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20 Tips From Professor Samreen Malik

It is my pleasure to introduce professor Samreen Malik for today’s blog.

My name is Samreen Malik, and I am originally from Pakistan. My family lives in Pakistan and Australia, and I am married and live with one of my stepsons and husband in Abu Dhabi. I arrived in the UAE in 2012.

Professionally, I am associate professor of economics at NYUAD, and I teach economics and finance. My main job includes supervising research in economics conducted by undergraduate and graduate students at NYUAD & for that I organize seminars to help students conduct research in economics. I am also the director of the development research cluster where I organize the faculty and post-docs. Every year I serve on various hiring committees, tenure review committees and professional development committees.

2) What do you think are the secrets behind getting to where you are now?

There were many things that needed to work together to make it possible for me to be where I am today. I cannot take credit for everything that happened. For example, despite financial hardships at home, my parents always made my education a priority. So exogenously I had very supportive parents.

That being said if I were to name one thing, I would say it was a phase in my life that significantly defined me and when I learned the value of hardwork and contributing meaningfully. When I was 14 or 15, I needed to contribute to my household finances and pay for my tuition so my sister and I started a small business where we would teach students after school. In a year, we had more than 60 students and we ran this small business for a decade.

3) What’s the best and worst career decisions you ever made?

I guess my best decision was to apply for PhD in economics, and admittedly I had very little information on what the program would look like, what it would expect of me, and whether I will be successful or not.

My worst decision was to finish my PhD in 4 years, albeit for personal reasons. However I think that the maturity one gains from additional training during university cannot be replaced with on the job learning.

4) What would you be doing if you were me now?

I would be taking the course work seriously but also speak with people with various experiences. If you aspire to become an economist, I would be spending a lot of time getting accustomed to coding and feeling comfortable with it.

5) What are your current research interests?

Macroeconomics, International Trade and Development Economics.

6) What are your suggestions to an aspiring economist?

Break any reluctance that you have in terms of coding, reading papers, research. It is easy to learn when you are young and have time. This will go a long way for you. Every job needs research now, so better to get accustomed to it now.

7) How do you manage to keep abreast of development in your field?

I read alot. Despite that the main channels for staying abreast in my field include attending seminars, meeting visitors (other economist), interacting with post-docs, students.

8) What would you regard as the most challenging aspect in being an academic?

Networking. Academia requires alot of interaction with researchers at various stages of their career. It is not challenging for everyone, but I feel overwhelmed by the social aspect of my academia.

9) What are the subjects in economics with the most scope?

Macroeconomics, Finance, Applied economics (development), Artificial Intelligence is gaining momentum. Computational Economics is very much in demand (both in academia and private sector).

10) How do you define success in an urban university classroom?

Student’s research orientation is important. Entering in high ranked universities and getting meaningful jobs are good metrics too. But for me it is equally important that students learn other aspects about life as well such as not feeling entitled, being more accepting of criticism and developing the ability to give constructive comments.

11) What skills and traits would you encourage in your students?

Professionally hard work with a good attitude can take you to places.

Learn to say no to friends, family [sometimes it is needed, especially if you are share the same background as me]

12) Name an economics subject that gained the most interest from students.

Students love finance courses I teach. I think its because they directly use the concepts during their interviews and actual jobs.

13) How do you manage your teaching responsibilities with your research projects?

Teaching becomes easier if you teach same courses over time but it is also very boring to do that. I am lucky that most of the teaching is relating to research of students, so very complementary to my own research.

14) What is the best advice you have ever been given?

That to be humble I give the signal of underestimating my ability. I am still working on finding a good balance.

15) Which celebrity inspires you?

I do not have celebrities. I think common people in my life inspire me. My parents, my extremely supportive husband, my step sons who care about my welfare. They all inspire me.

16) What was the biggest challenge in your career and how did you overcome it?

First impressions are my biggest challenge in my career. Unfortunately, I do not look mature so it requires me to recognize this and react accordingly, especially during meetings.

17) What encouraged you to join NYU?

Personal reasons. My parents, as well as my husband is also an economist and we were lucky to get a joint appointment at NYUAD.

18) Can you give us a brief overview of your education?

I went to an army school when I was in elementary school (in rural Pakistan). Then I moved to the city and joined several different schools. Eventually I did my O level and A levels, and then joined Lahore University of Management and Sciences where I did my undergraduate and masters. After my masters, I moved to Cornell and stayed at Cornell from 2008–2012.

19) As an alumna from Cornell, can you share your experiences from the time spent there?

Cornell is in a beautiful town of ithaca. It was the most serenest place I had seen. It was cold but fresh. That being said, there is nothing much to do there so I went to the gym alot and studied alot. I also did part time jobs. In terms of professors, I was lucky enough that one of my professors recognized that I could do more in life and was really a great mentor for me.

20) What is an advice you would like to give to the youth of today?

I am always amazed by the resilience of our youth in many aspects of life. The same resilience during that education can be very useful. I also think that supporting peers and developing a general sense of respect could go a long way.

Professionally, take courses that are hard or push you in an uncomfortable zone. You will learn alot more from hardship than easy path.

I hope these amazing remarks gave you an insight into the life of an economist. These questions were what i wanted to ask an economist too, hence being so personal. I would like to thank Professor Samreen again for her amazing responses :)

~Harshitha Nair

Signing out :)

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