Here are the 10 skills you need to become an Economist:
Mathematical Aptitude
An essential ability for an economist is numeracy. You’ll need to be experienced working with numbers and mathematical principles, from dealing with massive numerical datasets to analyzing visual data like graphs. This is why many economists take mathematics courses before starting work or studying economics.
Knowledge of Social Sciences
To be a successful economist, you’ll need more than just math. Other social science areas such as psychology, history, and sociology have a lot in common with economics. For economists who will be working on related areas, having a working grasp of both the factual basis and the methods utilized in these fields is advantageous.
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Economic and other social sciences have become increasingly multidisciplinary in recent years, making knowledge of these areas not only desirable but also necessary to stay current in the field.
Knowing a little about other, related fields will help you in life in general; knowing a little history will offer you something to talk about at dinner parties besides inflation rates.
Good at understanding Complex Systems
Economic theory is a difficult discipline that deals with complex systems. To work with these complicated systems, you’ll need to be able to combine data from various sources and fields. This clearly needs time, effort, and a little patience.
Above all, it necessitates a lot of reading in order to keep up with the newest advancements in these systems. This means that being able to filter through dense scientific literature is a necessary talent (as a bonus attribute, as previously indicated).
Curious
You must have a strong sense of curiosity to be effective as a student, educator, or researcher. In your field, what is uncertain or unclear? What impact do insights from other domains have on your understanding of your topic?
What are the debated themes, and what are the opposing arguments? You’ll need an interest in these issues to keep you motivated as you work your way through economics.
Independent Thinker
While understanding other people’s work and theories is undoubtedly vital, to be genuinely successful as an economist, you must also have your own insights and ideas.
The ability to think for yourself and to challenge what you already know will help you to branch out and conduct original research, allowing you to become a better economist.
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Being a self-starter will also help you stand out at conferences, seminars, and presentations. It’s fun to be controversial, or at least to play devil’s advocate, because it encourages debate and deeper thought.
Comfort with Uncertainty
Because not every question in this field has a clear and unequivocal solution, you’ll need to be okay with uncertainty. Economics has a habit of throwing curveballs and doing things you didn’t expect or foresee.
And, like the other social sciences, economics has the dubious distinction of being one of those areas in which there is rarely a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answer – everything is still up for debate, and everything is up for grabs.
Written skills
It’s useless to have a deep understanding of economics if you can’t communicate that understanding to others in a meaningful way. For your articles, book chapters, and notes to be valuable and understandable to others, you’ll need good writing skills.
Verbal Communication Skills
You’ll need to be an effective presenter as well as have written communication abilities in order to speak at conferences and teach seminars. You should feel at ease speaking in front of an audience and be able to clearly and simply express the key elements of your topic.
People will take you more seriously and genuinely listen to you if you accomplish this and manage to become a clear and compelling public speaker; there’s nothing worse than having a speaker whose thoughts are amazing but the way he or she expresses them is horrible.
Open-minded
You must be open-minded to succeed in any academic field. It’s critical that you remain open to new ideas and avoid becoming too set in your ways. Even if you disagree with their thinking, you must be able to listen to others’ perspectives and engage successfully with them.
Self-driven
Another skill that academics, especially economists, need is the capacity to motivate themselves. You’ll be expected to manage your own time and set your own priorities starting in postgraduate studies, so you’ll need to be able to drive yourself to finish work without anybody else checking in on you or helping you.
