you find, evaluate, and synthesize information to make decisions and/or solve problems. For example, in college you may have had to analyze data for science or business courses, or you may have had to choose the right sources and incorporate them into a research project or paper.
5. Communication skills (50%): Communication skills encapsulates any way you might share or receive information from others. In college you participated in class discussions, put together presentations, sent emails, and submitted written assignments like papers and lab reports.
6. Technical skills (50%): Technical skills are the ability to use certain pieces of technology or specific methods or techniques, such as creating formulas in Excel, coding in Javascript, or optimizing conversion rates for a marketing campaign. As a recent college grad you definitely have some already and and can likely pick up more of them quickly.

Bonus tips for showing off your skills as a recent grad

So how do you show companies that you have these skills and qualities? Here are a few pointers for your resume, cover letter, interview, and overall job hunt:

1. Figure out what a specific company wants by closely reading the job description they’ve posted. Then, tailor your resume and other application materials to emphasize the skills you have that matter most for this job.
2. Leverage internships and part-time jobs. These experiences show that you have the professional skills necessary to thrive in a full-time role. In fact, the NACE report found that relevant internship experience is the top deciding factor when there are two equally qualified recent grads competing for a position.
3. Don’t restrict experience to paid work. Volunteer experience, extracurricular activities, projects, and coursework are all ways you could have acquired and used the skills employers are looking for. So mention that fundraising event you organized for a local hospital or the project that sent you out into the field to observe wildlife behavior.
4. Don’t skip the cover letter. Cover letters can be hard to write, but even when they’re optional, they’re almost always worth it. You can use your cover letter to give specific examples of when you’ve used the skills an employer is looking for and connect your education and past experience to the entry-level role you want.
5. Prepare for your interview. Be ready to answer common interview questions and prep a few stories that show how you’ve used skills and demonstrated qualities employers are looking for.

Hello Econ Majors,

With finals just ahead of us, I'm sure you're focused on preparing for your exams and papers. 

Wishing you great success in the next few weeks.

When you return to your internship, job, or graduate school search, consider using the tools below to help keep you organized, which will surely reduce stress! 

This article recommends numerous electronic resources as basic as an MSExcel spreadsheet or MSWord table to track your applications, to websites and apps like JibberJobber that will keep your job search materials in order. Of course, the ECO recommends Handshake, but that is just one tool in your job search toolkit! https://www.thebalancecareers.com/organize-your-job-search-2060710

While the article offers resources to help build your resume and cover letters, UVA has its very own AI tools for you! Check out VMock in Handshake. The three modules we license are:

1. Resume Review Tool (Scores your resume based on industry/job function and offers suggestions for improvement)
2. LinkedIn Review Tool (Aspire) (Connects with your LInkedIn profile to score and recommend improvements)
3. Elevator Pitch Tool (Records your pitch for scoring and recommends improvements)

All three have built-in algorithms to review your materials and help you prepare for conversations with alumni and employers. Please do not use the resume builder tool in VMock because its template is not flexible enough to customize your resume once it is built.

Again, best wishes during this finals period. I look forward to seeing you in the new year!

Jennifer Jones, Economics Career Office

"If you’ve heard a lot about “soft skills” lately, it’s at least partly because employers want you to develop them. According to our Global Recruiting Trends study here at LinkedIn, more employers are rolling out “soft skills assessments” to test job candidates on the cognitive and personality qualities you don’t go to school to learn: critical thinking, adaptability, learning agility, communication, etc. By all indications, these factors aretrading at a higher value in 2017 than they have in the past."-Brendan Browne

Click here to read the rest of the article

1. Why did you choose to study economics? 

A month into my first semester, Professor Elzinga gave a lecture in ECON 201 that changed the course of my college trajectory. The topic—rational consumer behavior—was neither inspiring nor profound, but the lesson stuck. I found myself measuring the costs of a good in terms of its next best alternative, ignoring sunk costs when I made a decision, and seeing applications of economics everywhere. Drawn to this “economic way of thinking” during my first months of school, I attended my professors’ office hours, participated in behavioral experiments in the VEcon Lab, and even went water-skiing with Professor Elzinga. As I pursued economics further in subsequent semesters, I was struck by its systematic explanations for the world around me—everything from business strategies to Congressional voting procedures to income inequality. I was fascinated by these questions and the way that economics answered them, and there was no turning back! 

2. What courses/ professors have been particularly influential and why? 

This question is a tough one, because there have been so many! I'm grateful to Mr. Elzinga for his wise counsel, steadfast mentorship, and the way that he constantly challenges me. His ECON 201 class first drew me to the subject, and since then I've had the pleasure of learning from him in his Antitrust seminar and through an independent study on the intersection of economic thought and Christian theology. I'm grateful to Mr. Coppock for his encouragement and natural gift for relating to students. His Public Choice seminar was incredibly interesting and stimulating, and it remains by favorite class to date. I'm grateful to Mr. Holt for his patience, kindness, and willingness to invest in my academic potential. Learning from his expertise in experimental economics has been a true privilege. And the list goes on! I'm grateful to Mr. Olsen for guiding me through my first research project, to Mr. Burton for connecting me wonderful people and opportunities in the Department, to Ms. Turner for her amazing dedication to her students' flourishing, and to many others who have invested in me. 

3. What makes the economics department special? 

As my previous answer demonstrates, the faculty in the economics department have made all the difference to me. They create an atmosphere in which freedom of inquiry flourishes and opportunities abound. During my time in the department, I've particularly enjoyed the opportunity to conduct research. Last year, I completed an independent study in which I used Stata to estimate the efficiency gains of housing vouchers as opposed to public housing. Additionally, I work as a Research Assistant in the VEcon Lab, exploring ways that human behavior either aligns with or deviates from economic theory. In addition to these pursuits, I've also gained immense value from the opportunity to serve as a Teaching Assistant in introductory economics courses. Teaching is a great responsibility and privilege, and helping my students grasp the discipline’s most fundamental principles reminds me of why I fell in love with economics in the first place.

4. How did you spend your summer between third and fourth year? (This language has been changed. Former question asked “How did you spend last summer?” Or, we may mention in the heading that these responses were collected while you were a student and now you are an Associate with BCG.)

I had a fantastic summer interning for BCG in their DC office. My role as a Summer Associate involved collaborating with my case team to strategically simplify the organizational structure of a large tech firm. Day to day, I spent good deal of my time building models on Excel, creating Powerpoint decks for client presentations, and performing data analysis with my team. At the most basic level, my task was to solve problems, and both the content of the work and the atmosphere of the office made my job both stimulating and sustainable. I have no doubt that the experiences the Economics Department has provided me differentiated me as a job candidate, and Jen Jones and the ECO office were enormously valuable to me as I navigated the job recruitment process. Furthermore, once I began my internship, it became abundantly clear that the critical thinking that I learn through my economics coursework would help me succeed in the Associate role. I am looking forward to returning to BCG as a full-time Associate next year. 

5. What is the most interesting thing you've done in the Department?

Serving as one of the first undergraduate Teaching Assistant for introductory economics courses has been and continues to be an incredible privilege and learning opportunity. Standing in front of a classroom twice each week, I’ve learned to present economics concepts in creative ways. I’ve learned to establish credibility by coming prepared for class and by speaking with confidence. I’ve learned to establish approachability by adding lighthearted elements to my lessons and being transparent about any mistakes I make. Working one-on-one with my students, I’ve learned the joys of helping others succeed. I’ve learned to help my students work out practice problems themselves, rather than just listen to me explain them. I’ve learned to exhibit patience and encouragement in the face of my students’ frustration and disappointment, particularly after midterms. 

As a returning TA this year, my goal is been to use these lessons to both improve upon my teaching and to be a leader among new undergraduate TAs. I seek to be a role model by putting my students’ needs above my own. Whether it means putting extra effort into planning interactive lessons, sacrificing time to meet outside of my office hours, or simply demonstrating to my students how much I care about their success, my role as a Teaching Assistant continues to be my most meaningful University involvement. 

In-demand college students seeking summer internships are reneging on offers as companies swoop in to offer better deals. Host J.R. Whalen is joined by Georgia Tech senior Najaah Chambliss, who walked away from an internship, and WSJ reporter Lindsay Ellis, who discusses the trend and how companies are responding.

If you are considering reneging on an internship or job offer, please connect with Jen Jones at jlh7b@virginia.edu.

Listen to the recording here with a WSJ subscription.

This transcript was prepared by a transcription service. This version may not be in its final form and may be updated.

J.R. Whalen: Here's Your Money Briefing for Friday, March 4th. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal. We've told you how the pandemic helped create a job seekers market with millions of workers leaving their jobs for better pay and companies struggling to fill open slots. But that's also happening among students who are trying to land summer internships. Competition for interns has gotten so fierce that some who've gotten and accepted offers are reneging on them to take a better deal elsewhere.

Lindsay Ellis: Just like a lot of job seekers, there is demand for people to come in the door. Companies look at their summer internship programs and they're not just thinking about that summer. They're thinking, "Who can we identify among this cohort of interns that a year from now we're going to want to bring back or we want to hire full-time after the program."

J.R. Whalen: On today's show, we'll discuss the growing leverage students have in the competitive world of summer internships with our reporter, Lindsay Ellis. Plus we'll hear from one student who reneged at an intern ship offer and see how it turned out. That's after the break. For college students, an offer for a summer internship can mean getting their foot in the door and launching a career track. But amid the tight labor market, more students are walking away from offers they've already accepted to take an even better one. In a moment, we'll hear from WSJ reporter Lindsay Ellis about this growing trend and the competition for entry level talent. But first let's bring in one of those in-demand interns for a firsthand account. I'm joined now by (Naja Shambliss). She's 21 and a senior at Georgia Tech University majoring in computer science. Last fall, she began applying for internships for this coming summer. Hey Naja, thanks for being here.

Naja Shambliss: I'm glad to be here.

J.R. Whalen: So Naja, back in October you landed a summer internship. Tell us about how that went.

Naja Shambliss: Yeah, so I was applying for internships and I had found this opportunity on, I believe LinkedIn. It was either LinkedIn or Handshake I believe. And so, yeah, I went ahead and applied and I figured I had a pretty good chance of getting this internship because I had previously interned with a defense company and so I thought getting this internship from this other defense company would be not too bad. And I also wanted to intern somewhere else other than this previous company, which is why I was applying for other companies. And so, yeah, I applied and it took a little while to get back to me, but I ended up interviewing with them once and then I heard back from them about a month later, I believe, saying that I received an offer.

J.R. Whalen: All right. But then earlier of this year, your plans changed. What happened there?

Naja Shambliss: Yeah. So at the end of November, my recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn also asking me to apply for a Microsoft internship and I had already accepted the defense internship, but I was like, it's Microsoft, I've applied for them before. I haven't been accepted previously, so this would just be an extra step for practice for when I apply again for the next recruiting season. So I filled out the application she sent me and then I went through the first round of interviews, which wasn't too bad, thank God. And then I got pushed to the final round and I received an offer after that.

J.R. Whalen: Oh, so what did Microsoft offer you?

Naja Shambliss: I'm not able to disclose the numbers, but let's say it was definitely double what the defense industry was offering me. And then they were also giving me a relocation, stipend and a stipend to help with my moving expenses and stuff like that. So it was a pretty great deal.

J.R. Whalen: So you eventually had to go tell the defense company that you had accepted a new opportunity. How'd that conversation go?

Naja Shambliss: So it's actually pretty funny. I sent out an email to, I believe she was my onboarding HR person and stating that I do apologize for having to do this to you guys so late in the game, but unfortunately I have to renege my offer, and I actually did not get a response for them. I had sent them an email and I never received an email back, but I did look at my portal and it had said that I was no longer being considered for the position. So I don't think they received that information in the best way, but yes, that's what happened.

J.R. Whalen: So when you first got the word from the recruiter that there was a Microsoft internship out there to try to go after, how did you feel about that process at that stage? I imagine you had firmed up the defense company internship and had signed some papers, right?

Naja Shambliss: Yeah. I thought this opportunity was different maybe because I had never had a recruiter directly from a company DM me, or specifically for Microsoft, I have never had a Microsoft recruiter DM me on LinkedIn asking me to apply for position. So I kind of had a good feeling about this process and that's kind of what made me be like, "Okay, even though I've already accepted this offer, this might turn out differently, so let's try it."

J.R. Whalen: All right. That's Naja Shambliss, a senior at Georgia Tech University with us. Naja, thank you so much for taking the time to chat.

Naja Shambliss: Thank you for having me. This is my first podcast experience, so I'm very grateful. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

J.R. Whalen: Oh, we really appreciate it. Thanks a lot.

Naja Shambliss: No problem.

J.R. Whalen: So what's driving this cutthroat competition for interns and what are companies doing to keep potential interns interested? For more on that, I'm joined by WSJ reporter, Lindsay Ellis. She's been looking into it. Lindsay, thanks so much for being here.

Lindsay Ellis: Thank you so much for having me.

J.R. Whalen: So Lindsay, these bidding wars for interns like we just heard with Naja, is that something new?

Lindsay Ellis: So interns, especially in demand fields like computer science, engineering and the like, they've always had some competitive offers, but the level of competition that I heard from interns seemed just really striking. Campuses and companies are saying that they're seeing competition over interns in a way that feels different than prior years, especially the last two years, the first with the pandemic really sinking in and last year with everything in a much different hiring market than we are right now.

J.R. Whalen: So why do interns suddenly have this kind of leverage in the job market?

Lindsay Ellis: Just like a lot of job seekers, there is demand for people to come in the door. And I think that for interns emerges in a couple of ways, the first is, companies really want applicants and they want qualified applicants. And that inherently gives the people who are applying, who have strong resumes, who have the skills that they're looking for an edge. I think the other reason is companies look at their summer internship programs and they're not just thinking about that summer. They're thinking, "Who can we identify among this cohort of interns that a year from now we're going to want to bring back or we want to hire full time after the program." And so this is sort of a key pool for companies to look at their entry level workforce. And so there is more demand in hiring the right people when this could be my pipeline six months from now, a year from now.

J.R. Whalen: Is there ever any kind of a penalty if a student backs out of an internship that they've already accepted?

Lindsay Ellis: It can vary from campus to campus, but yes. Cornell's business school, if you're an MBA student and you accept an offer for the summer and then you go out and interview and accept a different one and back out of that first one, they say that they reserve the right to fine you up to $2,500.

J.R. Whalen: Wow. I mean, for a college student, that's a lot of money.

Lindsay Ellis: It is, yes. And for those two, those were specifically for business school students, so perhaps a little later in their career. But these are people that don't necessarily have income coming in every month and yet still might be on the hook. There are other penalties that are also significant. At the University of California Berkeley's business school, one of the possible sanctions is a 16 hour service project. So that can be a significant amount of money certainly and time if you're caught backing out from this.

J.R. Whalen: But a student might consider switching to a different internship that could better jumpstart their career, right? But is there a danger of them burning their bridges behind them?

Lindsay Ellis: Colleges say that there is. I mean, they are quick to remind students that it's a small world and a small job market in a lot of ways. Recruiters move from company to company. Someone who you interact with when you're 22, you might encounter in a totally different field a few years down the line. They also sort of put in place their own regulations that could hamper a student's trajectory as they continue through their education. Some schools at the undergraduate level will restrict the use of a platform called Handshake where a lot of jobs are listed for students who are caught backing out. I think students who I talked to who have considered this or who have done this look at the name on the resume, they look at the salary that they could be bringing in and importantly, they look at the experience that they think that they're going to get at these preferred internship programs. And in a lot of cases, that's a very strong counterweight to a more nebulous idea of possible ramifications. There's another side to that coin as well, which is the relationship between the college and the company, and many campus career offices are really cognizant of that relationship and don't want to do anything to stress it or damage it. Their fear is that if a number of students back out from opportunities that they've already accepted, might that influence whether a company wants to come back next semester or next year and knock on their door and recruit future classes. And so one aspect of could this be hurtful, is thinking about what is the next student who comes around, what's going to be their experience, and colleges really have that front of mind.

J.R. Whalen: Now, there's usually several months between the time somebody lands an internship and when they actually start. So what are companies doing to prevent people from backing out?

Lindsay Ellis: There usually are several months between these dates and one thing that really surprised me in reporting this is that in some cases there are many more months than I had anticipated. People were telling me that they were interviewing for these summer internships while they were doing a different summer internship. So companies need to keep students warm is what they say, make sure that they're front of mind for these candidates that they've worked hard to recruit. Liberty Mutual told me about their keep in touch campaign, including interns in get togethers that are held virtually, some coffee chats and the like to keep them engaged with what's going on. One logistics company that I talked to mentioned sending holiday e-cards to the students who had accepted. So there are different tactics, some with video engagement and when possible in-person engagement, but others just really leaning into the messaging.

J.R. Whalen: And so how are the companies responding to this trend of interns backing out of offers and how are they thinking about their internship programs more broadly to keep people interested?

Lindsay Ellis: So some of them are looking at pay benchmarks and making sure that this very basic aspect of it, this critical aspect of it is competitive of with other organizations and external benchmarks. Some of them begrudge the trend and you kind of throw your hands up in the air and it's a little bit of a "kids these days" reaction. But the thing that I think most stood out to me on this was a real focus on what can we do as an organization to prepare for the summer, just kind of accepting that this might take place. So a few companies, including General Mills told me and have mentioned that they plan to overhire, basically extending a few more offers than they typical would and hoping that a few more candidates than they want to accept accept, expecting that a few of them are maybe going to back out between now and the summer. And I think they're also thinking about how they recruit and how they build relationships with students. One common refrain I heard from recruiters was, "In this virtual environment maybe students feel less of a strong connection with us as a company and with the recruiters and the team overall. How can we build that up and keep them feeling close?" And so that sort of speaks to some of the strategies, the keeping in touch efforts and the like.

J.R. Whalen: All right. That's Wall Street Journal reporter, Lindsay Ellis with us. Lindsay, thanks so much for being with us.

Lindsay Ellis: Thank you for having me.

J.R. Whalen: And that's Your Money Briefing. I'm J.R. Whalen for The Wall Street Journal.

"Managers and employees don’t always see eye to eye. Fast Companyuncovered a wide gap in the way each group thinks about business cultureand their radically different ideas about work-life balance."-Lydia Dishman

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Return from Winter Break Edition

Identify your Network: Whom do you Know?

Miriam Salpeter

A common complaint job seekers make is, “I don’t have a network!” It’s very frustrating to realize job search networking is the best way to land an opportunity but to believe that avenue isn’t open to you. Luckily, you do have a network! In fact, anyone who knows one person has a network, and it’s likely your acquaintances, friends, and family members number many more than one. In other words, it’s just a matter of learning how to identify people most interested in your expertise.

Identify Your Network

Social Media

Do you use Facebook? Are you connected to anyone on that social network? Your “friends” there, whether you really like them or not, are part of your professional network. (Even if you’ve never exchanged a word you’d consider “professional” with any of them.)

Do you use other networks, such as Instagram, Pinterest, or SnapChat? Believe it or not, people whose photos you comment on or whose pins you share are also part of your network.

You don’t need to have 500+ LinkedIn contacts to call yourself networked. However, you do need to learn how to tap into these networks of people to access professionally useful information. Ideally, you’ll want to identify any of the people in these networks who may also leverage any of the more typically accessed professional networks, such as LinkedIn, and then connect with them there.

People You Know

Maybe you don’t use social media (although it’s nearly a job-search necessity these days). “Ah ha,” you’re thinking, “I really don't have a network.” Perhaps, if you’ve never taken a class, had a job or internship, or left your house, you may make an argument that you don't have a network. However, most readers won’t accurately fit into those parameters. You have the potential to grow your network every time you leave your home. Do you grocery shop? Attend sporting events? Go to family dinners? Belong to a walking group in your neighborhood? All of these places provide great opportunities to expand your professional network.

Do you see a pattern here? Your professional network doesn’t come with special stickers or labels that say “job networking.” Your network encompasses everyone you know, and everyone those people know, too. If you really want to be fancy, it technically includes at least one more degree of separation, which would capture everyone who is a friend or acquaintance of those friends.

Start thinking about the strength of your professional network using this list:

• Your family members and friends. (They don’t need to have jobs to join your network.)
• Everyone you’ve ever worked with, including volunteer jobs.
• People who attended school with you. Teachers count, too. This includes elementary school through college and grad school. Don’t forget to include people you met at professional development classes or fitness and exercise classes.
• People you know from religious groups. If you go to religious services, everyone you meet there can be part of your network.
• People you meet in your community or neighborhood, including at the dog park, kids’ soccer games, or the local street festival.
• Anyone you know via your children’s activities.
• People you meet while practicing your hobby, whether it is gardening, golfing, or skydiving. Anyone you meet can be part of your network.
• Military contacts.
• Your hairdresser or barber, the bartender at the local watering hole, and your dry cleaner are all in your network. Professionals who interact with a lot of people on a daily basis make great networking contacts. In addition, any one in a profession involving dealing with other professionals, such as accountants, lawyers, and business coaches make good contacts. They know a lot of people, and probably have someone in their network to connect with you.

If you don’t believe your extended network can help you get a job, these stories may change your mind.

Bettina Smalley recalled how she landed her first job out of college: “Divine intervention got me my first job at Scientific-Atlanta many moons ago. The pastor of my little Lutheran church was friends with a recruiter who needed to fill a sales position ‘at some big company’ with someone who spoke German. My pastor called me at 10 p.m. one night to tell me about it. By the end of the week, I had the job. If you're referred by a man of God, I guess they assume your references are good!”

This is a perfect example of the “you never know” factor when it comes to a job search. Bettina’s pastor knew something personal about her that also related to her professional potential: she speaks German. Are people in your network clued into your special skills and goals? One way to make sure they are in the loop about your plans and skills is to share information related to your professional life on more personal networks, such as Facebook. Do your grade school or high school friends and contacts know you’ve returned to school to study human resources, or that you just obtained certification as a massage therapist? If not, it’s a good idea to make sure they do. Either spread the word in person or via online networks to ensure you tap your network efficiently.

Andrea Clement, a PR and media professional in the medical recruiting industry,

found her current job after running into a former boss at Nordstrom on Christmas Eve. She explained, “We both scrambled to do last-minute holiday shopping. At the time I was happily employed and he had just started his own firm. He asked if I was interested and I said that I really loved my job so I wasn't sure, which was true. After the holidays, my then boss resigned, and she was my favorite aspect of that job. That February, I became the first employee of the start-up firm working for the former boss I'd seen in Nordstrom! That was 2007. I'm still here and now we have 80+ associates!”

While not every networking success story begins with a random meeting, if you ask people you know, you may be surprised to find out how many found their jobs, not just via networking, but through very random networking circumstances. The lesson in this case is that you never know when you’ll run into someone who can be influential to your career. Keep this in mind if you’re in full-on networking mode. For example, be sure you go out dressed to meet professional contacts. This doesn’t mean donning a three-piece suit to go to the bank, but consider your networking goals when you’re out and about and tweak your appearance to ensure you are comfortable introducing yourself to people no matter the circumstances.

Levels of Networks

Your network has multiple levels. Your immediate network includes the people you know directly, either in person or via social networks. You also can access the people they know as part of your extended network. In other words, your brother’s boss, your neighbor’s professor, or your college friend’s accountant, are all in your network. Don’t forget: each network links you to another network of potentially untapped contacts.

You never know when “someone will know someone.” Corey-Jan Albert, a writer and marketing consultant, shared a great networking connection story about her son, Cameron, a recent college graduate seeking a journalism position: “About a week ago, he mentioned a position he applied for. I asked him if he knew who he'd be working for there, and he said he did. I told him to check the guy's LinkedIn and see what he could find. He called me back and said, ‘YOU know someone who knows him! I can't see who that is since I'm two degrees of contact removed, but you can.’ It turns out the common connection was Cameron's 5th grade soccer coach—now living in NY, working at Reuters. Cameron reached out to him. The former soccer coach was thrilled to hear from him, and not only gave him some Intel on the situation at hand; he also offered to link him up with the editor at Reuters in charge of freelance assignments. Double win!”

This story proves a few important lessons about networking. You may find the best networking contacts are people who would never have considered members of your official network. (Most college graduates don’t think their 5th-grade soccer coach will be a key player in their job search efforts. It’s also a good reminder to tap into family member networks.) Especially if you believe your network is small, connect with relatives on LinkedIn. It’s perfectly acceptable (and expected) to “link in” with your parents, grandparents, and their friends. If Cameron hadn’t been linked to his mom, he would not have realized this terrific contact. Unexpected results may happen from networking. In this case, Cameron accessed a freelance contact, even though he is seeking a traditional, full-time job. You never know what surprises await when you explore your networking potential.

Miriam Salpeter is owner and founder of Keppie Careers (http://www.keppiecareers.com/), a coaching and consulting firm helping job seekers and entrepreneurs leverage social media and other tools to achieve their goals. She has appeared on CNN, and  major media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and others have quoted her advice. In addition to her own blog, Miriam writes for U.S. News & World Report and for AolJobs.com. She is the author of the books, Social Networking for Career Success, Social Networking for Business Success: How to Turn Your Interests into Income, and  100 Conversations for Career Success. Named to CNN’s list of “top 10 job tweeters you should be following” and a “top 5” influencer on Twitter for job seekers by Mashable.com. Miriam also had her blog selected as a top career resource by Forbes. A vice president for a Wall Street firm prior to earning a master’s degree from Columbia University, Miriam ran the Career Action Center at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University before launching her own business.

In October 2019, Devaki Ghose won the Graduate Student Award at the 2019 Empirical Investigations in International Trade Conference for her paper "Trade, Internal Migration, and Human Capital: Who Gains from India's IT Boom?" A link to past student prize winners can be found here, https://www.freit.org/EIIT/2019/GradComp.php .

In April 2022, fifth-year student Yooseon Hwang presented her paper,"The Welfare Effects of Congestion Pricing," at the European Urban Economics Association Conference in London. The paper estimates the effects of congestion pricing on welfare by developing a quantitative spatial model with endogenous commuting costs.

From The Wall Street Journal, 6/16/23

Recent graduates might be great at accounting or coding, but they need a little help when it comes to dinner parties and dress codes. 

Many members of the class of 2023 were freshmen in college in the spring of 2020, when campuses shuttered due to the Covid-19 pandemic. They spent the rest of their college years partially in virtual mode with hybrid internships and virtual classes. Students didn’t learn some of the so-called soft skills they might have in the past by osmosis on the job, from mentors and by practicing on campus. 

To address deficiencies in everything from elevator chitchat to presentation skills, companies, universities and recruiters are coming up with ways to train new hires and give them clear advice. They are eating it up.

Recent graduate Joslynn Odom had her first hybrid internship after her junior year and found working in person to be draining thanks to wearing professional attire and staying energetic consistently. It made her realize that she needed to sharpen her communication and networking skills. 

Programming arranged by her college, Miami University in Ohio, has since helped. Just before graduation she attended an etiquette dinner where she learned to follow the lead of more senior leaders over dinner: Eat at their pace, discuss neutral topics and avoid personal questions. When buttering bread, it is best to put a slab on one’s own bread plate before applying it to a roll, and when cutting food, holding the fork hump-side up is best, she said. 

“Knowing that, I feel more confident,” she said.

William Lopez-Gudiel, 23 years old, interned last year for Warner Bros. Discovery and found a presentation on office dynamics especially helpful. It covered dress codes, navigating interpersonal relationships and what working in person is like, he said.

The company said it has offered similar guidance in the past. Some of it felt like common sense to Lopez-Gudiel, who graduated in December from George Mason University and is a self-described extrovert. 

But Lopez-Gudiel ultimately appreciated the information, realizing that the pandemic may have limited what soft skills he might have learned at past work experiences. He will be working at the company full time as a software developer.

Many soon-to-be graduates are itching to get rid of Zoom and work face-to-face with co-workers where their interpersonal skills will be quickly tested. In an April survey of about 700 Class of 2023 graduates from the virtual student-health company TimelyCare, 53% said they wanted a fully in-person work environment, while 21% said they wanted to be fully remote. 

New KPMG hires at the company’s training facility in Orlando, Fla., where KPMG teaches presentation skills, the art of talking in person and how to resolve conflict in teams. PHOTO: KPMG

Graduates’ disrupted college experience might mean they struggle with the basics reading colleagues’ cues or navigating a meeting, said Heidi Brooks, a senior lecturer in organizational behavior at Yale University’s School of Management. In class, when students didn’t have cameras on, that was harder to determine.

New hires will need to learn “those nuances of, how do you actually create enough connection, visibility, ability to maneuver,” she said. 

The missing piece for young professionals who have graduated since 2020, in fact, has been no real proximity to mentorship and leadership, recruiters say. 

“This is so much more important today,” said Sandy Torchia, vice chair of talent and culture at KPMG, whose full-time hires this summer and fall will go to the firm’s training facility in Florida where they’ll get new presentation training. 

They’ll practice scenarios involving conflict within teams, plus the basics of talking in person—as simple as how to introduce yourself to a client or colleague. Key tips include maintaining eye contact, taking pauses and avoiding jargon. It is also best to listen carefully to others, and to adjust your introduction to highlight pieces of your background that will be most interesting to them. 

The company has found that some young professionals are stiff, talk too fast, or rely too much on filler words like “um,” as they presented. Some of the employees said they wanted to feel more comfortable, too. 

Allan Rubio, 21 years old was a freshman at Dartmouth College in the spring of 2020. Online classes continued all through his sophomore year, which Rubio completed from his family’s home in Bangkok. Course sessions stretched to 11 p.m. or sometimes 2 a.m. local time, he said. 

Professors were far more flexible on deadlines during the pandemic, amenable to extensions if students asked, he said. When Rubio had an in-person internship last summer, he realized his manager, team or client depended on him meeting deadlines. 

KPMG trainings with early-career workers at the firm’s training facility in Orlando, Fla. PHOTO: KPMG

Presentation skills are also something Rubio needs to learn better, he said. He had presented virtually in academic classes, and often kept a few thoughts and scripted language in a Notes file on screen—or on a separate device nearby. Once on a video call, he said, he blamed an internet delay while he stopped talking midsentence and collected his thoughts. 

None of those aids could help him through presenting in-person on stage at a hackathon on campus. It was more difficult than he expected, he said. 

Since then Rubio, who graduated this month, has rehearsed extensively before live presentations. He lays out key points and slims a longer script into bullet points before memorizing key areas. 

Though new hires are digital natives, today’s graduates’ professional email skills need improvement, said Jialan Wang, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Many won’t acknowledge important messages but will expect a response from professors immediately, even over holidays, she said.

Michigan State University’s business-school career center has urged companies to be explicit about what students should expect at work, to over-communicate details about how a first day will play out, what to wear and what people typically do for lunch.

Marla McGraw is the director of career management at Michigan State University’s business school, which requires students to take classes on soft skills.  

The school last year began requiring many business students to take classes on soft skills in the workplace, after observing that students are more awkward and unsure when they network than they used to be, said Marla McGraw, director of career management.

The program goes step by step through an in-person networking conversation. In one handout, the center instructs students to introduce themselves by their first and last name. “STOP! Let them tell you their name,” it reads. 

Later it urges the students to share that they are interested in hearing about opportunities at the company and share that they follow the company closely, are familiar with its products or services or know someone who interned there, among other options. 

“STOP! Pause for only a few seconds to see if they offer any questions or input on your above comments. They may ask you for your resume.”  

Students should keep an eye out for signs that a person is trying to end a conversation, McGraw added. Someone might begin to gather their things, or look around the room, signaling they need to talk to another person. Often, one can facilitate a smooth exit by saying, “Well, thanks so much. It’s been a pleasure.” 

Scott Redfearn, executive vice president of global human resources at Protiviti, urges new graduates to introduce themselves around the office, stick out their hands and smile. PHOTO: PROTIVITI

Professional-services firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Protiviti have had to tell some young workers what types of clothes are appropriate, including for client-site visits.

Many people are dressing less formally, said Scott Redfearn, Protiviti’s executive vice president of global human resources. 

Now the company defines what it means by business casual—including slacks, tailored denim, sport jackets, dresses, skirts, collared shirts, blouses, sweaters and professional footwear—and explains why it’s important to maintain a serious professional image. The company also relays that when it is appropriate to wear bluejeans, darker hues without rips are best, he said.

The company has tried to be proactive when it shares broad guidance about attire, but when a worker shows up in athleisure or flip-flops, that is best handled with a one-on-one conversation.

“Working hybrid brings a lot more decisions to the individual employee,” Redfearn said. 

During the pandemic, the firm extended its onboarding process to a series of small-group virtual meetings that took place over a full year. One topic includes making conversation as a social skill, he said. It includes an improv-based public-speaking workshop, where in one prompt, participants need to describe themselves in three words quickly, going with their first impulse. The company said the sessions help workers to find their authentic communication styles. 

Protiviti hosts social gatherings around in-person meetings so that workers can practice. 

Redfearn said he gives a pep talk to new graduates, urging them to introduce themselves around the office, stick their hand out and smile. Another tip: Have a prepared question ready to ask if needed. 

Ray A. Smith contributed to this article.

Write to Lindsay Ellis at lindsay.ellis@wsj.com

Venture capital interviews aren’t tricky. Generally, there are no brainteasers or case questions. A VC interview is a chance for venture capitalists to get a sense of you, the same way they do when meeting with entrepreneurs. That’s how venture capitalists make investment decisions—(You may need to login into CavLink to access this article).

by Erica Sweeney at The Muse

Once you’ve found a job and company that you’re really excited about, salary might top your list of priorities. But while salary is important, it’s only part of the overall offer. To get the full scope of what you’ll really earn at a job, you need to factor in the perks and benefits that a company offers, too.

“Look at it as more of a package than just a job with a paycheck,” says Leslie Slay, senior vice president of employee benefits services at Woodruff Sawyer, an insurance brokerage and consulting firm.

Compensation traditionally includes non-salary benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. And many companies also offer perks—including flexible schedules, educational opportunities, and wellness programs—to support employees in other ways. “More and more, perks and benefits are becoming integrated together” to support employees in a more holistic way, says Bobbi Kloss, director of human capital management services at Benefit Advisors Network.

On average, a benefits package makes up about 30% of an employee’s total compensation in the U.S. So it’s definitely worth paying attention to the perks and benefits a company offers as you’re looking for a job in addition to the salary.

Employee benefits and perks can be confusing, though. In fact, about a third of all workers and 54% of millennials said they don’t understand the employee benefits they signed up for, according to a 2020 survey by Voya Financial. So as a job seeker it’s often up to you to ask a prospective employer plenty of questions to make sure the benefits they’re offering meet your needs.

Better understanding the benefits and perks you’re offered will help you make the best choice about which job offer to accept. To help guide you, here’s an overview of 15 common employee perks and benefits you might come across as you look for your next job:

1. Health Insurance

Health insurance pays (or helps pay) for your medical expenses as they come up in exchange for a premium, or money paid—by you and/or your employer—to the insurance provider each month. Health insurance plans typically cover doctor visits, prescription drugs, emergency care, and certain medical procedures.

Health insurance plans vary from company to company and you’ll likely have a few to choose from. Some companies pay the full premium on their employee’s behalf, but usually you have to contribute to the cost with a certain amount that comes out of your paycheck before taxes. You may have some other out-of-pocket expenses, too, such as copays when you visit your doctor. Many insurance plans also have a deductible, which is an amount of money you’re responsible for paying before your health coverage kicks in. Make sure you’re aware of these costs before you choose a plan to enroll in.

And to ensure a company plan meets your needs, Kloss suggests checking that it covers treatments for any medical conditions you have or prescription medications you take, and that your preferred doctors are in the plan’s network.

If you have dependents (most commonly children or a partner you support financially) or plan to soon, you should also check that the plan will cover everyone and how much it will cost you. For example, a company may pay 100% of your health insurance premium but you may be stuck paying the full premium for everyone else in your family (which can add up fast). Read more about what all those health insurance terms mean here.

Find jobs at companies that offer health insurance

2. Dental and Vision Insurance

Dental and vision insurance cover your dental and eye-care needs. Dental insurance typically covers routine exams, cleanings, x-rays, and some portion of procedures like root canals and fillings. Vision insurance generally covers eye exams and prescription lenses.

Many employers offer dental and vision insurance, either as part of health insurance or as separate benefits. But whereas some employers cover a portion or all of the costs of health insurance, most companies require you to pay in full for dental and vision insurance, Slay says.

Just as you would with health insurance, check if the plans will let you keep your dentist and eye doctor (if you’d rather not switch) and cover any pre-existing conditions or treatments that you need.

Find jobs at companies that offer dental insurance, vision insurance, or both

3. Flexible Spending Account

A flexible spending account (FSA) allows you to put pre-tax money aside to pay for the year’s out-of-pocket healthcare costs, like over-the-counter medications, copays for doctor visits, medical devices like crutches or blood sugar tests, or vision and dental care needs like glasses or contacts. Your employer may also contribute up to $500 to your FSA without you contributing anything (they can match you dollar for dollar on top of the $500), so be sure to check if a company will pay into your account before determining your own contributions. Total FSA contributions are capped at a certain amount each year (for example, they were capped at $2,750 for 2021).

Find jobs at companies that offer FSA accounts

4. Life Insurance

Life insurance is an insurance policy that pays a set amount of money to your chosen beneficiary (or beneficiaries) when you die. If you’re just starting your career and don’t have any children or others who depend on you financially, life insurance may not seem necessary. But it’s still something you should consider, Slay says—especially if your company covers your full premium.

You decide who you want to leave the money to, such as your parents or another family member, to help cover funeral costs, for example. You could even name your favorite charity as the beneficiary.

Find jobs at companies that offer life insurance

5. Disability Insurance

Disability insurance offers compensation or income replacement when you’re unable to work because of an injury or illness that’s not job-related. “I can’t tell you how critical disability insurance is; it protects your paycheck,” Slay says. Disability insurance is usually optional, but worth looking into, she says—just find out what your employer offers and what it will cost you. Some policies are fully paid by an employer and others require you to pay some of the costs in the form of a paycheck deduction, Slay says.

There are two types of disability insurance: short term and long term. Short-term disability insurance varies according to your plan, but typically covers you if you’re out of work for less than six months and on average pays about 60% of your regular salary, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Most long-term disability insurance lasts for 10 years or less (but some policies last until you reach retirement age) and covers about 60% of your annual earnings.

Find jobs at companies that offer short-term disability insurance, long-term disability insurance, or both

6. 401(k)s

A 401(k) is a retirement-savings plan that’s commonly sponsored by your employer. Plans can vary, but generally you contribute to the fund as a pre-tax paycheck deduction and pay taxes on the money when you withdraw it during retirement. Many companies match employees’ 401(k) contributions, either dollar for dollar, where they put in what you put in, or with a partial match—for example, adding 50 cents for every dollar you contribute, up to a certain percentage of your salary. Yearly employee 401(k) contributions are capped (the limit is $19,500 for 2021), but the employer match doesn’t count toward the limit.

Retirement may seem like a long time away. But Slay urges early career employees to contribute as much as they can to their 401(k), especially if there’s an employer match. The match can help you grow your savings faster and if you’re not taking advantage of it, you’re essentially leaving money on the table that your employer is offering to give you. Plus, in an emergency you may be able to pull money out of your 401(k) before retirement (and without paying a tax penalty) for certain expenses, like buying a home or paying medical bills.

Some companies have taken a new approach to employee retirement benefits recently to meet their workers’ current needs, Slay says. For example, some help employees pay down student loan debt by making direct payments to their lender, while others make a larger 401(k) contribution to employees currently paying off student debt.

Find jobs at companies that offer 401(k)s or 401(k)s with company match

7. Paid Time Off

Paid time off (PTO) can include paid holidays, sick leave, federal and state holidays, personal days, and vacation days.

Typically, the amount of PTO offered by your company is based on how long you’ve worked for them, and you accrue more PTO over time (for example, if you get 15 days of PTO per year, that means you accrue about 0.058 hours of PTO for every hour you work, or roughly 10.5 hours of PTO per month). If, say, you’re looking to start a new job right before a holiday or planned trip, you might want to ask the company if it has a policy about using PTO before you’ve technically accrued it.

How a company offers PTO varies, too. For example, some designate a separate number of personal, sick, or vacation days, which is sometimes required by state law. But, Slay says, more employers are lumping all PTO in together to make taking off easier for employees. Some companies even offer unlimited PTO.

Time off is an important factor in your overall compensation, so make sure to ask about how many PTO days you get. Often, you can negotiate your PTO, Slay says, particularly since the pandemic has shown more companies the benefits of giving their workers more time off. “PTO is one of those areas where you can ask for things that are a little different and you might get them.” Also, be sure to check if you can carry over unused PTO into a new year and whether you’ll be paid for any unused days when you leave the company.

Find jobs at companies that offer paid holidays, paid vacation, personal and sick days, or unlimited vacation

8. Family and Medical Leave

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a U.S. law that enables employees to take unpaid leave for certain family and medical reasons. Employees can take up to 12 weeks off for the birth or adoption of a child, a family member with a medical condition who needs care, their own health condition that prevents them from performing job functions, and other reasons.

Under this law, your job is protected and your health insurance continues during this leave. Companies with more than 50 employees are required to comply with the law and you’re eligible if you’ve worked for the company for at least 12 months and meet other requirements. If you’re considering going to work for a smaller company, be sure to find out their policies for family and medical leave.

Find jobs at companies with more than 50 employees

9. Parental Leave

Parental leave enables employees to take off following the birth of a child, an adoption, or the arrival of a newly placed foster child, or for a child otherwise needing parental care, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Though the FMLA requires some employers to offer unpaid leave in these instances, there’s no broad guarantee of parental leave in the U.S.—which means it comes down to the employer.

More than half of U.S. employers offer paid new child leave to women, and 45% offer paid new child leave to men, according to a 2020 study by the Society for Human Resource Management and Oxford Economics. However, specific policies vary for the companies that do offer parental leave, so find out about a prospective employer’s rules if you plan to start a family soon, Slay says. Ask whether the leave is paid or unpaid, whether your job will be there waiting for you when you return, and how much time off you’re allowed.

Find jobs at companies that offer maternity leave, paternity leave, or both

10. Remote Work Options

Remote work gives employees the freedom to work from home or anywhere else outside of a traditional office setting, either full time or part time in a hybrid schedule. The COVID-19 pandemic made remote work a necessity, and it was such a hit with workers that many have said they’ll quit their jobs rather than go back to the office. Employers realize that remote work has benefits for them, too, such as opening up a much broader, more diverse talent pool to hire from, so many organizations plan to allow remote work in some fashion post-pandemic.

While more employers will be offering fully or partially remote positions after the pandemic off the bat, the ability to work from home is something you can likely negotiate, Kloss says. “I think employers are recognizing after COVID that they can be more flexible in those areas than they ever thought possible.” So find out whether you’ll be able to work remotely some or all of the time and what the company’s policies are for remote work schedules, virtual meetings, and communication. Also ask whether they provide equipment or stipends for internet, phone, or other expenses for remote workers.

Find jobs at companies that offer remote work opportunities

11. Flexible Schedules

A flexible schedule is when your employer allows you to work hours and days outside of the traditional nine-to-five, Monday-to-Friday schedule. For instance, you might work 10 hours a day, four days a week or set core hours when you’re available, such as 9 AM to 1 PM, and have flexibility the rest of the day to complete your work whenever you’d like. Like with remote work, the pandemic led more companies to offer flexible schedules to accommodate different work styles and time zones as well as employees who have children or other caretaking responsibilities. 

Flexible schedules are another perk that you can likely negotiate—just make sure you and your employer both come away with a clear idea of which days and times you’ll work.

Find jobs at companies that offer flexible work hours

12. Wellness Programs

Workplace wellness programs aim to improve an employee’s mental and physical health and offer more resources beyond health insurance. Wellness programs have traditionally included health screenings and tools to help people lose weight or stop smoking, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

But organizations have taken a broader, more holistic approach to their wellness programs in recent years by offering individualized supports that take into account an employee’s emotional, social, physical, and financial needs, Kloss says. Wellness-based perks—such as fitness subsidies, meals, and access to mental wellness apps and counseling—are becoming more common.

Even more so than with other perks and benefits, wellness program offerings vary widely, so find out the specifics of what a company offers and consider how it meets your needs.

Find jobs at companies that offer wellness programs, fitness subsidies, on-site gym, and meals

13. Education Benefits

Most companies offer some type of education benefit, including access to online courses, on-the-job training, tuition reimbursement for continuing education, and learning and development stipends to cover educational expenses.

If you’re just starting your career, these programs can help you succeed long term by keeping your skills fresh, which could increase your chances for promotions or raises, Slay says. Education benefits and perks also signal that a company values and invests in its employees and their growth. So be sure to ask what a company you’re planning to work for offers if education is important to you.

Find jobs at companies that offer access to online courses, tuition reimbursement, or learning and development stipends

14. Mentor Programs

Mentor programs pair you with someone at your company who’s more experienced and can answer questions and offer guidance to help you advance in your career. “Mentorship is huge,” Slay says. Mentors can serve as advocates to help you navigate the technical and political parts of a job as well as you build and expand your network.

Mentorship programs help employees feel valued, create a culture of learning and increase job satisfaction and productivity, Slay says. So find out whether a company provides formal or informal mentoring and what their programs entail.

Find jobs at companies that offer mentor programs

15. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Programs

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and initiatives encourage the representation and participation of different and often underrepresented groups, such as women, people of color, people with disabilities, and the LGBTQ community. The programs may include mentorship opportunities, targeted recruitment efforts, and employee resource groups (ERGs).

As with many employee benefits and perks, some DEI programs are more robust than others. So it’s a good idea to find out the specifics of what a company offers and how it aligns with your values and needs, rather than just noting that they’ve ticked the box in offering a DEI program.

Find jobs at companies that offer diversity and inclusion programs

Before you accept a job offer, make sure you have a good grasp of the company’s benefits and perks and how they fit into your overall compensation structure. Ask plenty of questions to get all the details of how each benefit and perk aligns with your needs and negotiate to get what you want. Keep in mind, too, that when you’re searching for open jobs on The Muse, you can set filters so you’ll only see open positions at companies that offer the benefits and perks that matter most to you.

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"If you're the analytical type, fascinated by the world around you, then an economics major might be a good choice for you. A degree in economics can be used in many areas, including public policy and finance. You can use an economics degree to study industry trends, labor markets, the prospects for individual companies, and the forces that drive the economy.

Economics majors learn to gather, organize, and interpret data, using mathematical formulas and statistics to make calculations. They also create models to predict the impact of investments, policy decisions, industry trends, demographics, climate change and much more."-Mike Profita

Click here to read the rest of the article. 

In May 2022, 6th-year student Joaquin Saldain presented his paper, "A Quantitative Model of High-Cost Consumer Credit,"  at the Midwest Macroeconomics Conference in Logan, Utah. Joaquin summarizes the paper this way: "I study the welfare consequences of regulations on high-cost consumer credit in the US, such as borrowing limits and interest rate caps. I estimate a heterogeneous-agents model with risk-based pricing of loans that features standard exponential discounters and households with self-control and temptation. I use transaction-level payday lending data and the literature's valuations of a no-borrowing incentive to identify different household types. I find that one-third of high-cost borrowers suffer from temptation. Although individually targeted regulation could improve the welfare of these households, I find that noncontingent regulatory borrowing limits and interest-rate caps—like those contained in typical regulations of payday loans—reduce the welfare of all types of households. The reason is that lenders offer borrowers tight individually-targeted loan price schedules that limit households' borrowing capacity so that noncontingent regulatory limits cannot improve welfare over them."

Cailin Slattery presented two papers at the recent International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF) conference in Tampere, Finland; "Campaign Spending and Corporate Subsidies: Evidence from Citizens United v FEC" and "U.S. State Incentive Spending and Large Establishment Spillovers." Both papers use a new data set that she created on state incentive spending, and are closely related to her job market paper on how states compete for firms using discretionary subsidies. She received valuable feedback on her papers and discussed her research with Public Finance scholars from all over the world, including recent UVa grad Elliott Isaac, who is now an assistant professor at Tulane University. The conference was not only filled with research sessions, but included a walking tour along the Pyynikki Ridge,  the world's highest gravel ridge, which was formed by sediment accumulating between two glaciers.

"The irony of job search advice: There’s so much available that you don’t have to spend more than four seconds Googling before you land on some nugget of wisdom or another." - Jenny Foss

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Amzad Hossain was one of 4 graduate students recently awarded a GIDI iGrant by UVA's Global Infectious Diseases Institute, which supports faculty and graduate student research aimed at reducing the impact of infectious diseases around the globe. He will use the fellowship to further his research on mother and child mortality in Bangladesh. More specifically, Amzad says that he will collaborate with Moogdho Mahzab (a 4th year Economics PhD student) "to examine the effects of community-based health clinics on child health outcomes such as take-up of vaccines to prevent infectious diseases and neo-natal mortality. The government of Bangladesh in 1998 introduced a policy to establish 13,500 community clinics spread all over the country. Each community clinic (CC) was to provide various services including maternal & neonatal health care services for around 6,000 people. We will exploit the variation in the policy with regard to community clinics--its introduction, withdrawal and subsequent reintegration--to identify the effects of community clinics on health outcomes. As the search for effective ways to improve health outcome continues, our findings can be of great relevance for stakeholders and policy makers."

Below the ECO is sharing the 10 Best Jobs for Introverts as written by The Muse. Our majors may be particularly interested in numbers 1, 5, 9, and 10. But they are all worth a glance!

Not every job is the right fit for every person—so it makes sense that you’d be looking to find a job and career path that feels well-suited to your personality.

While some folks might thrive in a role where they’re interacting with people all day, for others—particularly introverts—that might be completely draining.

So if you’re an introvert, you might wonder how to find a job that plays to your strengths, feels true to who you are, and leaves you feeling energized and excited at the end of the day. Rest assured, there are plenty of options.

What, Exactly, Is an Introvert?

Before we jump into the perfect jobs for introverts, let’s take a minute to define what an introvert actually is.

An introvert “gets their energy from solitude,” says Stephanie Thoma, leadership coach and author of Confident Introvert, a professional networking book for introverts. So while an introverted person can definitely hold their own in social situations, the experience can feel exhausting—and after extended periods of social interaction, they typically need alone time to rest and recharge.

One major misconception about introverts is that they’re shy. But that’s not necessarily true. While introverts can be shy (just like anyone can be shy!), introversion is not the same thing as shyness. “Deriving your energy from solitude doesn’t exclude you from feeling confident and comfortable in the presence of others,” Thoma says. “It just means you may need to take more care to preserve and conserve your energy when socializing.”

What Makes Certain Jobs Better for Introverts—and What Should Introverts Look for in a Role?

Because introverts get their energy from solitude, jobs that allow for independent working time are typically a better fit for introverts.

For example, “An introvert may thrive as a CPA, crunching numbers with precision and in-flow, formulaic repetition; a market research analyst who gets to pore over detailed qualitative or quantitative data; or a professor who has gotten to create materials about a specific subject matter to then share with purpose and passion with pupils,” Thoma says. The best jobs for introverts, she says, “have structure and clear expectations with an opportunity for creativity, and allow for focus.”

So introverts should look for jobs where some amount of solo work is built in—allowing them regular opportunities to focus on their own work—rather than roles that require constant engagement with coworkers, clients, or customers.

But pretty much every job requires at least some level of interaction, collaboration, and socializing. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, even if you consider yourself a more introverted person. Again, introverts can still enjoy working with other people and be successful doing it. It does mean, though, that you should also look for a company that prioritizes work-life balance and self-care—and allows you the opportunity to recharge when you need it.

“Self-care is an emerging priority for many companies who know that when employees are able to take walking breaks or lunch away from their computers,” Thoma says, or take care of themselves however they see fit, they “are more likely to thrive—and provide quality work to match. Since introverts may need more downtime outside of meeting rooms, this is an important consideration.”

Are you a proud introvert—and ready to find a job that plays to your strengths? Here are 10 roles to consider, plus salary information from the compensation resource PayScale (just keep in mind that PayScale’s database is updated nightly; the figures below reflect the latest information as of March 2021):

1. 

Software Engineer

Average salary: $86,803

Software engineers are responsible for engineering or developing different types of software (which is why they’re also called software developers). They are problem solvers at heart; they need to identify what problem the user is having—and then design, test, and develop software that solves that problem.

A career as a software engineer could be a great fit for an introvert because a large chunk of the job is writing code, testing, and fixing bugs—all of which involve independent work—though they should also be prepared to collaborate with their teams.

While some companies require a specific degree, many rely on technical interviews to assess candidate coding skills—so if you’ve got the coding chops, you can get your foot in the door as a software engineer.

Find software engineer and software developer jobs on The Muse

2. 

Content Marketing Manager

Average salary: $68,395

Content marketing managers are responsible for the development and execution of a marketing team’s content strategies. Depending on the company, a content marketing manager may oversee one or multiple content verticals, including print, digital, video, social media, and audio.

Content marketing managers may work with a variety of other people, including content strategists, writers, and creators; marketing colleagues; and folks on sales and other teams. Ultimately, their goal is to understand their target audience and drive awareness and engagement with their brands, products, and services. Depending on the size of the company, content marketing managers may also manage other people. But this role could still be a great fit for an introvert because it’s usually pretty evenly split between independent and collaborative work—giving introverts plenty of time to recharge.

While some companies require their content marketing managers to have a degree, many are more interested in candidates with a background in content development and promotion—so if you’re well-versed in all things content, you should be able to get your foot in the door.

Find content marketing manager and other content marketing jobs on The Muse

3. 

Editor

Average salary: $53,313

Editors are responsible for taking a piece of writing from the “just an idea” phase to the “working draft” phase to the “ready for publication” phase. This includes making suggestions to writers on ways the writing could be improved (for example, pointing out sections that are unclear or helping the writer define their voice and tone) as well as correcting any spelling or grammatical errors. While editors may work for newspapers, magazines, digital media companies, or book publishers, they may also be employed by businesses to support their content efforts—editing blog posts, ebooks, website copy, and more.

Editors do partner with writers (and often have to walk them through their edits) and other content or editorial team members to brainstorm and strategize—but the bulk of the actual editing process is a solitary activity, making it an ideal fit for introverts.

In order to succeed as an editor, you need to know the ins and outs of writing, including grammar, structure, style, and narrative. As such, many editors are writers themselves—and most have a degree in journalism, English, communications, or a related field. Editors who work for newspapers, magazines, and digital publications also need a solid grasp of reporting and fact-checking.

Find editor jobs on The Muse

4. 

Graphic Designer

Average salary: $46,010

Graphic designers are responsible for developing visual assets for a company. Depending on the company’s needs, this may include branding assets (like logos), marketing materials, product packaging, and digital assets. Many graphic designers are well-versed in a variety of design styles and techniques, though some specialize in certain areas (like logo design, packaging design, or infographic design). Graphic designers may work directly for a company, for an agency or design studio that works with clients to deliver on any design needs, or as freelancers or independent contractors.

While graphic designers will need to collaborate with supervisors, clients, or other stakeholders to get clear direction and feedback on their design assignments, during the designing phase, they’re free to work on their own—making this a great role for introverts.

In order to succeed as a graphic designer, you’ll need creativity and working knowledge of a variety of design programs—which many get through degree programs (though there are plenty of online learning platforms that can help you get up to speed if pursuing a degree isn’t the right fit).

Find graphic designer jobs on The Muse

5. 

Accountant

Average salary: $51,639

Accountants handle financial tasks, which can include budgets, forecasts, financial reports, payroll, taxes, and audits. They may work for a company in house or for an accounting firm that provides accounting services to external clients.

A huge part of accounting is crunching numbers—a task that’s mostly done solo—making accounting a great field for introverts.

In order to land an accounting role, candidates will need to have a degree in accounting or a related field—and public accounting firms will typically only hire Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) or recent accounting graduates with plans to take their CPA exam.

Find accountant jobs on The Muse

6. 

Mechanical Engineer

Average salary: $71,538

Mechanical engineers are responsible for designing (or engineering), developing, building, and testing machines and other products. Mechanical engineering is, at the core, a problem-solving role; mechanical engineers need to not only be able to identify problems and build solutions, but also identify and solve mechanical issues as they build and iterate.

Mechanical engineers are highly technical critical thinkers and although they typically work in teams and need to be comfortable collaborating and managing projects, they also spend a lot of their time working independently—a great setup for an introvert.

To get hired as a mechanical engineer, you’ll need at least a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering—although many companies want their mechanical engineers to pursue advanced degrees.

Find mechanical engineer jobs on The Muse

7. 

IT Specialist

Average salary: $57,872

Information technology specialists (a.k.a., IT Specialists) are responsible for maintaining and managing a company’s internal IT processes and products. This can include managing IT requests, troubleshooting IT issues, installing and upgrading company hardware and software, and ensuring that all IT operations are running smoothly.

As an IT specialist, you’ll have to work with leadership and employees to field requests, identify IT issues, and answer IT-related questions—but the job also requires plenty of independent work time to manage IT systems and fix problems, so introverts will get the time they need to recharge.

While some companies require their IT specialists to have a degree in information technology or a related field, many will hire based on skill alone—so if you have an in-depth knowledge of IT systems, you should be able to get your foot in the door without a degree.

Find IT specialist and other information technology jobs on The Muse

8. 

Data Scientist

Average salary: $96,420

Data scientists are responsible for creating the frameworks that help their companies leverage data to make better business decisions. This can include everything from running data tests and experiments, implementing statistical models and algorithms, developing data products, and continually tweaking and optimizing their frameworks for more effective data analysis (and better business outcomes as a result).

While there is a certain level of collaboration necessary to succeed as a data scientist (for example, with data analysts or key business stakeholders as well as other data scientists or machine learning engineers), a good portion of a data scientist’s work is in framework development—a solo job great for an introvert.

A bachelor’s degree in computer science, math, statistics, engineering, or a related field is generally a must to pursue a career in data science—and some companies want their data scientists to hold advanced degrees.

Find data scientist and other data science jobs on The Muse

9. 

SEO Manager

Average salary: $70,244

SEO (which stands for search engine optimization) managers are responsible for making sure that when someone searches a relevant term, their company ranks at the top (or as close to the top as possible) of the results pages. The goal is to help increase the company’s visibility and drive new users or customers to their website. SEO managers develop and implement the SEO strategy, determining which technical and content-based search engine optimization strategies are going to drive the best results—and then continually adjust that strategy to improve their rankings.

SEO managers do collaborate with colleagues on other teams—including content and engineering. But they also spend a good deal of their time analyzing data, developing suggestions, and implementing optimizations—making this an ideal role for an introvert.

There’s no specific degree required to get into SEO, but in order to land an SEO manager position, you need to know the ins and outs of search engine optimization—and be able to stay on top of SEO practices, which are always changing and evolving.

Find SEO manager and other SEO jobs on The Muse

10. 

Actuary

Average salary: $96,032

Actuaries typically work in the insurance industry and are responsible for evaluating risk factors and determining whether the insurance company should issue a policy to a specific person or business and, if so, what the premium for that policy should be.

This role is almost entirely focused on digging deep into math, data, and statistics, which is an inherently independent task—and a great fit for introverts (at least, for introverts who geek out on all things numbers).

Actuaries need to have a deep working knowledge of data and statistics—and a degree in actuarial science or a related field (like statistics or math) is often a requirement to get your foot in the door. You’ll also need to complete a series of exams given by the Society of Actuaries or Casualty Actuarial Society to earn your certification.

Find actuary jobs on The Muse

Deanna deBara is a freelance writer living in Portland, OR. When she's not busy building her business or typing away at her keyboard, she enjoys spending time hiking in the Pacific Northwest, traveling with her soon-to-be husband, or doting on her dog, Bennett. You can follow her on Twitter (she's a newbie!) at @Deanna_deBara.

By Kate Kelly and Lananh Nguyen

July 26, 2021

When Vince Iyoriobhe joined Bank of America’s investment banking division as a rookie analyst in 2017, he planned to stick around just long enough to get the experience needed to pursue his dream career in another corner of finance entirely — private equity.

“I knew banking was going to be tough,” Mr. Iyoriobhe, 26, said. But his attitude was: “I’m going to do it for two years and then go on to something else.”

The lure of investment banking is fading for the youngest members of the work force.

For decades, investment banking — the job of advising big companies on their most pressing needs — was one of Wall Street’s most prestigious careers, glorified in 1980s best sellers by writers like Tom Wolfe and Michael Lewis. Thousands of young hopefuls applied every year for a chance to start careers at Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Salomon Brothers and other banks as analysts — entry-level positions that taught aspiring financiers how to build financial models and evaluate businesses.

They embraced the long hours and grunt work in exchange for the prestige of jobs that eventually paid millions. In turn, each analyst class provided banks with a reliable pipeline of talent.

But new college graduates are increasingly unwilling to put themselves through the strenuous two-year analyst program, despite starting pay that can reach $160,000. That’s especially so as careers in technology and other parts of the finance world promise better hours and more flexibility. The pandemic, which forced many to reassess their work-life balance, has only underscored that thinking. Others, like Mr. Iyoriobhe — who put in 90-hour weeks at Bank of America, sometimes going home only to shower — are willing to do it for the minimum time necessary to put it on their résumés. He now works at a private equity firm.

“It’s kind of like going through boot camp,” said Ben Chon, a 27-year-old entrepreneur whose YouTube video about leaving his job as a health care banker in JPMorgan Chase’s San Francisco office, posted in February, has garnered more than 100,000 views.

Mr. Chon said he appreciated all that he had learned as an analyst, but added: “You don’t have control of your lifestyle, and you’re working even when you don’t want to.”

The number of applicants to banking analyst programs is hard to track, but business school data, which captures a slightly older cohort of potential financiers, shows a broad decline in interest in investment banking. Last year, the five top-ranked U.S. business schools sent, on average, 7 percent of graduates from their master’s of business administration programs into full-time investment banking roles, down from 9 percent in 2016. The decline was pronounced at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where bankers were 12 percent of the M.B.A. cohort in 2020, compared with more than a fifth of the class a decade earlier. Harvard sent just 3 percent of its 2020 class.

In a recent Instagram survey on the page “Millennial Career Polls,” conducted by a former investment banker who wants to start a platform to help young professionals navigate their careers, 79 percent of the 139 respondents said they thought banking would be a less desired career in the future than when they had joined it. And in February, 13 analysts at Goldman showed their superiors a PowerPoint presentation describing brutally long hours and their declining health.

“The sleep deprivation, the treatment by senior bankers, the mental and physical stress … I’ve been through foster care and this is arguably worse,” one of the unnamed analysts surveyed in the presentation said.

“The industry is not as attractive” as it once was, said Rob Dicks, a consultant at Accenture who specializes in recruiting in financial services. “Employees want a hybrid model, and the banks are saying no,” he said, referring to a combination of in-person and remote work. “The message is: ‘The bank knows best, we have a model for doing this, and you will conform to that model.’”

A Culture of Overwork

Although top executives of the biggest banks have recently talked tough about the need for employees to return to the office, many are paying heed to the complaints of their youngest workers. Goldman’s chief executive, David Solomon, said in an earnings call this month that his firm would pay more competitively and enhance rewards for performance. Goldman is also enforcing its no-work-on-Saturday rule. JPMorgan is rolling out technology to automate some aspects of analysts’ work, and recently hired more than 200 additional junior bankers to ease the pressure in a particularly busy year.

A first-year investment banking analyst in New York can make as much as $160,000 in a year, including a bonus, according to estimates from Wall Street Prep, a company that helps aspiring bankers train for the industry. But several firms, including Citigroup, Bank of America, JPMorgan and Barclays, have raised the salaries of junior bankers. Credit Suisse paid what it described internally as “lifestyle bonuses” of $20,000 to younger bankers.

Jefferies, another investment bank, even offered Peloton bikes, Apple Watches and other perquisites to thank more than 1,100 of its analysts and associates — the next rank up — for working hard during the pandemic. Jefferies employees “have gotten us through the hardest period we have experienced in our careers,” Rich Handler, the bank’s chief executive, and Brian Friedman, its president, wrote in a July 1 letter to staff and clients.

Still, banks tend to hew to a work culture fetishized in the 1980s, when Mr. Wolfe’s “The Bonfire of the Vanities” memorialized Wall Street as the home of “masters of the universe.” Young analysts worked around the clock, picked up coffee and food orders for the team, endured mindless tasks like filing trade tickets, and were subjected to pranks and verbal abuse. In exchange, they gained a foothold in one of the most lucrative careers available, when new products like bonds backed by mortgages and corporate mergers and acquisitions were creating vast profits.

Some of today’s heaviest hitters in banking got their start in that heyday, including John Waldron, the president of Goldman Sachs; Sharon Yeshaya, Morgan Stanley’s new chief financial officer; and Carlos Hernandez, executive chair of investment and corporate banking at JPMorgan.

Banks lost much of their allure after the 2008 financial crisis, just as Silicon Valley was taking off, and private equity firms morphed from small partnerships to asset management behemoths. The newer career options promised potentially quicker and bigger payouts, better hours, lofty corporate missions and perks like taking pets to the office. To young graduates, banking analyst roles appeared too grinding to be worth the effort, at least over the long term.

In recent years, recruiters for giant private equity firms like Carlyle and Blackstone, which manage billions of dollars for clients and also buy up companies, began wooing analysts even before they started their jobs.

Brian Moynihan, the chief executive of Bank of America, said that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. “They’re very talented kids, especially around the investment banking arena,” he told Bloomberg TV this month. “And there’s a lot of offers from private equity and other things that we’re training them for our clients, and that’s OK, too.”

And there’s the pull of Silicon Valley.

“The technology sector has just completely changed the game,” said Jamie Lee, 37, who worked in banking before starting a venture-capital firm this year. “The opportunity cost is simply too high to be sticking around in a job where you’re not getting the treatment that you want.”

Mr. Lee’s father, the JPMorgan banker Jimmy Lee, was for decades one of the best-known players in his field, advising companies like Facebook and General Motors before he died in 2015. But when the younger Mr. Lee was finishing college in the mid-2000s, his father urged him to avoid the analyst programs.

“He said, ‘Honestly, J, the way that I’ve seen that we work these kids, I’m not sure that I want that for you,’” Mr. Lee recalled.

It’s Not All About the Money

More compensation may not be enough for lots of young workers, for whom the pandemic only highlighted the less palatable aspects of investment banking — even as other careers dangled more appealing work-from-home policies.

Armen Panossian, a rising senior at Rutgers University, is interning in the logistics division of the energy company BP and hoping to land a similar full-time role after college. He said the pandemic was part of his motivation for pursuing a more 9-to-5 job rooted in finance.

“I think a lot of people rediscovered the importance of mental health,” Mr. Panossian, 21, said.

Eden Luvishis, a 20-year-old student of finance, computer science and math at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., wants to work in fintech but would consider becoming an engineer at a major bank — a career that could marry her interest in finance with a more predictable way of working.

“I was never so interested in traditional banking jobs,” she said. “For me it was always more of the quant side,” meaning roles involving quantitative analysis. “I really love math.”

Before graduating from Mount Holyoke College in 2016, Areeba Kamal worked for a summer as a trading intern handling complex bond products at Bank of America’s Midtown Manhattan tower. She arrived around 8:30 a.m. and often stayed until 10:30 p.m., trying to learn the intricacies of her product. She sent money to her family in Pakistan.

“If you’re an international student, early on you realize your two options are finance and tech,” said Ms. Kamal, 29, noting that those fields offer the most pay and help with work visas.

But after that summer in finance, she gravitated toward tech. “I don’t want to work 14 to 15 hours a day on something I don’t care about because it pays a ridiculous amount of money,” Ms. Kamal said. She now works for Apple.

Still, not everyone is down on banking. Herby Dieujuste, 25, who worked one summer for JPMorgan’s private bank and did a stint as a TD Bank teller, is studying for one of the required licenses for starting bankers while interviewing for investment banking positions. A longtime basketball player, he said it was unsurprising that the banking industry would treat its rookies as dismissively as a sports team might — until they proved themselves.

“I want to be somewhere where I know I can be for a decade or two, and I always saw finance as that kind of industry,” he said.

Kate Kelly is a business reporter, covering big banks, trading and key financial-policy players. She is also the co-author of “The Education of Brett Kavanaugh” and the author of “Street Fighters.”  @katekelly

Correction: July 26, 2021

An earlier version of this article misidentified the class of a university student. Armen Panossian is a rising senior at Rutgers University, not a rising junior.

Graduate students from every cohort stepped away from their work to hike White Oak Canyon trails, one of the most popular trails in Central Virginia. 

The stress. The anxiety. The worry. All of us have those moments where we’re completely overwhelmed by the amount of work college demands. While we try our best to finish everything as quickly (and as accurately) as possible, we sometimes digress into a state of despair and self-doubt when our hard work isn’t giving us the results we want. At some point, we begin feeling so helpless and depressed that we retreat into our shell, away from our peers and the people who care about us the most. We’re frustrated, confused, lonely, and don’t really know what to do. Eventually, with everything piling on top of us one after the other, we snap.

College can be a tough time for a lot of  students. Whether you’re trying to fit in or trying to survive classes, I think we can all agree that college life isn’t perfect. However, there comes a time when things just don’t feel good and you’re not feeling the same way towards things as you used to. Sure, everything seems fine but you’re just not happy with where you’re at right now. You’re exhausted and unmotivated; you just want the semester to end now. Feeling stressed out is one thing, but feeling burnout is a whole other issue.

Pressure and Expectations

Entering college, I think a lot of us unintentionally place a large amount of pressure on ourselves. We worked unbelievably hard in high school to get where we are today, and so as soon as we enter college we expect ourselves to start off strong. At first, things seem like they’re going fine (and they are), but once we get deeper into the semester we’re not feeling as confident as we did going into the semester.

I think one of the worst things to feel in college is disappointment. Imagine this: You’re in a class working hard. You stay up late to work on assignments and study for exams. As you’re going through the semester, you notice your grades aren’t as good as you want them. You then work and study as hard as you can. Nothing improves. Getting this feeling is absolutely frustrating and disappointing and can certainly upset many people, including myself.

Look, I may not know much about each and every student’s college experience, but from what I know, hard work does eventually pay off. You’re probably going to feel immense pressure to do well in all of your classes, especially if you excelled in all of your classes in high school. But this isn’t high school. There are people around you who have worked just as hard to get where they are today and deserve to be there. It sucks when people are showing off their 4.0 GPA’s or bragging about how well they did on that last test. However, the truth is, none of that matters because you are who YOU are. Do the best that YOU can and that’s what counts.

Isolation

Finding the right group of people is hard, especially for introverts like myself. You think, “Oh there’s thousands of other freshman who don’t know many people, I’m bound to be friends with one of them.” This is a good thought, but maybe not realistic.

I know many other people disagree, but I think that finding friends in college can be extremely difficult. There are probably going to be a lot of people you meet within the first few weeks of classes as everyone begins the new semester. However, once those first few weeks are over it seems as if everyone has their own little group and sometimes you get left out of those groups of people.

Now before you accuse me of lacking faith in the friendliness of other people, I’m not saying that people intentionally form their own group of friends to single people out. Rather, I think it’s difficult for some people to maintain contact with others because of their lack of connection. Basically what I’m trying to say is that it’s hard to keep up with people when their schedules are so different. You meet so many people within the first few weeks of class, but let’s face it: how many of them are you going to remember or talk with by the end of the semester?

Nevertheless, finding people you feel the most comfortable with is important in college. Whether you like hanging around people or not, try pushing yourself to go out and meet new people. The best way to make friends is through your classes, because you’ll be seeing them on a weekly (if not daily) basis. If you’re still having trouble making friends, definitely utilize some of the student services your school offers. While they can’t help you make friends, they can definitely help guide you to resources and organizations that cultivate lifelong friendships.

Fitting In

Are you that awkward duck in the middle of the pond? Yup, that’s me alright. I think one of the most difficult parts about being in college is feeling at ease. With homework assignments and exams galore, there isn’t always a lot of time to think about where you’re at in terms of fitting in. However, it can sometimes take a toll on people as it did for me. I felt like I was sort of fitting in with the general population of students, but somehow I felt a personal disconnect from everyone. I talked with people from time to time, but it just didn’t feel the same as high school.

If you’re a college student still transitioning from high school to college, there are plenty of other people who are still having trouble fitting in. I have to admit, even though my school has a smaller student body than some other schools, I sometimes feel like I’m just there. I go to school, do homework, and take tests. That’s it. I know this is probably hard to hear, but things take time. You’re still transitioning, and this feeling is absolutely normal. As you go through the semester, you’ll likely find your way through things and be able to finally enjoy your college experience.

The College Burnout

College can be a rewarding experience for many people interested in learning and growing in a different environment. Compared to high school, the possibilities seem endless. However, college life can be difficult for some people as well, particularly those who are still transitioning from high school to college. While college can bring exciting new opportunities to students, it can also provide additional stress and anxiety with the amount of work and energy demanded.

If you’re feeling college burnout at any time, take some time to relax. Yes, I realize that you have things to work on and study for, but let’s be honest: are you really going to be productive when you’re feeling that bad? Don’t push yourself over the edge; it’s just not worth it.

On another note, try not to give yourself a hard time when it comes to grades. Although academics is central to the college experience, don’t allow yourself to become involved only in academics. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s going to suck. But yet, we’re all human. No one’s perfect. You can continue to beat yourself down over your grades, but what good is that going to do? There’s so much more to life than just grades. Your happiness comes first. You might argue that good grades equal greater job opportunities and more money. Look at the expectations you’ve created. They’re nothing unreasonable or anything, but realize what you’re doing to yourself. You’re tired. You’re unhappy. You feel like giving up. Is this the way to live?

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pay attention to your academic performance in college, but make sure that you give yourself some credit once in a while. You’re in college. You have an opportunity that others can only dream of. Be proud of yourself for all you’ve achieved. You’ve made it this far. Give yourself a pat on the back and feel proud of everything you’ve done thus far. You deserve it.

College burnout isn’t enjoyable and can almost always affect your college life. That being said, there are other things that can also hinder you from succeeding and being happy in college. To be honest, I’m really struggling in college right now, not just academically. There are days that I feel like I’m at the top of the world and then there are others when I’m in the gutter of despair. You’ve probably heard of this a million times, but college is what you make of it. Be happy, be sad, be angry – that’s your choice. However, know that you deserve to be there, and don’t ever doubt that. Sure, you might have doubts about why you’re there but think about this: you’re there already. Shouldn’t you make the most of what you have now?

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"It’s terrifying to know that the person you’re speaking to is weighing your every word—and could hold the power to change your future. This is why interviews can be so stressful, and why sometimes it can be hard not to blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. No matter how long you prep for the interview, it’s actual practice that gets one better at interviewing. And while there are many things you should say in a job interview, it can be harder to focus on the things not to say. We’ve got the seven things to steer clear of mentioning if you really want that job." -Kristina Rudic

Click here to read the rest of the article 

Another Career Fair Approaches! New Job Postings! Economics Career Forum!

https://www.themuse.com/advice/no-internship-what-to-do-instead
From the Muse: 

1. 

Find Part-Time, Full-Time, or Freelance Work at a Company

There are plenty of organizations that don’t have official internship programs but likely could use some extra assistance. Focus first on these questions: What’s your desired industry? What role do you hope to get? If you don’t know exactly, what position would you like to try, even just to determine whether it’s a good fit? If you like coding and think you might like working for a small tech startup, for example, isolate companies that fit that description and see whether they work with freelancers, temps, and/or part-time employees—if so, they might be interested in working with you, too.

Once you’ve narrowed your interests and done some research, make a list of companies you’re reaching out to, and start connecting directly. Sometimes there’s an HR contact on the website or you might find someone who’s in a managerial role on LinkedIn. Try to find a specific person’s email, and politely reach out.

Tim Birmingham, a career coach for both private clients and students at St. Michael’s College, lays out a basic email structure:

• Write a brief introduction and reason for interest in the company. This should be specific and target each company.
• Highlight relevant experience, skills, education, and qualifications for what you think they might need. This doesn’t need to be a complete summary; keep it short and strategic.
• End with a good call to action, including availability to talk by phone and contact information. For example, you might write: “I’d like to explore the value I could offer XYZ this summer and am available to talk by phone this week at your convenience.”

This format can work any time you want to reach out for a potential opportunity, so long as you tailor it to the person and context.

2. 

Complete a Microinternship (or Several!)

As remote work and gig work have increased in the workforce, microinternships have increased in popularity. Microinternships are small, project-based internships that encompass about five to 40 hours of work but can often offer payment. “This gives students something project-based to get actual experience, develop skills, and have something to show for it at the end,” Slusher says. In practice, you might be writing a 1,200-1,400 word article for a company’s marketing blog, identifying 25 qualified candidates for a role a company’s hoping to fill, or studying competitors’ social media accounts and writing reports identifying what they’re doing successfully.

These microinternships can usually be done remotely and if you don’t like the work, it doesn’t usually last long. You can do several of them over the summer—which can help you explore roles, companies, and industries you’re considering—and it’s great for building your professional network with hiring managers. 

You can find microinternship opportunities on sites including Parker Dewey and MindSumo.

3. 

Get a Local Summer Job

Seasonal industries and other local businesses might need short-term workers. Never underestimate the value of working at an ice cream shop, a nearby museum that draws tourists, a venue that needs caterers for events, a local clothing shop looking for retail associates, or even a babysitting gig for a neighbor’s kids.

This might not sound as exciting as a prestigious internship but it will add to your skill set and show that you’ve developed a work ethic. In case you’re skeptical that this kind of summer job will be resume-worthy even if it’s not connected to your major, Baska emphasizes that the key is to bring the right attitude to the work, and that “skills from those sorts of experiences can be translated to a future internship or full-time job (think communication, teamwork, professionalism, etc.).” Slusher says he works with students who have this type of experience all the time: “It’s all about thinking about the skills you’ve used there. Let’s communicate that in a way employers will value.”

To land a local job, you can either try to find a contact form if there’s a website, walk in with a resume, or call the person who would hire you if you’re able to find their phone number. And once you’re in the door, you could potentially ask to do something more specific to what you’d actually like to learn, from updating a website to developing a sales plan.

4. 

Assist a Researcher or Another Professional

You could help a professor or researcher at your school (perhaps you like their work or have taken one of their classes) or assist a professional outside your institution whose work you admire. If that individual writes papers and books, for example, you could ask if they need help with background research, proofreading, fact-checking, transcribing, or completing other tasks for their latest project. Or if they’re a web developer with their own freelance or consulting business, perhaps you could help route client inquiries, do some coding or other site setup tasks, conduct research, or write up a few case studies or testimonials to feature on their site.

You’ll need to do some proactive outreach. Use a modified version of the template Birmingham lays out above, demonstrating interest and expertise in the specific subject matter and your ability and willingness to help. See if you can figure out where their need is greatest and try to fill in the blanks—help them see the value you can provide, and make it easy for them to have you jump right in.

You may have to reach out to more than one prospect here, since some academics and other professionals may receive multiple requests like these, some may be too overwhelmed to respond, and some may just not see how to direct you appropriately.

5. 

Work on an Independent Project

This requires perhaps the most work on your part but could also be highly fulfilling. Think of this as akin to a senior year thesis or independent study. Could you develop an idea in an area you find fascinating? Or can you build on a topic you’ve touched upon in class but haven’t been able to pursue in depth? If you took a course on digital privacy and are eager to learn more, for example, a summer project might delve into the long-term impacts of recent data breaches based on available news sources. Your goal could be writing a paper, putting together a presentation, building a diagram, or testing a hypothesis and recording the results. 

It might be helpful to consult with a faculty member to make sure your time isn’t wasted and determine what your research question should be—and you can even ask if they’ll advise you throughout the process—but it will be entirely on you to see the project through.

The key here is to set up a schedule and stick to it even if the hours need to change over time. “[Students should] pretend like they’re going to work every day. [They should] have set start/end times and have a quiet space where they can get work done,” Baska says. “They can talk with a friend or family member about goals they hope to achieve and give them updates—that will help them stay accountable.”

6. 

Do Online Coursework

It may be too late to sign up for a summer course at your college or university, but you can always turn to massive open online classes (MOOCs), some of which can be taken anytime or have open enrollment. “Many likely require a subscription, but students should check with their institution because it’s possible the school has a subscription so that students can access these classes for free or at a reduced cost,” Baska says. (EdX is one such platform that provides memberships for participating universities.)

There are also platforms where students can learn all sorts of specific skills: programming languages, web design, social media, and even drawing and painting. Employers love to see skill development. “The vast majority of employers hiring for the vast majority of entry-level positions are looking more at the skills you have than they are at your major or even GPA,” Slusher says. “It’s all about skill development and how you articulate the skills that you have and how you’ve used them.”

Read More: 14 Best Sites for Taking Online Classes That’ll Boost Your Skills and Get You Ahead

7. 

Volunteer

Nonprofits don’t necessarily have the funds to pay an entry-level worker or summer intern, but they often need volunteers. You could work for organizations such as your local pet shelter, a food bank, a tutoring service for kids who need it, an organization that supports civics in the classroom, or a group that dresses women who need business-appropriate clothing. The work itself can range from talking to potential donors and encouraging them to give money to working on marketing campaigns to spreading awareness about a particular initiative. You could work directly with the animals or people who need your help or volunteer virtually to help an organization outside of your immediate area. When there’s a cause you care about, this can be quite fulfilling work.

If you have a nearby nonprofit in mind, check their website, give them a call, or stop by to inquire about volunteer opportunities. Your university’s community service office can also help since, much like your career center, it may be open during the summer and willing to talk to you about available opportunities. 

Read More: This Is Exactly How to List Volunteer Work on Your Resume

8. 

Conduct Informational Interviews

This is an even lower level of commitment than asking someone for a job or microinternship: Simply reach out to someone who’s doing work you want to do and ask for 30 minutes or an hour of their time to tell you about what they do every day and what advice they’d share with someone who wants to follow a similar path. You might be surprised how happy people are to share, especially if they like their work.

“Tapping into a school’s alumni network is an excellent way to start with this,” Baska says. Plus, you can turn to connections you might have through friends and family members (friends of your parents, parents of your friends, etc.), supervisors and colleagues you met at previous internships, and even people you don’t know at all but whose work intrigues you. You may need to reach out to a few people before you land on someone who has the time and bandwidth to chat. You can also do multiple informational interviews over the course of a summer to gather in-depth insight into your chosen career or to explore a multitude of potential career paths.

Even though this might not sound as impactful as summer work, you’re still showing a commitment to learn from others, ruling out jobs you don’t like, and honing your focus. You can also set up informational interviews in conjunction with a summer job, independent project, or other options on this list. 

Read More: 3 Steps to a Perfect Informational Interview

9. 

Job Shadow

Interested in a certain kind of job theoretically but unclear what it would actually mean to do it in practice? You might benefit from seeing for yourself. “Some schools do formal job shadowing days, or you could explore doing it on an informal basis,” Slusher says. For example, if you really hit it off with someone at an informational interview—and it’s safe to do so—ask if you can join them in their workplace for the day. 

This isn’t just about seeing what a job is like day-to-day: You’re also building your professional network. You can count anyone you’ve shadowed as a connection, so make sure you ask to shadow politely, be gracious if they say no, and thank them effusively if they do give you the opportunity.

“Most jobs are not found through job boards—we need to leverage the people in our networks as part of our search,” Slusher says. “[The summer] is a great time to be building connections in a professional capacity. You don’t need an immediate return—plant the seed, then when you’re ready to job search those job connections could be critical.”

10. 

Pursue Personal Creative Work

If you’ve been eager to explore your creative side and haven’t had the chance to do it during the semester—or if you’re in a creative field and you’d like to have a portfolio of work to show potential employers—there are a ton of ways to scratch that itch. You could start a blog or a vlog, create a podcast either alone or with a friend, do some creative writing for yourself or to submit to a writing competition, make a series of paintings or multimedia collages on a theme, or do some other form of creative work. The sky’s the limit, but treat it in the same way you would an independent project: Set up a specific goal, give yourself time limits, hold yourself accountable, and aim to have an end product.

Know that by taking on a creative project, you’re also working on your grit and resilience—especially if it turns out to be tougher than you expected. “Through the process you can develop a mindset of: I’m learning from this process, here’s why I’m doing it, here’s where my inspiration comes from, here’s what happens when I hit a wall,” Slusher says. “Even if...at the end it’s not what you thought it would be, what did you learn?”

A Few More Tips To Make the Most of Your Time

So you’ve settled on one or a few internship alternatives and you have the beginnings of a plan. What now? The experts we spoke to had a few more tips to balance productivity and self-care.

• Develop and refine your LinkedIn profile. Take the time to ask yourself questions like: What really interests me? What skills are really motivating to me when I get to use them? What roles, companies, and industries do I think I might want to target next time I’m searching for an internship or job? This is the perfect time to build or update your LinkedIn profile with the answers to those questions in mind and add all the connections you’re meeting this summer. (Not sure where to start? Check out our best LinkedIn tips!)
• Start small and build on your work. It could look and sound like this: “If I spend one hour a day working on my resume, then LinkedIn, by the end of two weeks I should see some serious progress,” Slusher says. “We really underestimate breaking things down into much smaller, manageable steps. And summer provides the opportunity to build in some fun reward systems.” Do you want to have a game night with your friends? Take a day trip to the beach? Set up clear and concrete “prizes” for when you’ve completed your work.
• Get help from your school’s career center. Most university career centers are still open during the summer, and Baska says they’re always invested in helping students. This could involve mock interviews, a resume review, a skills analysis, or help crafting a future job search strategy. They can even help students find “people at organizations and/or alumni who may be able to help them as they are exploring projects” or while they’re working on them.
• Practice self-care. Build rest into your process and be gracious with yourself as you work, Slusher says. No matter what you end up doing, it’s normal for you to not meet your goals sometimes. Treat yourself as a friend: How would you love and support someone if they fell short? Learn from the failure and take important lessons from it.
• Stay positive. “It’s competitive out there,” Birmingham says. “Be proactive and look forward. Didn’t land an internship this summer? Start focusing on finding one this fall.”

Katherine J. Igoe is a full-time Boston-based freelance writer and part-time contributing editor at Marie Claire. Previous to freelancing, she worked in education and higher ed, and loves helping students make important academic decisions. Igoe: “I go to the store,” not “Her huge ego.” You can follow her, ask questions, and suggest story ideas on Instagram or Twitter.

MORE FROM KATHERINE J. IGOE

Yutong Chen, a fourth-year graduate student, presented her paper at the Southern Economic Association’s 2021 Meeting in Houston, TX. The paper, “Does the Gig Economy Discriminate? Evidence from Physicians in China,” finds that patients discriminate against female physicians, which leads to gender gaps on an online healthcare platform. Additionally, the platform’s ranking algorithm exacerbates gender gaps via the feedback loop.

A Graduate Degree That Pays Off: The M.B.A.

A Wall Street Journal analysis of federal student loan data found 98% of programs leave students with manageable debt loads

The Columbia University campus in New York.

PHOTO: DESIREE RIOS FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

By Patrick Thomas Follow  and Andrea Fuller Follow

Oct. 27, 2021 5:30 am ET

Borrowing money to go back to graduate school can be a surefire way to get mired in student debt. But one master’s degree appears to pay off for many people who finance their education: the M.B.A.

At about 98% of universities that offer master’s of business administration programs, graduates typically made more money two years out of school than they had borrowed, a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal student loan data for nearly 600 programs found. That stands in contrast to law schools, where roughly 6% of programs had graduates with higher median earnings than debt in the same time frame.

Jenny Le and her husband, Quan Nguyen

PHOTO: JENNY LE

Jenny Le, 29, enrolled in 2018 at Columbia Business School, where total tuition and fees surpass $160,000 for the two-year M.B.A. She tapped savings and scholarships and borrowed $38,000 to attend, assuming she would take several years to pay down the debt after graduating. Thanks in part to a signing bonus she got with her new role as an associate in corporate strategy and development for Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America in New York, she cleared the debt in six months.

“I thought it would be worth it in the long run, but wasn’t sure about the short-term,” Ms. Le said of her degree. “I’ve seen so many others my age struggle with debt payment. It was a better investment than I was expecting.”

Many people who pursue their M.B.A. do it for the promise of a bigger payday, the ability to pivot to a new industry or launch themselves onto an executive path. The high sticker price for some programs, which can range from $100,000 to $250,000 or more once living expenses are factored in on top of tuition and fees, can turn off prospective students, as can the two-year career break required to go back to campus.

DEBT-TO-INCOME RATIO

The federal government allows graduate students to take out a fixed amount of relatively low-interest loans. After that, students must turn to higher-interest Grad Plus loans, which have no cap. Thousands of M.B.A. students take out six-figure loans every year to help finance tuition, fees and living expenses. A small number of M.B.A. candidates at some elite schools rely more on private loans with lower interest rates. The debt figures the Journal examined don’t include private loans, and the salary data reflects only students who take out federal loans.

Many M.B.A. candidates have experience in the professional workforce, so the degree often boosts their existing career trajectory. Traditionally, some students have come from more affluent backgrounds and people who already work in finance or other high-paying sectors have tended to gravitate to the degree, which has made the pool of M.B.A. candidates a financially healthy group, though business schools say they have been trying to expand their pool of applicants.

Juliet Lawrence

PHOTO: JULIET LAWRENCE

When Juliet Lawrence, 37, graduated from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business with her M.B.A. in 2013, she decided not to immediately pay off her more than $108,000 in loans. She opted to put her higher salary and bonuses at Dow Inc. DOW -0.07% into her 401(k) and the stock market while making loan payments. Ms. Lawrence, now a senior finance manager at Dow, paid off the last of her debt in 2020.

“From a net worth perspective, you get more return from that than just straight paying off loans. There was no real rush,” Ms. Lawrence said of investing instead of wiping out loans quickly. “Your M.B.A. pays off, but where are you going to get more growth?”

Not everybody who attends a well-known school catapults into a new income bracket. Bradley Hoefer, 31, borrowed about $110,000 to get his M.B.A. from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business in 2020; he already had about $85,000 in loans for his undergraduate degree. He estimates it could take him 20 years to pay down the debt.

Mr. Hoefer had hoped his M.B.A. would help him leave banking, the sector where he worked for five years, and enter the videogame industry. After a year of job hunting and working part-time to make ends meet, he recently took a full-time job at Citigroup Inc. C -0.44% in Buffalo, N.Y., with a remote start from Ormond Beach, Fla., where he currently resides. His salary of $60,000 a year is a modest increase over the salary he drew before graduate school.

“It was worth it for the experience,” Mr. Hoefer said. “I think there is a little false advertising with respect to some M.B.A.s. People expect to increase their salaries from $60,000 to $120,000.”

Paulo Goes, dean of Tulane’s business school, said the class of 2020 has had a particularly tough time because many companies stopped recruiting M.B.A. job seekers during the pandemic, which is reflected in graduates’ placement and salary.

Debt-to-income ratio

A ratio above one means a typical student would graduate with more debt than income two years after graduation. A ratio below one means the typical graduate has income greater than debt.