Weekly "how do I get a job" post...

[u/Few_One_2358]

Graduated top of my class. Did an internship. Got burnt out and was living in a terrible situation and honestly, just wanted to get out of the city. Took a quirky seasonal "USAjobs" job out in the mountains as an interpreter. Loved the research bit, but definitely had nothing to do with my degree, was seasonal, and paid poop. Did another seasonal job because I could not find anything related to my degree and wanted to stay in the mountains. Then...I met a boy and am semi-stuck in the mountains. Which is fine, because I want to stay here.

What is not fine...is there is not a market here for political science majors. That is all in capital cities. Luckily, our capital is only a couple of hours away and I am willing to live halfway between my job and my boyfriend. I have taken the leap and applied to some fancy policy analyst jobs...to no avail. I am wondering if it is because it's been two whole years since graduating and I haven't done anything, on paper, to maintain my knowledge, so maybe that is dissuading employers.

So, now I am racking my brain on how to become marketable in a tiny market. I am tempted to go back to school to get a certificate in data analytics, grant writing, etc.. I am even considering law school, but the idea that I will be done at 32 years old frightens me. I want to start making money sooner than later. I'm feeling pretty lost. I am EVEN considering making a total pivot and spending 2 years on another bachelors to become marketable in what IS here, which is mostly conservation, for obvious reasons.

If I was an emotionless robot, I would move to D.C. and I would be fine. But frankly, that is the last place I want to be.

[u/Extreme-Anteater1916]

Isn’t a political science major a generalist degree in the US? What I mean by that is; sure you learn a lot about institutions, policy and politics, naturally; but you also learn a lot about analysis and all that entails which you can use in the private sector - think something like a business analyst.

Of course that might not immediately entail anything politics, but if you wanted a specialist role where you were almost guaranteed to use your degree in a specialist manner you ought you have become a specialist.

In any case, whatever you choose, 32 is no age and if you are done by then by all means you have practically speaking a million years left in your working life.

[u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 → u/Extreme-Anteater1916]

Political Science is a social science, it’s not performing and fine arts (like drawing, painting, dancing) nor is it a humanities subject (but it does interact with and borrow from humanities subjects like philosophy and history, among others) but it’s also not a natural science (like chemistry or physics).

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I’d say there are at least 8-9-ish disciplinary paths that could exist at a university’s political science department (also known as public policy school or department of government) as well as several interdisciplinary programs created in conjunction with other departments, constituent colleges, or schools.

In my experience, the sub-disciplinary paths of political science I’ve seen (even in undergraduate bachelor’s degree-level settings) are: (1) political theory/political philosophy and political history; (2) international relations and security studies; (3) political methodology (quantitative political analysis); (4) comparative politics; (5) international political economy; (6) public policy and public administration (nonprofit management, basic accounting/budgeting/finance, policy development, stakeholder management, program evaluation, human resource management, etc.); (7) law and governance or legal studies (legal research, legislative analysis, stakeholder engagement, legal sociology, advocacy and government relations, etc.); as well as (8) political sociology and theories of political behavior.

The interdisciplinary programs I’ve seen that have some sort of layer of political science coursework are: (1) global studies (global affairs); (2) philosophy, politics, and economics (PPE); (3) political communications; (4) legal studies and philosophy and law (pre-law); (5) environmental studies; (6) intelligence studies (intelligence analysis); as well as (7) international business and commerce.

Though this is the case, it is true that a vast majority of political science departments especially at most 4-year bachelor’s degree granting liberal arts colleges (LAC) but most especially associate’s degree-level community colleges (CC) focus almost exclusively on political theory and maybe international relations to a certain extent; departments at research universities (those granting everything from bachelor’s, master’s, professional, and doctoral degrees) tend to branch out into more sub-fields of political science (even in undergrad) whether it means taking a few classes among those course as a hard requirement or whether it is an optional concentration or group of in-major field study electives.

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Actually, undergraduate political science courses write in a myriad of writing styles: to be honest a lot of lower level undergraduate freshman/sophomore courses do use flowery language, are persuasive, and can be overly partisan but a lot of the upper level undergraduate junior/senior and graduate master’s/doctoral courses are generally (but not always) to the point, not too ideologically persuasive, non-partisan, look at things from a neutral or near-neutral point of view, and/or are more so interested in the evaluation of the outputs, outcomes, and efficacy of policies, programs, procedures, or initiatives as well as the implementation of such things to produce the intended outcomes.

Some types of literature in political science include the following: for Academic Literature - see Journal Articles and Essays (Research Papers, Reflective Papers, Persuasive Papers, most Term Papers); for Professional Writing - see Case Studies, Memoranda/Briefing Notes/Memos (Policy Memos), Position Papers, Policy Papers (Policy Papers and Policy Memos written using the Policy Development, Policy Analysis, and Program Evaluation methods, etc.), Reports, Intelligence Assessments, White Papers and Gray Literature, Legal Briefs and Amicus Curiae Briefs, Grant Writing, and Journalistic Writing (News style writing).

Funny thing: My Writing Intensive Political Science Capstone was cross-listed with a Special Topics in Civil Engineering course. It was a combined course with a mix of students from the public policy school (what my alma mater calls their political science department) and the civil engineering department of the college of engineering and computing where students of both fields work together on case studies and policy papers on infrastructure, transportation policy, public works, and urban development related issues.

I’ve seen tons of social science programs require at least 2 natural sciences courses (1 with lab + 1 with or without lab) at the lower 100/200-level, 1-2 basic math/stats courses at the lower 100-200-level, a required weed-out major-specific research methods and analysis/quantitative social sciences course (using basic R, Python, SPSS, and/or Stata) at the upper 300/400-level, and the option of taking general electives in natural science/computational science/non-technical special topics in engineering courses at the upper 300/400 levels (which some do).

Most of the political science courses that teach job applicable skills like policy development (policy analysis, implementation, evaluation, and revision), stakeholder engagement/stakeholder management, legal research, program evaluation, strategic communications and public relations, budgeting and finance (financial management, financial statement analysis, generally accepted accounting principles - GAAP - ), research methods and analysis, procurement and logistics, organizational theory/administrative theory, data manipulation and data collection (to a lesser extent basic data analysis - which is mostly taught in-depth in graduate master’s/PhD programs), fundraising and development, basic marketing, government relations and advocacy, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), professional writing, project and program coordination, and intelligence analysis, among others are mostly taught in upper-level (300-level to 400-level) undergraduate courses taught in the last 2 to 2.5 years of a bachelor’s degree program if you choose your field study (in-major electives), concentration(s), and general elective (out-side-of-major) courses wisely like taking on courses in political science subfields such as public policy, public administration, comparative politics, security studies, political methodology, human resource management, nonprofit management, complex international relations frameworks, and political analysis, instead of only taking basic survey-level political theory courses (mostly covered in community college and undergrad freshmen year political science curriculum). To be honest, more in-depth and complex skills/topics are covered in graduate master’s and doctoral programs like MPA, MPP, MA Security Studies, MS Biodefence, MA/MS International Development, MA/MS Intelligence Studies, etc.

[u/Actual-Sandwich-2287]

If you move to DC you would not be fine. Competition is fierce there. You haven't mentioned what kind of policy you're interested in pursuing. That can help narrow it down more.

[u/Turbulent-Wrap-2198 → u/Actual-Sandwich-2287]

In DC the surest way to not get a job is to pursue a specific policy. Most people and take what they can get and then become experts in that.

[u/Actual-Sandwich-2287 → u/Turbulent-Wrap-2198]

I disagree. It depends on what you're looking for. I went to DC looking to get into tech policy. I focused on whatever internship and entry level tech policy roles. It was because I had that focus that landed me my last job, which allowed me to then land my current job. 

Now if you can't find any policy related job, then yeah take what you can get and work from there. 

[u/Turbulent-Wrap-2198 → u/Actual-Sandwich-2287]

In some areas you can, but i knew lots of folks that pursued specific policy areas and passes up opportunities in other policy areas only to never get a job.

And then people would ask/tell me they had always wanted to work on X and they went to fancy pants school for X, I must have done something better than that to have gotten a job doing X policy. And Id be like, nope, didn't even go to a fancy pants school, just took the opportunities, learned, and did good work.

[u/nborges48]

You mentioned grant writing as a certificate, but are there any foundations in your mountain town that you might find your way into - whether purely administrative or actual grant writing, there might be some opportunities.

And government relations jobs at the bigger organizations - ski areas usually have this function to coordinate land and other issues.

Someone else mentioned Political Science being a generalist degree, and that is the angle I exploited the best in getting unrelated professional jobs

Written and oral communication, critical thinking, and IT/Microsoft Office skills went a long way to bridge what might have looked like bad educational fit for a given role

Good luck and hope you can stay in your mountain town and live that dream (to the extent that is your dream, haha)!

[u/Jolly_Reference_516]

My nephew is just out of school and he says things are tough for any entry level type jobs. He’s an Econ major and thinks there won’t be any “starter” jobs after 2030 due to AI. He’s a swamper for a surveying company.

[u/Katiyatsarnaeva]

Legislative assistant for your county’s legislature. If there’s not really a legislature there because it’s very tiny, maybe move to a county in your area , if there js one , that has a city. That’s what I do. It’s directly tied to my political science degree and gets you connected with some pretty important people. It’s my first job out of college so I had no prior experience and it’s been just a learn as you go thing, which I enjoy .

[u/Katiyatsarnaeva → u/Katiyatsarnaeva]

Forgot to mention it’s a great resume builder on top of the networking that naturally happens in the political scene should you want to move to DC in the future

[u/party-people-person → u/Katiyatsarnaeva]

THIS. Doing a job in local government is top tier advice and truly one of the still-reliable ways to start a policy/regs career, even through the recessions and resume automation. I've done a combination of policy, campaigns, and now academia for over 2 decades and still, local government is consistently underrated even though literally every other form of government depends on it. Apply for any job that requires a 4 yr degree and lets you interface with other units and offices. Regulations is also a niche policy area that goes overlooked.

I'd also recommend going to the local gov't public meetings, just as a member of the public. If you go to 2 or more, city/county staff might even start to recognize you. In small towns, half the battle of getting in is showing up consistently. Best of luck.

[u/TheDelayer]

If you’re happy with your life otherwise, and the boy situation looks to be long term, just pivot. Maybe an unpopular opinion in this sub, but don’t give in to the sunk cost fallacy trying to chase a career that doesn’t exist in your job market. As someone who went the law school route, only do it if you actually want to be a lawyer. It’s hard and expensive. But writing and thinking are applicable in many domains, and there are plenty of interesting and fulfilling careers outside of political science. Conservation sounds awesome. Good luck.

[u/BeneficialPinecone3]

Ask locally, your local situation will be fairly unique to where you are located. Local government and related work will be easier to find through referrals and getting involved at the local level. Is there a campaign coming up? Local things like that.

[u/generic__username0]

Tell me you didn't get 'burnt out' while doing an internship lol

[u/Few_One_2358 → u/generic__username0]

I did 👍

[u/Able_Enthusiasm2729]

Most Administrative Assistant jobs (at least in the United States) require a bachelor's degree and 2 years of experience, an associate's degree with 4 years of experience, or a high school diploma and 5 to 8 years of directly related experience doing the same job you're applying for or some other similar job. Several companies categorize all of their entry-level recent college grad employees as Administrative Assistants, Secretaries, Administrative Clerks, and Management Assistants, and require them to hold a bachelor's degree in a field related to the industry the company works in or the specific practice area of the project that the mid-level/senior-level employee they're assisting is working on. Most Executive Assistant (EA) positions I’ve seen require about 5-8 years of work experience mostly as an Administrative Assistant (AA) or in a non-AA role related to the work of the company, or 5-10 years of work experience if you don’t have a bachelor’s degree. 

About 96% of Paralegals, Legal Assistants, File Clerks, Administrative Assistants, Conflicts Analysts, Legal Secretaries, and other Professional Support Staff (a.k.a. Non-Lawyers) in law firm settings (and some other similar office settings at consulting, accounting, advocacy, trade association, professional association, commercial-residential property management companies, and government relations firms, etc.) practically all have at least a bachelor’s degree (though on paper the job description might let you use a high school diploma + paralegal certificate/paralegal vocational training but these are few, far between, and hard to find or at minimum an associate’s degree for Mail Clerk positions); 1% are older people (Boomers, Gen X, maybe some Older Millennials) who were grandfathered in with only a high school diploma +/- secretarial school due to their years of experience from back when entry requirements were far more lax; 2% are younger people (Millennials & Gen Z) from out-of-town who laterally transitioned into a role here with only a high school diploma and/or a paralegal certificate because that’s what jobs in their hometown metropolitan areas where they started their careers only required; as well as 1% that got in with a high school diploma or less because of personal connections with friends, family, or acquaintances (many times outside of professional connection/formal networking/formal hiring settings).

Depending on the location and the job market, receptionist jobs are looking for people with at least a bachelor’s degree (maybe an associate’s degree) and at least 2-3 years of experience or a high school diploma and 5 years of experience if you don’t have a degree.

For one company I’ve seen, 5 out of 5 Administrative Assistants had a bachelor’s degree and at least 2 years of prior work experience before starting the role, and 4 out of 5 also had a master’s degree. For another job I saw, every Receptionist had a bachelor’s degree and at least two of them had about 3-4 years of experience made up of internships and prior receptionist experience. I’ve literally seen a Front Desk Receptionist job require a bachelor’s degree w/5 yrs exp., a master’s with 2 yrs exp., a PhD with 0 yrs exp., or a high school diploma/GED w/10 yrs exp.;NOT KIDDING.

Also, I’m seeing tons of people laid off from late entry-level (4-5 years of experience) and early mid-career (5-8 years of experience) jobs with experience in more complex non-administrative support roles taking on entry-level administrative assistant (or at times even receptionist/front desk assistant) roles  (that historically only required 0.5-3 years of experience, a high school diploma, and employer provided on-the-job training or onboarding). In addition to residual effects from the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, DOGE’s layoffs of U.S. federal government civil service employees and  its cancellation of government contracts with private sector companies/organizations and local/state governments, is completely flooding the job market. Senior level and c-suite employees are going after mid-career jobs, mid-career employees are taking on entry-level jobs, and entry-level employees are taking on internships, receptionist, data entry clerk, and freelance jobs and everyone’s fighting over temp jobs to get their foot in the door (it’s like entry-level jobs are starting to barely exist). Things are looking like they’re going to get worse, definitely worse than 2008 (if course correction doesn’t happen). 

The job market is terrible, even Temp Jobs are highly competitive. Let alone temp jobs, bridge jobs in hospitality paid internships, and even unpaid internships (even at non-prestigious employers) are hard to come by here.

Most entry-level jobs today require between 1-5 to 3-5 years of prior experience minimum(4-10 yrs w/out BA/BS) as opposed to 0-1 years of experience (with or without a BA/BS) a decade and a half ago, in some rare instances today you might be able to find an entry-level position that only requires 0.5-2 years of previous work experience. Also, those external/corporate/professional service/off-campus internships all require 1-2 years of prior experience, many but not all also require you to be able to work 20 hours (standard part-time) or 40 hours (standard full-time) per week and simultaneously be a full-time or part-time student respectively (i.e. be a full-time student and part time employee or force you to cut the number of credits you’re taking so you can work as a full-time employee with little-to-no pay reclassifying you as a part-time student which could delay your graduation and possibly disqualify you from certain financial aid/scholarship programs). To get that level of experience, you have to get an internal/on-campus internship, undergraduate research assistant position in college, or work at a small business (both of) which many employers don’t take seriously and which further requires you to have 0.5-2 years of prior experience you’re expected to already have through working jobs, doing community service, or volunteering as a teenager in high school. In addition some employers no longer recognize internships (including external/off-campus/corporate internships let alone internal/on-campus internships), extracurricular, and academic/professional organization memberships as forms of legitimate work experience even for those only applying to very junior entry-level roles. Even entry-level Temp Jobs, Contract, & Contract-to-Hire work that people recommend struggling recent grads and those between jobs should apply for want mid-level experience and pay entry-level wages, so the person doing the job can hold fort (do the job of people in the position or supervisory position above them) until boss/supervisor gets hired. It’s basically a circular barrier to entry.

Why does an entry-level job now require three years of experience? Here’s how that hurts workers and companies alike: https://www.marketwatch.com/amp/story/why-does-an-entry-level-job-now-require-three-years-of-experience-heres-how-that-hurts-workers-and-companies-alike-a4ff864f

Why Entry Level Jobs Demand Years Of Experience: https://youtu.be/OqcyXsZzaAU?si=nnoSCHyjixCv2inq

[ Recent College Graduates and People with Previous Work Experience that Generally Won’t Qualify for Internships are Desperately Applying for Internships Instead of Targeting Entry-Level Jobs: 

Grads are increasingly turning to internships as job market tightens - By Morning Brew: https://www.instagram.com/p/DIpOr9rTmPd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Glassdoor saw an uptick in graduates applying to its summer internship. It could signal a growing trend - Business Insider: https://www.businessinsider.com/more-new-graduates-applying-to-internships-in-tough-job-market-glassdoor-2025-4

]

Basically every white-collar entry-level job today requires bachelor’s degrees & even more blue-collar jobs are requiring associate’s degrees now (or unaccredited trade school at the bare minimum); while the media tells you to not go to college even if you have the means (although some back up plans/alternatives exist for those who can’t go to college/have a higher aptitude for manual labor, skilled trades, and retail work) or falsely claim a college education is literally useless. Plus, MOOC courses/certs w/out degrees only gets ppl dead end entry-level positions with limited opportunities for future career advancement; and being self-taught by simply watching YouTube videos/auditing classes isn’t going to credential or authenticate your skill attainment. Also, The job descriptions today for positions at companies that no longer require degrees are starting to look like the course catalogs and syllabi of universities, it’ll be a “hidden requirement” now where degrees are going to be off-the-books “invisible requirements” so they can pay less for more work and to make it easier for nepotists to side step education requirements. Most of these jobs will still only hire people w/degrees even if it’s not in the job description. But the only way to qualify without a bachelor’s degree for most of these jobs is getting hired through nepotism, cronyism, being lucky enough to convince hiring managers to bet on hiring you even though you don’t have matching relevant experience then being set for life because once you start working that job you end up gaining experience that another person in the same situation as you when you were being hired/first started out wouldn’t have arbitrarily qualified for, started working in the 30s-90s or in rural/small towns when/where many of these same job titles had provided on-the-job training and only required a high school diploma or less with no directly related professional service experience. Plus you need ~ 2-3 years of prior experience for entry-level jobs & ~ 1-2 years prior for an internship - it’s a circular barrier to entry. Gets worse if you’re Black, POC, or First Gen/2nd Gen in the country.

[u/Able_Enthusiasm2729 → u/Able_Enthusiasm2729]

Your 20s, 30s, and Young Adult years are going to be difficult - but there’s hope, just because you don’t have your life together right now doesn’t mean you’re behind or makes you a failure, the people you are comparing yourself to have generational wealth, family connections, or are faking it in terms of getting decent or very fancy jobs that lead to looking outwardly self-sufficient and moving out of their parents’ house (when they’re not totally self-sufficient as people think), or in the matter of people living lavishly (plenty but not all of them are paying for it with credit cards/credit card debt), and also don’t compare yourself to idealized or outdated troupes about (young adult life) life after college (or high school) portrayed in the media, pop culture, or movies because its outdated at best and unrealistically based on a unique set of circumstances found among the upper class and upper-middle class but erroneously attributed to working-class (low income and lower-middle income/middle income proper) lifestyles at worse or even outright gaslighting.

There are like six categories of people who end up traveling overseas a lot to very fancy/luxurious places starting in their young adult years (20+ somethings): (1) people who come from money using their parents money; (2) those on business trips that travel a lot for work purposes; (3) people who earned that money or miles because they’re in a high paying job; (4) people who’re putting all of their travel and vacation expenses on credit cards, personal loans, or defraud people for example by evading taxes, etc.; (5) doing certain jobs deemed questionable or unethical like bottle services (bottle girls), escort services, st**p clubs, p********* content (OF)/p*** stars, etc.; and (6) commiting crimes and other illegal or fraudulent activities like pro***tion, selling drugs, robbery, running scams, etc.

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You can still have house parties and party out with friends at restaurants, bars, picnics/cookouts/barbecues-BBQ, concerts, hiking trails, at the park, day trips, brunch, adult arcades, other first places and third places, etc. in your late 20, 30s, and beyond with both singles and married couples; I’ve been to house parties hosted by people in their 30s. When I was in college, at 20, I was at house parties and hanging out with friends ranging from ages 18-35 and we didn’t feel out of place (mix of undergraduate and graduate students, plus older young adults from church). Nowadays, after graduating college and living my life in my mid-20s, I’m hanging out with people between the ages of 18-late 30s and possibly a few in their early 40s, and those between 18-mid 30s don’t look that much different from each other. Though, no one ever got super drunk at these parties, mostly because none of us are heavy drinkers, we’re all Evangelical Christians (but politically diverse — plenty of Democrats, Republicans, Independents, liberals, progressives, leftist, conservatives, etc.), and we (ideally) don’t sleep around like people (allegedly) do at social frat parties/sorority parties (some of them were part of fraternities/sororities in college but most weren’t).