US government jobs for international students - viability?

[solmate95]

Hi, I'm an international student with an interest in policy.

My end goal is to become a consultant for government policy, and I was wondering whether looking into internships in US government entities is reasonable or a waste of my time.

Could anyone help me on this?

[Frost18]

I am an international student with the same interest. 

[PokePsych]

Depends on what specific policy related stuff you want.

For some things they only want permanent residents or US nationals - but it relaly depends on your sector and the info you'd be dealing with.

[worrypower]

What country are you in?

As a side note: I work in policy myself and I have since 2015. I would not recommend doing policy work in the USA necessarily-- their immigration status challenges, paired with a generally anti-government context, mean getting and especially keeping work is very difficult. In Canada we have a much more robust public servant culture, as does the UK. I have worked alongside foreign nationals in various policy roles, including public treasury policy, infrastructure, and health.

(If you're a Commonwealth citizen, it's somewhat easier to get work in the UK than a non-Commonwealth immigrant worker.) 

[Sigaba]

On 1/22/2019 at 8:11 PM, solmate95 said:

Hi, I'm an international student with an interest in policy.

My end goal is to become a consultant for government policy, and I was wondering whether looking into internships in US government entities is reasonable or a waste of my time.

Could anyone help me on this?

I recommend that you explore opportunities at private think tanks. 

[zjppdozen]

It's not hard for you to get an unpaid intern job from the local government, but it's tough for international students to seek full-time employment in public sectors. Honestly, international students who are majored in public policy/administration have found difficulties in finding employment in the U.S. job markets for years. I come from the top 2 policy school in the U.S. and of the ten international students in my cohort, only one was employed by Deloitte in Sacramento, but this student minored in Business Analytics during her masters in public policy. Of the other nine students, two were accepted into the Ph.D. program (all of them have strong quantitative background), and all of the others returned to their home country.

Edited March 2, 2019 by zjppdozen