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Welcome!

I am posting this advice primarily to close some gaps I have seen in the job market advice information that is available. In the past decade, I have been on the market multiple times as a candidate, and multiple times as part of a hiring committee. When I was on the market, I found the existing job market papers helpful. John Cawley and Sarah Jacobsen both have excellent essays giving job market advice that every candidate should read. However, there were some things I figured out as I went along or afterwards, that I wished people had told me beforehand. With this in mind, the posts on this site are intended to close those gaps, not be a complete set of advice. I would recommend you read them first and come back here second.

I have chosen to write this anonymously. I recognize that not putting my name on it reduces its credibility, but it also allows me to be a little more candid. Given that there is lots of existing advice that trustworthy people have put their name to, I am hoping that the candidness allows me to fill a niche. 

I do intend to post links to this on the economics job market rumors (EJMR) board, and respond to questions people might have about it there as well. It seems a necessary step for anyone to see it given the anonymous nature of it. I am aware that the board is controversial. Despite the benefits that anonymity offers, it has it drawbacks. Lots of pretty offensive stuff gets posted there, and that sucks. 

While on the subject of EJMR, the first piece of advice I want to give is to be very careful of advice you see on that board. There is a dedicated set of trolls who every year try to convince naive job market candidates that they should bring gifts to interviews or wait outside the interview rooms of schools that didn't invite them for an interview hoping to sneak in. I have seen candidates fall for these pranks, which, given the stakes of the job market, is really a tragedy. My advice to candidates is this: if you see any piece of advice on EJMR you haven't seen elsewhere and are not sure about, ask an adviser or someone you trust before you blindly follow it.

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 6, 2018 at 11:43 PM

    OP jerb

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousSeptember 24, 2018 at 6:48 AM

    Didn't realize people were actually falling for the trolls. Really awful.

    ReplyDelete

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