Any political consultants here?

[porker]

Tell me about:

1. The steps you took in life to get your job

2. What exactly you do on a day-to-day basis

3. The approximate salary of entry level consulting jobs

4. The best and worst parts of your job

5. Anything else you feel like sharing

[AndrewTX]

Semi-former Political Consultant, checking in. To answer your questions

1. Volunteered on campaigns to get your name in early, and work hard to make sure you become of use down the road. It took me three years before I became a paid consultant.

2. It depends on the campaign, and where you are put in. Say, you work on a Congressional campaign. You could be working on domestic issues, foreign issues.. you could be working on grassroots coordinating or even just the image of the candidate. Since most of my work was with an incumbent, I was more a day to day operation liaison between the candidate, the congressional office, and the campaign office.

3. Can't really answer that. It depends on what kind of office it is, and what you're doing. I've always been an hourly consultant. I started off in 2003 at $12.00 an hour, to in my last campaign, I charge $32.00 an hour on one campaign, and gave a discount for another at $25.00 an hour.


4. The best part is you get to be a part of a team, and if you know the candidate, you can get near unlimited access to them. The worst part? They will always, ALWAYS have unlimited access to you. That means 4am calls, work on Sundays.. Anytime they call, you need to be there to pick up.

5. Was hands down, the greatest experience of my life. You get to make a lot of connections, all over. I've made friends in the House, Senate, and members of the Cabinet. I hope that someday I'll start back up again, but right now my future isn't set. I might be in this area, I might be moving to Pittsburgh, or I might be moving to Houston for work. I have to see where my professional career takes me before I go back into politics.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Sounds like a great job, JJ Andrew PA. I gotta get in on this.

[Keystone Phil]

Sounds like a great job, JJ. I gotta get in on this.

Yikes. That isn't J.J. ...

Anyway, take it from someone who has worked on many campaigns and for a political party: it's a tough field in more ways than one. I think the instability is the worst.

[Gustaf]

I worked a Summer at a political consultancy.

1. The step I took was knowing one of the founders and apparently impressing him.

2. I think that can depend a lot. My impression is that it's a lot more about lobbying than about political campaigning. I wrote a report based on interviews with press secretaries of the major parties about what issues would be prominent in the general election. I maintained a website that was financed by a medical company trying to get some drug approved by the Swedish FDA. And I made a database of Swedish MPs, their interests, proposals, etc.

3. There my experience is not of much help, obviously. I got $15/hour but I was still in high school, so I imagine actual employees get a lot more.

4. From my friends who work there I have the impression that it's a lot of work for not always that much pay. On the other hand, it's interesting and high-paced.

5. Don't believe that it's like the West Wing.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

God, I hope not. They're such terrible people.

[AndrewTX]

Sounds like a great job, JJ. I gotta get in on this.

Yikes. That isn't J.J. ...

Anyway, take it from someone who has worked on many campaigns and for a political party: it's a tough field in more ways than one. I think the instability is the worst.

This is pretty true. You can have a lot of fun, but it isn't easy. If you're guy wins, you're still not guaranteed a job in the end. But the experiences I've gotten out of it were amazing.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Sounds like a great job, JJ. I gotta get in on this.

Yikes. That isn't J.J. ...

Anyway, take it from someone who has worked on many campaigns and for a political party: it's a tough field in more ways than one. I think the instability is the worst.

sh**t. Just saw the "R-PA" and I assumed it was JJ (him being an older fellow). Sorry AndrewCT/PA.