Reply to getting a staff assistant entry level job on the hill

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]oh OP, its going to be really tough.

i say this as someone who took my first hill internship at 27, was a staff assistant at 28, and really had a tough time navigating my early years of career on the Hill

10 years out, I'm in a decent place. But these past 10 years have been a total grind.

why do you want to work on the Hill? Its not a good work environment. the benefits are not great. the pay vs the hours are horrible. the partisanship has ground any hopes of getting anything actually done. the members are actually pretty horrible, even your heroes.

get a fed job, skip the hill [/quote]

Oh, this is disappointing.  I’m glad you’re in decent place now. I’m older than you and was excited to apply for a couple openings recently. My degree is old. My jobs are all over the place - both in location and field. I thought I could finally do something that interested me now that we live here, and I was happy to take an entry level position.

Can you tell me more about the realities?  Is living close a necessity?  Does anyone drive in from the suburbs or is parking too hard? Do you work weekends?  Early mornings and late nights?  Unnecessary stress and pressure?   I have work experience but not a masters degree. Are there entry jobs that are more interesting than opening mail but don’t require a graduate degree?  Can you tell me more about what made those few years hard to navigate?  Thank you
[/quote]

Yes people come from all over. Each office is allocated a certain number of parking spots. If you don’t get one of those, parking is nearly impossible.

There can be early mornings and late nights but for the staff assistant not as many.

The unnecessary stress can came from having to please everyone. You’re the Face of the office so chiefs of staff can put a lot of pressure on you to make everyone feel welcome on top of your normal work.

In addition to sorting mail, answering the phone, managing interns and get people set up on Capitol tours, you may also sort the constituent email and write form letters.

It can be a grind because even a job on the hill doesn’t mean success later. You need to work for the right member, for enough time to be known while being an expert on a specific issue (Jack of all trades don’t do as well long term) and have a decent personality so people want to help you. Most promotions are all who you know because they are rarely posted.

Even with the new pay increases, pay is much less than private sector jobs so you constantly feel behind.

Also, there are a lot of young gunners who can be annoying but you feel like you have to compete with them so it’s a horrible cycle. [/quote]

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