Working at Frontier
Frontier Economics is a leading economics consultancy and a unique place to work.
As you explore our website, you will find insights offered by our colleagues about what it is like to work at Frontier. We hope that these insights will give you a feel for why Frontier is a great place to work.
What makes Frontier special?
- We do not have needless bureaucracy and hierarchy. Everyone influences their own development and everyone benefits from our successes.
- We choose economic problems that are varied and challenging. We work together to find the best answers to some of the toughest questions.
- We ensure that we continue to learn. We benefit from the best professional skills and applied economics training available.
We don’t expect you to take our word for it: we have won awards for being one of the best places to work in the UK and Europe. Our success was announced by the Financial Times in 2005, 2007 and 2009.
Every year, we recruit a number of highly qualified and highly motivated economists who agree that the things that make Frontier special really matter. We offer Internships, Analyst positions and roles for experienced economists at any of our offices (Brussels, Cologne, London and Madrid). Follow the links to find out more and how to apply.
Catherine Etienne
Every consultant at Frontier is mentored by a manager and a director. This system is quite informal. I have regular chats with my manager over coffee - or a drink in the pub - about the projects I am working on and the different type of skills that I am gaining as a result. If there is an area that I am particularly interested in, or a skill I would like to develop, my manager helps me to get onto the relevant project team. This has enabled me to work across all of the practice areas at Frontier.
I also meet with my director every few months to discuss how my career is progressing. He has taken a lot of time to provide good, objective career advice, and will often make suggestions as to how to progress my career over the next year or two.
This support and advice provided through the mentoring system has helped me progress really quickly and has kept me on track!
Rob Francis
One of the great things about working at Frontier is the opportunity to use high quality economic analysis to address the real world problems faced by our clients.
Our work is never “off the shelf”. We use economics to get to the bottom of what our clients need. It means that every job is different and a learning experience for us as well as the client. It is always a challenge to apply economic principles to a new industry with new data and evidence.
Economic principles on their own aren’t enough though. Our clients need our recommendations to be practical and relevant - not theoretical or textbook-ish. We need to be able to really understand the client and their industry - to know why they do things the way they do. We also need to explain our analysis in clear and simple terms.
In short, we need to be excellent consultants as well as first-class economists.
Amy Caldwell-Nichols
At Frontier, there are a number of ways to develop your skills as a consultant. One of the most effective ways to learn is through project work. Members of the team share knowledge and expertise and consultants are always encouraged to take on new roles.
In addition, we run several formal training courses throughout the year. Some of these are open to everyone in the firm, while others are designed to address particular training needs. Our courses aim to provide training support for all of the core consultancy skills including communications and management training as well as technical training on how to use packages such as Excel and STATA.
We also run regular lunchtime seminars where someone presents a topic of interest from their recent project work. This is a great forum for sharing knowledge and improving your presentation skills.
In all, there is usually an opportunity in any given week to learn something new.
Helen Slater
I was looking for an intellectually challenging and interesting internship, which would allow me to put my economics to good use. Frontier’s scheme certainly met these objectives and I also got to meet a fantastic group of people.
During my 8 week internship, I worked on a range of projects across several different industries, including: grocery, gaming and transport. I never felt peripheral to my project teams and was encouraged to offer my own thoughts and ideas. My interests were accommodated and, having expressed a desire to try my hand at some econometrics, I soon found myself running regressions.
It wasn’t all work though! I also improved my table football skills during lunchtimes and enjoyed drinks in the office after work on a Friday – these were great opportunities to get to know people.
My time at Frontier gave me an invaluable insight into economic consulting. Rather than just reading about what an economics consultant does, I was able to experience it first hand.
Juana Santamaria-Garcia
Working at Frontier Economics is fun! We have a “Fun Team” and I am its Madrid representative.
The Fun Team organises several social events throughout the year including parties at Christmas and during the summer. These are great opportunities for everyone from all Frontier’s offices to get together and chat. The summer party this year was held at the National Theatre in London. A wine tasting was followed by a wonderful barbecue and then a hilarious talent contest starring Frontier’s directors!
I am also responsible for organising events that take place here in Madrid. This includes everything from arranging the spring event (this year we held a poker tournament) to our breakfast together on Fridays. Frontier makes time for taking a break from work and enjoying each other’s company.
Nicholas Woolley
Following a really good experience as an intern at Frontier in the summer of 2006, I applied for a full time position straight away. I joined as an Analyst after completing my Masters degree in 2007.
Progression at Frontier is managed in a very fair and transparent way. I receive regular feedback on how I’m performing, where I could improve, and what I need to achieve in order to go further. This ongoing support has enabled me to progress from Analyst to Consultant, and to continue developing my economics and consulting skills all the time.
I’ve been able to shape my career at Frontier to reflect my own interests and aspirations. Initially I worked across a number of practice areas, giving me the opportunity to understand different markets, economic approaches and techniques. I’ve now chosen to focus on a narrower range of projects. I’m confident I will continue to progress, and enjoy myself at the same time.
A week in the life of a new Analyst
Later this year, this box will contain a weekly diary of the new Analysts that have joined us in 2010. We hope that this will give you some insight into what you might get up to in the first weeks of your career.