Work Exp for Economics degree

[Windowtwanky]

Hi, can anybody offer any suggestions of good work experience for an Economics and business degree? Dd just started A levels but looking to build experience. She has accompanied me to work over the summer but wondering if anyone’s dc has any recommendations of companies that have been particularly good.

Not work experience but DD did the Eton College summer school for economics for 10 days at the beginning of July and found it really useful. They had visits to several companies - from large investment houses to small start-ups as well as lectures from the Eton staff. It's not for everyone - only one hour of free time a day and 2-3 hours of work after dinner each night including a Sunday but DD came back buzzing.

Just asked DD what else she considered and she says the big financial firms like Morgan Stanley offer experience days/weeks but they are more tax/accounting/finance. Also school suggested community banking and credit union work experience but she couldn't find anything to fit with her school timetable.
She has a part-time McD job so plans to spin this and her political activities as work experience for economics.

Oh, that sounds v interesting, will take a look. Thank you!

thank you!

My friends son is doing an economics degree and he did some work experience at Zurich, so maybe look somewhere like that.

Will look at Zurich thank you ! I’ve just looked at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs and there are lots for 1st year undergrads but there doesn’t appear anything for A level students!

morganstanley.tal.net/candidate/postings/5425

This one is our local area but presuming there will be others.

@clerkmaxwell that’s really helpful thank you! Just searched under our region and have found it too, and in time to apply. Will pass to Dd tonight!

She really won’t need work experience to get into a decent university course. Employers take more notice of work experience and internships during her degree. At 16 you are sampling work and most employers won’t care too much about it as most young people don’t have anything relevant. Reading and being informed about Economics is a better thing to do. It’s more degree focused.

Bubbles experience was different from ours. Economics can be surprisingly competitive, and many courses don’t interview so the PS can really matter.

I’m not sure that it is work experience per se, but it is well worth being able to evidence a keen interest in the subject. Alternatives might be attending public lectures at places like the LSE, reading the Economist or FT or popular economics books, TED talks and soon.

Very, very few prospective students will have relevant work experience for economics on the PS when they submit it aged 17. Only if parents have provided it! The average very bright student will not get this opportunity, particularly in the sticks. So reading, looking at lectures and reading newspapers is the best way forward.

@HugoSpritz thank you have just had a look through and looks interesting. I have found a taster day for girls only which is a possibility.
@Needmoresleep and @Bubbles She does have subscription to the Economist which she reads. I will check LSE. It’s a tricky one, because Economics is so broad trying to look at all the possibilities before thinking about degrees, which is why I was thinking work exp would be helpful.

I am not disagreeing. Bubbles and my DC seem to have had quite different experiences.

Economics is really broad and it is wise to decide whether you want a something more theoretical, ie mathsy, or something more management/finance orientated or indeed a particular area like behavioural economics. And why you want to study economics. If it is essentially vocational, courses like the one at Bath are attractive. Work experience helps sort this out, even if it means learning what you don't want to do.

DS did about a week of shadowing plus I arranged for a recent graduate (a tenant of mine working for a hedge fund) to talk to him about courses and work. He also did quite a lot for an economics society at school, and did a couple for extended essays for competitions.

My view is that anything you do is unlikely to go amiss. As I said before, some economics courses are seriously competitive and so, despite strong A level predictions, DS received three rejections and a very late offer. But as is clear, that is one experience, and other DC have had smoother paths.

If economics is her final destination then she could look at the degree apprenticeship with the government economics service after her a levels. DS1 was interested but couldn’t make his mind up between economics and accountancy/ finance.

As I said before, some economics courses are seriously competitive and so, despite strong A level predictions, DS received three rejections and a very late offer. But as is clear, that is one experience, and other DC have had smoother paths.

But it is worth saying your DS was aiming for the very top few courses. Had your DS included RG courses ranked ten or below on his list (so good, but not the very top ones) he would have gotten more offers. A number of decent RG Economics courses were in Clearing this year.

If you can’t get anything within the industry have a think about the skills that are most essential within economics and business and try and get work experience which focused on these. Do-it.org indexes voluntary work also

Lots to consider here, thank you mumsnetters. Will have a look into all the suggestions and see where we get to. Hopefully I can help Dd to start thinking where she sees her Economics going!