Stress management

Everyone who gives you advice about the job market will tell you that the job market is stressful. Which is true for almost everyone. But what is also true for almost everyone and is perhaps more useful advice is that the job market will be more stressful than you think it will be. Most people I know who have gone through the market have had moments of stress, anxiety, and depression that were worse than they anticipated going in. The general sense that I had when I was on the market was a feeling of doors to possible futures slowly being closed one by one, and hoping that one or two would stay open at the end.

I am not an expert on stress management, so I can't give all that much more than a head's up. There is a plethora of advice out there about dealing with stress. I am sure a lot of it is decent advice, but my impression is that there are a lot of individual factors, so there isn't a one size fits all solution. Overall, it is probably best to deal with stress in whatever way you usually do.

Interviews and flyouts
These are basically what you expect, in terms of stress. Assuming you have a decent number of interviews, both the AEA and your flyouts will be pretty jam-packed days of high-stakes meetings. You probably have a sense of how you will react to it. Some people find it energizing, some find it paralyzingly frightening.

Again assuming you have a decent number of interviews, do not plan to do anything but interviews at the AEA. Don't promise to attend sessions or meet up with friends. If you are feeling up to it, you can do those things on an impromptu basis, but you may well find yourself wanting some recovery time, and being in the best frame of mind for interviews is your top priority. In particular, don't plan to do interview prep at the AEA. The last thing you want to have to do is choose between going to bed early so your are rested for your 8am interview and staying up to learn a few basic facts about that school.

Waiting
This is the aspect that most people find surprisingly rough. Unlike some job markets, we don't have a centralized time when all invitations or offers go out. Unlike others, we really have one kick at the can and that kick occurs in a somewhat well-defined time period. Stress-wise, I think this is the worst possible scenario. There is a sense that every hour or day that goes by without receiving an invitation or offer makes the odds worse, but there aren't usually defined drop-dead dates. So will be miserable, and you just have to be ready for that.

Figure out what your best support network is. Maybe you want to spend most of your time talking to fellow candidates because they understand how you are feeling. Or maybe they are doing better than you and that makes things worse, so you want to hang out with non-candidate or non-economist friends and talk about anything but the job market.

If you are doing well, be careful how you interact with colleagues who aren't.  Make sure you don't come across as rubbing it in their faces. At the same time, if you go too far in the opposite direction and are always pitying them or being fake, that can be just as annoying.

The most important thing is that you do not shut down. You must remain vigilant so that you can respond to any invitation promptly. And if things are going badly, you can't wait to react. You have to be in contact with your advisors and on your toes for new listings.

In conclusion, I realize this isn't the most useful post. I know I am basically saying "it's going to suck and there isn't anything you can do about it.". But that is pretty much the case.





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