Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: How I got an entry-level role in Congress, published new_staffer on the Effective Altruism Forum. A few months ago I was hired for an entry-level role in a Congressional office. In this post I will share my job search and application process. I hope this will be helpful to people who are considering Congressional work as a career option. Because I am early in my career, I imagine this will be most helpful/applicable for people who are in undergrad or earlier. Note: I’m intentionally keeping this post anonymous. If you have any questions, please comment them here and I will do my best to answer them. If you’d like to connect further, feel free to send me a private message through the EA Forum. My Specific Experience Context about myself as an applicant: I earned an undergraduate social science major at a relatively prestigious university and was an unremarkable student academically. While there, I was involved with party politics + local elections, held leadership positions in student activist campaigns, spent two summers working for local politicians, and worked in ‘government affairs’ for public interest groups for two semesters. During one semester I lived in Washington DC and interned in Congress. My application process: I started my job search in earnest the summer after graduating college. I recommend making time to network and begin your job hunt in your last semester, but I was too busy with coursework to do so. I spent about 20 hours a week for 3 months applying for Congressional entry level roles almost exclusively. Though it took me 3 months, it could have easily been a few months longer than that (I got lucky to land my position early but was prepared to job hunt longer). I spent the majority of my time ‘networking.’ For me, this meant sending emails to people, requesting that we meet briefly (this was during pandemic, so it was all virtual). I contacted (nearly) everyone I knew from the time I spent in DC, asked to catch up via phone or video call, let them know I was job searching, and asked them to connect me with people who work in Congress. Especially important were the people who I’d worked with as an intern on the Hill, because they could flag my resume with other offices and could vouch for my work experience. I also emailed strangers who I knew worked on the Hill, whose names I found by searching on LinkedIn. I tried to find people who I had one or more things in common with (graduates of the same university, from my home state, working on a policy issue that I have a demonstrated interest in, worked at the same non-profit I used to work for, etc). After I found someone who worked on the Hill, I would contact them by using the standard email format for Congressional staffers, which is Jane_Doe@lastnameofSenator.senate.gov for the Senate or Jane.Doe@mail.house.gov for the House of Representatives. Most people did not reply to these emails, but some people did! In these conversations, I asked them about their job experience in general and their tips on job searching. Example ‘cold’ networking email: Hello [name], Hope you're having a restful recess. I graduated from [your alma mater] in [recent month] and just moved to D.C. I’m heading into my last month working with [government advocacy group] and am interested in exploring Congressional work as my next step. I really admire that you work for [name of Congressperson], who [list 2-3 things you admire about their boss]. I'd love to hear about your journey to becoming a [position/title name], how you're liking your work, and whether you have any advice on navigating the Hill [during this unique moment / pandemic / etc]. Do you have availability for a short call in the next two weeks? Thank you and I hope we can talk soon, [Your name] Other than networking and asking people to send me any internal post...