segnoesogno Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 Hello everybody! I know in this period you are all waiting for the admission decisions for Ph.D., but I was wondering... Is there anybody who applied for R.A. field position at the Poverty Action Lab at MIT? Did you hear back? Thank you! Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
economics Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 how useful are these positions? are they just looking for secretaries, or do you actually learn anything with field work? (other than how to run field experiments, obv) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrobles Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 If you are interested in development I think these positions are the best you can get in terms of research experience. You learn how to run a project in the field, but you also do a lot of study design and working with data sets (cleaning and preliminary analysis). You get way more responsibility than any other job I've seen coming out of school since you are the point person on the project and you're thousands of miles away from the professors and grad students you are working with. You also get to work fairly closely with really prominent economics professors, and you are up to date on a lot of the most recent research in development. I know I'm gushing, but I really liked this job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
economics Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 well, you get experience with field experiments and project evaluations, which are en vogue right now, but which may succumb to the fate of lab experiments and go out of fashion within the next five years... maybe i am too cynical here. does anyone have experience with the cambridge-based positions? they seem to be more substantial in terms of economic research (vs practical research, which i still deem fun) furthermore, how much does such a position help or hurt you in the subsequent application process? on the one hand, you signal that you care about ec, on the other hand, this is a typical job that a reapplicant is doing to boost his/her profile - which bodes badly for the application? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
changuey Posted February 11, 2009 Share Posted February 11, 2009 I think they would be a great step between undergrad and grad. I do not know if a jpal job would boost your app directly (ie from putting in on your cv or work experience), but I strongly feel that it would not hurt you at all and that it could help you indirectly because of letters of rec. The only thing is that the minimum commitments are usually at least a year. If it were a profit-oriented company, I might think about pretending to commit and then bail early, but I would never think of doing something like that for JPAL. Besides going to grad school, I really don't think there's any better way to spend your time, especially if you're interested in development! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SF_Haole Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 scrobles, when did you submit your application last year? I'm hoping to hedge my bets some and that sounds like it would be precisely my kind of thing, but obviously I'd like to wait until I hear back from schools before applying/committing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plumumba Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 scrobles, when did you submit your application last year? I'm hoping to hedge my bets some and that sounds like it would be precisely my kind of thing, but obviously I'd like to wait until I hear back from schools before applying/committing. unfortunately the deadline was feb 1, so i dont think you can apply anymore Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
changuey Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 unfortunately the deadline was feb 1, so i dont think you can apply anymore plumumba is right for 95% of the job postings, but there are new jobs being posted. I think maybe 2 new posts now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquareSquare Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 A former classmate of mine did work as an RA for JPAL in India. He enjoyed the experience, but it wasn't for everybody. It involved doing a lot of footwork, collecting data, conducting surveys, talking to people... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edc Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Where do you guys go for RA job postings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scrobles Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 A former classmate of mine did work as an RA for JPAL in India. He enjoyed the experience, but it wasn't for everybody. It involved doing a lot of footwork, collecting data, conducting surveys, talking to people... I definitely agree, not for everybody. Some of the tasks are admittedly annoying, and living in developing countries is not easy. The big wave of hiring closed early feb. but a couple of jobs pop up year round. You can find job postings on the JPAL website or the IPA website (poverty-action.org), including the Cambridge and New-Haven based positions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaw17 Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 For current PhD students and/or applicants looking for related field work over the summer, check out the internship program at the Centre for Micro Finance in India. It provides an opportunity to dip a toe into the RCT world without taking off a year+ for the J-PAL research assistant positions, and many of the research projects are led by the same folks anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davejohn Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 working on evaluations in JPAL sounds like an excellent job for economists - both interesting and would look good on the CV, especially if you go on to apply for a development related job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Rule Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 freelix on this board did two years of JPAL, 1 year in India I believe. He is now getting in pretty much everywhere, and I imagine JPAL helped him to some extent, though surely he was a strong candidate already. So hopefully he can provide some feedback on this experience, which would be a fair courtesy since this board gave him advice when deciding whether to take this position. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorgieLilly Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 Hello everybody! I know in this period you are all waiting for the admission decisions for Ph.D., but I was wondering... Is there anybody who applied for R.A. field position at the Poverty Action Lab at MIT? Did you hear back? Thank you! Good luck! My friend applied this year. He got an interview. Another friend applied and she has not gotten an interview. I'm not sure if that means they are done or not with the interviews...just all that I know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonaar Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 I applied about 4 years ago, got an interview, but was rejected. But that rejection saved my life (literally!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KGkhan23 Posted March 5, 2009 Share Posted March 5, 2009 But that rejection saved my life (literally!) Can you explain this...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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