On a recent trip back to Colorado from my home in Washington, D.C., I enriched my rigorous schedule of mountain biking, hiking, and reconnecting with old buddies with an important meeting—with my former CU graduate economics department advisor, Nick Flores. After all, I couldn’t just hang out my whole vacation; I had to have a little intellectual stimulation, too.

While Nick and I caught up on the two eventful years I’d had post graduation, he asked if I might write a piece about my professional journey for this newsletter. Perhaps I could give my younger peers a glimpse into what they can expect next spring after they receive their diplomas. I chuckled a bit at this thought, since graduating might’ve been the last thing on my mind the fall of my second year! (I was more concerned about getting through macro.)

As I surveyed the job landscape that spring of 2004, it immediately became clear I would have infinite job possibilities if I moved back to my hometown, Washington, D.C. After several months of networking and resumé-building, I was fortunate to land at the World Bank headquarters.

For nearly two years now, I have been working as a consultant at the bank in an independent evaluations group, performing analysis that ultimately informs bank policy. My days are largely spent analyzing data, attending meetings to discuss policy implications related to this analysis, stopping in on the most interesting of the guest lecturers (most notably Tom Friedman of the New York Times), and catching seminars on all aspects of development and occasional speeches from former bank president James Wolfenson and his successor Paul Wolfowitz.

So how did I get here, working for the largest development institution in the world?

I am reminded of a lecture by CU’s own Phil Graves about choosing a place to live when you graduate. The moral of the lecture was that having unique tastes relative to others in your locale creates the opportunity for you to enjoy a subset of amenities without having them factored into your rent/cost of living.

So, I started thinking, “What amenities am I uniquely amicable toward here?” Certainly it isn’t the heavy traffic or relatively high price of goods and services. And, although I am intermittently amused and saddened by politics and politicians, governmental proximity doesn’t get a check in the “plus” column. Proximity to my friends and family, however, does get a big check in the uniquely enjoyed column. (Not that everyone else in Virginia doesn’t enjoy close proximity to my friends and family; they simply don’t enjoy it nearly as much as I do.)

Another unique amenity has to do with my job title: consultant. Those three syllables convey job insecurity, quarterly estimated tax payments, and for me, blessed flexibility. The thrifty habits honed during my extended academic journey have allowed me to easily swallow the insecurity of my tenure and avoid quarterly percussive cash shocks when taxes are due. And flexibility, the remaining job characteristic, is the amenity that can be uniquely afforded through wealth or through thrift, the latter of which recent graduates have a distinct advantage in.

Heck, I’ll put up with a little insecurity if it means lengthy vacations to Colorado when I feel like taking off, not when I’ve earned the days.