Speaking for one economic consulting company, any pure theory piece is made better by adding some empirical content. At a minimum, a couple of slides describing how you would estimate empiricallywhether whatever your model shows theoretically would be a big plus -- either how to separate your model's hypothesis from competing hypotheses or how to calibrate your model to make predictions....
I did not write down the names of the two people from The Analysis Group (a man and a woman, and the man was from the LA branch) who interviewed me. Would anyone who has those names and who interviewed there share them? And please, no screwing with my head by giving me names like "Ima Gayman" - my nerves can't take it.
seems like vast majority here are doing econ consulting or TP, how many out here are doing banking and/or hedge funds? How many interviewers got back to you? 3 out of 9 for me, 2 were on the spot.
9:48, I'm reluctant to name names, particularly smaller hedge funds, until I've got an offer, but I will tell you that I interviewed with many of the majors you mentioned, BGI, JPM, GS, also Merrill and BlackRock. BGI and GS did not yet call back, anyone hear from either?
i got a generic email from bgi asking me to send them a copy of my resume, and to upload one to the bgi recruiting database. did you interview with gsam quant strategies (global alpha), or some other group within GS?
re gsam, i have heard through a couple back channels that they are looking to hire. global alpha had a tough year! probably means a lot of turnover, actually.
For flyouts with economic consulting firms, should I expect to get case interviews even if they didn't do cases at the winter meetings interview? Thanks.
It would be great if people who interviewed with private companies like Analysis Group,NERA,CRA and others can write about what sort of questions they were asked during the AEA interviews.
These interviews were very similar to Academic ones. The first 25 min or so were spent talking about the JM Paper, the next 5-10 minutes on other research papers and a few questions about the candidates background. The last 20 minutes or so were spent discussing the company, the nature of the job and answering other specific questions the candidate may have.
The only exception was Cornerstone which spent 20 min or so on a case study. Hope this helps.
NERA and CRA were both like academic interviews. CRA spent almost the entire hour talking about research. I am an applied theory/IO candidate. You wouldn't realize that these guys are NOT academics. Also, most consulting firms had cocktail receptions. These were really informative as well. You get to meet a lot of their staff. CRA's was a grand party. Good for stress relief.
Thank you 11.24 am and 1.19 pm for sharing that. it is good to know that the interviews were more or less like academic interviews. I was wondering if one needs to prepare for "Heard on the street-crack book" type of questions.
Now that we're getting into offer season, may I propose that those who receive offers let the rest of us know (in very vague terms) what the offer is. The biggest advantage the companies have in offer negotiation is that they have a much better idea of what's reasonable. Let's remedy that by posting something like this each time one of us gets an offer: Your school rank, e.g. top 10, 10-25 Type of job (consulting, i-bank, TP) salary + bonus range, e.g. 150-175, 175-200K
If you already have an offer, what's the cost to you? Why not let everyone benefit from the information?
Bluwiki shows that Analysis Group has already started making job offers to interview candidates. Does anyone know in which office/offices Analysis has already made final offers?
According to the Wiki, CRA has made job offers. Can anyone confirm for which offices the offers were made, or approximately how much time passed between the fly out and the job offer? Thanks.
For those who received invitations from Ameriprise, did they call or email? Are they still in the process of sending out invitations or they're done with invitations? Thanks!
1.01P Wow! Can you tell me your school rank? What did you put in the application for the expected salary (before actually getting the offer, of course)?
Congrats on the nice offer, but enjoy the long hours (e.g., spending the night at the office before reports are due) and finding time to spend all that money :)
this is 1:01 pm again.... i am at a 15-20 ranked program. there was no discussion of my salary expectations before the offer. as for the hours, the standard is 50 hours of work a week, spiking during the run up to cases, dropping off during off weeks. certainly less than academia, which, as we all know, is a 24 hour a day obsession....
i don't want to reveal the name. just for privacy reasons. but its one of the top handful of econ consulting firms. anti-trust, intellectualy property stuff. the salary i quoted includes a signing bonus. but, yes, i was taken back by how large the offer was. it quickly changed my job search :)
Another thing that sucks is that you can have weekend plans, and then all it takes is for a phone call from a client on late Friday afternoon and BANG – you are stuck working all weekend.
Oh please, all of you - stop... It may not be what the rest of us have chosen to do, but enough already with trying to rationalize how badly the $175K income would suck because of an occasional spike in your workload. Congrats to whoever got the offer, best of luck... again, not my cup of tea, but it is awesome, he/she will be driving his BMW 7series (or whatever is preferred) and living large in the hours he/she doesn't work (and there will be plenty).
Deloitte FAS – it looks like they haven’t done call backs yet. Anyone know why they wait until so late in the market while other private firms are moving along and some even making offers?
Come on people. We are economists, we know what "cpmpensating differentials" are. Salaries in the private sector are higher because (1) you lose your intellectual freedom of doing research on whatever you like, (2) you lose the flexible work hours, (3) you lose the flexibility of organizing your 3-month summer however you like (4) last but (to many) not least, you lose the title of Professor
My advice (for what it’s worth) to any new/young Ph.D. is to think very carefully before entering the consulting industry. While this industry can be very lucrative, you are basically giving up any hope of having a career in academia. It is very difficult to have any publication record while working for one of these firms. At the pinnacle of your career, you will be managing/directing cases, but will unlikely be the expert in a big time case. Most “big time” experts who are getting ultra rich in this industry are those who first made it in the academic world and who now spend most of their time consulting. Again, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to start out with one of these firms, but just make sure you know what you’re getting into – especially over the long run. Best of luck!
i am someone who is interested in both. my top choice is a top econ department, but after that i would lean towards non-academic work. i think academia is the ultimate superstar market, and, at least for me, i think the career of an academic at a mid-level department is not that thrilling. the students are weak, the pay is less, and your research is only marginally important.
also, i think "academic freedom" is misleading. again, if you are at the top, you have the freedom to write about anything. if not, the equilibrium strategy is to specialize. in many ways, you have to specialize. most academics i know are experts in a very narrow aspect of a specific field. that can get stale if the circumstance is not right....
PWC-TP: Has anybody had an office visit to any PWC office? What does their office visit entail and what is being expected of the candidate during the office visit? Any helpful suggestion would be appreciated.
Consider the following scenario. You have an academic offer AND an offer from the private sector, say a consulting firm. You decide to take the academic offer. Suppose in 1-2 years you realize academia is not for you. Can you then go back to the private sector, I mean the consulting firm whose offer you turned down and tell them you would now consider working for them?
There are a lot of private firms, so I wouldn’t worry about burning any bridges just because you turn down an offer. Besides, I don’t think there would be any animosity. From my experience and knowing people very well on both sides, going from academics to consulting is much earlier than the other way.
There is no standard for on site interviews. In some cases it is like the meetings interviews but more often the faculty members would ask the candidate to describe his/her research agenda (since they will learn about the job market paper at the seminar anyway). Interviews are also an opportunity for the candidate to ask questions. They can be general questions on the department's life, or "what are you working on right now", or "I have seen on your website that you are working on XYZ, would you tell me what is it about? Etc
I also received an offer from a hedge fund: 170k--base + annual bonus. It is a small hedge fund in CT. Where is yours geographically located? I think those in NY and California pay more. i'm from a top 20 school.
In answer to a question up above, if you turn down a job offer at a consulting firm to go to academia, you will definitely be welcome to come back after a couple of years in academia. I'm from the buy side in consulting. We try to keep in touch with people like that if we really liked them.
112 comments:
Does anyone have an opinion on how much I should "customize" my job market talk for fly outs to economic consulting companies? I do theoretical IO.
Speaking for one economic consulting company, any pure theory piece is made better by adding some empirical content. At a minimum, a couple of slides describing how you would estimate empiricallywhether whatever your model shows theoretically would be a big plus -- either how to separate your model's hypothesis from competing hypotheses or how to calibrate your model to make predictions....
I did not write down the names of the two people from The Analysis Group (a man and a woman, and the man was from the LA branch) who interviewed me. Would anyone who has those names and who interviewed there share them? And please, no screwing with my head by giving me names like "Ima Gayman" - my nerves can't take it.
Ben Dover and Pat McCrotch
Has anyone heard from these companies yet?
Got a call from Deloitte TP
3:10 could you pls share the name of your interviewer at Deloitte TP? Thanks.
Anybody heard from KPMG or Pricewaterhous TP? email or phone?
I have a flyout from PWC in two weeks time. Does anybody know what the big 4 companies and BGI pay is for new PhDs?
To 6:37 pm.
Did PwC call you today? (Tuesday) and which office is that(Or just west coast or east coast)?
PWC called me today (this afternoon) and the office is Atlanta.
3:43pm: it's from Chicago office
ameriprise?
any other PWC offices?
What about E&Y?
Which office did you get a flyout for Deloitte?
Anyone heard from RAND?
Anyone heard from Moodys or Fitch?
10.14A
Someone must have heard from RAND.
Look at the Wiki Table.
I heard that Fitch ratings has called, but do not know details.
NERA, CRA, Cornerstone, LECG -- anyone?
Cornerstone just called.
Can somebody talk about how to prepare for the on-site interviews?
Cornerstone called yesterday. Anyone get calls from NERA, CRA?
Got a call from CRA yesterday...
Waiting is killing me!
For cornerstone, 1:00pm/1:34pm:
Would you kindly give the names of your interviewers?
dont remember the names. Two women, one from DC office and one from Menlo Park office - one of them a manager and one a recent hire.
one guy (sr mgr) and one woman (recent hire)...both from the NY office
Thanks a lot, guys, really helpful.
nera, brattle, compass?
Anyone heard from Ameriprise???
seems like vast majority here are doing econ consulting or TP, how many out here are doing banking and/or hedge funds? How many interviewers got back to you?
3 out of 9 for me, 2 were on the spot.
which banks/hf did you talk to? BGI was interviewing massively at ASSA, as were JP Morgan, Goldman, Citadel, ...
9:48, I'm reluctant to name names, particularly smaller hedge funds, until I've got an offer, but I will tell you that I interviewed with many of the majors you mentioned, BGI, JPM, GS, also Merrill and BlackRock. BGI and GS did not yet call back, anyone hear from either?
i got a generic email from bgi asking me to send them a copy of my resume, and to upload one to the bgi recruiting database. did you interview with gsam quant strategies (global alpha), or some other group within GS?
wiki is showing NERA has contacted people. can anyone confirm this saying when they called?
Can anyone tell which office(Chicago, Boston etc.) of CRA contacted for second round of interview and for which practice area?
NERA does sent emails around
I got the generic BGI e-mail as well. My GS interview was with Global Investment Research. How did you hear of the GSAM job?
NERA sent emails out yday. CRA - Boston Office for me.
re gsam, i have heard through a couple back channels that they are looking to hire. global alpha had a tough year! probably means a lot of turnover, actually.
For flyouts with economic consulting firms, should I expect to get case interviews even if they didn't do cases at the winter meetings interview? Thanks.
KPMG, Cornerstone, CRA have given flyouts already. I'm not sure if they've finished this process, but my friend got them already.
Any word from Mathematica?
Anybody heard from Ameriprise?
January 11, 2007 7:21 PM: CRA Washington D.C (Competition Group) for me. Got the call right after AEA's. Sorry for delayed response.
same question, anyone heard from Ameriprise??
anything from E&Y yet?
Huron Consulting? I forgot what they said about timing.
I'm flying out to Mathematica
has anyone heard back from BGI, Lehman Bros, Mellon Capital Management, or Goldman Sachs Global Investment Research?
Got a call from The Analysis Group yesterday. I mention this only because The Analysis Group has had a "Yes" in the wikitable for weeks.
It would be great if people who interviewed with private companies like Analysis Group,NERA,CRA and others can write about what sort of questions they were asked during the AEA interviews.
These interviews were very similar to Academic ones. The first 25 min or so were spent talking about the JM Paper, the next 5-10 minutes on other research papers and a few questions about the candidates background. The last 20 minutes or so were spent discussing the company, the nature of the job and answering other specific questions the candidate may have.
The only exception was Cornerstone which spent 20 min or so on a case study. Hope this helps.
NERA and CRA were both like academic interviews. CRA spent almost the entire hour talking about research. I am an applied theory/IO candidate. You wouldn't realize that these guys are NOT academics. Also, most consulting firms had cocktail receptions. These were really informative as well. You get to meet a lot of their staff. CRA's was a grand party. Good for stress relief.
Thank you 11.24 am and 1.19 pm for sharing that. it is good to know that the interviews were more or less like academic interviews. I was wondering if one needs to prepare for "Heard on the street-crack book" type of questions.
I'll fly next week for an interview with Deloitte Transfer Pricing, what should I expect from that interview? What do they ask?
Lehman Capital Markets and Mellon Capital Mgmt just called, guess they're still contacting ppl
E&Y just called
10:15 AM: Which office of Deloitte Tping called you?
Does anyone know what is the salary range in a place like Mathematica or MDRC?
there is an interesting article on BGI in Businessweek
Now that we're getting into offer season, may I propose that those who receive offers let the rest of us know (in very vague terms) what the offer is. The biggest advantage the companies have in offer negotiation is that they have a much better idea of what's reasonable. Let's remedy that by posting something like this each time one of us gets an offer:
Your school rank, e.g. top 10, 10-25
Type of job (consulting, i-bank, TP)
salary + bonus range, e.g. 150-175, 175-200K
If you already have an offer, what's the cost to you? Why not let everyone benefit from the information?
Good idea -- but has anyone actually got an offer yet?
Also, 150-175k, 175-200k??
I doubt it that we will make that much??
But actually, everyone differs more than just their school rank (for example, some may have prior industry experience, etc.)
So some will definitely get higher offers than others (even from the same company).
Therefore, my negotiation power at a company wouldn't go beyond how much other companies offer ME (and not other people)? Am I right?
Bluwiki shows that Analysis Group has already started making job offers to interview candidates. Does anyone know in which office/offices Analysis has already made final offers?
bgi has started to send rejection emails
According to the Wiki, CRA has made job offers. Can anyone confirm for which offices the offers were made, or approximately how much time passed between the fly out and the job offer? Thanks.
For those who received invitations from Ameriprise, did they call or email? Are they still in the process of sending out invitations or they're done with invitations? Thanks!
i can confirm an offer in consulting: 175k, salary plus signing bonus.... um, see you later acdemia :)
1.01P
Wow! Can you tell me your school rank? What did you put in the application for the expected salary (before actually getting the offer, of course)?
Congrats on the nice offer, but enjoy the long hours (e.g., spending the night at the office before reports are due) and finding time to spend all that money :)
this is 1:01 pm again.... i am at a 15-20 ranked program. there was no discussion of my salary expectations before the offer. as for the hours, the standard is 50 hours of work a week, spiking during the run up to cases, dropping off during off weeks. certainly less than academia, which, as we all know, is a 24 hour a day obsession....
care to divulge the name of the company and/or the office location?
also, did you mean econ consulting or some other type of consulting?
i don't want to reveal the name. just for privacy reasons. but its one of the top handful of econ consulting firms. anti-trust, intellectualy property stuff. the salary i quoted includes a signing bonus. but, yes, i was taken back by how large the offer was. it quickly changed my job search :)
academia Vs. Consulting firm
->
6 years in jail Vs. Life sentence
I used to work for Analysis Group as an RA and a 50 hr week would be a pretty light/low week - for anyone on research staff.
Another thing that sucks is that you can have weekend plans, and then all it takes is for a phone call from a client on late Friday afternoon and BANG – you are stuck working all weekend.
Oh please, all of you - stop... It may not be what the rest of us have chosen to do, but enough already with trying to rationalize how badly the $175K income would suck because of an occasional spike in your workload. Congrats to whoever got the offer, best of luck... again, not my cup of tea, but it is awesome, he/she will be driving his BMW 7series (or whatever is preferred) and living large in the hours he/she doesn't work (and there will be plenty).
Deloitte FAS – it looks like they haven’t done call backs yet. Anyone know why they wait until so late in the market while other private firms are moving along and some even making offers?
Does anyone know if Abt Associates interviewed people at all?
Come on people. We are economists, we know what "cpmpensating differentials" are. Salaries in the private sector are higher because (1) you lose your intellectual freedom of doing research on whatever you like, (2) you lose the flexible work hours, (3) you lose the flexibility of organizing your 3-month summer however you like (4) last but (to many) not least, you lose the title of Professor
My advice (for what it’s worth) to any new/young Ph.D. is to think very carefully before entering the consulting industry. While this industry can be very lucrative, you are basically giving up any hope of having a career in academia. It is very difficult to have any publication record while working for one of these firms. At the pinnacle of your career, you will be managing/directing cases, but will unlikely be the expert in a big time case. Most “big time” experts who are getting ultra rich in this industry are those who first made it in the academic world and who now spend most of their time consulting. Again, I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to start out with one of these firms, but just make sure you know what you’re getting into – especially over the long run. Best of luck!
i am someone who is interested in both. my top choice is a top econ department, but after that i would lean towards non-academic work. i think academia is the ultimate superstar market, and, at least for me, i think the career of an academic at a mid-level department is not that thrilling. the students are weak, the pay is less, and your research is only marginally important.
also, i think "academic freedom" is misleading. again, if you are at the top, you have the freedom to write about anything. if not, the equilibrium strategy is to specialize. in many ways, you have to specialize. most academics i know are experts in a very narrow aspect of a specific field. that can get stale if the circumstance is not right....
its a tough decision, no doubt.
I had an interview with Abt.
I think anyone has his/her own freedom to choose what's best for them (and so do you!)
How about live and let live...people!
Thank you 8.35 pm. How was the interview? also what is your area of specialization? I was hoping to interview with them, but did not get a call.
PWC-TP: Has anybody had an office visit to any PWC office? What does their office visit entail and what is being expected of the candidate during the office visit? Any helpful suggestion would be appreciated.
Anybody else has got an offer?
If so, can you please update the wiki table?
can someone pls give details of the Analysis Group offer?
Ditto for CRA's offer.
Is there anyone who knows the salary range at Mathematica?
Why are some companies (that have already interviewed candidates at the AEA meeting) still posting their vacancies on the Feb JOE?
That means that they couldn't get enough qualified candidates on the first round?
Can anyone please specify which offices of Analysis and CRA have extended final job offers? Thank you very much.
Anybody got offer from Liberty Mutual?
Consider the following scenario. You have an academic offer AND an offer from the private sector, say a consulting firm. You decide to take the academic offer. Suppose in 1-2 years you realize academia is not for you. Can you then go back to the private sector, I mean the consulting firm whose offer you turned down and tell them you would now consider working for them?
There are a lot of private firms, so I wouldn’t worry about burning any bridges just because you turn down an offer. Besides, I don’t think there would be any animosity. From my experience and knowing people very well on both sides, going from academics to consulting is much earlier than the other way.
Can somebody share some experience of the on-site interviews? How are they different from the Chicago interviews? And how to prepare for the on-site?
There is no standard for on site interviews. In some cases it is like the meetings interviews but more often the faculty members would ask the candidate to describe his/her research agenda (since they will learn about the job market paper at the seminar anyway). Interviews are also an opportunity for the candidate to ask questions. They can be general questions on the department's life, or "what are you working on right now", or "I have seen on your website that you are working on XYZ, would you tell me what is it about? Etc
Does anyone Yahoo? If yes, long ago?
Did anyone get TP offers?
(PWC, EY, Deloitte)
If so, how long ago?
Can you tell the salary range? (if you don't want to, it's okay)
Anyone know range of offers for hedge funds? I just got offered 200-225k base + min bonus, I'm from top 10 school.
WOW 200k+ offer!!
congrats
I also received an offer from a hedge fund: 170k--base + annual bonus. It is a small hedge fund in CT. Where is yours geographically located? I think those in NY and California pay more. i'm from a top 20 school.
Any thing from State Street and ssga? never heard from them. Also, any offers from Liberty Mutual yet?
anyone heard from Goldman & sachs GIR?
1:32pm, when did you have your on-site with ssga? I am also waiting to hear from them. It's been weeks. I heard they have multiple openings.
8:43 PM, Did you have your on-site with Goldman? I never heard from them after ASSA. I interviewed with a trading group not GSAM.
Any news from Cornerstone.
In answer to a question up above, if you turn down a job offer at a consulting firm to go to academia, you will definitely be welcome to come back after a couple of years in academia. I'm from the buy side in consulting. We try to keep in touch with people like that if we really liked them.
Anybody had interview with DFA Capital Management?
I just started a wiki page to compile detailed offer and compensation information: http://www.bluwiki.com/go/Econjobmarket_offers
If there are columns to add or subtract, feel free to edit it.
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It is a better system and you can still post anonymously.
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ECON JOB RUMOR BOARD
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