More than 200 jobseekers attended the International Summit for Careers in Economics October 21 in Washington, D.C., the largest such event co-sponsored by NABE.  Five major universities co-sponsored the event.

Some 22 employers conducted interviews throughout the day and these same organizations—private sector companies and organizations and federal government agencies—hosted exhibits where prospective job applicants could learn more about employment opportunities.

Those seeking job interviews or employment information were either NABE members in good standing, current graduate students or recent graduates of one of the consortium schools.  Consortium schools co-hosting the summit were: Boston University, Columbia University, Duke University, Johns Hopkins University, and New York University.

The summit was held at the conference center of the National Association of Home Builders, 1201 15th Street N.W., in Washington, D.C.

The career summit is part of NABE’s fast-growing educational program and its push to reach out to students to join NABE and, in many cases, organize student chapters. [link to chapter news in this issue]  Plans are already in the works for next year’s summit, which will be held Friday, November 2, 2012.

Communications Skills Emphasized

Three NABE members kicked off the career summit with advice on what to expect in the current job market—both in a general sense of skills to emphasize in interviews and more specifically in looking for opportunities in higher demand fields in both the private sector and government.  

Chad Moutray, chief economist at the National Association of Manufacturers, moderated the discussion and shared his experiences that included a job search earlier this year.  He urged students and other jobseekers to look at a variety of job opportunities—including those that may not have “economist” in the job title because many organizations employ economists in different positions that require such skills.

In his own case, Moutray noted that he is the only professional to have the title “economist” at NAM, although there are others there who have economics degrees and credentials.  It is important, he underscored, to look for employment opportunities in nontraditional areas and at jobs that don’t have “economist” in their titles.

“Particularly in Washington, numbers are everything,” Moutray said.  It’s important to be able to translate technical analysis and terms for different, more general audiences, he added.   Policy analysis runs the gamut and many economists, both in the private sector and government, need to apply their technical skills as well as their abilities to communicate clearly.

Karen Kirwan, executive director of international tax services at Ernst & Young, LLP, and Kevin Cecco, acting director of the Internal Revenue Service Office of Performance Evaluation and Risk Analysis, agreed with Moutray’s emphasis on the importance of communications and analytical skills in their presentations to the career summit audience.

Kirwan, who co-chairs NABE’s Transfer Pricing Roundtable, elaborated on how the transfer pricing field is expanding, offering economists options for working primarily in one of the major accounting firms or for the IRS’s Large Business and International Division.  Transfer pricing is a micro area that depends heavily on economic analysis, she said, with professionals working on teams that help clients price their goods and services in their dealings across tax jurisdictions in different countries.

Transfer pricing is a field for applied economic analysis, Kirwan said.  “If you have studied economics, we will teach you the transfer pricing applications,” she said, adding that professionals at firms such as Ernst & Young work across a range of fields and with the IRS.

Cecco urged the jobseekers to consider applying to the IRS as it expands its work in transfer pricing.   IRS tries to pair seasoned economists with newer analysts, he said.

Companies and organizations that participated in the career summit were:  Acumen LLC, American Express, American Institute for Economic Research, American International Group (AIG), The Capital Group Companies, The Conference Board, the Congressional Budget Office, Deloitte, Edgeworth Economics, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Freddie Mac, Gallup, the Heritage Foundation, IHS Global Insight, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Internal Revenue Service, Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, Maxpoint Interactive, Moody’s Analytics, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

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