NewEconomist
How I Learned to Love Economics (New Economist)
Going on the job market got rid of my self-esteem problem.
There's nothing like explaining why your work is important to a
new captive audience every 30 minutes to make you believe that your
work really is interesting and important.
At some point it dawned on me, I really did want to be a professor.
I can work hours and hours without stopping, so long as I get to
sleep in the next morning. (If only I felt that way about exercise.)
I like being able to choose my own short-term deadlines. I like doing
research. I have important questions to answer and I enjoy the freedom
to work on them.
The process of completing my dissertation has made it much easier
both to come up with new research topics and to figure out, ahead of
time, which projects might be viable. I know which subfields in my
area are understudied. I know what data sets have or don't have the
information I would need to answer those questions. Literature reviews
for new projects bring up questions that beget future work. I have an
agenda.