When you apply to present at an economics conference, you'll often be asked to provide a letter of motivation along with your abstract and CV. This is used to decide which applicants will be invited to give a talk or poster presentation at the conference. But what information should this letter of motivation contain, and what's the best way to increase your chances of being accepted to present?

Before you start considering what crazy lucrative job you are going to get with your economics degree, consider this fact: a lot of rich people don’t like their money. Many complain about not knowing what to do with it all, yet simultaneously having huge anxiety they’ll lose it. They moan about their friends treating them like walking bank accounts, being judged for not looking the part, and no longer being able to visit - how to put it delicately? - less refined establishments. Many work like dogs in jobs they don’t find fulfilling to top up the coffers, only to realise they never have any time to have fun with it. And all jokes aside, some studies suggest that, while earning more money than the national average does improve life satisfaction, once you get past a certain salary threshold, money stops making you any happier. (Depending on where you live, this is around $100,000.)

If you’ve ever researched how to write a cover letter, you probably know  that career experts from all over the internet agree you should never address your cover letter with a generic introduction like “To Whom It May Concern.”

You are educated, qualified and consider yourself reasonably intelligent. You have handed in countless papers, proposals, and at least one thesis. You probably have some experience under your belt, maybe already landed a pretty good job with good prospects. You are confident of your ability, ready to work evenings and weekends, and keen to impress. 

With university doors firmly shut, and no indication when they may reopen, educators are becoming increasingly creative with their methods of teaching. Necessity, as we know, breeds innovation. Although, the shift toward online learning pre-dates the coronavirus, its spread is really speeding up the process. With each passing day, more and more courses can now be found on online, allowing students to continue with their studies, albeit from the comfort of their own home. (For advice on how to deal with studying from home click here.) 

Here at INOMICS, we’ve always been dedicated to trying to help you, the economist (fledgling or otherwise) get the most out of your education and career. Whether that be offering you the best new courses and conferences, nudging you towards the perfect university degree, or helping you apply to jobs once you’re done studying, we’re there to give advice and present opportunities you may not have otherwise found.

While you may be used to the daily routine of graduate school or teaching, presenting at a conference, or even just attending one, can be a whole different activity. The preparatory checklist is long enough as it is, without having the added conundrum of worrying about your appearance. If you’re in business school, perhaps you’re used to ironing your button-down shirt and slacks every day, but most academics cringe when they hear the term 'business casual'. But fear not. We, the gracious folks at INOMCS, are here to help.

If you're a current economics student and you've chosen to specialise in environmental economics, then the good news is that there are a ton of job opportunities in this field. With the growing awareness of environmental issues and concern for sustainability, you can find work in all sorts of areas. But what are some of the specific jobs that you could do as an environmental economist? Today we're looking at possible career paths to give you some ideas about the kind of work which you might like to do once you graduate.

Everyone knows about the hard skills you need to be able to succeed in economics or in academia in general: excellent writing and proofreading skills, the ability to extract information from what are often dense scientific texts, and being able to evaluate and analyse data effectively, among other things. But they aren’t the only skills you need to have. There are, of course, the dreaded soft skills – a slippery term that can mean anything from being able to clearly communicate your ideas to another human being to more abstract concepts like emotional intelligence. But what are the most important soft skills to have, and how can you develop the ones that need some more work?

If you're an economist and you're thinking about working in the field of international economics, you might be wondering what kind of career options are open to you. Here are a few suggestions for jobs which you could do.

Brexit may have created a great deal of anxiety and business uncertainty, yet the UK is enjoying a golden period of employment. With more people in jobs and less out of work jobseekers, the UK is experiencing record employment levels not seen for decades. Some of this achievement is down to a job boom in the north of England and in the two biggest Scottish cities.

A wise economist once said of new theories ‘if everybody likes your idea it means you’ve done nothing important’. Provocative? Yes, a little. Its sentiment though, rather than a clarion call for economists to adopt a wilfully antagonistic outlook, is better read as a request for bravery, for the courage to find answers to questions that may upset the status quo. Well, that is at least one possible interpretation…

Parliamentary Research Administrator, Alexandre Mathis, kindly sat down with INOMICS to discuss his work and call for applications from economists to help advise on the EU Budget. Alexandre explained to us in more detail what he does and what exactly it is the European Parliament is looking for.

If you've got a conference coming up that you want to attend, you'll know that there are lots of costs associated with a trip. You'll need to pay for travel and accommodation as well as the cost of conference attendance, which can all add up to a large amount of cash. Often, your department will pay for conference trips, but what if you run out of travel budget, or you don't have this option? In that case, you might want to consider applying for a conference scholarship. These are awards of money given to fund travel and attendance at a conference, usually for students or early career researchers. Often these scholarships will require that you're actually presenting at a conference, but not always - some have different criteria, such as where you are a resident and whether or not you're a student. In any case, there are large databases available to find scholarships for conference; here is a short list to get you started.

If you've applied to do a PhD but have been unsuccessful, don't despair! Although having an application rejected can be disheartening, it isn't unusual, and it can often take people a couple of tries until they get accepted onto a course. Here are a few tips on what to do if your PhD application is rejected. If you plan to improve your PhD application this autumn, download our free guide "How to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics" Browse our PhD listings to find your next opportunity

Given the highly competitive nature of funding opportunities and the ever-increasing cost of higher education, a part-time job is seemingly an unavoidable part of the student experience. Whether it be to earn some more money to put towards tuition fees, or the cost of living expenses or even having a little aside for entertainment and leisure activities, students find themselves increasingly obliged to find a part-time job whilst at university.

Whether you’re still a student, a recent graduate, or already years into your career, mastering the art of cover letter writing is useful at every level. In one form or another, cover letters are a required component of applications to jobs, study programs, conferences, scholarships and many other important opportunities along your career path.

Esteemed economist, Princeton Professor, and friend of INOMICS, Esteban Rossi-Hansberg, generously took time out of his busy schedule to take part in the second INOMICS Handbook Questionnaire. Opposite him, in his customary role of quizmaster, was Professor Marcel Fratzscher, president of the DIW Berlin, and one of Germany’s leading voices in macroeconomics. Keeping with tradition, and as a nod to the heavyweight reputations of those involved, we dubbed the encounter ‘Fratzscher v Rossi-Hansberg’. What played out proved illuminating and often personal, the dialogue shedding light on the inner workings of the mystery that is the ‘economist’s mind’. For anyone even loosely connected to economics the following conversation will make an interesting read.

You know that there are a ton of career prospects open to someone who has studied economics, spanning from academia and the finance industry, all the way to management consulting. A big advantage of studying economics is that it gives you a skill set which is applicable and transferrable to many different fields. One particular area of work open to economists is the non-profit sector. Many are drawn to this sector for social reasons; the desire to make a positive impact on the world. It is a highly admirable area to work in, and something that we at INOMICS massively endorse! So, what kind of non-profit jobs are actually available to economists? Here are our suggestions that may be applicable to you.

All academics know how important it is to get your work published. The journal which you publish your work in can have a big effect on how it is perceived and on how many people it reaches, so it's important to make the right decision when submitting your work for publication. You want to make sure that you submit to a journal which has a strong professional reputation for your work to be taken seriously.

As every academic knows, writing a paper for submission to a journal is a long and arduous process. It is common for papers to be rejected from the first journal that you submit to, so you will have to reformat the manuscript and resubmit it to another journal. This process of reformatting requires quite a bit of work, even when the paper is staying essentially the same and the only changes being made are cosmetic. Every journal has its own rules about formatting such as fonts to be used, margins, the type and number of images allowed, and citation format. To help you with this process, here are our tips for reformatting your manuscript to submit to a new journal.

As we can all envision, the world of cryptocurrency is most decidedly here to stay! Gone are the days of “we’ll just wait to see how things go” as the words Blockchain and Bitcoin more and more common in everyday conversations with both colleagues and friends. But as we look forward to upcoming trends or even attemp to develop a better understanding of cryptocurrencies and how they work, there comes a time when doing a few random Google searches just isn’t going to cut it any more when expanding your business or making an investment. The good news is that online searches, e-books and lunchtime chats no longer have to be your only source for information.

It’s not uncommon for those in field of economics research to feel a little hesitant about the idea of “marketing” themselves. After all, you’re not really selling a product—you’re sharing valuable knowledge so that other people can benefit from it. But if you want others to take notice of that knowledge in the first place, you’ll need to take some steps towards promoting your work.

A recent investigation by British newspaper The Guardian and several German publishers has highlighted the vast number of “predatory publishers” who are operating in academia and are publishing fake science for profit. These publishers invite researchers to publish their work in a journal and then charge exorbitant fees.

Doing a PhD can feel like an all-encompassing task, but it's important for your well-being that you have a social life during this time as well. It can be hard to balance the two, but if you don't, you may find yourself overwhelmed and not be ale to enjoy your time researching and writing as much. Here are tips on balancing your PhD with your social life.