pilipiliĀž»­

 

Gerard Walsh

BA, 2010

GWalsh

My first job after graduate school was as an economist at RBC

Like all first-year students at the University of Kingā€™s College, I had an elective to choose at pilipiliĀž»­ and I picked Principles of Microeconomics on a lark. It didnā€™t take long for me to realize it was the path for me. It was grounded and numerical in a way that philosophy was not while still being fundamentally concerned with the big questions of human flourishing. The next few years were heady times to be a student of economics. Lehman brothers collapsed as I was taking classes on monetary policy and financial economics which certainly gave the material added relevance. I got to know many professors in the department, and I spent many nights working away in the ā€œGE basementā€ with a great bunch of classmates and graduate students.

The flip side of learning in interesting times was the sad state of the job market when I graduated. It took two tries, but I managed to land a job as a research assistant at the Bank of Canada in the Canadian Economic Analysis department. I worked on the monitoring team which meant forecasting the Canadian economy over a six quarters horizon. It was the best start in the profession I could have asked for. I learned the ins-and-outs of spreadsheets and databases, some programming, and I made great friends who I remain close with.

As my time at the Bank of Canada wound down, I started applying to graduate schools. I was faced with an agonizing decision between a PhD, MA, or the Master of Financial Economics (MFE) at University of Toronto. After talking to former graduates of the latter, and getting over some initial intimidation, I took the plunge and moved to Toronto. Once there, I found a program filled with people like me who were looking for a way to take their knowledge and interest in economics to the private sector.

My first job after graduate school was as an economist at RBC. Iā€™ll never forget the feeling walking down Bay Street on the way in for my first day. I covered the Canadian and U.S. economies for RBC along with elections, climate change, and risk modelling for the next four years. Our team was small, and I learned a lot from my colleagues about forecasting, presenting to audiences, and working in a huge institution.

Two years ago, I left RBC to take a job on the economics team at Canada Pension Plan Investments, a crown corporation which invests the CPP fundā€™s surplus. Our team puts together the forecast and conducts research on many subjects with an eye to maximizing investment returns for the fund. It is a great place to work and it is a rare privilege to have my work as an economist translate directly into investment decisions.