Chad Said:

What can I do for Political Work Experience?

We Answered:

Before I enlisted in the Navy I did a **** load of political work. But, just to warn you, these politicians would much rather have you volunteer your time and hard work rather than hire you. So to start off, you might just want to get your foot in the door and volunteer to do some campaign work for a local, district or state rep. But the good thing about volunteering is that you get to meet a lot of people. And a lot of those people have connections to the inner circle. And those are the people who can get you hired. But you can't be shy or quiet when you're around the higher-ups of the campaign team. You have to make yourself known, volunteer long hours, go out of the way to try to gain support for whoever it is your campaigning for, show some personality, and try to befriend some of the higher-ups. Start a conversation, offer to buy lunch, or whatever! In the world of politics you have to kiss a lot of as s.

To volunteer for a campaign, just go to any of your local, district, or state rep's web page and usually there's a big, pretty, shiny, red button that says "volunteer." But, honestly, these guys probably get tons and tons of volunteering applications. So the best thing to do would to either call them or to actually go to a campaign office. You have to show them passion. And make sure you kind of already know where the candidate you're supporting stands on the issues... You can also just, flat out, ask if they're hiring. And, if not, then offer to do as much volunteer work as you're able to do... Starting off in politics really, really sucks. You're lucky if you get hired. You have to put in long hours of walking precincts, handing out fliers, making phone calls and boring stuff like that. And you have to kiss a lot of butt. But once you're actually settled in, and you know what you're doing, and you lose all your shyness with talking to strangers, and you actually finally get hired, it gets good. Because once you get in that inner circle, you get to meet many other politicians who are willing to hire you for their campaigns... A few years ago I was working for my town's mayor. And by working for her I got to meet our county's state attorney, Joe Birkett. And through one of his rallies I got to meet, shake hands, and a have a few words with Rudy Giuliani who was in the middle of the Republican primary race at the time. And I got to work for his campaign for a little while, but he pulled out of the elected like the following week or something like that...

Always remember this; when it comes to politics, the more as s you kiss, the farther you will go. And after years and years of working for a politician, you might know enough about the game to actually run for an office... But it all starts with volunteer work.