Need Help, Job for an Economist

V

vtaenz

500+ Posts
I graduated in Dec of '07 and have been looking for a job since then. My problem hasn't been landing a job offer, that has actually been the easy part however in my current situation I need to do what's best for me, i.e. a salary job with benefits.

I've been having trouble finding a job and getting an interview with companies that can offer this and most other jobs I've seen require a Master's Degree in Economics. Most government jobs and everything I've seen are requesting/requiring a Master's Degree or a GPA over 3.0 which I fall short of.

Does anyone have any insight into where I should be looking or what companies I should be looking at that are NOT sales? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
don't really know anything about the company outside of the fact that it is here in austin and i used to deal with them at an old job of mine, but angelou economics is in austin down by 360/mopac. may want to research that and drop in a resume.

also, just in general, avoid getting your credentials to them (or any company) how everyone else does. they have people to filter the new grads down to a certain position but if you get in contact with someone directly, you never know what you'll be able to talk yourself into.

good luck.
 
Thanks for the info, always appreciated.

That is a company I was really trying to get into however they changed their requirements for the position I was applying for. It now requires a Masters in Economics. It was disheartening to say the least.

I may still try to get in contact with them and at least show them what I'm all about. Maybe it will work in my favor.
 
oh, also, isn't an economics degree commonly used to get into i-banking and trading? if so, and you don't have anything tying you to texas outside of wanting to be here, i'd pack my bags up and head to nyc without a doubt.
 
An undergrad economics degree does not an economist make. Fairly worthless degree IMO and it certainly won't get you anything what so ever in investment banking but at least consider a city with better job prospects. (ie anywhere but austin)
 
by i-banking i really meant entry level analyst position to get your foot in the door. i was always under the impression that finance undergrads got the first (and almost all) of the shots, with economics being a distant second. in other words, it would have been infinitely more valuable than my corporate comm degree had i wanted to do that when i graduated.

wrong impression i guess?

anyway, to the op, just call as many people directly as you can in the field you want to get into and by no means should you limit your search to austin. you have to get lucky to stay out of school and even after that most people have to leave once they hit a ceiling then come back down the road (or at least work a lot outside of austin). it is an extremely desirable place to live but by no means a business hub. all these tech companies have a handful of people at the top with the ideas that make $$$ and a hive full of drones willing to work for less to stay here.
 
I always thought an Economics degree was easiest Liberal Arts degree to get a good job with. Is that a wrong assumption (I can't think of any other major except Arabic or Pashtun language studies that would land job offers more than Economics)?
 
Dont snub your nose at a Sales position. This is the best place to learn a company and compete for management/leadership roles as your career progresses. As a young man, the opportunity for a larger salary is going to be in sales, compared with being a "economist."

Broaden your scope. If you are dead set on being Alan Greenspan, go back to school and make good grades.
 
fwiw, I got my BA in Economics and didn't do jack with it. You really need a graduate degree to get any traction with it. I ended up getting into IT and haven't been able to claw my way out yet
wink.gif
 
Exactly what type of job are you looking for?

Are you looking for an 'economics' based job or just any job with salary and benefits? I agree that there are little or no "economics" jobs that you can roll into with just an undergrad degree.

However, there are many types of job that you can land depending on the type of economics degree or courses that you took.

Did you take more of the qualitative courses or more of quantitative course taught by Dr. Tomlinson or Dr. Norman.?
 
My focus was more in an analytical type position. Issues in Business Economics, Personnel Economics, Financial Economics, etc. I think I would tend more toward a forecasting or analysis position dealing with a team looking over stats, figures and coming up with a solution to a given problem.
 
So why not "consulting" - what you described is what we consultants do...look over data, evaluate options, quantify risk and trade-offs and make a recommendation with an understanding of the operating and financial implications.

I suppose the GPA thing might be issue, huh?
 
Most consulting positions I've been offered are really straight up sales jobs, with no consulting to be had. My definition of the word consulting seems to be in line with yours though. Everything that's been offered thus far claiming to be consulting is really door-to-door type sales.

I may be short sighted though because if real consulting jobs do exist and they are called that I'll do more research into finding one because I had to this point kind of written it off because all I was finding with that tag attached to it was straight sales.
 
Another option, which you may not like, is to go back for another semester, and take some easier courses ti increase your GPA. Probably best to stick with math and economics courses.

as stated above most places, but especially in governemnt jobs have oneperson look over the initial resume and discard those who don't meet the minimum requirements. Even if you got your GPA to a 3.01, you'll pass the first person.

The second person will look at your resume as a whole. For instance, if you have one guy with a GPA of a 3.5, and another with the 3.01, but the 3.01 has work experience, voluteer experience, or things, the 3.01 would be a better fit than the 3.5 guy.

If you make it to an interview, the GPA almost doesn't matter anymore.

Also, look at other cities. Dallas has the Federal Reserve Bank. But also has the headquarters of Exxon, tons of telecomunications companies, even several retail HQ (Chli's, Pizza Hut), that all have huge research departments. I would assume Houston would have at least as many, plus shipping and freight HQ. With all these, most banks have there Region HQ in either Dallas or Houston (or both).
 
I would move to Houston and not look back. Take pretty much any job that is analytical / quantitative. Suck it up for a year or two...in the process opportunities will present themselves. I wouldnt wait either... pack it up.

Yea, I think an IB job can be had with an economics degree. Actually Id guess there are a lot of them...Just not that many from the University of Texas, and even fewer (zero) with sub 3.0 GPAs.

From what I understand, ExxonMobil is based in Dallas but not very many people work there...I think there are only something like 600 people at the corporate headquarters.
The majority are in fairfax, va and houston i believe. Also, you will need a 3.5+ to land a job there...and there arent many if any for an Econ major...
 
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