Most students go on the job market during the last year of their PhD studies. To go on the job market, at the very minimum you will need:
A polished job market paper ready to be submited as part of job applications by October/November of your job market year.
Three professors willing to write you a recommendation letter. 1-2 of these are usually written by your PhD supervisor(s).
The ultimate decision to go on the market should be made jointly with your PhD supervisor(s). You should discuss this with them regularly leading up to your last year. You should also keep in touch with other faculty members to secure the necessary number of recommendation letters.
Early Spring before your last year
Submit your job market paper to conferences and workshops during the Summer.
March before your last year
Attend the Job Market Information Session: Discuss website info, and what you do at AEA interviews/flyouts. See presentation slides here.
July/August before your last year
Work on your job market paper. This should be your top priority.
Keep your advisor informed about your progress.
Form a group of friends and colleagues who are willing to give you feedback on your job market paper. We cannot stress the importance of this point. Try to explain your paper to colleagues from both related and unrelated fields (chances are you will need to explain it to people who are not in your field). Try practicing your job market seminars as much as you can
Check out job-market opportunities that have early deadlines.
The majority of job listings are posted on:
Job Openings for Economists (JOE): https://www.aeaweb.org/joe/listings
Econ Job Market (EJM): https://econjobmarket.org/positions
September
Attend the Job Market Info Session.
August 31: Finalize your CV and website (see examples on the links and information page) and send it to the committee for comments. Send to David if in Economics and Christoph if in Econometrics.
If interested, submit your paper for the European Winter Meetings Econometric Society.
Make final changes to your job market paper. This should be your priority.
Send your paper to your advisor (and others) for feedback
Ask your advisor and other professors (e.g. in your committee) to write you recommendation letters. It is important that the letter writers know your work and your progress. Recommendation letters from your main advisors are mandatory. Make your letter writers aware that they have to finish writing their letters before your job application deadlines. If any of your letter writers want admin staff to send letters on their behalf, ask them to send the letters to tisem-economics@tilburguniversity.edu (if you're in the Econ department) or secretariat.econometrics@tilburguniversity.edu (if you're in the EOR department).
Prepare your default cover letter, teaching statement, research statement, and diversity statement. We will email you examples of these directly.
Start searching for positions. Keep track of deadlines and applications you have completed in an Excel sheet.
October
Make the final revisions to your job market paper based on feedback you have received.
Update CV and website based on the feedback you got form us, and send it along with Job Candidate Form to Maria if you want to be on the job market candidate website.
Create accounts on JOE and EJM to be able to apply to jobs on those platforms.
Most jobs are posted in October. Check the JOE and EJM websites above regularly for new listings.
Make a list of all the places you want to apply with late deadlines and get your advisor's thoughts on which jobs are feasible and suitable.
November
The bulk of your job applications will happen in this month.
December
Job Market Signaling Deadline (December 2 in 2024): AEA Signaling Deadline
Prepare and practice your JM spiel.
Prepare answers to common interview questions (see: here, here, and here for example interview questions.)
Attend the mock interviews we schedule for you.
Potential employers will start contacting you to schedule job interviews
If you will travel or not, make sure that you can be reached at the email address and the mobile phone number you provided on your CV at all times.
Continue looking and applying for jobs.
Keep us informed about your interviews.
January
Potential employers will start contacting you to schedule campus-visits.
Keep us informed about your job market prospects.
January-March/April
The bulk of flyouts happen in January and February, but some can occur later. Offers can come up to a few weeks after the flyout.
Feel free to discuss with the Job Market Placement Committee your options and negotiations.
If you don't have a fly-out or a job offer yet, keep sending out applications and don't be discouraged! Participate in the AEA Job Market Scramble.