Job Market 2007-08

1. Job Market 2007-08 Luigi Pistaferri (Faculty Placement Adviser) http://www.stanford.edu/~pista/placement.html

2. Department’s role in placement • Our goal is to facilitate the match between you and prospective employers (i.e., to get you interviews at the ASSA meetings - or elsewhere) • Once you get the interviews, our job is pretty much over (at least in principle) • What do we do? • We maintain a list of potential employers, but by no means an exhaustive one. It is updated each year with news about job openings etc. (JOE: http://www.aeaweb.org/joe/) • We appoint a dedicated placement staff: a Faculty Placement Advisor (me) and the Director of Student Services (Susie Madsen). Your advisor(s) are naturally involved in the placement process. • We advertise you: We send information about students on the market (CV et al.) to the list of potential employers and post the same info on our website. • To try to sell the right product to the right buyer, we collect all useful information about you. We elicit your preferences about type of job you would like to have (all sorts), and ask Faculty in the Department (advisors, primarily) to provide information about your work, strengths, weaknesses, etc. • We hold a Faculty meeting in November and discuss each student’s prospects based on the information collected and placement strategies

3. What kind of advise we give • The Faculty Placement Advisor’s job is to provide advise on the formal aspects of the placement process and let potential employers know about you • He doesn’t proof-read your paper, doesn’t help with proving theorems, and doesn’t interpret the output of your regressions. He gets informed about your work because it may facilitate placement. • It is your Primary Advisor’s job to advise on how to write and present your research in an effective manner (i.e., one that maximizes your chances of getting a good job) • Your other advisors’ job should also help you with that

4. Timeline • September 30 • You have to submit a final version of your (polished!) CV to me and Susie. That’s a strict deadline. If you miss it, you won’t be on the list we send to potential employers. • October 10 • The Department mails to all prospective employers a list of its job market candidates with CVs attached. • End of October • By now, you should have an almost final draft of the papers on your CV (and most certainly of your job-market paper). It is STRONGLY recommended that you present your work in as many workshops as possible so as to get reactions from Faculty in your field as well as outside it.

5. Early November • Faculty meeting to discuss our job market candidates’ placement strategies. • Organize mock interviews with Faculty. • Before Thanksgiving • Students submit their job application package to potential employers • Between Thanksgiving and Christmas • Employers contact candidates to arrange interviews at the ASSA meeting. • First weekend in January • ASSA meetings and interviews take place • Mid-January to end of February • Fly-outs and (subsequently) job offers are received • March • Some universities and some candidates enter a secondary job market ("Job Market Scramble") • End of April • Market closes.

6. Overview of the process • Employer search timeline • Social Sciences • Economics and govt. agencies • Private, consulting firms • Calls and e-mails are received by the Placement Advisor early in the process • Potential employers may contact you directly to get a package (even if you’ve sent them one already) • How many interviews should one get? How many fly-outs? What constitutes a good job market outcome? • The average Stanford student has about a 25% chance that an application will be successful (in getting him/her an interview). And about a 25% chance that the interview will be successful (in getting him/her a fly-out). • We monitor how many interviews you are getting (so: update frequently with Susie) and try to intervene if you’re falling behind.

7. The Application Package • A cover letter • Dear Prof. X… • CV • List only relevant information • I will provide a template • Letters of Reference • Three or more • You should talk to letter writers ASAP to let them know about our plans • Research Paper(s) • Job Market Paper • Other papers (if completed and if you are sure you won’t regret their inclusion in the package)

8. The Job Market Paper • Many people have provided suggestions about how to write it • B. Hall • R. Noll • J. Cochrane • R. Fryer & C. Goldin • You’ll find various sets of suggestions on my website. Follow them. • The most important rules • “Abstract”, “Introduction” and (perhaps) “Conclusions” are the most important parts of the JMP. Some people read only those parts. • Write your JMP professionally. • Have others read your JMP. Read theirs. • Play the devil’s advocate part.

9. The interview at the ASSA meeting • Practice, practice, practice • They last 30’. • You are trying to sell yourself to them, they are trying to buying a good colleague. • BE PROFESSIONAL. • They’ll ask about your work. This discussion will consume most of the 30’. They will disrupt even the best laid out plan, so do not prepare a 20’ discussion, but prepare a 5’ one (they’ll fill out the gap). The rest of the 30’ will be taken by questions about your future work (prepare an adequate and convincing answer!), your teaching preferences, or to provide reasons why they should hire you…

10. Fly-outs • It means that the people who interviewed you liked you. • Top departments usually fly-out all those they liked, with limited constraints. Small departments follow a sequential strategy (in making offers as well). • Again, BE PROFESSIONAL. • The visit is a full-day enterprise: It starts in the early morning and it ends with dinner. Relaxing during meals can be fatal… • You will typically have a number of one-to-one 30’ interviews with Faculty members. Be professional and courteous with all, even with those who don’t understand the Central Limit Theorem or the Le Chatelier’s principle. • Usually in the middle of the day, you will give a 90’ seminar. This will be attended by people in your field, as well as by those who know nothing about what you are talking about. • Try to strike the right balance: You have to make both kinds of people appreciate your work.