What should I do with my economics degree?

June 1, 2006 7:16 AM

I am graduating next April with a degree in Economics; what cool internships, placements, projects and whatnot, around the world, do you know about that would be worthwhile post-grad?

I took a couple of years off to travel, work and write a book and now I am finally back on the education track. I have been searching around for international development projects, internships and programs that would be an exciting first adventure. I know that MeFi has a wealth of knowledge from all around the world and would probably be able to point me in a good direction.

I am looking for something quite contrary to life on a small island province in Canada; I would like to get paid, ideally (student loans crawling up on me), and spending the next year setting myself up for an application process, or learning a new language (I currently speak english, french and spanish) is something I am ready for.

If you were a fresh-faced, unattached economics grad with a lust for life, what would you do with yourself?

posted by dflemingdotorg to work & money (6 comments total)

Well what are you goals? What sort of grad school do you want to apply to? Is there a particular area of that specialy you are interested in? Where do you want to go to grad school? What are the current weaknesses in you applications? What types of development projects are you interested in? Whom have you spoken with? I would say it might be hard to find a really interesting project that will pay you from day one BTW.

There are tons of ideas out there, but it might be helpful if you pointed us in the right direction.
posted by JPD at 7:23 AM on June 1, 2006

International development, specifically third-world policy and labour, is probably my number one interest, though I am fairly open minded to anything.

In terms of grad school, I am probably coming back to Canada in a few years for that, but in the meantime I want to put my knowledge to good use trying to "change the world" or something cliched like that.
posted by dflemingdotorg at 7:37 AM on June 1, 2006

This government "youth" site is a pretty good place to start.

IDRC internships are for enrolled master's students or graduates, but you may want to get familiar with the program since graduate studies are in your future.

I know that the Aga Khan foundation has internships, but I was never super motivated to figure out how they worked, so I don't know if people with BAs qualify.

In my experience, international development is a pretty competitive field, and it's hard to get paying (and significant, in the sense of world-changing) work without a masters. If ID really interests you for its own sake (rather than for adventure's sake), I recommend taking a look at the CIDS program at Guelph.
posted by carmen at 8:37 AM on June 1, 2006

And you want go back to school for Public Policy or something, or to get a PhD in Econ?
posted by JPD at 8:38 AM on June 1, 2006

Off the top of my head, orgs that deal with labour and development:
International Labor Rights Fund
Solidarity Center (DC based, offices worldwide).
Thai Labour Campaign.
There are a lot of orgs, it depends if you want to be in North America or abroad, want to do research (applied econ) or campaigning/advocacy type stuff, etc.
You may want to try some unions (US and Canadian ones especially).
posted by cushie at 8:57 AM on June 1, 2006

HSBC, Lehman brothers or any bank or brokerage house

You have an econ degree which means if the job is business finance you can take it. You speak 3 languages and they have a global reach and a need for those skills.
posted by Rubbstone at 9:35 AM on June 1, 2006