Economics career paths

I am not sure what I want to do in the future, but I am taking economics at university because I enjoy it. Not knowing what I want to do whilst my peers my age are set on a specific path gives me a lot of anxiety.
I dont think I know what kind of job i see myself having in the future and I'd like some help with possible common career paths that people who do this degree take.
Please also mention the kind of salary if you know this too.

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Have you looked on Prospects yet?

Reply 2

University of Kent

Official Rep

Original post by Anonymous

Hey there,

I hope you're keeping well. 🙂

Quick story if you'll allow me. I got to know a fantastic alumni at my uni, who's about 26, who works at a very famous international investment bank, who got paid a very substantial (by my standards) signing bonus, who's charismatic, supportive, and talented - and whilst we were chatting, he told me "I have zero idea what I actually want to do or where I want to go".
I honestly think there's only a minority of people who truly have an area they know they want to go into AND then have that area be fulfilling for the rest of their lives. I don't say that as an insult whatsoever either. There's just too much lack of information about the business/work environment, because it's always changing and evolving.
Did you know there's such a thing as Neuro-Economics? I honestly only found that out like 5 days ago. And when talking to the person who introduced me to the topic, I just wanted to learn more about it, read papers and articles, and study it like crazy to continue the conversation.

I really appreciate the poster who included the prospects link, and I definitely recommend you to check it out. But it sure as hell does not give you all the incredible variety of choices you have available to you by studying economics. And by the way, it also doesn't have to be the traditional - boring economics that lands you these nice, cozy jobs.
That student I mentioned earlier - he did a Masters in Historical Economics, albeit at a nice London Uni. Still proves my point though. Common career paths are there for you to look at, and you'll proabably find average or median salary ranges around £30-40,000, though it's very dependent on a variety of factors as I'm sure you're aware.

What I'd recommend, is talking to some of your lecturers - maybe invite them for a nice coffee, do a bit of prior study on what their research focuses on and start asking them some questions to try and see what areas of economics they like and why - then see whether that might be a nice fit for you. I'm quite introverted, but I 100x prefer talking to my lecturers about this topic than searching for it online.

Anyways, that's my 2 cents.

Firstly, it's natural, don't worry.
Secondly, maybe start out by talking with lecturers about their interests.
By the way, I also don't know what I want to do, but at least I'm eager to study whatever type of economics is given to me now. Though it probably might still be a case of blind leading the blind haha 😆

Warm regards,

David 🙂
University of Kent Student Rep