7 Tips for political staffers on the job market

So your parents will finally stop asking you what you’re doing next

Job hunting sucks. Period. But there are some things that you can be doing right now to make the whole experience much, much easier. After braving the D.C. job market in grad school and working through six cycles on back-to-back campaigns, these are the lessons I’ve learned and the lessons I continue to share with folks who make the mistake of asking me for advice.

Happy hunting!

1. File for unemployment as soon as you can

This is always the first piece of advice I give to anyone working in campaigns. Because of the seasonal nature of politics, many staffers rely on unemployment to pay their bills between gigs. The thing to remember is that it can take weeks from the first day you file for unemployment to the day you receive your first check. So, make sure you file for unemployment as soon as possible to give yourself the financial flexibility to hold out for the right job for you.

2. Update your resume, cover letter, and portfolios

When you’re burned out after a long year of campaigning, the last thing you want to do is write a cover letter — but do it now while the work you accomplished this year is still fresh in your mind! Future you will thank you. Here are some quick tips on each of these three important documents:

Resume

• Build and maintain a multi-page, master resume that has everything you did for each of your jobs. This way, you can use your long master list to source just the key items you want to highlight in a more tailored resume for the roles you’re applying for.
• Lean on your team and supervisors to help strengthen your master description of your job. They were in the trenches with you day in and day out, and they might have recognized something in your work that meant a lot to them that you might have overlooked. Their perspective will be helpful.
• When you’re customizing a resume for a particular job, make sure the job description they’ve posted is reflected in the work you’ve done. Typically if a hiring manager is looking for someone to do a job, they want the candidate that looks like they’ve already done it.

Cover Letter

• Like your resume, keep a master cover letter with a couple of variations of how you would describe your most recent role. I like to identify themes in my work and then write 2–3 paragraphs each highlighting a different theme. This will give you strong copy options to choose from when building a more tailored cover letter.
• The theme drafting method above makes it much easier to use a plug-and-play cover letter using your traditional five-paragraph writing model. Outline the themes you want to highlight in your introduction, drop in a graph for each theme from your master cover letter doc, and finish off strong by explaining how those descriptions of your previous work make you the perfect candidate for the job.

Portfolio

• Everyone should have a portfolio of their previous work saved somewhere that is easily accessible. For some folks, it might include creative pieces like artwork, videos, and photography. For others, it might just be writing samples. Sit down and identify the deliverables you created this cycle and find a way to save and archive the ones you’re most proud of. This way, if you’re asked about them in an interview, the pride in your work will come through and really demonstrate the energy behind your work.
• Ask your colleagues which pieces of your work were their favorite. You may have your own favorites, but remember that the hiring manager interviewing you may come from a completely different background with a different perspective on what qualifies as notable works. Asking your colleagues will give you more perspective as you try to build a multi-dimensional portfolio.
• When building a portfolio, the keys are diversity and direction. Like a 13 Going on 30 mood board, make sure your portfolio shows the full breadth of your work while still telling the story of who you are as a worker and strategist. That includes packaging your portfolio in a way that reflects you — hopefully, that means in an organized fashion. Whether you use a linked PDF or build a whole website, make sure it looks tidy and well maintained.

3. Assess your financial needs

You may wonder why building a personal budget is part of the hiring process, but it’s actually one of the most important steps in my book. Working in politics, it’s really easy to get carried away looking for the job where we can do the most good and, in the process, forget that this job also has to set up our financial success and future. By setting up a personal budget and identifying your annual expenses, you can calculate the minimum salary you should be taking when looking for your next venture. This is critical when considering jobs in cities with significantly higher costs of living.

*cough* *cough* D.C. *cough*

4. Pick up a new skill during your unemployment

I want to start by saying: burnout is real and that if you need downtime, you need to take it. You’ll be better off for it. But, if you’re ready to get back to work and are still on the job market, don’t be afraid to take some time to pick up a new skill to add to your newly polished resume.

For folks in the digital political space, I typically recommend taking free coding classes or jumping on YouTube to learn to create graphics and videos in the Adobe Suite. We all know that digital job descriptions ask for staffers to have the skills of four people, but until we’re in positions of power and can fix that, our goal needs to be getting you there.

Where to start: Identify the weakest part of your resume and ask yourself if there’s a skill you can teach yourself to help fill that gap.

5. Do your homework on the job market

Whether you think you want to work at a firm, a special interest organization, or a campaign — do your homework. Here are some great first questions to start asking:

• Who is in leadership, and where did they come from?
• How diverse is their leadership/organization at large?
• What do they pay for their different positions? If they don’t disclose that information, is that important to me?
• Are they unionized?
• Do they offer benefits?
• What is their work culture like?
• Is remote work available?
• Which candidates/values do they represent?

My best advice: Get together with some friends also looking for jobs in the field and build a master tracker where you log this information. As opportunities arise, you can compare them against some predetermined metrics for a positive work-life.

6. Use your network to set up informational meetings

In addition to doing your homework in advance of potential employers, tap your personal network to set up as many informational meetings as you can. The more candid of a conversation you can have about work culture and job responsibilities, the better off you’ll be when you finally get to decide on where you’re going next.

These informationals also are a great way to test your elevator pitch and practice some of your interviewing skills before you get too far into the process.

7. Don’t take the first job you are offered

When I first started my career, I got this advice a lot. I always thought folks were telling me not to take the first job I was offered because a better one would come around eventually. What I’ve learned is that following this advice is actually a huge investment in your mental health.

Campaigns are tough. Working in politics is hard. The last thing you want is to take the first job you’re offered, the job ends up not being exactly what you expected, and you second-guess your decision for months.

A professor once taught me that the human condition is decision without resolution — meaning no matter what you choose, you’ll always wonder “what if” or think the grass is greener on the other side.

If you can afford to wait a bit before taking your next job, working to get a second offer on the table can help mitigate some of the natural anxiety that comes up when you start a new job that isn’t as perfect as you had imagined. Sometimes it takes a while to fall in love with a job and at least you’ll find solace in the meantime knowing you made the best decision possible with the information available to you.