echoes600

Sounds stupid, no? Well, I'm majoring in Econ at a top liberal arts college, and I was wondering what career paths were open for me. I will be a junior next fall, and I have done two internships, one with a small crediting firm and the other with an international consultany firm. Although I have enjoyed the latter, I was wondering what other paths would be open to me aside from investment banking (I don't think I can take it) and getting a PhD (I need to get a job once I graduate/my math isn't that good so I don't think I'd succeed). I'm an international student as well, so getting a job in the United States, although I'd love to, seems really difficult.
Thanks!

commentcomment

any job related to finance, accounting, or economics

yelena

you are an econ major at a top liberal arts school ,blah blah blah
get your vaccines ready if you don't want to catch the starving economist syndrome.
you being at a top LA won't matter if you end up looking for a job in some places where people have no clues of what your college is.

aquamarinee

If you're coming from Amherst or Williams, then that shouldn't be a problem. A lot of the other "top" liberal arts colleges don't have as good of a name probably though.

TheDad

Second hand, watching some hiring practices, I think top 20 LAC and top 50 research unis are doing just fine. U/Wisconsin? Smith? William & Mary? Swat?

One caveat: it helps to be a top student. As in, either with school or departmental honors at graduation. But that's true in any field.

Treebounders

I don't think the major does anything, it's pretty much like any liberal arts major. The relation to business is important, but the "mental intuition" learned through studying econ is > business relevance. Anyone who's taken the econ gateway knows that half the models are cracked and will get replaced or appended every 10 years or so. Taking the econ major helps you develop a mindset to analyze/breakdown a problem and approach it from the "economist's perspective", which is incredibly important and represents the real value in majoring in econ.

jyber209

OP, my D graduated from Smith on '06 with an econ major and went to work for an economic consulting firm. She was initially aided by her courses in Spanish as they needed someone who could handle their Latin American clients. She has been promoted twice, from research analyst to assistant economist to finally, this spring, full economist. That is the level at which someone with a master's would generally be hired.

She knew that she had hit the ceiling at that point with only an undergrad degree, so is headed to grad school this fall. She has had a terrific ride though, with wonderful mentors/highly supportive bosses, who gave her many growth opportunities, including presenting at her firm's conference. She is getting full funding for her master's program, which would have been unlikely straight out of undergrad school. She does not want a Ph.D. (is really into leading a "balanced" life), so is going for a terminal master's program in applied economics. While strong analytically, she does not love math, but is "good enough" at it for what she wants to do. Her grad program does require a heavy-duty math class right up front and she has spent time this summer prepping for that, having been out of any math class for over three years.

I can only hope that her employment experience after grad school is as positive as her first job after undergrad school. (She would consider returning to her current employer after grad school, but I think would prefer a new location.)

Anyhow, IMO econ can be a good path for someone who has an interest in the social sciences and is analytical. My D would feel like a fish out of water in a business school though (did briefly consider an MBA and ruled it out because she felt it would be a poor "fit" for her).