Build Your Resume in Economics

This page is designed to help students translate what they are getting from their Economics courses into marketable skills. Over and over, there is a discussion of Economists being "problem solvers" in many contexts, here is a way to analyze and describe this in your future goal exploration and opportunities.

ECN 1B with Dr. Caramp

Mankiw Book: Strong reading comprehension, understanding of lots of policy content and discussion.

Problem Sets/Weekly HW: Time management is needed to do well, with multiple versions sets of assignments throughout the quarter. The problem sets can be collaborated on, so ability to work with teams is crucial to success.

Timed Midterms: Ability to work out policy and analytical questions under time constraints and pressure.
Students will learn how to think critically about how to connect analytical methods to real life policy questions, since models are used to investigate the biggest and most overarching policy questions.

Ability to infer real-life applications from quantitative scenarios.

A class on macroeconomics requires understanding of the news and current events.

Resume Skill Descriptions: Time Management, collaboration, policy analysis, reading comprehension, analysis of current events.

ECN 111A with Dr. Wilson

Weekly Quizzes: Time management and allocation of scarce studying time.

Keeping up with current events: requires punctuality and inability to procrastinate as you must keep up with current events. Constant, small assignments imply that students who do well are diligent and focused.

Academic articles: Ability to comprehend academic literature, as many formal economic papers are referenced and integral to the course.

Students have to combine models/data with storytelling and the logical progressions of history, and must be able to understand the subject matter in the context of multiple disciplines. To do well, a student must be a good writer, and have a mathematical understanding of economics.

Overall, success in this course demonstrates interdisciplinary and wholistic understanding of the material. One can’t get by just by memorizing some optimization problems, or by parroting facts from lecture, like other courses may allow. Aspects of both math and history are present, and students must be able to comprehend the material enough to understand why events in history happened, and the economic context and models behind those events.

Resume Skill Descriptions: Time management, strong written communication, high-level reading comprehension, quantitative literacy.

ECN 117 with Dr. Perez

Book: “The Economics of Immigration” by Bansak, Cynthia, Nicole B. Simpson, and Madeline Zavodny. Routledge, 2015.

Description: Immigration is a highly contentious and divisive issue. There is an increasingly heated debate about how strict migration policy should be. This debate is rarely based on discussion of facts. This course uses tools from economics to provide an understanding of immigration issues. The course is organized around four main questions on the economics of immigrations: 1. Who migrates and why? 2. How do immigrants do in the receiving country? 3. How do immigrants affect natives? 4. How do immigrants influence those left behind? In the last part of the course, we study how migration policy is conducted in the US and other countries.

Problem sets: 3 problem sets graded on completion, lengthy but easily solved with lecture notes and readings. Practice midterms/ finals available.

Exams: Two midterms and one final, all being in-person. Exams will not be rescheduled.

Resume Skills: Policy research, international trade modeling, FDI analysis, understanding of models and their limitations, graphical analysis, understanding of trends, application of models to real-world examples, economic immigration analysis.

ECN 130 with Dr. Bitler

Public Policy by Gruber: An in-depth discussion of policy and the theories behind how people make choices. Requires a deep understanding of quantitative methods to figure out how optimal policy is made.

Memo on UI: Applies the concepts in class to a relevant policy memo, making it a solid way to get policy experience, and makes students think critically about the topics learned and use them.

Poverty Policy: Helps students draw a very clear connection between economic theories and real-life, everyday impacts. The results of the topics discussed in class have a very clear effect on the well-being of people and this class is very effective in demonstrating that.

Problem sets: Lengthy, every-other week problem sets ensure students need to allocate time and be thoughtful when considering policy questions and the quantitative problems behind them.

Resume Skill Descriptions: Quantitative literacy, policy analysis, memo writing, high-level reading comprehension

ECN 160B with Dr. Taylor

International Macro Book: Quant-intensive textbook with calculus and intermediate macro required, so strong understanding of quantitative economic methods and strong analytical skills required.

World Events: International Macro has a large impact on world events, so an ability to connect monetary and financial theories to concrete global events.

Currency and Exchange Rates: Requires an understanding of multiple countries and cultures to fully connect the dots on the complicated web of international currency exchanges.

48 Hour Midterms: Given multiple days to complete, these exams require more reasoning and analytical skill rather than simply memorizing facts.

Resume Skill Descriptions: Quantitative Literacy, ability to grasp theoretical concepts, financial literacy, Time management.

ECN 171 with Dr. Russ

Books: Various articles and reports on trade, finance, and business groups in the region; How Asia Works by Joe Studwell; The Miracle by Michael Schuman

Description: This course explores the different policy paths taken by East Asian countries to expand their economies after World War 2 and into the 21st century. Emphasis on macroeconomic and industrial policy.

Exams/ Papers: Biweekly homeworks, midterm, final, and an end-of-term group project.

Resume Skills: Independent research, data analysis (Excel), strong written and oral communication, group work, high-level reading comprehension.

ECN 110B with Dr. Meissner

Book: “One from the Many: The Global Economy since 1850” by Chris Meissner

Description: This course breaks down the meaning of globalization in the interconnected world economy since the early 19th century, with emphases on comparative advantage in trade, the gold standard, inflation/hyperinflation, monetary trilemma, cross border movements of capital and labor, Bretton Woods I and II, and post-WWII trade growth and policy. Development and application of analytical models to explain the nature and functioning of economies since the Industrial Revolution. Main concepts and frameworks of the course will be applied to both historical and contemporary examples such as post-WWI Germany, the Great Depression, and the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis.

Exams: Weekly Quizzes, 2 midterms and one final. All exams are in-person.

Resume Skills: Time management, strong written communication, high-level reading comprehension, quantitative literacy, historical analysis, application of economic theory

ECN 111B with Dr. Meissner

Book: An Economic History of the United States: Connecting the Present with the Past

Description: Economic history teaches that events of the distant past continue to shape the way we live today. This course examines several important questions in American economic history, and it is organized around four main themes: long‐run economic growth, distributional issues, economic fluctuations, and the scale and scope of government in the economy. The aim of this course is to examine the history of important (and current) economic issues using empirical and theoretical tools from economics. It will focus primarily on the period since the end of the Civil War.

Discussions: economic growth, distributional issues, economic fluctuations and the role of the government.

Resume Building Skills: Experience building a referee report as a process of academic research.

ECN 122 with Dr. Bonanno

Book: Game Theory by Giacomo Bonanno

Description: Game theory equips students with the ability to analyze the choices and actions of interacting agents and with general skills that are applicable across various disciplines and real-world scenarios, including professional and personal interactions. In particular, the course teaches you how to anticipate the responses of others and plan your own actions accordingly. ECN 122 develops critical thinking by requiring students to analyze complex situations, identify relevant information, and make logical deductions. This class has some overlap with ECN 100B such as making choices under uncertainty and the field of psychology by predicting how rational players act under different incentives.

Problem Sets: One problem set per week for practice. Some problems are reviewed in depth during discussion sections.

Resume Skills: Strategic Reasoning, Decision Making, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Cost Risk Analysis, Cooperation

ECN 131 with Dr. Wilson

Weekly Quizzes: Time management and allocation of scarce studying time.

Keeping up with current events requires punctuality and inability to procrastinate as you must keep up with current events. Constant, small assignments imply that students who do well are diligent and focused.

Gruber Textbook: The textbook used in public finance, by Jonathan Gruber, is a relatively rigorous treatment of public policy and finance, and a thorough understanding of economic theory is required to keep up with the course both through lecture and the textbook.

Paper: The tax policy paper allows the student to demonstrate the ability to convert math-heavy tax policy concepts into a conversation about equity and efficiency. Students who succeed in this course need to be able to quickly and easily recognize the policy meaning and implications behind the mathematical foundation of tax policy being taught in the course.

Public finance: requires microeconomic theory as a prerequisite and students must apply it regularly, implying a strong understanding. However, discussions of tax policy and its fairness, and the societal implications of such policies, are woven into the course constantly. So the best students can go back and forth between more objective mathematical concepts and more-subjective policy discussions, which requires a deeper understanding of the material.

Resume Skill Descriptions: Time management, strong grasp of theoretical concepts, quantitative literacy, clear and concise writing.

ECN 162 with Dr. Swenson

Description: This course covers international trade, national trade policy and international trade agreements, global movements of people and capital, international macroeconomics, implications of international economic integration.

Weekly quizzes: relevant to recent information covered in class.

Resume Skills: Policy research, international trade modeling, FDI analysis