What first attracted you to IFS?

After finishing my masters I was looking for a job where I could apply what I had learnt to real-world problems with policy relevance. The IFS seemed to offer a good balance between academic rigour and the application of economic theory to interesting, current issues.

Which projects are you working on at the moment?

One of the projects that I am working on is looking at the value of occupational pension schemes in the public sector and how this compares to public sector workers' monthly take-home pay. This work will ultimately be presented as evidence to one of the public sector Pay Review Bodies later in the year.
Another area I'm working on is the relationship between health and work at older ages. In particular, I am currently using some fairly unusual data from blood samples to explore the use of biological markers in the blood as indicators of future health changes and whether this can provide any additional insight for us, as economists, into the way in which individuals change their work status in response to changes in health.
I also work on ongoing analysis of the public finances. This usually requires operating to quite a short time-scale, assessing the impact on levels of taxation, public spending and borrowing of specific policy announcements and other factors affecting the public finances (such as, recently, rising oil prices and weakness in the housing market).

What kind of things do you do during a typical day at work?

My daily activities vary but a typical day usually involves at least some time spent analysing microdata using Stata. On top of that, depending on what else is going on with my projects, I might also spend some time reading academic journal articles, drafting a report or working paper, preparing a presentation or talking to people outside IFS about our work (whether that be funders, collaborators or journalists). Sometimes I'll be attending a conference to present a paper in the UK or overseas.

What do you particularly enjoy about the job?

One of the great advantages of the IFS is that from a very early stage research economists play a key role in all projects they work on. Project teams are usually relatively small so all members of the team get input into how the project develops and into shaping the final analysis - it is not a case of junior members of staff doing the number-crunching and then passing it over for others to do the 'more interesting' bits. This also means that, from an early stage, I had the opportunity to present our work to external audiences and to take part in meetings with external funders and collaborators. This has included presenting to journalists, government departments and private sector organisations. Though this can be a bit nerve-racking, I think it has been very beneficial overall.

How has your career progressed so far at IFS?

I joined IFS as a Research Economist four years ago, after completing my bachelors and masters degrees at Warwick University. Like many new recruits, I started working mainly on a single project: assessing the retirement savings of older workers. Since then, much of my work has continued to be on topics relating to pensions, savings and retirement, but to cover a broader range of projects. During the last year I have also been working on analysis the public finances.
Increasingly, as I have progressed at the IFS, I have had more say in which projects I want to work on and been expected to take greater responsibility for obtaining funding and making sure projects progress and get finished on time. Over the last two years I have also been studying part-time for a PhD at UCL, which is an option open to all researchers at IFS.

What have you learned from working here?

I joined IFS straight from university so there was a very steep learning curve, particularly at the beginning. Since starting I have learned a lot about the various policy areas that I work on. On top of this, the large number of seminars and conferences open to IFS staff, both at IFS and at UCL, mean that I have also learnt new economic techniques and picked up knowledge of other research fields that I don't work on directly.

How would you describe the working environment?

The working environment at IFS is fairly informal - as evidenced by the fact that, unless I have a meeting, I am usually to be found wearing jeans in the office! The open-plan office makes it easy to discuss work with colleagues and generally people are more than happy to answer questions as and when they arise. Though you invariably work on projects as part of a team, the nature of the work is such that quite a lot of work is done on your own, with periodic discussions with other colleagues.