The Importance of Internships

Photocopying, making coffee, and even fetching the boss’s lunch are just some of the activities regularly associated with the modern-day internship. However, if you believe a career in politics is for you, it is important that these clichés do not put you off the idea of taking one. Internships are increasingly the de facto route to achieving a first job in Westminster – be it with a think tank, public affairs agency, MP or Lord’s office, parliamentary party, or campaign or lobby group. They also represent an invaluable learning process for a future employee, not to mention for a politically engaged and empowered citizen.

For recent graduates, getting a job in politics is like raising cattle for Wall Mart: it’s a buyers' market, and anyone expecting or hoping to breeze straight into paid employment is likely to be disappointed. Many employers receive more job applications than they could ever hope to read, and many will admit to using some fairly arbitrary standards to decide between prospective employees. This is perhaps not surprising when single graduate job adverts on websites such as www.electus-start.com or www.internsnetwork.org.uk can attract up to six hundred applications for one position. One of the less arbitrary standards is to require applicants to have previous experience of working in Westminster, or an understanding of the workings of Government and Parliament. And for most, this means an internship.

Getting a rewarding job in politics is a competitive endeavour. Employers in every sector are complaining that fresh graduates come to them with plenty of theoretical knowledge but relatively few transferable skills. This is no less the case with political jobs, except that training to bridge the perceived skills gap is even less likely to be provided formally by employers than in other sectors. Instead, the onus is on the jobseeker to identify and endow himself with these skills, whatever they be. And while a politics degree may help develop an understanding of the British political process, no sort of learning can compare to being part of that process on a daily basis.

Besides the benefit of crucial work and life skills that they can bring, internships are also important in developing a better understanding of the job market in which you are operating. After all, many of the jobs, agencies and organisations you may come across in the course of a four-month internship are unlikely to have entered your conscious before. An internship can also be a space in which to make the acquaintance of scores of individuals working in diverse fields in the political sector. This knowledge can affect your own career aspirations with some real clarity of vision and objectives. If you are polite, your new colleagues and acquaintances may even be persuaded to impart some informal careers advice or helpful information on applying for particular posts.

Damien Gilchrist
Director, The Interns’ Network