BB Economist like our boy David Kelly?
Other threads about this but not as useful. I enjoy reading/learning about the economy, practical and theoretical work but would prefer to work on the private side. It seems like BA - > PHD -> BB work? I am a rising junior and am lost on what my path could even be. What does recruiting even look like for this?
If you already know that you want to go to private side, you will not make it through PhD.
So would it be smarter to just try and land a gig in the AM division of a bank and work my way through or try economic consulting with hopes of pivoting? I know some people work in the fed then use that to lateral also?
Sure. Fed is fine (heard Fed works even for macro trading). Econ consulting is fine, pretty rigorous work tho, but that's good for (1) lateral into another corporate role (which is your case) (2) getting a rec letter for PhD (given most of these expert witnesses have advanced degrees).
Gotcha, appreicate the help thanks
Sure
I sometimes daydream and imagine myself having done a PhD, worked in a central bank/IMF, then pivoted over to the buyside. That kind of background would definitely help you get in and provide a strong technical basis for FX/rates strategy and the like (which in reality is more an art than science but hey, if you can build fancy econometric models and point to a background like that, people will listen to you).
That said, it's simply not necessary and the bulk of people in the industry only have a masters degree and got all their experience in the private sector. As Dick said; people who do PhDs are people who are academic by nature and are happy to do research for the sake of research. If you know you want to be in the private sector I would do a terminal econ masters (can also be a way of getting a top school on your resume if you don't already) and recruit straight into a macro focused role (strategist or macro investment analyst at a bank/fund, sovereign ratings at a CRA, macro research for a sell-side provider etc).
This helps a lot thank you, do you know what would be a good masters program to target or which programs have great recruitment?
I really can't speak for the US as I'm not from there, but I would think just targeting any of the terminal masters programs available at the top US schools would be good. That said I don't get the impression that school prestige counts as much as in other roles; recruitment seems to be a lot less formal and seats far fewer and less consistently available. I think all you need is a relevant academic background, a demonstrated interest and a little luck.
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