During the PhD · Apply

Where and how to apply

Applying online is the least effective thing you will do, and you will still do a lot of it. Here is how to make each application count.

4 min read · By Marc Sleiman

Applying online, on its own, is the least effective part of a job search. Your application may be filtered out by software before anyone sees it. The posting may already be filled, or it may exist only because policy requires public posting while the manager already has a candidate in mind. None of that means you should not apply. It means an online application should rarely be the only thing you do.

Two clocks

There are two hiring calendars, and you need to know which one each employer follows.

The economics market

Universities, many government agencies, central banks, international organizations, some consulting firms and some large companies recruit through the AEA job listings. Postings appear mostly from late summer through November, with many deadlines in November. First-round interviews happen in December and January, often around the January ASSA meeting, followed by fly-outs or final rounds and offers in late winter and spring. Your department’s placement director knows this calendar well.

Industry hiring

Most companies hire year-round. Some have new-graduate or PhD programs that post in late summer and fall for a start the following summer; these postings often mention “new grad,” “university graduate” or a specific start date. Regular positions are posted whenever a team needs someone and usually want you to start soon. Off-cycle applications are for a specific team, so a poor fit with that team can mean rejection without other teams ever seeing your resume.

If you are applying to both, keep both clocks running. Start the slow processes, such as large firms and new-graduate programs, early, and leave fast-moving regular postings and smaller firms for later, so your offers have a chance of arriving at the same time.

Where to find openings

Use several sources, because no single one has everything. The AEA job listings are the central source for the economics market and include some private-sector roles. NABE posts jobs and, before its technology economics conference, has allowed students to share their CV with participating employers. Your university career center runs events, job boards and employer information sessions, and your department may host recruiting talks from firms that hire economists; read the graduate email list. Set job alerts on LinkedIn, Glassdoor and Handshake with the titles from the roles page, and expect a lot of volume. Check company career pages for your target employers, but be cautious: some postings are stale, and the listed requirements do not always match what the team actually needs.

Use more than one channel for every job you care about

For each role you really want, apply through the official channel and also reach a person. Find the hiring manager or someone on the team on LinkedIn and send a short, specific message saying you have applied and why you are a strong fit. If you already know someone at the company, ask whether they would be comfortable referring you; many companies pay employees a referral bonus, so a referral is often welcome, not a burden. Reaching the team through more than one channel improves the odds that someone actually looks at your application, and it signals real interest.

If you hear back through more than one channel, for example from a recruiter and from a hiring manager, tell everyone involved promptly. The company can then route you to the right interview process, sometimes with the team you are most interested in.

How many applications, and why referrals matter

There is no magic number, but plan for dozens. For the economics market, the Stanford economics department’s placement guide suggests applying to roughly fifty to eighty positions. Industry searches vary even more, because response rates to cold applications are low and many postings attract hundreds of applicants.

What changes the odds most is how you apply. A study by economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, using hiring data from a large U.S. firm, found that referred candidates made up about 6% of applicants but 29% of hires. Referred applicants were more likely to be interviewed, and once interviewed, much more likely to receive an offer than candidates who applied through job boards. They also tended to stay longer once hired. This is one firm, not every employer, but the pattern matches what hiring managers report everywhere: a person vouching for you gets your application read.

So apply broadly, and put your networking effort where you most want to work. Do not wait for one application to resolve before sending the next.

Sources: Meta Brown, Elizabeth Setren and Giorgio Topa, “Do Informal Referrals Lead to Better Matches? Evidence from a Firm’s Employee Referral System,” Federal Reserve Bank of New York Staff Report 568, later published in the Journal of Labor Economics (2016); Stanford Department of Economics, Ph.D. Placement Guide.

Track everything

Keep one spreadsheet for your whole search: employer, role, link to the posting, deadline (check it in the posting itself, not just on a job board), date applied, channel, contacts at the company, letter status, interview stages and outcome. It keeps you organized, helps you follow up on time and shows you patterns.

Measure yourself on inputs, not outcomes. You control how many applications, messages and practice interviews you complete each week. You do not control who replies. Celebrating the inputs keeps you going through the long stretch where outcomes are mostly silence.

When you get a no

Rejection is the default outcome of almost every application, for every candidate. A no is rarely a verdict on your ability. It is one manager, one budget, one fit decision on one day. Many employers never send a rejection at all; silence is common and not personal.

Ask for feedback if it is offered, but do not wait for it. Move on to the next application, message or lead right away. And look for patterns: one rejection is noise, but five rejections at the same stage is a signal worth acting on. If you never hear back after applying, fix your resume and your channels. If you keep failing the technical screen, practice that. If you keep reaching final rounds but not offers, work on your behavioral stories and your questions for the interviewers.