Guest blog by Robert Sabbarton from the National Audit Office:

Originally I hadn’t considered being an economist. I never even chose economics as one of my original three A-levels. But having chosen a subject I didn’t enjoy I switched to economics, and a rather unexpected passion was born. Far from being a dismal science, I found economics to be complex, sometimes chaotic and always relevant. My consequent progression to completing an economics degree seemed entirely natural, and summer jobs while studying doing research for an academic book and an internship in an investment bank cemented this love.

When choosing my master’s degree however I decided I wanted to branch out, having become a little fed up with assuming away the social and the political factors that constantly seemed to be getting in the way of my perfect models. I wanted to examine some of the assumptions that underpinned economics. To study political economy therefore seemed entirely natural, and the LSE became a perfect home for nine months.

…But then I had to get a job. Which was tough as it was the late 1990s (sigh) and the global economy seemed gripped by what felt an almost personally-targeted run of international financial crises. But I persevered, and I have had three economics-related jobs, all with different responsibilities and focus. I did editing and desktop publishing at one finance consultancy, before doing macroconomic research full time at another. I focused first on G7 countries then emerging economies in South and Central America, writing long monthly reports for subscribers. Then a change: I joined the National Audit Office, where my focus has changed from macro to micro: including cost-benefit analysis of various energy generation scenarios for the next 40 years, calculating how much is spent maintaining the prison estate and working out potential savings through collaborative procurement (economies of scale!) across the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

It’s been a varied pool of experiences and if I could make some observations which may be of use, they would be:

There are potential applications of economics everywhere. You might have seen Wall Street and think that is the way to go, but there are many other angles to economics and many unexpected ways you can apply economic principles. I have done as much economics at the National Audit Office as I did in finance consultancy, only of a different stripe: I went from forecasting macroeconomic variables like GDP growth, exchange and interest rates, to trying to prove counterfactuals, benchmark performance and identify likely responses to incentives. These are also economic problems. So don’t limit your job search to the big banks, there are plenty of other opportunities out there for budding economists, at charities, in government and in academia.

Don’t be frightened to deviate from the norm. Don’t be worried about pushing results outside the market consensus. It might be scary, but if you have invested time in your models and you are confident in your analysis, publish them.

Read around the subject as much as possible. Academic papers might be your bread and butter, but its amazing how much knowledge you can pick up from books, the media and articles on technology, environment, society and politics. Advances and events in these areas can affect your economic models as much as any endogenous factors, and some of the best economists I have known have read voraciously around their chosen areas. You have to know what’s happening outside your models so you can internalise them. And in my experience some of the first questions you will be asked in interviews will be about the possible impacts of current events. If you know stuff about it, this is a chance to shine.

Don’t let maths scare you. While you need some proficiency, you don’t have to be the best mathematician in the world to have a good career in economics. If you have read any of Smith, Ricardo, Keynes and Marx you will know that some of the greatest economists of all time didn’t use advanced mathematical modelling. General IT competence, especially with spreadsheets, will probably be of greater use.