On the tenure track teaching and researching economics, you publish, teach, and build toward tenure, balancing the demands of original research against a full classroom load. The pressured early years of an academic career.
The week splits between teaching, research, and service: lecturing on micro or macro, advising students, and grinding on papers aimed at top journals. Publishing is the currency, and the tenure clock shapes everything. You collaborate with co-authors and present at conferences, and much of the real work is slow, solitary research squeezed around a full teaching load.
What's brutal is the up-or-out pressure of the tenure track: years of high-stakes work judged on a handful of publications, with no guarantee. The job market is fiercely competitive, and the early-career years can be all-consuming. Institutions vary from research powerhouses to teaching-focused colleges, each weighting research and teaching differently in what they reward.
It fits someone intellectually driven, resilient, and patient with uncertainty. If you need stability, balance, or quick payoff, the tenure grind can wear hard. But if you're genuinely pulled by economic questions, and the freedom to research them deeply once you're established, the work can be a rare and rewarding life.
Where this role sits in the broader career landscape — and where it can take you.
Roles like this one sit within a broader occupational category. The numbers below reflect that full landscape — helpful for context, but your specific experience will depend on level, specialty, and where you work.
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