Job Market Materials - 2024/2025

My name is Hanna Glenn; I graduated from Emory University with a PhD in Economics in 2025. This repository contains everything from my job market journey… advice, materials, timing, thoughts, feelings. Everyone’s job market is unique, so this isn’t meant to be the only resource you need. But I remember approaching the job market and still not grasping what it would actually be like, so I’m happy to share as much detail as I can. I applied to every job that I was qualified for (almost 300 applications submitted), and I got interviews for diverse positions in research, government, liberal arts institutions, research institutions, postdocs, and private industry. However, most of my experience is centered around academic positions, especially for interviews and flyouts.

I primarily used Notion (highly recommend!) and Excel to organize materials and schedules.

Other resources for job market advice:

• AEA Job Market Advice from 2018-2019
• Megan McCoy Dowdy’s Teaching Specific Job Market Advice

Timeline

This is a timeline for when the major segments of the job market took place for me. I accepted a job in January, so the end dates could extend further in other circumstances. Prior to the COVID pandemic, schedules were much more rigid around the in-person AEA meetings. Currently, even though interviews have moved to Zoom, employers are strongly encouraged to stick to the same pre-COVID timeline. However, I experienced several early movers and exploding offers. I forsee the timeline unraveling even more in the coming years.

Draft of job market paper finished: August 1
Work on application documents: August - September
Submit applications: September - December (Nov. 15th was biggest deadline)
First round interviews: November - January
Flyouts: November - January

Prior to the Market

Before looking at a single job posting, I spent a significant amount of time processing my preferences over job types. Several trusted mentors explained to me the importance of being able to rank positions before being put in a stressful decision with a time crunch. I found this very helpful, but I also think it’s important to keep an open mind when going on flyouts that aren’t your first choice. Sometimes it’s the gut feeling that helps you make a decision!

First, and most impactful, I ranked the following aspects in order of importance to me. After really sitting down and thinking about it, the end result surprised me a bit. Try to be honest with yourself and disentangle what you want from what you think other people might want for you.

• maintaining an active research agenda
• location
• a balanced lifestyle
• discretionary time
• opportunities for continued growth
• teaching
• building wealth
• a secure/stable future
• helping others
• setting down roots and starting a family
• helping society
• doing cutting edge research
• working with the leaders in your field
• world class resources
• working for a prestigious institution

Then, I filled out this skills sheet. Once I completed it, I connected each section to different experiences in graduate school or previous jobs, and I was able to clearly see which areas my skills matched with areas I really enjoyed. For example, one of my favorite jobs in graduate school was helping undergrad honors students with their theses, and I connected this experience to my skills in interpersonal relationships and detail & completion. I made a note of these crossovers as elements I should look for in job postings/department attributes. This also turns into a useful tool to reference my strengths later on in interviews.

I also took this interests quiz, and I joined a workshop offered by Emory to find out my Clifton 5 Strengths. If your University offers workshops on strengths or personality tests, you should aboslutely take advantage of those resources as well. Knowing about your strengths and preferences only makes you a stronger candidate for the jobs that align with them.

Documents and Materials

The basic items you should prepare before you begin applications are: (1) research statement, (2) teaching statement, (3) diversity and inclusion statement (4) several cover letter templates, (5) CV, (6) website. I will speak in detail about each of these below.

Research Statement

My research statement is linked here. The purpose of this document is to articulate your research agenda. You want to talk about your past/current research, and emphasize anything that signals it is quality research (publications, awards, etc.). You’ll also want to talk about your future research plans. While it doesn’t have to be as much detail, it is good to show that you have a clear direction where you can make contributions. While it seems like a small thing, I really liked the idea of bolding paper titles in this document to give readers an anchor for each section.

Teaching Statement

One version of my teaching statement is linked here. I found that this was the document I needed to tailor to different jobs most often. I ended up with a 1, 2, and 3 page version, and different versions that focused on graduate or undergraduate teaching. I woudn’t worry about having all of those upfront, but be aware that you may need to create different versions later. My goals in writing my teaching statement were to show that I am passionate about educating students well, and that I have diverse experiences teaching in different settings. For me, this included pedagogy and including sample syllabus material. This is not always necessary, and many jobs will ask you to submit a syllabus separately from the teaching statement.

Diversity and Inclusion Statement

My diversity and inclusion statement is linked here. Not all jobs require this document, but it is important to think about what uniqueness you bring to a role. I focused on my experiences teaching diverse student populations, and ways that my future research agenda aims to explore disparities in health care.

Cover Letter Templates

I applied to every job I felt qualified for (this resulted in almost 300 applications). I am aware of the debate on whether to spend time customizing cover letters… to me, it was worth the extra time for the peace of mind that I didn’t get denied just because of a generic cover letter. I made customization easier by starting with 4 cover letter templates that I used as a base: academic, teaching, postdoc, and industry. These are largely similar, but the order in which you talk about things is important (start with teaching for a liberal arts position!). I tried to add a desirable attribute of the department and of the location for each position. The most important thing here is to make sure you don’t forget to change the institution-specific details!

CV

A polished CV is a must before submitting applications, but the good thing is this is a document you will likely not have to change again once it’s done. My job market CV is linked here, and the .tex file associated with it is linked here. Keep this updated throughout grad school so that you don’t have to try to remember everything you’ve done over 5-6 years!

Website

A polished website is also very important. I used Alex Hollingsworth’s job market website guide. I also added a page for interests outside of academics, which I think can be a way for people to feel connected. Most people focus on adding their publications and research papers, but I think it is valuable to put effort into the teaching section as well, especially if you are applying for teaching-focused positions. For example, adding syllabi, student quotes, etc.

Video Presentation of Job Market Paper (Optional)

Many applications have an option to upload a short video of you explaining your job market paper. This can be helpful to show that you are well-spoken and can explain your research concisely. I tried both with and without slides, and found that having slides helped my flow a lot. At Emory, we have a video recording studio that students can reserve that has great lighting and a telemprompter.

I’m honestly unsure if the video actually contributes to whether someone is chosen for an interview or not, but a good quality video can’t hurt.

Recommendation Letters

I asked my committee for recommendation letters in mid-August. I sent them an email including my CV and research statement, along with a ranking of the types of jobs I was targeting. This helps your letter writers know whether to talk more about teaching, or provide a signal that you are serious about government jobs, etc. There are also instances where different versions of letters can be helpful. For example, I had a strong preference for non-US jobs, so my chair kindly wrote one letter for overseas positions to help me signal this.

Every department handles the administration of recommendation letters a little differently. At Emory, committees send their letters to our department admisinitrator who handled them for the entirety of the market. Try to ask your committee members early so that they have plenty of time to write you a good letter before applications begin.

Applications

Once the time frame for application postings start, you’ll see a lot of new postings every day. This can be really overwhelming without a system for organizing everything! I started an excel sheet to keep track of every job I wanted to submit an application for. Every day, I would check Econ Job Market and JOE, the most common job listing pages for economists. For any job that I was qualified for (so basically, not macro), I would add the information to my spreadsheet. This took about an hour a day during peak job market time.

The most common deadline for applications is November 15. It can be tempting to put off submitting applications until closer to that deadline… but this is stressful if you end up have 50 applications to complete in a week, while you’re alo trying to polish your job talk. To spread out the work, I committed to submitting at least 3 applications per day no matter what. I sorted the spreadsheet by nearest due date and would complete the first 3 applications. In the beginning, this was very time consuming as I was polishing documents and editing cover letters. But it got easier over time, and I was able to complete all 3 (often more) in around an hour per day. I was ahead of schedule for most of the market, and didn’t have any stress during the November 15 deadline!

Different departments also have different methods of reaching out to potential employers on your behalf. At Emory, the committee is mainly responsible for this aspect. My committee was amazing and reached out to anyone they knew with job openings. I wish I had done a better job of this, but it really helps to regularly update your committee about jobs you are particularly interested in. They may not know someone directly, but they might know someone who does. I did my best to send my committee an email every other week with 10ish jobs I was the most interested in.

First-Round Interviews

Preparing for Interviews

I created one document in which I compiled a list of every interview question I could find. I wrote out my answers to every single one of these questions and practiced them regularly. Give your close friends or family copies of this list and ask them to surprise you with questions at random times. I was asked almost all of these in at least one interview, so you should be prepared for all of them by the time you start doing Zoom interviews.

In addition to this, you should have several “pitches” completely memorized for interviews. The first is some version of “tell us about your job market paper”, and the second is some version of “tell us about your research/dissertation”. In the majority of interviews, this is the first thing they ask. I prepared a 2-5 minute pitch of each of these questions and memorized them. You want to know them so well that they don’t fly out of your brain in a moment of nervousness (which did happen to me a couple of times!).

Organization

From this point onward is where Notion became my literal best friend. I created a Notion page specifically devoted to keeping track of and preparing for Zoom interviews. In one column, I created a page for every upcoming interview and sorted them by date, and once that interview was finished I would drag it to the finished column.

Within each interview page, I completed additional preparation specific to each job. I would research different aspects of the department, the institution and/or company, and answer more questions about why I thought the job would be a good fit. All of the information I gathered and questions I would answer are shown here. I also sent thank you emails to the interviewers a couple days after the interview.

At this point, you are ready for the interview! Be confident and genuine, half the battle of getting a job is showing that you would be a good colleague.

Random Points

Most of my first round interviews were 20-30 minutes, but I did have a handful of Zoom interviews last 45 minutes to an hour.

There is mixed advice out there about whether to reveal certain aspects of yourself in interviews/flyouts (if you have a partner on the market, if you’re married, etc.). There is validity in a lot of this advice. I generally value the culture of a department more than prestige (gasp!), so I followed my favorite advice on this topic, which is “if you don’t get hired for a particular characteristic that is a big part of you, did you really want that job in the first place?”.

Flyouts

Woohoo! You got a fly-out! This is an exciting time during the market. You haven’t sealed the deal yet, but someone likes you enough to spend money to meet you in person. My typical fly-out looked like: fly in one day, full day of interviews/meals the second day, then fly out the third day. My preparation included coming up with general packing lists (you should have 2-3 go-to outfits that are packable and you feel amazing in), researching everyone in the department, and coming up with questions/topics of conversation. Additionally, review all of the interview question answers that you came up with in preparation for Zoom interviews, including the research pitches.

I created another Notion page to keep track of my fly-outs, which again has a column for upcoming, and then they get moved to the finished column. Within each page, I copied the schedule (if they don’t send you a schedule, ask for one!) along with potential questions/topics for each person I was meeting with. However, most of this page got filled out after the flyout was over. During full travel and interview days, things move so fast that it can be hard to process how you’re feeling. But this is super important because you want to know whether the job is a good fit for you! Afterwards, I would take note of anyone I enjoyed meeting, anyone I got weird vibes from (yes, it happens), and thoughts about the location or culture of the group. This reflection can help decipher that gut feeling I mentioned earlier, which can be a factor in the decision making process.

I am an introvert, so flyouts were particularly exhausting for me. There are a couple things that helped me get through:

• Try to think of flyouts as cool networking opportunities. Even though I didn’t get offered every job after a flyout, I met so many amazing people with cool research interests that I hope to connect with at conferences in the future. It can be genuinely fun to be exposed to people and departments that you otherwise might not have known!
• Fuel your body correctly! The last thing in the world that you want is to go on a flyout and get sick, because when you get home you need to keep doing interviews and applications and hopefully more flyouts! I took electrolytes and vitamins on every trip and I used them often. Drink lots of water and eat well. Also, if you happen to be a runner like me, those marathon chews do wonders for the mid-afternoon interview day slump :)
• I used flights as my “me time”. Working on a plane can stress me out, so I try to avoid that. I took my kindle on flyouts and used that time to decompress a little bit, read, and be calm.

Making a Decision

I hope that you get an offer from your dream position and know immediately that you want to take it! Sometimes it works out that way… but not always. Second to that, I hope that you have multiple good options that you get to consider at the same time. The hardest decision comes with an offer that has a tight deadline while you still have interviews and flyouts lined up. This is where you can look back at your pre-market preferences to rank the options while considering the probability of getting the next job. There is no good one-size-fits all approach to dealing with this, but I found it really helpful to talk to my advisor, who cared a lot about me ending up in a place I would be happy. In the end, you are the one that will have to wake up and go to work every day and live with the choice, so try to be true to yourself.

General Advice

What I’m about to say won’t be news to you. The market is tough. There can be a lot of stress, worry, comparison, and unhealthy habits that develop during this time. I cannot stress enough the importance of keeping yourself grounded. I put a few boundaries in place to try to combat these feelings, because yes, the market is tough, but it doesn’t have to be miserable.

1. I did not talk about the market to other grad students who were also on the market. These are my friends, and in many cases we were competing for the same jobs. I did not want any opportunity for comparison to cause more anxiety than already exists during this time. I expressed this boundary early on, and don’t regret it! We all got great jobs and were able to share in that joy for each other in the end.
2. While the market is super time consuming, there were certain things I simply couldn’t give up in order to stay grounded. I still attended church every week, as I had throughout all of grad school, and spent time with my husband regularly. These things are a huge part of my identity, and continuing them was really important for me to have endurance through the end. Little things like taking a walk every day, expressing what you’re grateful for, or spending time with friends, can truly make a huge difference in day-to-day life while looking for a job.