Mock Job Talk Scheduled

A new academic year begins at LSE today. Every Monday lunchtime (1-2pm) is a PhD student seminar in the field of development economics. Today, we decide in which week each PhD student presents their research. As a job market candidate, I'm allowed to choose a slot first along with Marieke, another job market candidate this year. We received email from Tim already in which he mentions dates when he can come to attend the PhD seminar. My supervisor also emailed me saying that he cannot come to the seminar at one of the dates Tim mentioned. (See 25 September.) So I take 13 November and Marieke takes 6 November. This will be a mock job talk. We will be given one hour and a half, dress formally, and give a presentation on our research as if we gave a job talk.

Remember that there are three stages of selection for PhD students in economics to get a job of assistant professorship: an application in November, an interview at the ASSA Meeting in early January, and a job talk during the campus visit in mid-January to mid-February. A good performance during your job talk gets you a job.

Receive email from Tsuda-san at Institute of Developing Economies, a research centre in Tokyo. I have a couple of friends working there and I've asked them if I could present my research in front of Africanists at the Institute. They have accepted my request and the date of the seminar is decided to be 22 December. I will schedule my stay in Tokyo late December around that time to buy a winter suit and eat delicious Japanese foods immediately before the job market activity enters the crucial stage.

Finish the revision of the paper with lots of compromises and send a PDF file copy of it to the organizer of the fourth Development Economics Network PhD student seminar at Namur University, Belgium, on 27 October. If my paper is accepted, this will be a good opportunity for me to present my research outside LSE before going on the job market (see the end of this previous post). Fingers are crossed.

Receive email from Nagano, one of my best friends during the college days. It is an invitation to his wedding party early November. I need to decline this as it is impossible for going back to Tokyo in the middle of the whole preparation for going on the job market. But I reply to him saying that I want to celebrate when I'm back in Tokyo late December.