It's Practice Job Talk Season: How to Prepare for Criticism

I just saw this on twitter:

"The best way to prepare for criticism is to write down what you expect to hear.
Negative feedback stings less when you see it coming.
The comments you didn't anticipate are an opportunity to learn about your blind spots."

--Adam Grant #WednesdayWisdom

You will probably never be able to produce a paper that is criticism-proof. If you keep waiting to think of a criticism-proof idea, you probably will never write anything. That said, keep in mind that it is your responsibility to know the pitfalls of your paper and to be prepared to answer questions about those concerns. If those exact concerns come up during your seminar, then congratulate yourself--your audience understands what you're doing! And is not asleep! If other things come up, then you know you have other problems to worry about, too. It's a good thing you still have time to improve before your actual job talks or you send the paper out to a journal. 

And When Should You Just Give Up on a Paper?

Yes, I love writing inspirational posts about getting back on the saddle after a journal rejection, never giving up, work hard to make the paper better, etc. Even the thought of giving up on a paper hurts my heart. We work so hard on all of our papers--we watch them grown from just an idea, to a few tables, to an actual completed paper. How can we give up on any of them? They're all our babies! 

Conclusion: don't give up on them. But it's fine to let them rest for a while. While you work on other things. It may be that the time away can clear your head. You may come up with a better way to motivate the analysis or a nice empirical method to address identification issues. When you get back to it, you may just be more excited to work on the project. 

Academic Sequitur has a really nice blog entry to help you decide whether it's time to store a paper in the filing cabinet for a while. What I like best about the advice is the emphasis on point that you should only put a paper in the filing cabinet if you have more promising papers to work on in the meantime. I also like the part at the end that all papers get annoying after a while (especially after a few rejections)---you can't afford to give up on all of them. 

I would add one small note: be mindful of your coauthors. They have worked on the paper quite a bit a bit, too. Even if it may make sense for you to work on other projects, it may not be fair to them. 

Job Market Season: Jobs in Industry

I just saw this very interesting perspective on the difference between academic and industry jobs on twitter (see @xanvong). I had never thought of "battling procrastination" as an important aspect of my job, but now that I think about it, the struggle is real! In fact, now that I think about it, a related struggle is worrying about which projects to work on, should I respond to a coauthor or should write a new problem set today, etc. Maybe I should write a blog entry instead. ;)  

Also, the pay is different. People don't like to talk about that but it does have an impact on people's lives. 

Job Market Season: Liberal Arts Colleges

One thing I've learned about the job market for PhD economists: There are many different types of really cool, satisfying different jobs out there! They are different, for sure, but each with their special advantages and disadvantages. I'd say that it's all about finding the perfect match, but actually, I can imagine I'd match well with many different types of jobs. Maybe you would, too. 

See this blog entry about doing development economics at a small liberal arts college. 

Main takeaways in my view: 

1. There is a lot heterogeneity among liberal arts colleges---try to get to know the specifics about the different departments you're considering. 
2. They care about teaching. Teaching loads may or may not differ from research universities, but quality teaching is emphasized. If you hate teaching, this probably isn't for you.