GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Government
The good news is that the career opportunities in government are endless. The bad news is that these jobs are not often easy to find. The best method for securing a position in this industry is through internships and contacts.
The federal government is our nation’s largest employer. About 1.9 million people work for the federal government. The industry is eager to attract and retain talented employees as hundreds of thousands of “baby boomers” approach retirement. Of the 1.9 million people working in federal government, 44 percent will be eligible to retire by 2010 – including 60 percent of senior managers. Similar demographics are impacting state and local governments – and they employ many more people nationwide than the federal government.
Government employees are scientists, engineers, policy workers, administrators, economists, writers, psychologists, artists, and everything in between. Careers are available for students from all academic majors. They work in all three branches of government - executive, legislative, judicial. Not all jobs are located in the nation’s capital. Federal employment is all over the US and the world – only about 16 percent of federal offices are in Washington DC.
The big plus for working in government is that career training and development are part of the professional culture and there are great opportunities for advancement.
A Day In The Life
Political Assistant at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DNCC)
6:30 am – Get up and get ready for the day – business/business casual depending on what the day entails
7:30 am Commute to work on the Metro
8:00 am Race Review meeting. During this meeting, our regional political directors run through each of our campaigns and brief everyone on what's happening in them. These are often also attended by the Members of Congress who help guide our organization.
9:00 am Read the day's news clippings, highlighted stories, and newswires on house races – this is compiled by our communications team.
10:00 am Surrogate travel meeting (this is a phrase that refers to the travel that famous personalities do on behalf of our candidates, either in terms of fundraisers or press). I meet with our political director and our finance director to help steer our surrogate travel program. Together, we decide which surrogates we would like to approach, which races we'd like them to visit, and we work out the political issues that always come with these sorts of visits.
11:00 pm Prepare political briefings for use by Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Congressman Rahm Emanuel in their travel. I also prepare these for any of the people who agree to travel on our behalf (our surrogates). This involves summarizing the latest happenings in the race, putting together all the information I can find on past elections in that district, highlighting polling data, drafting bios of the candidate and the Republican opponent, and pulling any relevant news clippings.
2:00 pm Spend a few hours focusing on planning our surrogate travel. This entails contacting the potential speakers or their staff (Begala, Carville, Senator Obama, Governor Warner, Ambassador Joseph Wilson, Senator Dodd, Senator Bayh – these are a few of the ones I've worked with) to find out what dates they have available and to pitch specific races or candidates to them. Then I contact the campaigns and help them set up the specifics of any travel and help them figure out what events or fundraisers would best match their guest.
5:00 pm Update our polling spreadsheet, TV ad database, and race summaries. This basically is an ongoing job whereby I take any new polls, ads, and other information that comes our way and put it all together it so that our Political Director, Executive Director and Chairman have a summary of all the information they need.
7:00 pm Wrap up any leftover phone calls/emails that I wasn't able to get to during the day. This is usually the quietest time of the day when I can get some of my longer term projects done as well.
8:00 pm Depart for the day. Sometimes this happens earlier, sometimes later. It is often MUCH later if there is a primary election that day, as it's my responsibility to track returns as they come in and make sure that a list of about 200 people has up-to-date information on who is winning/losing as well as information from the ground that I get from someone who is with the campaigns. If it's not a primary election day, and if I get out early enough, I often attend political functions or fundraisers around DC.
Politics
Or perhaps a stint in politics interests you. There are two basic strategies for entering the political scene: (1), starting out in a …..and working your way up, and (2), developing an area of expertise first and then seeking to transfer in at a higher level. Look beyond the obvious
Web Resources
Counselor Picks:
- www.ourpublicservice.org
- www.studentjobs.gov
- www.usajobs.opm.gov
- www.washingtonjobs.com
- www.fedjobs.com
- www.fedworld.gov
Links to Fellowships & 1-2 Year Programs
- AmeriCorps
- Autry Fellowship
- Commonwealth Fund
- Coro Fellows Program
- Fulbright Program
- Fund for Public Interest Research
- GreenCorps
- Idealist
- New Voices Fellowship
- NYC Urban Fellows Program
- PeaceCorps
- PMAC
- State PIRGs
Law Resources
- American Bar Association
- Hieros Gamos - Law & Legal Research Center
- National Lawyers Guild
- National Legal Aid & Defender Association
- Equal Justice Works
- Law Industry Profile
- Martindale-Hubbell
Web Resources
- www.ourpublicservice.org
- www.idealist.org
- www.wca.org
- www.charitychannel.com
- philanthropy.com
- publicservice.monster.com
- www.opportunitynocs.org
- www.fpa.org
Public Interest Groups
Examples of Employers
Education
The Public Forum Institute, Global Education partnership (GEP), Washington Center, Fund for American Studies, Youth Policy Institute, Washington Center for Politics & Journalism
Health
Center for Science in Public Interest, American Council on Science & Health, Center for Biomedical Ethics, AmFar, ASTHO, Family health International, ASHA, Urban Institute, national Institutes of Health, Alliance for Health Reform, NIEHS
International Affairs
Human Rights Watch, Africare, Council on Foreign Relations, Bread for the World, Washington Office on Africa, Washington Center on Latin America, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
Think Tanks
Urban Institute, Brookings Institution, Cato Institute, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, Worldwatch Institute, Center for Policy Alternatives, Heritage Foundation, Congressional Youth Leadership Council, National Center for Public Policy Research
Web Resources
- www.hillzoo.com
- dnc.capitolworks.com
- www.washingtonpost.com
- www.rollcall.com
- www.thehill.com
- www.heritage.org
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