If you're doing an economics degree and thinking about ways to maximise your career prospects once you graduate, there are lots of courses outside the realm of economics for you to choose from.

Taking the step towards doing a PhD is a big decision, and one that shouldn't be made without the proper research and consideration. Once taken, however, it can be an extremely valuable experience and one that can set you up nicely in the future. Here we consider some of the things you should definitely think about before taking the plunge.

Development economics is the branch of economics focused on understanding and promoting the development of low-income countries through economic growth and structural change. If you've been studying economics, you may have had the chance to specialise in development economics, or you may be thinking about doing so in the future. In the case, what career options are available in development economics, and what kind of skills do you need to get a job in this field? That's the question we're answering today, by showing you some of the top career paths in development economics.

A PhD can be a very expensive endeavor regardless of your background. There are many funding opportunities to finance your economics PhD and they are all worth considering prior to committing to a specific program. Remember that there are options, and that ultimately most graduate programs will view you as an asset based on what you can give back to the program through research, assisting other professors, or even obtaining grants. So, although you’re competing to get into their programs, they should also be “competing” to offer you the most options for financing. If you plan to start your PhD application this autumn, you can also download our free guide "How to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics".

Learning shouldn't only be something which you do in school and university – in order to maximize your personal development and career prospects in economics, further education is always valuable online and in-person.

When you apply for an economics PhD, you will need to write not just a research proposal but also a letter of motivation. This letter describes why you wish to undertake a PhD and why you would be well-suited to researching your proposed topic. But what needs to go in this letter, and what tone is appropriate for it? To give you some ideas, INOMICS is sharing a sample economics letter of motivation, as well as offering advice on how to write your own, so you can maximize your chances of getting accepted. If you plan to start your PhD application this autumn, you can download our free guide "How to successfully apply to a PhD in Economics".

A PhD is a life choice. One of the crucial factors that a potential graduate student should account for is that doing a PhD in the US can be a completely different experience from doing a PhD in Italy, Germany, or elsewhere in Europe.

Our favorite caricature of a post-doctoral researcher: a frail man (or woman) with unkempt hair, hunched in front of a computer screen, with a half-filled cup of coffee by his side. As the coffee gets colder and time flies by, he appears oblivious to his surroundings. He is happy spending long hours at his desk conceptualizing arcane theory on obscure topics the real world does not care about. He is in a state of eternal "tapasya" – meditating on his eternal love-affair with knowledge…because life is an eternal quest for knowledge! Or, so the world believes. Once the PhD has been completed, and freshly-minted researchers decide that research is what they would like to do for the rest of their lives, their friends and family might start assuming that a Doctor of Philosophy is just another armchair intellectual.

The following article first appeared in the INOMICS Handbook 2023. Download the INOMICS Handbook

Doing an economics PhD can be full of challenges and difficulties. Here we look at some of the personal qualities that will help you continue making progress when you encounter a problem.

Although recruiting efforts were initially slowed due to the coronavirus pandemic, things are picking up again. Companies, organizations and academic institutions all seem to be getting back into the swing of things.

Are you currently working on a degree in urban, rural, or regional economics? Are you thinking about what possible career path you could follow once you graduate? If so, then today's article is for you. Previously we're shared articles on top career paths for other areas of economics like macroeconomics or economic law, but today we're focusing on urban, rural, and regional economics.

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?

COVID-19 has undoubtedly brought about fundamental changes in the ways in which we have traditionally approached recruiting. Job recruiting strategies have to be flexible and dynamic to ensure they fit with the current climate.

Lecturers, professors, and teachers spend ever-increasing amounts of time dealing with bureaucracy, box ticking and completing performance reviews, and ever-dwindling time doing the things they joined the profession to do: namely teaching and researching. While this should, and hopefully will, be addressed, for now, at least, it’s the way things are.

When applying for an academic position as a researcher, lecturer, or for a fellowship, a cover letter is usually required to accompany your CV or resume. Stating your particular interest in the role, and showing how your academic and work experience enables you to excel at the job, is the aim of a successful cover letter. They can be one of the most important parts of your application, giving the recipient an idea of who you are and what your relevant expertise is. Essentially, it's the first impression an institution will have of you, so it's important to get it right.

Starting a PhD is an incredibly daunting task. Normally at least 3 years, there are some challenges that you are almost certainly going to have to face during the program. Below we look at some of the biggest (and most common) problems that PhD students encounter.

Being (or becoming!) an economist probably seems like a good idea. After all, you’re reading the INOMICS Blog! Beyond reading relevant advice and interesting articles, it can be helpful to have real data to answer questions about the job market for economists.

This article was featured in the INOMICS Handbook 2017, a new career guide for Economists. Download it here. 

Learning a new language can be fun and rewarding, but all too often it's considered just a necessary part of schooling for children or teenagers. However, learning a language as an adult can bring your a range of benefits, including improving your employability and career prospects. Below we're considering some of the advantages of learning a language in terms of your job or studying.