Reply to questions for those in government affairs field

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "questions for those in government affairs field"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]My sweet and smart (and naive / inexperienced) 22 yr old niece graduated (last May) from a small liberal arts college as a political science major. She’s not interested in law school (I’m a lawyer and support that decision!) and has a first job in consulting for one of the non-McKinsey level firms, in the federal/gov’t unit (I forget exactly what my sister called it). She has no idea what she wants to do other than that she loves politics but she doesn’t think she wants to work on a campaign.

Her job start date keeps getting postponed. My sister is worried that it may be “permanently postponed,” and my niece is actively looking for an apartment in DC area with some college friends, and then she’ll be locked into DC and rent but without an income.

YES my sister and I both know this is my niece’s situation to figure out. But my sister and I are close, and I’m close with my niece, and while I don’t work in a related field at all, I’m probably (by virtue of being a lawyer and living in DC) closer to what my niece’s career goals may be than my sister is. So I’m helping brainstorm ideas for what my niece can look into if her job offer is revoked.

All of this is background to ask dcum-ers who are in government affairs, is this the type of job that one seeks immediately out of undergrad, or is it better to get experience working on the Hill (for a politician, or a congressional committee, or the like) before moving into a government affairs job in the private sector. I know I sound clueless- and I am, please school me.

If you do think some kind of congressional experience is helpful, where does a new grad look for these jobs? Are there areas you recommend vs not?

I’d appreciate any other brainstorms for fields my niece could start looking into as a recent poli science grad. She says her college’s career office was not very helpful other than for quantifiable jobs like consulting, finance, engineering, or for grad school.

Thanks for any advice. 
[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics