Saturday, October 10, 2020

10 Commandments for How to Give a Seminar

Kjetil Storesletten gave a talk with the commandments for giving a seminar--maybe specifically a job talk. You can see the slides here and watch the talk here

Stating the question you are asking very clearly and at the beginning of the talk is so important (Commandment 2). Yes, this is of course always important but maybe especially important during an economics talk so that you don't keep getting interrupted with questions that are not really relevant to the question you are trying to answer. The fewer of those "out there" questions you get, the more likely you will be to have well prepared answers to the questions (see Commandment 10). 

I would also emphasize Commandment 4: Show the value-added of your paper. Sometimes newbies want to 'over-emphasize' their work by 'de-emphasizing' prior related work. This is not only dishonest, but you may find yourself fighting unnecessary battles. For example, if some well-respected economist has already used your identification strategy to study some other outcome and that paper is now published in a solid journal, then your audience may not make you work as hard to defend that broad identification strategy. Instead, they will focus their questions on why it may (or may not) be appropriate for your particular application. This is probably a much easier battle to fight and it is the battle you should be prepared for. 

Good luck! 

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