During the PhD · Start here

The five-year timeline

Work backward from the market. If Year 5 is when you apply, Year 4 is your last real year to build anything.

3 min read · By Marc Sleiman

The goal of this timeline is not to turn every PhD student into an industry candidate. It is to make sure that the students who want that option have actually built it before Year 5. The single most useful rule is this: Year 5 is for execution. You apply, interview, present and finish. If you discover a major gap in Year 5, it is usually too late to fill it. That makes Year 4 your last full year to build.

The five-year timeline and matrix on this page are adapted from a framework shared with me by Carlianne Patrick, Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School. I am grateful for her generosity in sharing it.

The matrix

Read each row from left to right. The verbs change on purpose: they move from exploring, to building, to proving, to using what you already have.

Year 2: explore

You are deep in field courses and probably looking for a dissertation topic. That is fine, and you do not need to sacrifice it. Set aside a small, steady amount of time for three things. First, collect ten to fifteen job postings that look interesting and analyze them. Second, start the technical foundation those postings keep asking for, usually Python or R and SQL. Third, start talking to people: alumni of your program, economists in industry, anyone doing work you find interesting. Year 2 summer is an excellent time to explore with a short internship or a small applied project.

Year 3: build

This is the year to prioritize applied experience. The summer after Year 3 is usually the best internship window in a five-year program: you have enough skills to be useful, and you still have time to bring what you learn back into your research and your resume. Draft your first non-academic resume this year, even if it is rough, because writing it shows you what you are missing. Keep building your network steadily rather than in bursts.

Year 4: position

Fill the gaps you found in Year 3. Make your applied work visible with a portfolio. Finalize your resume and decide when you will use a resume and when a CV. Start practicing interviews out loud, especially behavioral and technical ones. Write your pitch and test it on people outside your field. Get your job-market paper to a state where you could present it. A Year 4 summer internship can still help, but only if it does not cost you the paper.

Year 5: execute

Tailor your applications, activate the network you built, interview, present, negotiate and finish. Keep in mind that there are two clocks. The economics market, through the AEA job listings, runs mostly from fall postings to winter interviews to offers in late winter and spring. Industry hiring runs year-round: new-graduate programs often post in late summer and fall for a start the following summer, while regular positions appear any time and usually want you to start soon. If you are applying to both, keep both clocks running.

Before you enter the market, you should be able to say…

Use this as a checklist at the start of Year 5. If you cannot honestly say each one, you know what to fix first.

• I can name three or four job families I would seriously consider, and organizations that hire for them.
• I know the skills and experience those jobs repeatedly require.
• I have at least one credible example of applied work that I can show.
• I have a resume for roles that expect one, and I know when an employer prefers a CV.
• I can explain my dissertation to a technical audience and to a non-academic audience.
• I have practiced behavioral and technical interviews out loud, with another person.
• I have professional contacts that I built before I needed a job.