Hey #EconTwitter, with job market talk season underway, I thought I’d share some advice in case any candidates are finding/worrying that their presentations are too long. (1/n)
A job market paper is a huge amount of work! It can be hard to condense everything you’ve done into one talk. Especially if you have a very active/curious audience that asks many questions. (2/n)
If you find yourself having to rush through material or skip slides, there are a number of tweaks you can make that might help you better manage time. (3/n)
In my experience, the *organization* of the slides can be more important the number of slides for staying on time. Think carefully about the most logical sequence. A well-designed flow can reduce the number of questions anticipating content you’ll discuss later. (4/n)
Relatedly, ask yourself if clarity and simplicity can be improved. A clear presentation also reduces the number of clarifying questions. And it’s more impressive when a candidate can convey an interesting idea in a simple versus complicated way! (5/n)
Feel free to defer some questions if you know you’ll directly address them later. Don’t do this too much…but it’s totally reasonable to postpone some responses. (6/n)
Seminars vary not only in length, but in terms of how active the audience is. Have a plan for which slides you can discuss in more detail for a quieter crowd and which you can condense if facing an active crowd. (7/n)
Lastly (and most obviously) try to streamline slides. In particular, look for repetitive parts (unnecessary summaries?), ways to condense language, and material that can be put in an appendix. (8/n)
Hope some of this is useful. Best of luck to all the candidates! (9/n)
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