One Day, One Job » economics

The Economist

Willy Franzen — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:00:13 +0000

I’ll admit it, I don’t read The Economist regularly, but plenty of my friends do—mostly the smart ones. It’s a magazine (they call themselves a newspaper, but you’d likely identify it as a magazine) that stands apart from other periodicals in a variety of ways. It’s not the topics that they cover—they offer both news coverage and analysis and opinion on business and politics—it’s more the way that they cover those topics. The most interesting thing about The Economist is the fact that all of their articles are written anonymously. It’s about “a belief that what is written is more important than who writes it,” but you have to like the fact that anonymity allows the writers the freedom that they need to address topics in the ways that they should be addressed. The Economist is all about free trade and free markets, yet it “considers itself the enemy of privilege, pomposity and predictability.” The Economist is based in London, but they are very much an international business and magazine.

Put the Free Market to Work

I can’t imagine that you could take a job with The Economist without being an avid reader. If you’re already one, then I’m sure that you’re chopping at the bit to see what kind of jobs they have available, and if you aren’t, then you better go pick up a copy or start browsing their website. You’re certain to find yourself challenged in a way that you never have been before. Not only does The Economist’s approach make them stand out editorially, but it also makes them stand out as a business. While many huge names in the print media are struggling—the New York Times is a perfect example, The Economist continues to thrive and grow. This article from PaidContent.org goes into more detail about The Economist’s economic successes, which are even more impressive considering that their parent company (half owner) Financial Times is struggling. So what about those jobs? The Economist has job offerings all across the world, but we’re going to focus on their US based opportunities, which are mostly located in New York City. Potential entry level opportunities include UI Developer, Account Executive – EIU Enterprise Subscription Sales (Chicago, IL), Distribution Customer Service Analyst, Integrated Marketing Coordinator, and Drupal Developer. All of the jobs look really interesting, and you can apply by using the HR contact info on The Economist’s site. If you’re looking for a job on the editorial side, I’m sure that you have your work cut out for you.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you read The Economist?

Ceteris

Willy Franzen — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:19:06 +0000

The way that large corporations operate often boggles my mind. Take for example my friend who worked in the internal consulting division of a massive, well-known company. Despite being owned and operated by the company, his division had to bid against outside consulting firms for projects. There was a good reason for this (it forced the internal consulting division to watch its back), but it still seems a bit ridiculous. Another example of this kind of thinking is transfer pricing (don’t worry, I had to look it up too). It’s the “pricing of contributions (assets, tangible and intangible, services, and funds) transferred within an organization.” At first it may seem that since all of the money is going to the same place pricing things that are transferred within an organization doesn’t really matter. Unfortunately, that would cause all of the accountants in an organization (and the IRS too) to have a fit. So how do companies price these transfers? There’s no external market to set the price, and trying to do it internally can get really messy. That’s when companies bring in Ceteris a “global independent consulting firm specializing in transfer pricing, intellectual property and valuation services” that is headquartered in Chicago.

Transfer Yourself to Ceteris

For most new grads, grasping exactly what Ceteris does is pretty hard. The best way to get a feel for the kinds of projects that they work on is to take a look at examples of their work. It turns out that this stuff is pretty fascinating—at least to me. If you agree, you’ll want to check out Ceteris’ Jobs page along with their Campus Recruiting page. Although they don’t explicitly post job opportunities and they don’t have any campus events coming up, they say that they’re looking to hear from outstanding undergraduates with a background in Economics, Business, Accounting, Finance, Statistics, or Mathematics. They provide a decent amount of information about what it’s like at Ceteris including employee profiles, and they invite interested applicants to send a résumé and cover letter to careers@ceterisgroup.com. The company has only been around since 2003, but they’ve already expanded to 13 locations: Atlanta, GA; Boston, MA; Calgary, AB; Chicago, IL; Dallas, TX; Libertyville, IL; Los Angeles, CA; Mexico City, Mexico; New York, NY; Salt Lake City, UT; Toronto, ON; Washington, DC; and Auckland, New Zealand. It’s not clear which offices have entry level opportunities, but their Locations page does allow you to contact the head of each office if you’re so inclined.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Ceteris?

Intrade

Willy Franzen — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:46:26 +0000

Rarely do we feature companies that aren’t at least partially US based, but sometimes there are companies so interesting or relevant that I have to share them with you even though it would require a serious move (and probably some visa acrobatics) for you to land a job with them. Today we’re going to look at Ireland’s Intrade, a company that runs prediction markets. I originally learned about Intrade from Freakonomics, but I became more interested yesterday with the election in Massachusetts. A prediction market falls somewhere between betting and investing—it allows you to buy contracts that either pay out or don’t based on a given outcome. For example there was a time yesterday before polls closed when you could have purchased a contract for $70 that would have paid out $100 if the Republican nominee, Scott Brown, won the Massachusetts Senate election. The price of a contract reflects the probability that a given event will happen—a $70 contract represents a 70% likelihood.

Bet on Yourself

Some would claim that Intrade and other prediction markets are outright gambling, but I think there’s more to it than that. First of all, the information provided by Intrade can be extremely valuable. Secondly, it can provide a great hedging tool. Imagine that you owned a lot of stock in a health insurance company and were nervous about the ramifications of yesterday’s election on healthcare reform. You could have purchased contracts to moderate your risk. Then again, you can also buy contracts on whether you think Tiger Woods will play in a PGA event before April 30th (right now it’s 70% likely that it will happen) or whether Avatar will become the highest grossing film of all time domestically (90%). Those seem a bit frivolous, but it’s interesting to see the predictive capacity of these types of markets. You can even buy contracts on future tax rates. Economists love Intrade, and so do I. I think that prediction markets will play a bigger role in our life in the future, and if that happens, it’s going to be very good for Intrade (can I buy a contract on that?)—they charge fees on trades. Intrade doesn’t have any specific job openings, but their Jobs page does say that they are “always interested in meeting talented people with an interest in prediction markets.” If that’s you, send a cover letter and résumé to recruitment@intrade.com.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Have you ever purchased a contract on Intrade?

Roubini Global Economics

Willy Franzen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 15:55:33 +0000

Remember that time that you predicted the walk off home run during the baseball game or the fact that your friend would get back together with his girlfriend for the 7th time? Of course you do. It was proof of your psychic abilities. Remember the time that you made a similar prediction but were wrong? Of course not. When you only count your wins and not your losses, it’s easy to have a perfect record. Politicians take advantage of this all the time. The truth is that there aren’t a lot of people out there who are good at predicting things, whether it’s weather, the economy, sports, or any number of other things. Nouriel Roubini may be an exception. He could be insanely “lucky” with the fact that his descriptions and predictions of the current financial crisis were dead on, but you have to give him credit for the amount of detail included in his predictions, like when he said “the United States was likely to face a once-in-a-lifetime housing bust, an oil shock, sharply declining consumer confidence and, ultimately, a deep recession.” He’s very obviously a brilliant guy, and he’s also the founder of New York City based Roubini Global Economics, a company that provides “a uniquely tailored look at the logic of the global economy” for its clients.

Working for “Dr. Doom”

Nouriel Roubini has been dubbed “Dr. Doom” by some because of his dour predictions, but you have to imagine that the demand for his company’s services is extremely high regardless of his scary nickname. Now, don’t get confused. Roubini Global Economics isn’t about looking into a crystal ball or just making predictions, it’s about taking a scientific approach to economic analysis. Here’s what the Roubini Global Economics website has to say about The RGE Approach:

Our analytical approach demands a constant probing of the important questions facing the global economy. When considered and debated, these questions lead to breakthrough economic analysis. Each question is formulated from a constellation of topic and region-specific information sources and augmented with opinion from RGE analysts and expert contributors. Together, these elements help you command the fundamentals and identify opportunities and risks throughout the world.

While heavily focused on Economics, Roubini Global Economics is also pretty focused on being a web media company. Their major website used to be RGEMonitor.com, but it appears that they’re making the move to a new site on Roubini.com over the next few weeks. Both sites have job listings (on Roubini.com and on RGEMonitor.com), and there appear to be some opportunities for new grads. All of the job postings for Economic Analysts appear to require a PhD in Econ, but positions like Editor/Web Producer (London), Web Developer (New York), and Account Manager (multiple openings in New York and London) are worth checking out depending on your background and relevant experience. None of the jobs are explicitly entry level, but Roubini Global Economics puts a heavy focus on interns, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they have some entry level positions that aren’t currently posted on their site.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What do you think of Roubini’s predictions?

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Willy Franzen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:42:58 +0000

If there’s ever a time to be a Bank Examiner, it is right now. What probably would have been considered a boring job just a couple of years ago is now action packed. What is a Bank Examiner? It’s the entry level position at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. What’s the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency? It’s a bureau of the the U.S. Department of the Treasury that was chartered in 1863 to ensure a safe and sound national banking system for all Americans. How do they do that? They have a nationwide staff that “conducts on-site reviews of national banks and provides sustained supervision of bank operations. The agency issues rules, legal interpretations, and corporate decisions concerning banking, bank investments, bank community development activities, and other aspects of bank operations.” I think that it’s pretty obvious that the OCC has become a lot busier in the past couple of years. That’s why now is a great time to check out their entry level hiring program.

Are You Down with OCC?

There’s a lot to learn about OCC before you apply for a job, so you should probably spend a couple of hours on OCC.Treas.gov, if you’re serious about applying. If you’re not quite so serious yet, but you’re intrigued about what an entry level Bank Examiner does, then you should watch the OCC’s Careers Video. It’s a nice introduction to what the OCC does and what it’s like to work for them. After watching that, you should check out their Bank Examiner Careers page. This goes into great detail about the specific position that they typically hire new grads for. The jobs require a degree in “accounting, banking, business administration, commercial or banking law, economics, finance, marketing, or closely-related field from an accredited U.S. institution” or extremely relevant prior work experience. The OCC is based out of Washington, DC; however, they have locations all across the country and often require travel (30-80%) because Bank Examiners are often working in Community Banks. The pay is great, with a starting salary of $47,000, and the benefits are top-notch. It’s no big surprise that the OCC was ranked the 4th Best Place to Work in the Federal Government. The OCC already did some recruiting back in September, but they being recruiting again in February. Keep your eye on the Bank Examiner Careers page to see when they open up applications.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Do you think that we have a safe and sound national banking system right now?

Federal Reserve Board

Willy Franzen — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:00:37 +0000

“May you live in interesting times.” It’s allegedly a translation of a Chinese proverb, but Wikipedia can’t even figure out who actually said it first. Regardless, a job at the Federal Reserve Board should be extremely “interesting” over the next year (at the very least). With Bear Stearns almost falling into bankruptcy, and a lot of other investment banks in trouble, a job in finance doesn’t look nearly as attractive as it did a year ago. Still, if you’re interested in economics, finance, or a related field, a job at the Federal Reserve Board is a great alternative. Although connected to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the Federal Reserve Board is a different entity. If you don’t already know, the Fed, which is led by Chairman Ben Bernanke, is responsible for crafting the monetary policy that supports the American economy.

Whether you were too late in trying to get a job with an investment bank or you’re looking to get a Ph.D in Economics, the Federal Reserve Board still has a lot of entry-level job opportunities. Their hiring process is interesting for a government employer, since they don’t go through USAjobs.gov, but instead have their own system. If you want to be a Research Analyst or Economist (Ph.D required), then you need to use the links we just gave you to apply. Otherwise you can search for current openings at the Fed. These openings are categorized by pay scale. From what we can tell, Grade 22/23 jobs are definitely entry-level, and up to Grade 25 may be appropriate for a new grad. You’ll have to do the searching yourselves, because we’re on vacation.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

Remember, we’re on Spring Break this week, so the posts will be on the short side. Don’t worry, we’ll be back in full force next week.