Employment for International students with a PhD from a U.S. Univ.

[DismalScientist]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if you guys have any idea what the prospects are for an international student who graduates with a PhD in economics from a U.S. university of finding employment in a U.S. university. If the prospects are not good, please suggest what he/she can do to better situation.
All thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated.

Yours Truely,
TheDismalScientist

And Yeah, I should also mention that I am talking about PERMANENT EMPLOYMENT.

[ramlau]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if you guys have any idea what the prospects are for an international student who graduates with a PhD in economics from a U.S. university of finding employment in a U.S. university. If the prospects are not good, please suggest what he/she can do to better situation.

If you want to get tenured in academia, the first step is to end up in a top 30 programs provided you have realistic potentials to survive the arduous years being a graduate student. Can't give you any promise about the employment prospects, but an economics doctorate is probably a pretty darn good degree for a job-seeker, foreign or domestic. If a real economics Ph.D. faces a hard time looking for a job, the economy has to be quite dead.

In this technological age, there really isn't such a thing called a "permanent employment" in my very humble opinion. Things are changing faster and faster, and it's all about the survival of the fittest. So, in short, going to a very top program to get a terminal degree (not necessarily economics) should be the best choice for you career-wise. Alternatively, you can try to get rich first and start your own business so that you can stay here forever.

Ram

[thevinster]

Nationality really doesn't matter. These are highly skilled jobs that aren't the focus of citizenship / work permit issues. Just take a look at the citizenship profiles of random faculty members at different universities.

Ramlau is right-- worry first about *surviving* the program. The rest is much easier.

[DismalScientist]

As far as employment for international students with PhDs, I realize that citizenship has little relevance for such high-skill jobs. My concern was more about the program that you come from (say a low-ranked program even in the 100s or even 200s). Of course, the higher the rank the better the chances for "permanent employment". But provided that one gets a job at a unviersity, how easy (difficult) is it to make it permanent??? I appreciate your response, by the way.

~TheDismalScientist

[JKRIS]

As far as employment for international students with PhDs, I realize that citizenship has little relevance for such high-skill jobs. My concern was more about the program that you come from (say a low-ranked program even in the 100s or even 200s). Of course, the higher the rank the better the chances for "permanent employment". But provided that one gets a job at a unviersity, how easy (difficult) is it to make it permanent?? I appreciate your response, by the way.

~TheDismalScientist

I think the only rankings that really matter are rankings for specialiazation. So there SOME schools where you can get your phd and find a job, even if it is ranked outside the top 100 as long as you specialize in their strength.

for instance

UConn-Storrs - Resouce/Environmental
Colorado Boulder - Trade
UC Riverside - Econometrics

These are excpetions though and it is not easy to find such schools for all fields.

I am not sure what you mean be permanent employment. I think most economist would not like the idea of permanent employment.
If you mean tenureship then I have my own theories. I think the chances of getting a job are definitely affected by the ranking of the school you went to, particularly within the area that you specialize in. But once you are hired by the school then it is almost irrelavant.

Getting tenured depends on a lot of other things that can be hard to analyze. They say publish or perish and I think that is largely true that if you don't publish you will perish. However it is also seen that publishing does not necessarily guarantee tenure.

All this with a pinch of salt of course