What makes hill jobs attractive?

I work on a fellowship that places on the Hill. Agree with others who have recommended the fellowship route. What is your grad degree in?

Depending on your area of study from grad school, there are various fellowships you can apply for that place you in an office for a year.

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

I’ve hired more than 15 staff assistant in my career on the hill. Out of those, 3 had professions before coming to the hill. Two were teachers and one worked at a bank in an entry level role. None were donor kids. Donor kids are much more likely to internships.

My best staff assistants were interns on the hill because they knew what they were getting in to. Now that the offices are open you need to be able to control chaos: phones ringing, meetings in and out and staff needing assistance. You need to be level headed, friendly and organized. Also, being from the state or district is almost a must. You are interacting with constituents so common ground (restaurants you like for instance) builds great relationships.

I asked - didn’t dictate - staff assistants to commit to a year. Many times they get bored and leave. If you’re there a year I would really work to get you to the next level and mentor you. The hours aren’t great and work isn’t sexy, but it is vital to office operations.

I’ve been on the hill 20 years and love it.

What is your long term goal? Happy to answer specific questions.

Anonymous wrote:I tried to get a job like this for several months and it went terribly. I was exiting biglaw and I thought it would be easy. Nope…

I’ve seen people move from biglaw to committee staff, then personal staff (though tbh, I don’t know why you’d want to be on personal staff.)

Anonymous wrote:What's better? A staff job or a federal job?

I'm curious about this. Why not try for a federal job instead of hill staffing?

Anonymous wrote:These positions really are reserved for the kids of major donors. They're also totally unskilled jobs - opening mail and shoving letters under the automatic signing machine.

This isn’t true. Kids with major donor parents are the exception rather than the rule.

I tried to get a job like this for several months and it went terribly. I was exiting biglaw and I thought it would be easy. Nope…

What's better? A staff job or a federal job?

Anonymous wrote:See if you can get an internship where they will call you a fellow and let you work on more substantive material other than opening mail.

If you don't go this route make sure you leave off graduation year, etc. that'll give away your age. While some offices will hire a 27 year old staff assistant, it's a bit north of the norm.

You're really going to need some type of experience on your resume that says you're interested in politics. That could even be a volunteering on a campaign or with the state democratic party. Even though it's entry level work, you're competing against a couple hundred applicants for every advertised slot.

If your desire is to just work on the hill, scheduler may be your easiest route. This can lead to a more legislative position, but often does not.

Scheduler posts say experience required. Why won’t they hire people over 30 for staff jobs?

What does it pay and why wouldn’t they hire someone over 30?

See if you can get an internship where they will call you a fellow and let you work on more substantive material other than opening mail.

If you don't go this route make sure you leave off graduation year, etc. that'll give away your age. While some offices will hire a 27 year old staff assistant, it's a bit north of the norm.

You're really going to need some type of experience on your resume that says you're interested in politics. That could even be a volunteering on a campaign or with the state democratic party. Even though it's entry level work, you're competing against a couple hundred applicants for every advertised slot.

If your desire is to just work on the hill, scheduler may be your easiest route. This can lead to a more legislative position, but often does not.

Anonymous wrote:PP again, also try to sign up for some of the big Hill job listserves. Brad Traverse and Tom Manatos run two of the big ones. I think they charge $5/mo, but they get a ton of listings...

Also Craig Roberts job list, I think that one's free.

PP again, also try to sign up for some of the big Hill job listserves. Brad Traverse and Tom Manatos run two of the big ones. I think they charge $5/mo, but they get a ton of listings...