onebuck

Planning on it. I've had several years of work experience working at one of the larger financial companies in the US. Catch-22 is totally right though, these RA positions would definitely be helpful in getting into a top graduate school, which in turn would make you that much more competitive for these same kind of jobs (albeit maybe at a higher level) in the future. Any idea how many RAs generally work at these think tanks?

So I've applied to research assistant positions at several major think tanks (think CFR, Brookings, AEI, etc.) Obviously the pay is not so great at these places (from what I've seen around 35k to 40k max) and also doesn't help that generally they're based in cities with high cost of living. With that said, how beneficial is an RA position at a major think tank generally for one's career in International Affairs?