Welcome everyone to this event. Um, thank you very much for joining and for your interest in the YPP program. Um, as Domenico said, my name, my name is uh Jasmine Shakeri. I'm a practice manager now, so I'm a manager of a, of a unit, um, that is now, uh, called Economic Policy, uh, until recently were called Macroeconomics Trade and Investment. And, um, And um I'm uh I'm based in, in Vienna. I cover the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Um. I'm quite passionate about the YPP program. That's why it's a real pleasure for me to be here today. And um I'd like to tell you a little bit about myself. I joined the YP program in 2005 myself. And um up until then, I basically had uh work experience uh mostly in East Asia. Um, and I used the YP program to get um more exposure and more experience in other parts of the world. Um, I was, uh, I joined initially in Um, basically what is now economic policy. Um, but initially I worked on Latin America for one year, then I did my second YP rotation in West Africa, a completely different, uh, region, um, completely different types of clients. Um, and then, um, I graduated into, um, the Latin America region for my first, um, permanent assignment. So the YP program really opened up opportunities to learn about completely different parts of the world and, um, Uh, and different types of issues our clients face, um, from low, um, to, um, upper middle income country clients. Um, since then I, um, this was over, it's almost 20 years ago, um. I've uh worked in different parts of the World Bank, as I mentioned, from low to even high-income countries now in, uh, in Europe. Um, I've worked in corporate units. Um, I've been in the field, um, in, uh, in, including in Bogota and in Jakarta in Indonesia. Um, and, uh, as an economic policy economist in the bank, I've worked from anything ranging from anti-corruption to fiscal decentralization. To growth analytics, um, uh, just to name a few topics. So, uh, we cover really in our unit, um, and in our practice, a very wide range of, um, of issues. And actually, let me take this as an opportunity to tell you a little bit more about, um, the global practice that is called economic policy now, because I'm sure, uh, looking at our website, um, it's not always that obvious, um, what the different uni different units do. Um, and also maybe how um the work as an economist in the Economic policy unit at the World Bank may, uh, differ from other institutions, other development institutions, and other options that you may be looking at as economists. So, I want to give you a little bit of a flavor of, of what, um, what an economic policy economist, uh, at the World Bank does. Um, so in our, in our global practice, we have basically primarily what we call the country economist. So, you typically focus on one or, or country or group of countries in a region. If you're in a regional department, um, or on global issues, um, cross-cutting, uh, horizontal issues if you are in a global unit. But, uh, but really the, the bread and butter, uh, um, let's say the, the, the largest number of economists in our global practice are the regional country economists. Um, and, um, you would find that, uh, country economists are really at the core of World Bank Group country teams. Um, they often advise, uh, the country directors and the country managers who are leading the, um, the World Bank Group's program on the ground. Um, they, uh, they are called the integrators. Basically, they expected to be the ones that have an overall view of the econo economy in any given country or group of countries, and we have to kind of help put it all together, uh, and, and see how things fit together or don't fit together, um, and advise different teams including in other sectors, uh, from the economic, um, the economic point of view. So this is a really exciting job in my view. I mean, I often say I think it's the best job in the World Bank, um, because you get such an incredibly wide range of issues, uh, that you learn about, um, that you get to contribute to, um, and I think this is really where the, um, the World Bank. Country economist also is quite different from, from other institutions where you would maybe work as an economist on, on even focusing on particular countries. The range of issues you'd be looking at and the types of things, uh, projects and sectoral work you can contribute to is really, I think it's hard to, um, hard to find in other institutions. Um, so, you know, why maybe the bread and butter work, um, for, for a country economist, maybe the macroeconomic monitoring. Preparing projections, um, writing our, um, macro poverty outlook twice a year, uh, preparing economic briefs, that's really only part of the job. A lot of the job is about, um, uh, well, authoring core analytical work, um, that includes our growth studies, uh, now they're called, uh, jobs and growth studies. So we also have now a big focus on uh employment. Um, our public finance reviews which focus on fiscal policy challenges, um, the country climate and development reports, that's a new flagship report that we prepare for most countries now that we contribute to, um, as a Kind of, uh, one of the lead, uh, units, um, or any kind of specific other specific, um, analytical work that we may be leading. So there's a, there's a lot of, um, opportunity to continue. I know many of you may have research interest to continue, you know, your technical work. Um, but there's also opportunity to really work, to work on lending operations. So our part of the World Bank, our global practice typically leads, um, budget support operations. So these are linked to policy conditionalities. Um, and so we work a lot, um, together with many, many colleagues from different sectors on defining critical development policies that the country really needs to, um, uh, that we feel uh a priority that the country has defined as the priorities that they want to, um, that they want to advance on. We defined the, the reform program. And then based on that, disperse, um, uh, financing. So that's one type of operational lending engagement that our units um typically leads. Um, and then, um, as I mentioned earlier, you work, uh, as a country economist, you work, uh, uh, across many different practices, advising maybe a transport project from the economic point of view, maybe contributing to public expenditure review and education. Um, being part of that team. Uh, it's really, the range is extremely wide. Um, there is, um, scope for the person's interest, uh, to also guide the work program, of course. It's not all necessarily predefined. There's a lot of scope to, to kind of build your own work program. Beyond, of course, the core work that all country economists have to um complete, but there's a huge range of um opportunities for learning, for growing professionally, learning a lot about other sectors that you may never have thought about, but that turned out to be extremely interesting. So that's really, I just wanted to explain a bit what this country economist's job is because I'm sure it's a bit of a, a mystery when you look at our website, uh, and you see a whole, a whole list of, uh, Um, economic policy issues that may or may not um be very intuitive, uh, in the first, um, when you first look at it. Um, Maybe just a few things. I, you, you, you may see that in the World Bank, um, and I, I'm sure Elias, uh, you know, Elias is my, my counterpart in um in the finance and private sector part. Um, this is certainly also true. For, for his part of the, um, the bank, but there are many um uh among the management and the senior management in the team in the World Bank, including many country directors who started as country economists. So it's a really great um jumping off point, I would say in the bank. Um, because it gives you that bird's eye view of an economy. It gives you so much, uh, exposure and, uh, you know, experience across so many different, uh, sectors that, um, that I think you, um, you're really well placed and, and very, um, Uh, fungible in many ways, uh, as you kind of rise up, uh, as you, as you progress in your career in the World Bank to do lots of other things. Um, and you know, as I mentioned to, uh, I myself have been in corporate units before. I'm now a manager in the technical unit, but, um, but many of uh of my peers and those who have come who have come before me are in Uh, in director positions all over the World Bank. So it is a very good, um, let's say, um, uh, training ground for, for leadership positions in the World Bank. Now, what do we look for, um, in a country economist or in an MTI, sorry, I keep saying MTI it's called economic policy now. Economic policy economist in the World Bank, and that's something you may want to keep in mind as you consider applying and or you prepare your application. I think first and foremost, we are looking for solid economic training. Uh, we're looking for technical excellence. I think that is, uh, definitely the case. And many, um, many of, of the successful candidates are macroeconomists by training. Um, but many also have some microeconomics in their background. Some are actually focused more on microeconomics in their, in their PhDs or in their academic work. Um, uh, some of them have the combination of both. In any case, we, a lot of our work now is at the intersection of macro and micro. So it's really hard to say we only hire hardcore macroeconomists, but, um, certainly some, uh, some training in macroecon uh macroeconomics is, is definitely a requirement. Um, but if you have, um, some of this, uh, intersection, the work at the intersection of both, then that is certainly a plus, uh, because we find ourselves at, uh, as integrators often at the intersection of those. In addition to the, um, I guess, uh, to the technical depth, uh, which often then is, if you look at, um, The job description or the, the profile description um that's available on the website, um, you know, our core areas are macroeconomic policy, fiscal policy, trade, growth. But in addition to that, this is the depth part I would say. In addition to, to that, we're also looking for breadth. We're looking for, um, either through your academic work or through your work experience, um, having had some exposure to a broader set of issues beyond your academic specialization. So that's um the depth and the breadth. I think that's true for all the YP uh profiles, but in the case of the um economic policy practice, this is um more or less what we're looking for. Um, you'll also see um a little bit more detail in terms of the types of um Types of experience um in the job description that we're looking for. Um, some have economic modeling skills, not certainly not all, um, but, um, you know, an understanding of, of the real, the intersections of the real monetary trade debt, BOP accounts, you know, national accounts. These are all basic preconditions, um. Some, um, you know, some, some of our successful candidates have more of a fiscal background, um, either on taxation or debt, um, uh, and others actually have, uh, more, uh, more, uh, on the monitor and exchange rate side in terms of, um, uh, um, expertise. So there's a wide variety. You can again look at the job description to get a sense of the, the key kind of elements that That could be, um, could make you successful, but it's, uh, there's, um, there's a wide range there. But now let's, in addition to the technical side, I also want to mention we're looking for people with, um, with strong soft skills. Because you, you would have to play the role of an integrator as a country economist, you would, um, you would work across multidisciplinary teams all the time. So we're looking for strong communication skills, um, and strong team leadership skills. So those are also, um, things that would be good to demonstrate as you're thinking about your application and, and possibly if you make it to the interview to demonstrate those um qualities. And I think last but not least, um, you know, curiosity and willingness to learn, um, and to grow, continue growing professionally. I mean, you know, you may have finished your PhD, but, but in many ways, you know, joining an organization like the World Bank that has so much to offer in terms of learning. It's almost like, like doing another couple of PhDs on top of that. Um, and you know, you have to have the right mindset for that. You're not done necessarily learning if you join. Um, you'll continue, um, and I think that is, uh, it's extremely important that you come with that mindset, um, and because that opens up all the possibilities and the opportunities that an organization like the World Bank has to offer. With that, let me stop here and, um, hand it over to Elias. Thank you. My name is Elias Scamnelos. If the name doesn't give it away, I'm a Greek, um. I'm gonna talk to you, well, let me first start by saying that my current role starting July 1st is to be the practice manager for financial and private sector development for East Asia and Pacific. Before that, I used to be the practice manager for the same things, uh, but for Europe and Central Asia, OK. Uh, and today what I'm gonna talk to you about is a little bit about my personal journey, uh, going from academia into the World Bank. A little bit of what we are looking for, uh, and what is expected from economists, uh, that are to become YPs and then I will talk a little bit about a different pathway for economists from that that you just heard because, you know, economist is a very wide term and it can apply to many different paths, uh, that you might see on the website of the World Bank, so. Starting it off, um, I did all my studies in the UK. I did my bachelor at LSC on Economics, and then I went on to do a PhD in Economics at the University of Nottingham. And uh the PhD focused on uh macrofinancial crisis. This was pretty much inspired by the ASEAN financial crisis and it was before the global financial crisis, before Grexit, and so on. And while I was finishing, essentially I said, OK, I will apply everywhere, um, and I had job offers from both staying in academia and then the World Bank. And guess what? I chose the World Bank because I told myself I want to see the real world, OK? I mean, I, I was 24, all I had done was read and write papers, and I had never seen action on the field. And let me tell you, I never looked back. Uh, being in the World Bank, you really meet amazing people. You get involved in truly incredible situations. And you have real life impact, so if that's what attracts you, let me tell you, there's no better place to be. Uh, literally in your mid-twenties, you'll get thrown in a room full of ministers of finance and central bank governors, OK? Central bank governors will grab you by the hand, pull you into a little room, and they will tell you, hey, I have a bank that is collapsing. What do I do? My system, my financial system is, is about to go crazy. Help me out. Um, then the next day, you might walk out in the field and you might be sitting down on a group of women, macro entrepreneurs that are, they're telling you their problems with their everyday life. OK, how can they get access to finance for their little business? And then this has not happened to me, but it has happened to colleagues, you might find yourself in a fragile country being evacuated from a conflict that is breaking out in a submarine. OK. So it's really something, situations that are stories of a of a lifetime that you will be thrown into. So what is expected, OK, as an economist, uh, if you wanna become a YP, I would say, number one, you really need to demonstrate that you are passionate about what we do in the World Bank and that you are passionate about making a difference in the real world. The second one is that your experiences, whether academic or outside of academia, need to align with the work that we do, OK? And if you go to the website of the World Bank, you will find that frankly, the World Bank is in many, many streams of economics. It's not just one stream of economics. And the last thing is, and it's really important for the YP Jasmine already talked about it, you will hear it being called T skills. And it's deep because what we expect is for people to have one area of depth. One area where they have, they can really demonstrate that they can go deep in every technical issue, but we really want the YPs to also have. Wide, OK, wide knowledge of economics to be able to apply the fundamentals, right, to a wide, uh, uh, possible, uh, problem as wide possible problems as you might encounter in the World Bank. And of course that's not enough. That's the technical part, just as Jasmine said, soft skills are super, super important as well, and believe me, you will be tested when you apply to the World Bank on all of this. So my advice would be when you do your application, keep it short, sharp, and passionate. When you go to the interviews, OK, remember, um, you will be asked, uh, both deep questions and broad questions, all right? People in the room will come from your field and they will really drill in the topic where you're coming from, but you will also have people that are not necessarily from your field and they're asking questions to see how can you apply this basic fundamental economic concepts to other situations. And there you sign if you, if you demonstrate that you have organized thinking, OK, your process really needs to be organized on how you think and also you have to demonstrate that you are thoughtful and that will also come out of the soft questions that you will get in an interview, OK? Um, this thoughtfulness about how do we deal with others or how do we deal with difficult situations or with difficult colleagues, OK? Um. I, I saw, uh, a question came in like what kind of questions might get asked on the technical? I'll give you some examples, right? Just as I said before, imagine that the governor pulls you on the side and I said I'm about to face a financial crisis. How do I think about it? Or they might ask you, you know, we have state-owned banks in the systems that are underperforming. How do I go about thinking? The state on banks or, you know, industrial policy is a topic of our days. How do I think about industrial policy? What about productivity? The question will likely start broad and then the technical expert will start drilling you levels down, levels down, levels down to see how deep you can go on that particular topic. Obviously I focused a lot more on financial and private sector, OK, uh, uh, because that's my economist area but it can be many different things as well and don't forget that you will also go through an assessment center. And there what you need to demonstrate is that you're a team player, that your communication skills, your ability to include others, to listen to them, to integrate opinions, and in general, how do you take the whole group with you, right, on the vision that you might be putting on the table. So let me finish a little bit by saying about the different paths you can take once you're in the World Bank, uh, and there are so many as an economist that you can pursue, OK? We heard before about the macroeconomies. I gave you a bit of a glimpse of the financial or private sector. Economies, but you know you can apply yourself to many, many different areas. It might be poverty economist. You might be focusing on social protection. You might be a labor economist. There are opportunities for all the topics you can put under that very, very broad umbrella. And the size of the World Bank really allows you to experience all these things as much as you want or as little as you want, but you know, if you're applying for the YP I, I suspect that you want to experience everything, all right? It's beautiful because the size of the institution allows you mobility within the institution. And I'm talking about mobility not only thematically but also on different roles you can play. So you might spend 4 years working for East Asian Pacific, then you go to Latin America, then you go to Europe. Or you might say, hey, I want to really become an expert on this particular topic and then we have these global teams and their job is in one particular topic to advise the whole world, OK, and people in the regions are pulling these experts to help us out in the situations that we see that, that we wanna solve or you might say I wanna take some time and do academic work again. Then we have again a unit that really just dedicates itself to academic research because ultimately academic research saves policy, right? So bottom line is it, the beauty of the World Bank is that you can jump around and experience many different roles uh within the institution and many different things within the institution. So bottom line, what I'm trying to say is. It's not easy to make the YP. I wanna be very, very frank with you. I think, uh, this year, the ones that made it, it was a 0.7% of all the applicants, but believe me, it's worth every bit. The training you will get as a YP, the doors that will open for you, the ability to rotate within the institution through the YP program is really, really incredible. But also let me say that if you don't make it through the YP program. Keep going after the bank. It's worth it, OK? There are many entry points that you can pursue. Above all, what matters is that you are passionate for development and keep going after it, OK? So I'll leave it here. I'm sure we're gonna come back for Q&A, but I'll pass it, uh, to another colleague. Um, so Diana, I think you're next to talk about as a YP who works with me, by the way, right now, uh, uh, in, in the World Bank. I'm Daniel Prince. I, um, joined the World Bank in 2022 as a VIP. So actually, I officially transitioned into uh, an economist for yesterday. Um, let me talk a bit about, um, About my background. So in case you are wondering about my, uh, very strange accent, I am from, from Hungary. Um, So originally I actually joined the bank in working on health um in Europe and Central Asia, uh, countries like Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and Moldova. And then, uh, I transitioned into working uh as a country economist, which is, which is the, the position that, that, uh, Yasmin talked about, uh, in my second, uh, YP assignment. So as an aside, I think this type of rotation is actually the really big, probably one of the biggest pluses of, of the YP program. It allows you to Um, change units, uh, change regions, uh, change jobs right after your first year as you are trying to, um, figure out how to navigate this quite, uh, large and complicated, um, institution. I'm so in my, my, uh, second year, uh, which just finished, I was, uh, and Going forward, I will be working uh in the Middle East and North Africa, um, economic policies units. I primarily focus on uh Algeria and, uh, and Morocco. Um, and so this is a really, really, um, great opportunity to work on a breadth of issues, I think as an economist. Uh, so for example, just to give you a flavor of what type of stuff I, I get to work on. In, in Algeria, I, I mostly work on, on macroeconomic uh monitoring and, and, uh, and a big technical assistance program on tax policy and administration. Um, while in Morocco, I, I actually work on a, a report on jobs and growth and how to spur more growth and create more jobs in the, in the Moroccan economy, um, as well as, uh, an analysis of the Moroccan, uh, tax system, and, uh, this year, I will also have the opportunity to work on a, on a lending project, uh, again focused on job creation. Um, so I should say that, um, And I have already seen this question come up in the chat. Uh, my background is more, more of an academic one. so I, I completed a PhD, uh, before, before joining the bank and, um, I spent one year also working in, in policy, but before that I, I was really trained as an academic uh economist. I should say that many of my uh colleagues here at the bank, uh, have PhDs but also many don't. So I think, uh, it's quite possible to join. With a PhD but also to join with the masters and a lot of good experience and both type of colleagues, uh, make a lot of um really valuable, um, contributions. They have different, uh, competitive advantages since they're economists. So if you don't have a PhD you should apply. If you have a PhD, you should still apply, um. Uh, like, like I yes, I was also applying for like 150 jobs on the, on the PhD job market, uh, both academic and, and, and non non-academic, and, and so this was just, uh, one of the opportunities that I got and I'm really, really glad that, that I, um, And I took it. I, I should say that one question that gets us often is sort of the mixture of research and policy and operational work that we do as, as IPs and, and in the longer term as urban economists. Um, this is like the VIP program is not a research job. This is a policy and operational job, but you will have the opportunity to do policy relevant, uh, research. If you only, if you only really want to work on research, this is not really gonna be a great job for you. The World Bank has super research-focused jobs in the, in our research department which is probably one of the best places in the world to do development economics. Uh, however, uh, if, uh, like me, you really want to use your academic, uh, skills to, to inform policy and, um, make a difference in the world rather than, you know, just, uh, write papers that not even your mother, uh, reads, uh, you should, you should join, uh, the IT you should apply. Um, particularly as Yasmin mentioned, being a country economist is a really, really, uh, rewarding role in the band because you get to work on many, many different Uh, topics and collaborate with sort of across, uh, units in the bank and basically you, um, you just keep learning. So, so if you're excited to learn new things, this is also like a really good position. Uh, um, for you. Um, so they also told me to offer some application, um. Advice, um, Frankly, I find it a bit hard because I have never actually participated in recruitment. My impression is that at the sort of written stage, So, sort of the essays and, and, and the cover letter and resumes and stuff like that. Uh, you should, you should really try to, um, You should really try to be very specific and, and, and, um, personal. Talk about how your experiences, both professional and personal. You know, can, can, can help you contribute to the bank. Don't write about generalities. Like, uh, one way to put it, uh, you know, if I could have written your application essay or Chet GPT could have written it, it's probably not, it's probably not, uh, very good because we are not learning anything. The bank is not learning anything about you. Um, And another thing I wanted to mention, kind of backing up Elias, the, um, and, and this question has come up in the chat too. So the interview I would say, particularly if you're coming from a PhD in economics is not super technical. There will be technical questions, but it's more sort of a general and it's more about your ability to explain. Important policy issues to, to people who may not be like specialists in, in, in, in your field who might, I mean, on the panel there will be people coming from different areas in the bank, right, but on our, in our day to day jobs, right? We are talking to governments and policymakers who are not necessarily trained PhD economists so the interview is also a way to evaluate your ability to talk to these kinds of uh partners. Um, Yeah, oh, so, finally, yeah, so again, just backing up with this, this, I think the writing program is quite competive. So if you don't get Accepted, like, really, you shouldn't think this is some kind of uh information or signal about your, yourself. Like it's uh it's really hard to get in. I think it's sometimes even a little bit. Uh, by chance, whether, whether you get in, but there are also so many other opportunities to, to, to, to, um, to join the bank. So I would really encourage you to, to apply as economists and I'm really looking forward to, uh, to your questions, uh, in the chat. Um, thank you very much. Um, so, you know, unlike the people that have spoken before me, I've only been in the bank for one year. Um, my background is also Similar, but a little bit different. I come from more of an applied microeconomist background. And so just to echo what Ili was saying before, really at the bank, there's space for many different backgrounds, um, coming in and then many different things that you can do once you're inside. Um, so just very quickly, I did my undergrad in economics in Mexico, that's originally where I'm from. I worked in the government in Mexico and then I came to the US to do a PhD. And similar to Daniel, to Elias, I was both on the academic job market and uh also applied to the World Bank. And um in the World Bank, I started in doing things related to social protection, uh, very similar to my applied micro research and background, uh, that I was doing in the PhD and now I've kind of pivoted in my second year YP, uh, to work with Elias in things related to private sector development and finance. And the reason why, um, it's important for me to share. Kind of these 2 years is because I think the, the YP, one of the great things about the YP is that it gives me that experience to kind of try something new. Um, I think, you know, as PhDs, um, thinking about the job market and thinking about other jobs, we sometimes think, you know, academia is great because you can really switch and try different things and no other jobs gives, no other job gives you that flexibility. And one thing that I really appreciate about the World Bank is that I've actually found a lot more flexibility and agency than I expected. So I really, you know, year to year get to choose kind of out of a big portfolio, what kind of things I want to work on, uh, where I want to focus, where I think I can add value, and so that flexibility of choosing the topics and moving. You know, from one year doing social protection, the next year doing private sector development, uh, really has been kind of a big, uh, it came as a shock to me. I didn't think that you could be, you know, outside of academia and have that flexibility. So it's something that I've really enjoyed. Um, I wanted to talk kind of about the 2 or 3 things that I really like about the bank. I also briefly wanted to touch about what the bank is not, uh, and what you won't be able to find here. And then finally, maybe 1 or 2 recommendations from my own experience applying to the YP. Um, so what I really like about the bank is, you know, this agency thing that I've talked about already. I also really like that. Um, in a way, we are very connected to research and academia. So, um, you know, within the bank, there's a strong research department. I can go to seminars every Wednesday, very similar to what I was doing during my PhD and still be involved in the research, uh, world. I can have close contact with top researchers, a lot of them, you know, even working in some projects within the bank. Um, so it's just great to be able to kind of be in a place outside academia but still have so much contact. Uh, with what's going on in the research world. And then lastly, you know, I really like the fact that It's so international, both in terms of where we're working and how much I'm learning from different places in the world, but also the people who work at the bank, you know, sometimes I even feel like I don't live in the US anymore because I'm surrounded by people from all over the world, and I think that has been a really valuable experience for me as well. Now, very quickly, Daniel already mentioned this, uh, but I think what, what this program is definitely not is a place where you'll come and you'll be doing research, you know, 100% of the time. Um, I think, you know, some people compare the YP program to the IMF economist program, and I think in that sense they're different, uh, because here with, with the YP program, you're not gonna be applying directly to the research department. Um, so I think. You know, I'm still very much using my economics background. Um, it's important to have an organized mindset, very clear economic frameworks, and I think that helps a lot, you know, in my day to day job, but I would say more than, uh, sitting down and doing research, a lot of my work is taking that research training, taking those economic models and trying to abstract away from them. Um, so, really kind of that capacity of abstraction to think about bigger problems, to think about having these conversations with governments, with technical people, with not, not technical people, um, is super important. And having this in mind when you do the application is also important, I think, especially for people who are both on the academic job market and applying to these programs, you can't treat them the same, right? The job is not going to be the same, hence the requirements are not the same. So I would really suggest kind of leaving that mindset of um the academic job market and focusing on what these job entails, what kinds of things are, um, is the bank working on. And so really I think the most valuable thing to prepare for the interview, to prepare your documents for the application, is to go to the World Bank website and read some of the documents. Read very soon, you know, there's very little mystery. Very soon you'll learn what are the issues that the World Bank is most concerned about, what they're working on. And then, you know, in the panel, you will have practice managers, you'll have economists who will come in and they will basically ask you, you know, some of the questions that they're asking themselves, right? So for me, um, I was mainly interviewed, you know, from, uh, managers that were in social protection and the questions were very general, right? If you go to a country and you want to evaluate their social protection system, How do you go about it? What questions do you ask? Um, if the country has seen increased poverty but is in a tight fiscal space, what can they do? Um, how can they, you know, still help the most vulnerable but not, um, have more debt? Things like that, so very general things where, you know, your background as an economist would certainly help. Um, but really focusing more on the general and then, as Elias was saying, you know, as you kind of go, uh, deeper into these questions, uh, the more technical parts will, will come. Um, so really, I, I, I would say the best thing you can do is just You know, take an afternoon to open the World Bank website and then explore the topics that you care about, see the things that, uh, the World Bank is talking about, and then, you know, if you're someone curious, if you're reading the news, if you know what the topics are around the developing world, then that's a really good way to prepare as well, um, for the program. So maybe I'll stop here, pass it on to Vanessa, and then, um, happy to answer any other questions in the Q&A. Thank you. So hi everyone. So my name is Vanessa Doreno. I'm a YP. I joined the program last year in 202023. Uh, the West, I joined the, the MTI, which is now called the Economic Policy in West and Central Africa. So I've been working on the, on Cote d'Ivova CMU, working on Cote d'Ivoire Benin Togo and Guinea. Uh, prior to that, I, I was working at a bank as a consultant in the South Asia Chief Economic Office, and, uh, now I'm, I'm still, I'm working with Jasmine covering the Ukraine and West, West, uh, Western Balkan countries. This is just to give you a brief sense of as a YP how you can navigate across the banks. So that gives you the opportunity to, to not just focus on one country, but to, to work on Western Africa and then to move another, to another region. And that's quite interesting. Um, during my first year, I had the opportunity to, to work on, um, on core ESA, so core analytical work, core and public finance, uh, work on public financial review, but also work on operational, going on mission in be participate to. Participate to, um, to lending engagement, negotiation with the authorities. And that's quite interesting, as, uh, Elias mentioned before, you, you will be put in a room with, uh, with government ministries and it's, um, it's mind blowing how the World Bank contributes and how we negotiate with our clients. I saw in the, in the charts a question, um, on either one can like apply. As a health specialist, I just want to give a small example. Uh, in one of our budget support operations, so the lending operation, we actually work with, uh, health specialists, so health economists, but also health specialists to try to draw, um, reform for, for our clients, a reform which will really contribute to improving the situation, to improving, to affecting the, the population, and, uh, improving the low, the low-income countries' situation. Um, I will now jump to to my background. I had like a bachelor in statistics, in applied statistics and another bachelor in Economics, and then a master's degree in applied econometrics before, before my PhD before I'm back for a PhD in, in economics. So, um, either you have a background in analytics, in econometrics, or in statistics, that will be helpful. Because as um, as a cultural economist or just economist as a YP you will be working on data. So the analytical skills are also really, really important, and that will be helpful to see the trend, to analyze the trend of the, the main, uh, the main macroeconomic indicators for the growth outlook and growth in inflation and debt and, and so many indicators. Um, also, um, I also want to add about the, about your application. So, about the application, about the application, don't be afraid to just, uh, having a master's degree. Don't be afraid to having uh of a of just having a PhD because when you have PhD, you are kind of worried because you just focus on one area during your PhD. That's not, that's not an issue because as, as, as an economist, you'll be working not just on that area, but also in many areas. My PhD focused on trilemmas, so the, the modal Fleming trilemmas, so financial integration, monetary policy, and exchange rate stability. But during my, uh, during my first year as a YP I mainly work, uh, work on debt, on, um, on fiscal policy, fiscal analysis, and also on growth outlook. So just to give you like an example of how you, you may be not working, um, in your, uh, your Your PhD area are doing uh as a YP as a YP or as a country economist. Also, um, So, also, as, um, doing your application, not just, do not focus on where you own your specialty, but just focus on how you can uh think outside of the box. So doing the application, doing your interviews. When you are asked a question on, I don't know, debt or on poverty, just try to link how this, this specific area may affect, may affect, you know, the global macroeconomy, the government revenue. So when we talk if we talk about the inflation right now, the world is dealing with decreasing but still high inflation. How the countries can, uh, can still respond to that and support the, and support the, the vulnerable population while trying to, uh, to improve fiscal space. So that's, that's are some kind of question that you may have. And try to, try to, uh, during the preparation for your preparation as, uh, Diana mentioned and also Daniel mentioned. Try to read the World Bank reports, but also um the IMF reports to be, to be aware of what is happening in the world, what are the hot topics, what are the hot, hot macroeconomic topics, and see how these institutions responds to those or think about those issues and try to take those information and build your own, uh, your own response. Do not focus on what the institutions are saying, but be innovative. Try to, uh, to be, um, to think about something new, some new ideas because we need new ideas to know, uh, to know how to deal with the current, uh, to the current, uh, macroeconomic issues. Thank you.

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