PhDProfessionalby Marc Sleiman
All pages in this guide

Start here

  1. Getting out ready: start here
  2. Is industry right for you?
  3. Roles and who hires economists
  4. The five-year timeline

Build your proof

  1. Reverse-engineer job postings
  2. Experience counts, even unpaid
  3. Your technical toolkit
  4. Your portfolio

Be memorable

  1. Your pitch
  2. Your brochure
  3. Conferences
  4. LinkedIn and staying visible
  5. Societies and associations

Communicate like industry

  1. Writing for decision-makers

Apply

  1. Resume, not CV
  2. Cover and recommendation letters
  3. Where and how to apply
  4. Working with recruiters

Interviews

  1. How industry interviews work
  2. Behavioral interviews
  3. Technical interviews
  4. Coding and SQL
  5. Your research and interview day

Offers and first job

  1. Offers and negotiation

About

  1. About Marc Sleiman
  2. Contact

Other path

  1. Getting in

During the PhD · Getting out ready

Be ready before you need it.

Most PhD programs train you to do research. Very few train you to be hired outside a department. This site covers the rest: how to choose a direction, build proof, get remembered, write for people who make decisions, interview well and negotiate an offer.

Written by Marc Sleiman, Ph.D. in Economics · Free to read

Not in a PhD program yet? Start with Getting in, the guide to deciding, preparing and applying.

Start where you are

The right move depends on how much time you have before the market. Pick your year and start there. If you are in Year 5, do not panic and do not skip ahead: the pages on pitching, applying and interviewing will still move the needle this season.

Year 2Explore the options and start building skills Year 3Get applied experience and start your network Year 4Fill the gaps and make your work visible Year 5Pitch, apply, interview and negotiate

The one idea behind every page

Almost every mistake I see PhD students make outside academia comes from the same habit. They lead with the method and save the point for the end, because that is how a paper and a seminar work. Outside academia it is the reverse. People decide in seconds whether to keep listening, so you give them the point first and the depth only when they ask for it.

Hook10 seconds

One surprising thing you found or can do, in words anyone understands.

Impact30 seconds

Why it matters to a business, a policy or people’s lives, ideally in dollars or percent.

Depthon request

Your data, your model and your identification, for the person who leans in and asks.

Your pitch at a conference, your brochure, your LinkedIn message, your resume, your executive memo and your interview answers are all the same skill in different formats. Once you practice it in one, the others get easier.

What is here

Start here

Decide whether industry fits you and which part of it.

Build your proof

Turn a degree into evidence an employer can see.

Be memorable

Get noticed, and stay remembered after the event.

Communicate like industry

Write so that decision-makers act on your work.

Apply

Materials and channels that actually get read.

Interviews and offers

Real questions, what they test and how to answer.

Who writes this

I am Marc Sleiman. I hold a Ph.D. in Economics, with research in aviation economics and econometrics, and an M.S. in Mathematics, and I teach economics at Georgia State University. This site is what I wish every PhD student heard before Year 5. More about me.