Choosing a Career Path

Before you start the job hunt, take a few minutes to figure out what you want and need from a job. Be as specific as you can be: while it might seem like saying “I’ll take anything” will lead to the most possible jobs, it actually makes it nearly impossible to find a place to start. It is okay to be (reasonably) picky. Drill into what you actually want out of a job: are you saying you want to work in policy because you feel particularly called to the research process, or because you want to change policies that affect people you care about? If it’s the latter, you might consider broadening your scope.

Some questions to ask yourself:

How much money do you need to make? Look at your budget: Will you have student loans? Will you need to send money back home? How much of a cushion do you want? If you’ve been making most of your money from student jobs on campus, you should know that you’ll automatically start paying about 7.5% more in taxes for a non-campus job, and if you’re making more money overall, your federal and state tax rates may also go up — budget for this too. If you’re planning on working for a campaign, you should adjust this up so that you have some savings in case you’re unemployed after November. Be thoughtful about location, too: $35k goes much farther in Maine than it does in DC. You should be realistic here: you’re not going to do your best work if you’re constantly stressed about money. Most, but not all, employers will post a salary range on job listings. If they don’t, it’s okay to ask during an interview.

Where do you want to live? It’s fine to make a need vs. want list here: maybe DC is your top choice, but you’re willing to be flexible if needed. Maybe you need to stay within driving distance of family, so you really are limited to one region. Again, be thoughtful here: if you can’t drive, Texas isn’t your best bet. (This will all look different with COVID, and each employer will have different expectations: some don’t care where you are, some will want you to have ties to the community you’re working in, others will expect you to relocate eventually, and others still will expect you to work remotely while physically residing in the state where they’re operating)

What do you care about? You probably think you know this already, and you likely do, but taking a few minutes to hash this out will really make a difference. You are going to spend a terrifying chunk of your life at work, and you deserve to do something that matters to you. Most of us don’t really care about every single progressive issue, and you should hone in on the ones that you would be excited to get up every morning and fight for.

What kind of change do you want to make? This doesn’t have to be super broad or philosophical. There are a bunch of ways to make a difference, and not all of them are going to be your calling. Do you want to build long-term local power for marginalized groups? Do you want to help progressives think in new and different ways? Do you want to fix the system from the inside? Do you just want to make sure we elect Democrats and beat Republicans? There’s no objectively right answer here, but your preferences should inform where you choose to work.

What do you want your schedule to look like? Think about your own style and other commitments, and be realistic about what would bring you joy and what would end up feeling miserable. If you want a 9-5 job, a campaign probably isn’t the place to be. If you want to work 24/7, don’t go to a think tank.

What do you want to learn? How do you want to grow? Early career jobs are, more than anything else, learning experiences. You wouldn’t get an MBA or a JD without knowing what kind of skills you wanted to build, and you shouldn’t take a job without considering what you want to learn. After a year on the job, how do you want to have changed? What do you want to know? What skills do you want to build?

How do you learn best? Everyone has a different learning style. If you learn best by getting thrown in the thick of things and figuring it all out on your own, go work on a campaign or in an under-resourced community organizing group where they’ll give you lots of responsibilities. If you learn best by observing really skilled people in action, maybe a political consulting firm (even serving as an admin assistant!) or a big advocacy group is for you. And if you learn best through rigorous training and leadership development, find an organization that has a long-term vision for staff development.

Think of these as starting points in your search, not firm criteria. You probably don’t have a perfect answer to all these questions, and that’s fine: ultimately the job, not the search, will help you come closer to answering them. But by having some sense of where you are now and observing what questions spring from these, you’ll have something that resembles a starting point -- or at least a set of guiding principles -- for your search.

Don’t worry too much about finding the perfect fit. Once you steer yourself towards the right job for you, you will know it.

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