I’m an economist. I’ve taught at a university, worked for a think tank, and worked for government agencies. I’ve never particularly liked any of them and am now searching for a new career (I’m still plenty young, i.e. < 30).
Teaching at a University is probably the best, but I’m only an average instructor. I get frustrated teaching students that don’t get ideas as quickly as I would like them to and it’s exhausting.
I don’t care much for research. This can either be cause of ego (I want to make big discoveries, not small incremental ones), because I’m inherently skeptical of my results (I have some qualms with statistical hubris), or because I don’t have that je ne sais quoi that true researchers have.
Think tanks and government agencies were too political for me, although in surprising ways which I won’t go into.
As an economics graduate student trying to decide between academia, think tanks, government, and the private sector, I would appreciate it if you could expand on this. In particular, I wonder which jobs have the most novelty (not always teaching the same class or working with the same data), which encourage you to do more/better work, and which have the highest quality colleagues (rated on intelligence or friendliness).
I’m an economist. I’ve taught at a university, worked for a think tank, and worked for government agencies. I’ve never particularly liked any of them and am now searching for a new career (I’m still plenty young, i.e. < 30).
Teaching at a University is probably the best, but I’m only an average instructor. I get frustrated teaching students that don’t get ideas as quickly as I would like them to and it’s exhausting.
I don’t care much for research. This can either be cause of ego (I want to make big discoveries, not small incremental ones), because I’m inherently skeptical of my results (I have some qualms with statistical hubris), or because I don’t have that je ne sais quoi that true researchers have.
Think tanks and government agencies were too political for me, although in surprising ways which I won’t go into.
As an economics graduate student trying to decide between academia, think tanks, government, and the private sector, I would appreciate it if you could expand on this. In particular, I wonder which jobs have the most novelty (not always teaching the same class or working with the same data), which encourage you to do more/better work, and which have the highest quality colleagues (rated on intelligence or friendliness).