Economics Job Market Advice

 It's vary common to try to evaluate how interviews went in an attempt to figure out how good your chances are of moving on to the next stage. It seems to be a common topic of conversation among candidates. And when I was on the market, my advisors asked me to tell them a lot of details about each interview so they could figure out where I had the best chances.  In my view, this is a fool's errand. Here's why: Most of the differences you perceive between interviews are interviewer "fixed effects" that are constant across interviews they perform. That one interviewer who seemed very suspicious of your identification strategy and interrogated you extensively about it probably interrogated a lot of candidates they interviewed about what she thought were the weakest points in each paper. For all you know, she was very happy with how you answered her and has you at the top of the list. That other interviewer who was very positive and upbeat about everything was probabl...

 I wrote most of the posts prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. I think a lot of of it holds up, and which parts that don't (e.g. winter clothes at the AEA) are obvious. Now that almost all first round interviews are conducted virtually, I wanted to write a post specifically addressing these. 1. Practice specifically for virtual interviews. During my pre-pandemic market, I had 3 or 4 virtual interviews. All of my practice interviews were face-to-face, and that made me a lot less prepared for virtual interviews than I thought I was. My worst interviews were the first couple virtual interviews, and I don't believe that was a coincidence. If your school conducts practice interviews, see if you can do one over Zoom. If not, do practice interviews over Zoom with colleagues. 2. Conduct it as professionally as possible. This is an interview. Not a casual "let's hop on a Zoom". Wear a suit. Have a professional looking background. Make sure you are using a good quality camera a...