Job Placement
Placement Timeline, FAQs, and Interview Advice
Placement Directors 2024/25: Gabriel Chodorow-Reich and Jeremy Stein
To assist with the preparation and planning for the market, refer to the suggested timeline and FAQs.
Timeline (2024/25)
FAQ 1 (coming May 2024)
FAQ1a (coming August 2024)
FAQ3 (coming October 2024)
Application List Template (use this when you create your application list)
How to Do a Great Interview on Zoom
Zoom Setup Tips: Lighting, Screens, Sound (with thanks to Shengwu Li)
Negotiating and Exploding Offers (see also Advice from Chris Blattman 2014/15)
CV, Resume, and Webpage
CV
Curriculum Vitae Template (6/25/23 version) for Harvard Economics Job Market Candidates (in Word using table layout; turn on "view gridlines" to fill it out) and general information (The CV Guide) on constructing your Curriculum Vitae. Note: The CV template is new for 2023/24 and specific to Harvard economics.
Resume
For those applying to any private-sector job, a non-academic resume is your calling card. The Office of Career Services provides excellent help in the form of workshops and Resume and Cover Letter advice and templates. Previous Harvard students give OCS high marks, especially in helping with Resume writing.
Webpage
Harvard is discontinuing the creation of Open Scholar pages. Paul Millett will work with every job market student to set up their webpages on Campus Press, the Harvard substitute for Open Scholar. Students with other websites (e.g., GitHub) can then add a line (e.g., "see my personal website") on the Campus Press page to enable access to their materials, including CV, JMP, and other papers.
Advice and Resources for the Job Market
Compiling Your List
- JOE - https://www.aeaweb.org/joe/ JOE will be your main resource.
- EJM - https://econjobmarket.org/ EJM will also be important.
Other platforms to search include:
- European Econ Assoc - https://www.eeassoc.org/
- APPAM - https://www.appam.org/
- Chronicle of Higher Ed - https://jobs.chronicle.com/
- American Finance Assoc - https://afajof.org/
- SSRN - https://www.ssrn.com/index.cfm/en/
- Royal Ecoonomic Society RES - https://res.org.uk/
- Academy of Management AOM - https://aom.org/
Writing Resources
Writing well and effectively are important skills. These resources will help.
- Claudia Goldin, The Ten Most Important Rules of Writing Your Job Market Paper
- Deidre McCloskey, Economical Writing
- William Zinsser, On Writing Well; The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction
Tips and Advice (from Job Market Gurus and Harvard PhDs) and More Job Market Facts
- AEA Job Market Committee 2022 Report: Job Market Openings by Sector
- American Economic Association, Communications from the Committee on the Job Market. Some recent information on supply and demand (what else?), plus the AEA’s advice to employers.
- Alex Albright, "So You Want to Go on the Job Market." Reflections, sage advice, and a lot of data from one of our 2022 PhD graduates (and talented holiday party emcee).
- Chris Blattman, Managing the Academic Job Market. Chris Blattman (University of Chicago Harris School) offers some of the best advice we’ve seen. Read it. Some will be more relevant and some less relevant to your specific job search.
- John Cawley, Guide and Job Market Advice (2018-2019 edition). A standard resource in economics.
- Alex Chan, My Experience in the 2022-23 Job Market Come to the Oct. 17, 2023 placement meeting and hear Alex.
- Shoshana Vasserman's Job Market Tips
- Eric Zwick, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Market. Zwick graduated from Harvard in 2014 and is an Associate Professor of Finance at University of Chicago Booth School.
- Anonymous, The Market in the Time of COVID (2021).
- Non-Academic Tips and Advice. Note the advice under “Job search through connections: Who.” You have lots of friends and family – previous Harvard PhDs. If they are working at a place you’d like to be, use them as a resource to find non-academic jobs.
GSAS Resources
The Office of Career Services offers a wide range of services and resources tailored specifically to the needs of graduate students pursuing positions in academic and non-academic markets.