• Why did you decide to apply for the Graduate Programme at Capital Economics?

As my masters was coming to an end I was looking for a job that would allow me to use economics to analyse current events, something that I felt I got to do too little at university. At the same time, I wanted to continue to expand and deepen my knowledge of economics. The job at Capital Economics fit both criteria. In particular, I felt like the possibility to work with several teams covering different areas of economics, to participate in the scheme’s knowledge classes and to do a further masters, would be great learning opportunities.

• Would you recommend the Graduate Programme to a friend? And if so why?

I would definitely recommend it. The main reason is that I think I learned a lot over the past two years. Both about how economies, central banks and financial markets work in practice and about how to better conduct an economic analysis and present it in a concise and well-structured way.

The other main strength of the Graduate Programme, in my view, are the peers. Starting a new/first job can be scary and stressful. It really helps to do it with a group of other people in the same situation. And even now that I have been in the company for a while it’s good to know that I can always count on the support of my fellow grads.

• What challenges did you face?

One of the main challenges was adapting to the different way economic research is conducted at Capital Economics compared to academia. There is often less time to complete a piece of work, given that pieces are usually timely response to recent events. And many of the readers are not trained economists. This means one has to be careful not to get stuck trying to explain each little detail but has to identify the main points quickly and then present them in a language as clear and simple as possible. Though I still find this hard to do sometimes, it is definitely a very good skill to have as an economist.