The Job Market – or the rite of passage for a PhD student

Apr. 26, 2016

Every year in January, each year in a different US city, a very special process for PhD students in Finance is taking place, called the Job Market. PhD students looking for jobs and faculties in Finance from universities all over the world searching for new Assistant Professors meet up on this one occasion and the pressure on candidates during these few days is intense.

– I remember my own Job Market in 2001. It is something that you have to go through if you want an academic career in finance, but it is an amazing opportunity to talk about your research with the brightest minds in your field. It is a pleasure these days to be part of the recruitment team for the Swedish House of Finance, says Paolo Sodini, Professor of Finance.

Job advertisements, applications and interview processes for PhD students looking for jobs in academia are centralized. This means that a large number of jobs, and a lot of candidates are trying to find the perfect match. This year Swedish House of Finance was looking for two new Assistant Professors to join the faculty.

– During the month of November we screened about 150 applicants with a double review process. Each candidate is ranked by at least two faculty members and we have a long meeting in December where we discuss each of the top 40 – 60 candidates and decide who to interview at the Job Market. We typically interview 30 – 35 candidates and each interview lasts 30 minutes. It is a round o clock job that eats up all three days of the conference, says Paolo.

After the AEA, about ten candidates fly out to visit the Swedish House of Finance. During each flyout a candidate spends a full day at the office to present a seminar on his / her job market paper and being interviewed by the faculty. All of this happens all over the world at the same time. Candidates in high demands are very busy flying and giving presentations across continents. In February, Swedish House of Finance starts making offers trying to outbid other universities for our preferred candidates. How successful you are on hiring students is a good measure of the quality of the Department and it is a very busy time during January and February.

– Typically we do not have a strong preference in terms of research area of the PhD students, we
just try to find the brightest people we can get. The people that we eventually hire can expect a vibrant and dynamic research environment with solid research infrastructure. Swedish House of Finance and the Department of Finance are well located in the global map of top research institutions, with a very strong research interaction program and one of the best seminar series you can access in Europe, says Paolo.

This year Swedish House of Finance welcomes Vincent Maurin and Riccardo Sabbatucci as new Assistant Professors joining us in August! In addition to Vincent and Ricardo, Farzad Saidi will also join us as Assistant Professor in August directly from Cambridge Judge Business School.