Julianna Brooks and her enthusiasm for economics

Written byAshley McClure-French

ā€œIt is such a bright spot that it is really often times overlooked. The school, the professors, and the people and fellow economists ā€“ I could not imagine a better program and one thatā€™s more grounded in the human aspect of economics.ā€

Julianna Brooks was an economics major at the University of Louisiana at Ā鶹“«Ć½app.
Julianna Brooks
Graduation Year
Class of 2017
Major
Economics
Hometown
Las Vegas

Where I'm From

Iā€™m from Las Vegas where the 2009 financial crisis sparked my love of economics early in my life.

Where I Am

I am a market analyst at Austin Industrial, tying financial trends to external market forces.

Where I'm Going

Iā€™m going to earn my graduate degree and become a subject matter expert in economics.

Julianna Brooks, ā€™17, is a market analyst for oil and gas services company Austin Industrial in Houston, Texas. 

ā€œMy degree path and everything within UL Ā鶹“«Ć½app was so important in getting this job and being able to execute on this job,ā€ she said.

The Perfect Job for a Young Economist

While the support she got from UL Ā鶹“«Ć½app was important, Juliannaā€™s enthusiasm for economics was an integral part in finding her perfect job.

She handles market analysis and financial analysis, which are "two very fun, very important, very exciting functions within my organization," she said.

ā€œFirst and foremost, as the market analyst, I work with our sales and business development team to analyze market trends and to analyze our internal data,ā€ she said. ā€œIā€™ll take our internal data and I will apply it to external trends. 

ā€œI put together pretty extensive reports on ā€˜this is where weā€™re positioned in the marketā€™ and ā€˜these are certain markets that we are well-positioned to take advantage of,ā€™ā€ she said.

ā€œOn the other side, I do financial analysis as well, but that is so interconnected with the market side,ā€ she said. ā€œIā€™ll take our internal finance trends and Iā€™ll do gap analyses and Iā€™ll look at what our internal trends look like and I do help report that data to the board, as well."

Julianna works closely with Austin Industrialā€™s senior vice president of finance to manage the companyā€™s forecast and rolling backlog ā€“ both of which are tied to the trends she analyzes.

ā€œItā€™s so great to tie into the external market force as well,ā€ she said. ā€œTheyā€™re less powerful independently and together they make really powerful insights.ā€

ā€œItā€™s the perfect job for a young economist, truly,ā€ she said.

Juliannaā€™s career in economics started with while she was still a student at UL Ā鶹“«Ć½app. She utilized her connections on campus to get an internship doing data analysis with Bryson Law firm.

ā€œIt made all of the difference,ā€ she said. ā€œOn one hand, youā€™re getting real, professional experience but then youā€™re also able to bolster up your resume as well as get credit for it. I mean, it was just an all-around wonderful experience."

Economics Over Burritos

Julianna also met some of her favorite people in the economics program at UL Ā鶹“«Ć½app. They bonded over burritos after classes.

ā€œOn Thursdays, we would go to Izzoā€™s and we would get burritos,ā€ she said. ā€œWe went after econometrics class and we talked about economic theories and we were just bouncing ideas off of each other and it was such a blast.ā€

Econometrics (ECON 418G) is the capstone class for the economics program and one of Juliannaā€™s favorite classes.

ā€œI found that class to be so exciting because what theyā€™re teaching in that class is ways of answering questions for yourself,ā€ she said. ā€œThe main basis of the class is learning how to perform regression analysis. 

ā€œRegression analysis is the way that most economics papers use to establish trends and it allows us to answer questions about the real world for ourselves,ā€ she said. ā€œIt allows us to take these totally disparate sets of data and it allows us to go find good sources of data.

ā€œThe big end of the class was writing this 20-page paper and you hear about writing this paper from freshman year and youā€™re always thinking, ā€˜Oh my gosh, at the end of this I have to write a 20-page paper,ā€™ā€ she said. 

ā€œThen you get to it and youā€™re like, ā€˜How do I get this to fit in 20 pages?ā€™ because thereā€™s so much freedom of creativity,ā€ she said. ā€œThatā€™s a huge, exciting part of economics: that itā€™s like hard science with a really good sampling of art and creativity. It gives you so much power to answer questions for yourself.ā€

Another really important class for Juliannaā€™s career was Money and Banking (ECON 320).

ā€œItā€™s definitely the one that gave me the most practical knowledge for what Iā€™m doing today," she said.

This class was so useful that Julianna still has her textbook from the class.

ā€œI have it in my office because there are so many things within the program that I still use on a regular basis,ā€ she said.

An Early Interest in Economics

Juliannaā€™s love for economics started over a decade ago during the 2009 economic crisis.

ā€œIt was so interesting to me,ā€ she said. ā€œThere was something that just really drew me to it because I was like, ā€˜I wanna know why this happened.ā€™ Obviously, I didnā€™t understand it at the time and itā€™s still such a convoluted issue.

ā€œThe entire financial system is based around people making decisions and itā€™s not a hard science, itā€™s all so theoretical,ā€ she said. 

ā€œWhen youā€™re a kid, you always think, ā€˜These people are so much smarter than me,ā€™ and there are all of these processes in place so people canā€™t make mistakes in these situations,ā€ she said, ā€œbut really what economics dictates is that these systems are built around human flaws.

ā€œHuman behavior dictates the way we decide to live our lives and spend our money and run our businesses ā€“ and I find that really interesting,ā€ she said.

Julianna found the perfect place to develop her skills in the economics program at UL Ā鶹“«Ć½app.

ā€œIt is such a bright spot that it is really often times overlooked,ā€ she said. ā€œThe school, the professors, and the people and fellow economists ā€“ I could not imagine a better program and one thatā€™s more grounded in the human aspect of economics.ā€
 

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