What would be the best strategy to get a remote internship as engineer looking studying economics?

Question

I am a software engineer with close to 20 years of experience, a few years ago I was accepted in Harvard where I have been working in a degree in Economics. Now I am a contractor and I depend on that for my income but still I want to get my feet wet, so I am thinking in doing an internship/apprenticeship. What should be my approach? Is my specific skill set something desirable for any company or institution looking for economist interns? If so, which kind? Any advice?

Answer 1

Just focus on your strength in calculus and geometry. You ll excel well in mathematical economics.

Answer 2

So it depends on what you want to do with economics. In my experience in doing econ work for businesses, a lot of the benefit you provide is through an ability to take relatively complicated situations and identify key assumptions and mechanisms relating to decisions that one needs to take. This helped me figure out which information the decision makers needed in order to make good decisions.

Your software engineering skills will almost certainly come in handy if you target more "quantitiative" jobs, i.e. data analysis and presentation (data science as it is often called). I worked in IT while going to school in economics and it has served me very well in this regard.