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Cool_Story_Bra t1_is3bnn7 wrote

Yes it’s reasonably difficult. How hard specifically matters a lot on who you want to work for and what your background is. Working for Mitch McConnell or AOC will be harder to land than some relatively obscure house member.

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ResponsibleSwing1 t1_is3cacx wrote

Literally start at the bottom and work your way up. Or have a stellar background, or volunteer at campaigns in your home state and have connections, or know people. But def try applying you never know!

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Cool_Story_Bra t1_is3ekes wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#90,080)

You don’t have to work for the district you live in (though it helps) and not all districts are the same. 700,000 people in Manhattan is going to produce a lot more college graduates with liberal arts degrees (polisci or similar are most typical on the hill) than most other districts.

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BrodieBlanco t1_is3hc01 wrote

Couple items I would offer:

-Being from the district can help your chances big time, but is certainly not mandatory for most offices.
-Previous campaign/organizing experience (NGOs, nonprofits etc) can be helpful if they are related to issues that particular MoC cares about.
-One of the easiest ways to work your way into a Member's orbit is to get on their campaign in a volunteer/staff capacity and then make yourself invaluable at the district level.
-Entry level pay is terrible, and doesn't really get D.C. CoL appropriate until you're at the LD/CD/CoS level.

But once you do get on the Hill, moving around is exponentially easier. There is a *massive* foot in the door effect (even moreso than other industries) and it's very rare to see a senior level staffer come in with no past Hill experience.

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djslarge t1_is3htnd wrote

I tried for six months, and I’m still not sure how I got my internship, but I did My advice is to do an internship, because Congress is very different, so they want someone familiar with the process I’d recommend looking in the fall because students go back to school and in the spring because that’s when Congress is at its busiest

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Reeetankiesbtfo t1_is3i9g0 wrote

Work for their campaign /be a fundraiser for the campaign and then it will be easy to transfer in once they get to know you

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BrodieBlanco t1_is3p7kq wrote

Replying to MorbiusMovieTime (#90,408)

Entirely dependent on a given office's staffing situation and whether you do Admin, Leg, or Comms.

If you are super organized and have good 'customer service' skills being a scheduler usually provides the highest salary floor and good opportunities to earn extra from the Member's campaign side. I've seen people go from interns to schedulers in 12-16 months.

Leg is the "standard" route when you think of Hill staffers and you should expect 6-12 months per level *minimum* (Staff Assistant, Legislative Correspondent, Legislative Assistant) and then Legislative Director (LDs). I didn't know an LD making less than $100k.

Comms is probably the area where you can rise the highest the fastest. If you understand social media and can distill your member's message well I've seen press assistants (entry level comms staffers) go to comms directors in a matter of 18 months. This is role is probably the most member dependent in terms of responsibility and salary though: a sleepy member from a safe seat won't have the same needs as a conservative/liberal firebrand. Comms is also more marketable outside the Hill itself (whether in media, non-profits, or campaign side) so that can push comp higher.

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MrSmithGoes2DC t1_is3y2ca wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#89,968)

I feel like "reasonably competitive" is underselling it a bit. An average staff assistant job opening on the hill can get hundreds of applications, including from folks with advanced degrees, folks who went to an ivy league, and folks who have multiple Congressional internships under their belt.

Unless you have a parent whose best friend is a congressman it's wildly competitive.

Source: I work with Congressional staff everyday and thought I wanted to work on the hill enough to submit over 100 applications over the course of a year after finishing grad school.

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ProcessMeMrHinkie t1_is42av8 wrote

The more important question would be who the heck wants to be a Congressional Staffer (slave)

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magnoliabluebonnet t1_is5bmyg wrote

I had an easier time getting a job with a major tech company than on the Hill, if that gives you any idea. It's very competitive.

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Panda_alley t1_is5guuv wrote

Going to give some contrarian advice. In my experience the best way to work on the hill is go do something else first that builds a network and puts you in hill staff orbit. When positions become open, use connections to get your application in front of an actual person.

Submissions via websites and job lists is virtually 0, I had interview hit rate of about 50% when going thru real people. Wasn't always the right fit but got the interviews.

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Panda_alley t1_is7yiin wrote

Replying to MorbiusMovieTime (#97,883)

No, more like you monitor the jobs list and use your network to get your application into the hiring manager. In the Senate in my experience (albeit a while ago) the staff manager plus LD or deputy CoS would be running the search

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