We had an i-bank recruiter tell us base salary is the same as top b-schools, with bonuses on top. Does anyone know how much this is? I don't know about consulting. Anyone know this?
I know top econ consulting firms normally pay 100k-130k for new PhDs. That is for antitrust folks, I have no idea about other fields such as transfer pricing.
I've heard from the Analysis Group. ANyone know how many people they're hiring? Anyone have any information about how the interview will differ from a typical research university interview? I only applied to a few private jobs, just to hedge some risk.
i had a goldman phone interview last week. i spent a week beforehand studying option pricing. then all they did in the interview was ask me brain teasers. FUN.
If you don't mind, check out this wiki and update the information when you get it. Just so we have something that's easy to read and dynamic. The private sector jobs have not been updated as of this comment, so please post what you know there.
http://www.bluwiki.com/go/Econjobmarket
Be sure to include the JOE link, the field, and indicate any other information that you think everyone would value.
Does anybody know how to prepare for the private sector job interviews? ----------------- I'd like to know too. For example, a quantitative analyst job?
supposedly the best way to prepare for a quant job is to read the book "heard on the street" by crack. i can say that the book did help me in preparing for my goldman interview; however, it also made me waste a lot of time learning option pricing theory, when none of the questions in the interview were that specific. perhaps other firms are more likely to ask specific questions on financial theory though.
This site is not really informative as long as senders are anonymous. It seems fun though (of course for the people who has several interviews. I am not in the market by the way) To be informative, needs information like: school (top ten, or top twenty,..), research area/topic,.. ect.
1:50 I've had first rounds with a few private sector employers who opted to interview me in NY b/c I go to a NY area school, it seems many of them ask questions about my research, but want to know more about how it can be applied to the real world than about the theory behind it. So I'd say you should think about how your research relates to the job at hand and how it demonstrates your competence in the skills they're looking for.
Another common interview tactic is to present me with a sample situation/problem taken from real life, something a bit more elaborate than a brain teaser or crack book type problem. For example one company asked me all about why the var/covar matrix of daily returns for 3 yrs for a large index like Russell 2000 is not p.s.d.
4:46 it's not a trick question, in theory you're right, but in practice it happens, try it, download the full crsp database for 3 years and run it in your favorite statistical program. Interviewer's question for me is: why?
my guess is you're trying to estimate too many terms from too short of a time sample. by construction, the rows won't be linearly independent, and your matrix will be singular.
12:41 AM There is definitely some randomness, not sure how it works at all firms but I saw at one firm that their process for determining who would get interviewed is to have a group of people look over the candidates and each one gets to choose one or two to interview. Most often people will choose those they feel are closest to themselves, either in background, field of study, nationality, or interests, so if you didn't get an interview from a "better" place, it may be because no one there is very similar to you and you wouldn't fit in anyhow.
Just thinking ahead here... Does anyone know what to expect at a on-site interview with a econ consulting firm? I imagine that a "job talk" presentation won't be needed, so would the schedule just consist of 1-on-1 interviews with people at the firm? More case study interviews?
Does anyone know anything about the company reception parties? How formal are they? Is it a sit-down or a cocktail-walk-and-talk thing? Are we expected to stay at the receptions until they end? (2 hours) Two of the companies I'm interested are holding their receptions at the same time. I'm thinking about going to one and then leave for another. Would that be okay?
I am looking for some advice. I do not have many interviews from consulting firms(and academic schools) right now. Should I request my advisor to e-mail some of the consulting firms right now or wait until after the AEA meeting. Calling right now may not be effective because these firms may already decided by now about whom to invite for interviews. I have heard that these firms hire continously throughout the year. So e-mail from my advisor to these places after AEA meeting may have a better chance of getting me interviews. But this is also risky. Maybe these firms hire only once a year. After AEA meeting, they will not hire anymore. So e-mail from my advisor will not be helpful in that case. Any advice or insight on this dilemma will be helpful. Thanks.
Ask your advisor to call and send emails to firms and schools you have applied to. This is the best thing you and your advisor can do right now, no matter what.
I had two office interviews at econ consulting firms to substitute for Chicago interviews. They go over cases with you and see how you address the issues. They both said that if they are still interested that I would be flown to the office I prefer, or perhaps their headquarters, to do an all-day interview where I would give my job talk and have a bout 5 interviews plus lunch. They both said they do a lot of interviewing at the Conference, which I have found to be the case as they will schedule on Thursday and late Sunday. My advisor said these firms usually know they will be playing clean up after the academic market clears, but I would still try to get an initial interview in Chicago if you could.
12:12 I thought the starting salary for Deloitte, E&Y and other Transfer Pricing firms would be right up there with the Economic Consulting jobs, around the 140K-150K mark(Gross)
for transfer pricing. E&Y called three weeks ago, and got email confirmation yesterday. D&T, last Thur. Sorry. I think they don't try to nail all the call in a sigle day.
9:32 AM, when did you hear from KPMG? I got their email asking me to send my resume and then a phone call from their recruiter, but the recuiter told me that another person in charge of scheduling will inform me about schedule etc.. That's last Friday. I don't know if this means rejection.
December 20, 2006 7:19 PM -- Heritage offered me 78,000$/year gross.
Deloitte's AEA interview is 45 minutes.
KPMG wrote to tell me that they are interviewing at the AEA on Friday only, which is almost impossible to accommodate. I wrote back, gave avaiable times, and never heard back. This was five days ago.
December 20, 2006 7:19 PM -- Heritage offered me 78,000$/year gross.
Deloitte's AEA interview is 45 minutes.
KPMG wrote to tell me that they are interviewing at the AEA on Friday only, which is almost impossible to accommodate. I wrote back, gave avaiable times, and never heard back. This was five days ago.
Just received KPMG email saying they have no time slot for me but inviting me to reception. The link of reception information doesn't work. Who has similar situation?
What is the best way to tackle a case? How should one prepare for it? I read a book about it but the material there seemed to be of "undergraduate" level.
Has anyone heard from Lexecon? Have they withdrawn from the job market without hiring anyone or something? I haven't read anyone saying that they have heard from Lexecon.
I have interviews from CRA Int'l, Deloitte Transfer Pricing, Welch Consulting, Bates White, and Ernst & Young. I honestly have no idea what they might ask in an interview. My fields are Applied Theory and Industrial Organization. Program Ranking: Top 15. Female, F1 visa.
Nothing to worry about. They'll ask you the same questions as academic interviewers (i.e., tell me about your research, etc.). Some of the interviewers are from top schools, who did not get tenure at top 30 departments, or who opted out the academia. They are pretty good.
For a transfer-pricing job, your native languate matters a lot. If your native language is used in countries where foreign subsidiaries are active (or have headquarters of companies that operate in other countries), they will hire you. What they are looking for is if the person is presentable and has a good resume (so clietns would live him/her).
FYI, I did the transfer pricing work for 2 years and hated it. I did not get my Ph.D. to do that kind of mind-numbing work, so I went to the market again and got a tenure-track job at a teaching college in the middle of nowhere. Pay is much lower, but I'm happier. If you want to live in a big city, USA, however, transfer-pricing jobs write you a ticket.
I wasn't just into it. I am a macro/labor person and in my dissertation, I used PSID & CPS. In transfer pricing jobs, you simply compare profitability (definted in many ways) to other companies that are listed on the stock exchanges (so that you can get annual reports from EDGAR). So a large part of work is to find "comparable" comapnies, and to justify why your set of "comparables" are really comparable to your clients. I read a lot of annual reports of companies...which really bored me. I felt every day that I did not spend five years studying economics to do this kind of work, which, an MBA or a MA-econ can do. They like Ph.D.s because it looks impressive to clients (and everybody else does that, too).
Some of them may use rudimentary econometrics, but they don't care about what you care (endogeneity, selection bias, robustness).
And marketing. People who can sell more are valued highly, not people whose work is careful and thorough. Actually, I was successful at getting some big accounts, but I think it was not me but the firm's name value.
Does anybody know the salary range for Investment firms like Barclays Global Investors? I also got a Transfer Pricing position interview with PWC. I missed KPMG's call and by the time I called back I was told their interview slots were full and was invited to their reception. However, the link to the reception details is not working.
As for salary, I really don't know. My experience is years ago when Anderson existed. The collapse of Anderson was a big supply shock. I don't know how the market absorbed the sudden influx of transfer-pricing economists.
Good news is that in the past few years, (9-months) salaries at top research universities have increased. If a tenure-track job at a research university pays $90k, shouldn't you expect $120k?
I hope someone who knows the current situation will answer the salary question.
111 comments:
Has anyone heard from the econ consulting firms (NERA, CRA, etc.)?
I've heard from CRAI, NERA, Analysis Group, Cornerstone, LECG.
I have heard from Analysis Group also
anyone know how much the different private sector jobs offer, i.e. what is starting level for consulting, investment banks, hedge funds, etc.?
Has anyone heard from RAND, Federal Trade Commission or Congressional Budget Office?
I have heard from CRAI, Conerstone and BateWhite.
Conerstone sent me email saying that they will discuss a typical case they are handling in the interview, woo woo!!! antitrust, I suppose.
We had an i-bank recruiter tell us base salary is the same as top b-schools, with bonuses on top. Does anyone know how much this is? I don't know about consulting. Anyone know this?
I got calls from RTI and Acumen LLC.
Can we still have any hope to hear from these econ consulting companies -- or are they done calling their candidates?
Has anyone heard from Deloitte FAS?
What is the expected starting salary range for economic consulting, big four transfer pricing, bank's credit-risk assessment positions?
We had an i-bank recruiter tell us base salary is the same as top b-schools, with bonuses on top
Looking at Salary data for a public highly ranked B-School makes it seem like 160 - 200 for Asst Profs.
That is consistent with what I have heard from I-banks.
I know top econ consulting firms normally pay 100k-130k for new PhDs. That is for antitrust folks, I have no idea about other fields such as transfer pricing.
what's your source on the public highly ranked b-schools?
I heard from RAND.
Are they still calling? -- or are they done? Does anyone know their timeline?
If you are referring to RAND, I honestly have no idea. I received a call from them 2 weeks ago.
I heard from Deloitte last Thursday & the highest salary I've heard from Consulting is 180K for anti-trust. There was a big bonus as well.
got a call from Goldman today, guess they're still calling...
Anybody applied or heard from Ameriprise?
applied but have not heard from Ameriprise
Got a call from Ameriprise last week, sorry...
Anyone heard from PPIC or MDRC?
What about Deloitte Transfer Pricing? Anyone heard?
PPIC has already moved. Apparently some interviewers are not going to Chicago and thus are conducting (have conducted) interviews over the phone.
I've heard from the Analysis Group. ANyone know how many people they're hiring? Anyone have any information about how the interview will differ from a typical research university interview? I only applied to a few private jobs, just to hedge some risk.
At private job interviews, the interviewers spend more time selling themselves to you!
i had a goldman phone interview last week. i spent a week beforehand studying option pricing. then all they did in the interview was ask me brain teasers. FUN.
Has Lexecon called?
Has anybody recieved calls from Pricewaterhouse Transfer Pricing?What are the chances of getting offers if you do get interviews?
1) Yes, PWC TP last monday.
2) I wish I knew!
A 'NO' email from PPIC last Friday.
Maybe yours is under review?
Brattle called this morning.
Bates-White is still making calls from what I heard
Last week I heard from Deloitte transfer pricing. I know someone who heard from PPIC, and I got a rejection letter from the PPIC.
8:09AM (today) -- was it an AEA interview or fly out with Brattle?
This is 8:09. Brattle set up AEA interviews at chicago.
If you don't mind, check out this wiki and update the information when you get it. Just so we have something that's easy to read and dynamic. The private sector jobs have not been updated as of this comment, so please post what you know there.
http://www.bluwiki.com/go/Econjobmarket
Be sure to include the JOE link, the field, and indicate any other information that you think everyone would value.
Yahoo Research, anyone?
Got yahoo
Does anybody know how to prepare for the private sector job interviews?
Does anybody know how to prepare for the private sector job interviews?
-----------------
I'd like to know too. For example, a quantitative analyst job?
Just got a call from CRAI.
They are still calling!
supposedly the best way to prepare for a quant job is to read the book "heard on the street" by crack. i can say that the book did help me in preparing for my goldman interview; however, it also made me waste a lot of time learning option pricing theory, when none of the questions in the interview were that specific. perhaps other firms are more likely to ask specific questions on financial theory though.
This site is not really informative as long as senders are anonymous. It seems fun though (of course for the people who has several interviews. I am not in the market by the way) To be informative, needs information like: school (top ten, or top twenty,..), research area/topic,.. ect.
Is Brattle doing a 1/2 hr interview? I have one too...trying to fit it in my schedule...but don't know how long they go..
No idea. their email was very uninformative so I scheduled them on Sunday.
1:50 I've had first rounds with a few private sector employers who opted to interview me in NY b/c I go to a NY area school, it seems many of them ask questions about my research, but want to know more about how it can be applied to the real world than about the theory behind it. So I'd say you should think about how your research relates to the job at hand and how it demonstrates your competence in the skills they're looking for.
Another common interview tactic is to present me with a sample situation/problem taken from real life, something a bit more elaborate than a brain teaser or crack book type problem. For example one company asked me all about why the var/covar matrix of daily returns for 3 yrs for a large index like Russell 2000 is not p.s.d.
lol, what? a covar matrix is always psd for real valued rvs... sounds like a trick question or dumb interviewer to me.
4:46 it's not a trick question, in theory you're right, but in practice it happens, try it, download the full crsp database for 3 years and run it in your favorite statistical program. Interviewer's question for me is: why?
my guess is you're trying to estimate too many terms from too short of a time sample. by construction, the rows won't be linearly independent, and your matrix will be singular.
Did anybody hear from Huron Consulting?
Navigant?
Chicago Partners?
Thanks, 3:54pm. Yours is the most informative message I read today!
I heard from Huron yesterday
Has anyone heard from Lexecon?
Did anybody hear from ABT Associates?
sure, the matrix will be singular, but that doesn't mean it won't be psd.
scratch that, it won't be singular anyway, at least not because of a lack of data. i don't get it.
but bear in mind that singularity does not preclude psd-ness.
Has anyone heard from ERS Group?
Yes ERS Group
last Monday
Somehow I'm a bit confused with this whole process. For me, I feel like it's a bit "random".
For example, I have not heard from places that I thought I had a good shot at. However, I heard from places that I think are "better".
Also, some companies seem to be "equal" competitors. If I hear from two out of three, then I expect to hear from the third one but nothing so far.
Either, my ideas of "better" and "equal" are wrong or the degree of their "randomness" is high.
Any news from Fannie Mae?
12:41 AM There is definitely some randomness, not sure how it works at all firms but I saw at one firm that their process for determining who would get interviewed is to have a group of people look over the candidates and each one gets to choose one or two to interview. Most often people will choose those they feel are closest to themselves, either in background, field of study, nationality, or interests, so if you didn't get an interview from a "better" place, it may be because no one there is very similar to you and you wouldn't fit in anyhow.
Just thinking ahead here... Does anyone know what to expect at a on-site interview with a econ consulting firm? I imagine that a "job talk" presentation won't be needed, so would the schedule just consist of 1-on-1 interviews with people at the firm? More case study interviews?
9.31AM
I heard from people who were on the market last year that you will still need to do your presentation for most of those econ consulting firm.
umm.. What about Transfer Pricing jobs and those Finance/Econometric Modeling jobs? Do we need to present our papers in the 2nd round?
Does anyone know anything about the company reception parties? How formal are they? Is it a sit-down or a cocktail-walk-and-talk thing? Are we expected to stay at the receptions until they end? (2 hours) Two of the companies I'm interested are holding their receptions at the same time. I'm thinking about going to one and then leave for another. Would that be okay?
I am looking for some advice. I do not have many interviews from consulting firms(and academic schools) right now. Should I request my advisor to e-mail some of the consulting firms right now or wait until after the AEA meeting. Calling right now may not be effective because these firms may already decided by now about whom to invite for interviews. I have heard that these firms hire continously throughout the year. So e-mail from my advisor to these places after AEA meeting may have a better chance of getting me interviews. But this is also risky. Maybe these firms hire only once a year. After AEA meeting, they will not hire anymore. So e-mail from my advisor will not be helpful in that case. Any advice or insight on this dilemma will be helpful. Thanks.
To December 20, 2006 11:43 AM,
Ask your advisor to call and send emails to firms and schools you have applied to. This is the best thing you and your advisor can do right now, no matter what.
Has Lexecon called already?
what about MDRC?
I had two office interviews at econ consulting firms to substitute for Chicago interviews. They go over cases with you and see how you address the issues. They both said that if they are still interested that I would be flown to the office I prefer, or perhaps their headquarters, to do an all-day interview where I would give my job talk and have a bout 5 interviews plus lunch. They both said they do a lot of interviewing at the Conference, which I have found to be the case as they will schedule on Thursday and late Sunday. My advisor said these firms usually know they will be playing clean up after the academic market clears, but I would still try to get an initial interview in Chicago if you could.
Competition Policy Associates just called (6 PM CST)
I got an interview from Ernest & Young today morning... so there is still some action out there...
Anyone knows roughtl what thinkthanks pay? RAND, Heritage, Brookings etc?
Anyone got confirmation email from Deloitte TP? They said they would send a confirmation email one week ago, but still haven't got one...
What's the salary range for Deloitte, PWC, E&Y Transfer Pricing?
Anyone could tell me how long deloitte TP's interview is going to take? I got a phone call from them but they never mention how long. Thanks!
12:07pm: my friend told me it could be from 85k-10k depending on the location.
how about the salary range of Welch consulting?
Have you already heard from Welch?
12:12 I thought the starting salary for Deloitte, E&Y and other Transfer Pricing firms would be right up there with the Economic Consulting jobs, around the 140K-150K mark(Gross)
for transfer pricing. E&Y called three weeks ago, and got email confirmation yesterday. D&T, last Thur. Sorry. I think they don't try to nail all the call in a sigle day.
I just heard from MDRC. Apparently, they are still calling.
I heard from Welch at least five days ago.
is MDRC going to the ASSA meetings?
Merry Xmas to everyone!
Has anybody heard from KPMG? And what are we interviewees supposed to do in the reception?
Yes, I'll have interview with MDRC in Chicago.
9:32 AM, when did you hear from KPMG? I got their email asking me to send my resume and then a phone call from their recruiter, but the recuiter told me that another person in charge of scheduling will inform me about schedule etc.. That's last Friday. I don't know if this means rejection.
December 20, 2006 7:19 PM -- Heritage offered me 78,000$/year gross.
Deloitte's AEA interview is 45 minutes.
KPMG wrote to tell me that they are interviewing at the AEA on Friday only, which is almost impossible to accommodate. I wrote back, gave avaiable times, and never heard back. This was five days ago.
December 20, 2006 7:19 PM -- Heritage offered me 78,000$/year gross.
Deloitte's AEA interview is 45 minutes.
KPMG wrote to tell me that they are interviewing at the AEA on Friday only, which is almost impossible to accommodate. I wrote back, gave avaiable times, and never heard back. This was five days ago.
Any news from Lexecon?
Just received KPMG email saying they have no time slot for me but inviting me to reception. The link of reception information doesn't work. Who has similar situation?
I can't link to the KPMG reception page either. But why do they bother to invite you to the reception if they can't squeeze time to interview you?
What is the best way to tackle a case? How should one prepare for it? I read a book about it but the material there seemed to be of "undergraduate" level.
I have the same situation with KPMG as 1:48pm. Don't understand why they invite for a reception if they don't want to interveiw?
Has anyone heard from Lexecon? Have they withdrawn from the job market without hiring anyone or something? I haven't read anyone saying that they have heard from Lexecon.
I have the same experience with KPMG. Has anyone heard from Carlson School of Management?
I thought the job posting for KPMG was for undergrad degree?
I have interviews from CRA Int'l, Deloitte Transfer Pricing, Welch Consulting, Bates White, and Ernst & Young. I honestly have no idea what they might ask in an interview.
My fields are Applied Theory and Industrial Organization.
Program Ranking: Top 15.
Female, F1 visa.
12/30 6:50pm
Nothing to worry about. They'll ask you the same questions as academic interviewers (i.e., tell me about your research, etc.). Some of the interviewers are from top schools, who did not get tenure at top 30 departments, or who opted out the academia. They are pretty good.
For a transfer-pricing job, your native languate matters a lot. If your native language is used in countries where foreign subsidiaries are active (or have headquarters of companies that operate in other countries), they will hire you. What they are looking for is if the person is presentable and has a good resume (so clietns would live him/her).
FYI, I did the transfer pricing work for 2 years and hated it. I did not get my Ph.D. to do that kind of mind-numbing work, so I went to the market again and got a tenure-track job at a teaching college in the middle of nowhere. Pay is much lower, but I'm happier. If you want to live in a big city, USA, however, transfer-pricing jobs write you a ticket.
What did you hate about the transfer pricing job? I also have an interview with transfer-pricing, and want to know more about this job. Thanks!
I wasn't just into it. I am a macro/labor person and in my dissertation, I used PSID & CPS. In transfer pricing jobs, you simply compare profitability (definted in many ways) to other companies that are listed on the stock exchanges (so that you can get annual reports from EDGAR). So a large part of work is to find "comparable" comapnies, and to justify why your set of "comparables" are really comparable to your clients. I read a lot of annual reports of companies...which really bored me. I felt every day that I did not spend five years studying economics to do this kind of work, which, an MBA or a MA-econ can do. They like Ph.D.s because it looks impressive to clients (and everybody else does that, too).
Some of them may use rudimentary econometrics, but they don't care about what you care (endogeneity, selection bias, robustness).
And marketing. People who can sell more are valued highly, not people whose work is careful and thorough. Actually, I was successful at getting some big accounts, but I think it was not me but the firm's name value.
Does anybody know the salary range for Investment firms like Barclays Global Investors? I also got a Transfer Pricing position interview with PWC. I missed KPMG's call and by the time I called back I was told their interview slots were full and was invited to their reception. However, the link to the reception details is not working.
1:20 could you please give us a rough idea about the starting salary at Transfer Pricing jobs? Thanks.
Jan 2, 1:20P
Can you tell us what is the expected salary range for transfer pricing (at big 4 companies)?
has anybody heard from liberty mutual?
As for salary, I really don't know. My experience is years ago when Anderson existed. The collapse of Anderson was a big supply shock. I don't know how the market absorbed the sudden influx of transfer-pricing economists.
Good news is that in the past few years, (9-months) salaries at top research universities have increased. If a tenure-track job at a research university pays $90k, shouldn't you expect $120k?
I hope someone who knows the current situation will answer the salary question.
How are starting wages at RAND or other think thanks?
It's about to start!
Good luck everyone!
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