[JOB OPP] [Isaac@rff.org: Resources for the Future (RFF) research assistant

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:56:34 -0500
From: Tia Newhall 
To: job-opps@cs.swarthmore.edu
Subject: [JOB OPP] [Isaac@rff.org: Resources for the Future (RFF) research assistant
	recruting]
Message-ID: <20090112195633.GA29474@cs.swarthmore.edu>
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Reply-To: Tia Newhall 

----- Forwarded message from "Isaac, William"  -----

Dear Professor Newhall:

 

I am coordinator of research assistant recruiting at Resources for the
Future (RFF), a nonprofit, nonadvocacy research organization
specializing in environmental and natural resource issues in Washington,
DC.  Technically proficient research assistants are crucial to our
success, and finding them is becoming more difficult than ever.  I am
writing to you because I have come to believe that BA and BS graduates
in mathematics and computer science from highly regarded liberal arts
colleges like yours could be an important source of RAs for us, and yet
it is one we have hardly tapped into.  I believe you could be a big help
to us and perhaps to your brightest students making known to them the
opportunities we have to offer.  

 

Most of our research staff are PhD economists specializing in applied
microeconomics, econometrics and computational modeling, and our RAs
play a crucial role in highly quantitative research projects in these
areas.  At RFF we try to do high-quality policy-relevant research, and
an important measure of the performance of RFF researchers is their
contributions to high-quality economics and public policy journals.  We
are also judged by our success in communicating the results of our
research to the policy community and the general public.  You can learn
more about us by visiting our website at http://www.rff.org. 

 

A research assistantship at RFF is a one-year appointment, renewable for
a second year.  It is an ideal position for graduating seniors with
outstanding technical ability yet who may be uncertain what career to
pursue and how to go about it. Our RA positions are especially appealing
to students with a strong interest in improving environmental quality
and making environmental policy, as well as students with quantitative
natural-science backgrounds who may be considering graduate school in
economics or other fields, but who may want to take a year or two off to
find out what the research life is like or to save a little money before
graduate school.  RAs get a participant's view of cutting-edge social
science research, primarily economics; they gain insight into how such
research informs--and often does not inform--the public policy process;
and they get to learn new technical skills or to apply skills they
learned as undergraduates.  We are also very generous with authorial
credit. RAs who contribute significantly to projects are usually listed
as coauthors of the reports, working papers and journal articles they
generate, and they often get the opportunity to contribute to the
writing of those manuscripts.  Not least, new RAs become part of a cadre
of bright young men and women like themselves. one with high morale and
an active social life.  We want to make being an RA fun as well as
rewarding.

 

I might add that after RFF, many RAs go on to earn PhDs at some of the
most outstanding graduate schools in the country, including Michigan,
Berkeley, Maryland, Duke, Stanford, Wisconsin and Harvard, aided by the
extensive contacts between our senior research staff and the faculty at
such institutions.

 

 Until now, we have taken a fairly informal approach to RA recruiting,
doing little more than posting an ad on our website an in local
newspapers and contacting friends and colleagues in economics
departments around the country.  That approach was insufficient this
year.  Not only were we trying to hire an unprecedentedly large number
of RAs, but the pool of applicants included a distressingly small number
of RA candidates with the skills we needed.  Next year, we anticipate
the need to recruit another large class of 5 to 12 RAs. I thought
perhaps I could improve our results by reaching out directly to sources
currently we are not reaching.  

 

As I mentioned, I would be very grateful if you could bring this
opportunity to the attention of the students in your Department.  While
we may hire RAs any time the need arises, we make most of our offers in
the spring to students about to finish their degree programs,
anticipating a start date the following July to August.  Ordinarily,
these start dates are negotiable. Any interested students can submit an
application online, together with supporting materials, at by visiting
our website, www.rff.org, clicking on "About RFF" and following the link
to "Working at RFF."

 

If you or any of your students have any questions, I would be happy to
discuss them. A hard copy verision of this letter will be sent out
shortly.  I can be reached at harrington@rff.org or 202-328-5112.

Sincerely,

Winston Harrington


----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Tia Newhall                     Computer Science Department 
Associate Professor, Chair      Swarthmore College
newhall@cs.swarthmore.edu       500 College Ave.
www.cs.swarthmore.edu           Swarthmore, PA 19081
610-690-5637 (voice)            610-328-8606 (fax)

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