The Underpants Lecture or, “How Do I Turn a Wesleyan Economics Degree Into a Viable Long Term Income Stream?”

, by Richard Willey, Class of 1988

The Underpants gnomes famously said:

1. Collect underpants
2. ???
3. Profit

Arguably, many of you are faced with a slightly different version of the same:

1. Study Economics
2. ???
3. Profit

This article is meant to provide current Wesleyan undergraduates with some practical advice surrounding the all-important step two.

To start with, I want to make a few rather unpleasant observations:

1. The market for professional academics is over-saturated. Unless you can get into a top tier institution (think Harvard, Chicago, Stanford, etc.) there is a very real risk that you are going to end up an adjunct professors, drowning in debt.
2. Law school is an even worse bet.
3. Massive cuts in government spending are making it increasingly difficult to land a good civil service job.
4. If you don’t already have a good lead on a position at a think tank, it’s going to be a difficult fight for a position.
5. Wesleyan isn’t a feeder school for the big consultancies.

With this said and done, there may be a light at the end of the tunnel… In my experience, there is a very strong overlap between the skills required to succeed in academic economics and those that are vitally necessary to excel in high tech. Queuing theory is queuing theory. It doesn’t matter if you’re looking at an inventory control model or packets through a router. It’s the same basic math. If you are able to do a good job honing your intuition in the economics department, this may very well translate into a very enjoyable job working at Akamai or Google or Microsoft.

With this said and done, here’s some practical advice for sophomores, juniors, and the like.

1. Applied math skills are golden, particular linear algebra, differential equations, and statistics. “Economics” proper is window dressing. Economics is how you make practical use of your math skills and it provides you with lots of opportunity to translate math into stories that executive actually care about. However, you need to have the basic math foundations to deliver value to a hiring manager.

2. When you apply to a tech company, you’ll either be going the “programmer route” or the “data analyst” route. If you are selling yourself as a programmer you’re going to want to have strong skills in C, C++, python, maybe even haskell. If you’re selling yourself as a data analyst, you require python, R (or matlab), and SQL. Having sample code you can point is going to make your life a lot easier.

3. Learn TCP/IP networking, both in theory and in practice. I doubt that the Math department has a decent undergraduate class on the TCP/IP protocol suite, however, you can learn what you need to know from a good book like TCP/IP Illustrated. On the practical side, make sure that you’re comfortable configuring a Linux box and that you can use wireshark or some other packet sniffer.

In a perfect world, Wesleyan would have something equivalent the College of Social Studies that focuses on the combination of System Design, Applied Math, and Computer Science. I make the argument that the Math / Econ major comes pretty damn close. Invest some time and effort in addressing the gaps and you should be eminently hire able as you exit Wesleyan. Carpe Diem!

  • Alum ’90

    I can understand the angst that many graduating seniors may have who are not sure about their future. Yet, I do not entirely agree with the premise that an econ/math degree necessarily implies a future career in finance, business or programming what not. Rather, I think society is overly focused on college as a guarantor of future income rather than going back to basics, namely that education and the ability to learn and adapt are truly the best skills you can develop at Wesleyan. Please do not study math/econ because you think it will get you a great job at Goldman Sachs. Rather study it because you have a passion for the subject. Similarly, do not assume that as an English major you have no chance to succeed in business or finance. I was a classics and medieval studies major and I have worked for 25 years in finance. I see too many cookie-cutter econ jocks from Wharton or Dartmouth who majored in math/econ because they thought they wanted to work on Wall Street and are miserable… too bad, because many of these professionals could have been musicians or authors but instead they followed the careerist path. If you aspire to work at Google because you love technology, that doesn’t only mean you have to study computer science or math. Indeed, I know of some very successful Wes grads at major tech companies who got in the door because they were great writers or because they adapted to changing trends in consumer behavior and could bring valuable marketing know-how. Truly, in today’s world creativity, persistence and an open mind are tremendous assets and at Wes you can develop and hone these skills in so many different disciplines. Follow your passions. Study what energizes you and don’t worry about a job until you have to, and even then pursue your muse. Learning is a lifelong journey that kicks into high gear at Wesleyan.

    • DKE Bro

      Come on. If they really want to study those subjects your first bit of advise would be to tell them to TRANSFER out of Wesleyan to a
      proper school where 1) their minds will not be poisoned with liberal clap
      trap, and 2) they have access to decent comp sci and math classes. Carnegie Mellon for example.

  • DKE Bro

    If you really want to study those subjects TRANSFER out of Wesleyan to a proper school where 1) your mind will not be poisoned with liberal clap trap, and 2) you have access to decent comp sci and math.

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