Job search strategies and outcomes for academic ecomomists: A middle-market view

There is no opportunity like the first opportunity in the job market for academic economists. Yet typically graduate students enter the market with very little advice on, or knowledge about, the search process. Information gathering is often informal and difficult. Previous graduates who had a successful search are not available for guidance. Further, dissertation advisors are too busy and the experiences of new hires to a department are not always representative of the expected experiences of their graduate students. Given the importance of the first job search experience and of networking, it is vitally important to the success of graduates that departments develop formal structures of job search advice and referral. A graduate program that better prepares its students for success in the market is likely to improve its ability to attract new enrollees.