Graduate school advice

Tyler offers some advice to graduate students here.

I am pointing to it for two reasons. First, I agree with most of it. In particular, at both the graduate and the undergraduate level I think students put too little weight on the quality of the professor as a teacher and too much weight on the subject of the course when choosing which classes to take.

The one point I disagree on is the first one. Your field does matter because departments treat it as information about what courses who can teach well and/or are likely to want to teach. Some departments look in all fields and more or less hire the "best available athlete". Many do not and even among those that do, being able to teach, say, econometrics, may give you an edge over a candidate who is otherwise your equal. Being able to teach econometrics, finance or health economics will help you on the job market. If you are indifferent or close to it, these are fine second fields, especially if they are a reasonable match with your first field, as with, say labor and health.

Tyler is completely correct that hiring departments do not care about individual courses or about grades in courses or about whether or not you had to take retake your first year exams. They are hiring you to teach courses and give exams, not to take them.