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So I graduated with a bachelor's in economics in December of 2014 and I was in the job market for a few months, couldn't find anything good so I've been working pretty random jobs intermittently and travelling since then. I am fine with this for the time being, but I am just wondering if employers find it weird or undesirable if they get an applicant who graduated let's say 3-4 years ago and doesn't really have any relevant experience? If it matters, I would primarily be talking about research and financial jobs. I apologize if this has been answered already, I searched and didn't find anything.
That's interesting. What sort of job did you expect to get with a degree in economics? Maybe something in the banking industry?
I've taken several economics courses and found them to be valuable, but not for obtaining a salaried job. I started my own business, where I use information form my economics courses.
I think for something like economics, your degree gets stale if you don't use it. You become out of date.
If you were an employer, would you give serious consideration to "an applicant who graduated 3-4 years ago and doesn't really have any relevant experience"? There's your answer.
So I graduated with a bachelor's in economics in December of 2014 and I was in the job market for a few months, couldn't find anything good so I've been working pretty random jobs intermittently and travelling since then. I am fine with this for the time being, but I am just wondering if employers find it weird or undesirable if they get an applicant who graduated let's say 3-4 years ago and doesn't really have any relevant experience? If it matters, I would primarily be talking about research and financial jobs. I apologize if this has been answered already, I searched and didn't find anything.
For the most part, job experience is relative. So it's not that someone will look at what you've done (or not done) the last two years and go - "ugh". But they'll simply compare what you can offer to what the other applicant's can offer and move forward with the the ones they like better.
So having essentially taken two years off, I'm sure that's going to have some impact. You'll be competing with fresh graduates. That can be good or bad.
I would say it's already stale. Once you're out for a year, the new grad deal is gone and you're competing against experienced candidates, no matter how much experience you actually have.
I graduated in economics in 2010, and like you, couldn't find anything in banking or related, even though I had an internship at a local brokerage.
I got stuck in an IT call center for years and was able to leverage that and the economics degree to get a job for a software vendor to the investment banking industry. From there I've gotten more roles in financial software.
I disagree with other posters. I don't think your degree ever goes stale. If that were true, degrees wouldn't be required after jobs that require 2+ years of experience. You would only need them for entry level jobs. Not having a job or working in a field for years can cause SOME of your experience to go stale IMO.
I disagree with other posters. I don't think your degree ever goes stale. If that were true, degrees wouldn't be required after jobs that require 2+ years of experience. You would only need them for entry level jobs. Not having a job or working in a field for years can cause SOME of your experience to go stale IMO.
Maybe stale isn't the appropriate word, but you are no longer considered for jobs that are "new graduate" and get tossed into a more competitive experienced pool
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