Poll: What Work Experience Do You Have?

[Cornell07]

So you are applying to grad school in government affairs. As we all know, prior work experience is highly valued. Therefore most people on this board have some.

What best describes your pre-grad school experience? Select all appropriate answers. Describe below.

[Cornell07]

I selected Law and Activism. I worked as a paralegal for a while doing international finance and then joined the Obama for America campaign.

[Dreams]

Bitten by the poll bug I see! I chose other. My experience is in various non profit things.

[Cornell07]

Definitely felt that there was some info that many poster want to know about the rest of the board. I felt that this would make it easier to get that info at a glance.

[dagger]

Finishing up my second year teaching with TFA. May could not come sooner.

[policy_applicant]

I put business. I've worked at two private firms in the public finance industry. I do not plan to stay in finance out of grad school.

[skz]

Gee, first one to be direct from college...

[40404]

almost 3 years in business sector, previous internship in Government and some research assistantship experience from an NGO.

[mgrn68]

skz, I'm also applying directly from college, so that makes two of us

[ebee]

I chose gov't and other. Since graduation I spent 1 year working for a large professional association, and for the last 1.5 years I've worked for the federal government.

[linden]

Cornell:

These polls are a great idea. They should really be helpful to future applicants.

[happyhulalola]

I have had about 1.5 years: spring semester 08 at the United States Attorney's Office in DC, summer of 08 at a law office in Chicago, and I have been teaching ESL in Spain since September and am here until June 15.

As for this summer, so far I have applied to two summer camps near my tiny town in Wisconsin (which are 8 weeks long and perfect) until I move to wherever I (hopefully) will be going to school.

[traveler06]

"Other." I've worked in higher education administration for the past three years.

[pizzatime]

I've been lurking but thought I'd jump in on this one.

I have been working for 2 years on Wall Street, and luckily I'm still employed. Working for a few years in business was part of my "master plan" to get private sector experience before grad school, and see if if a MBA might be more useful for what I want to do (environmental policy.) Turns out that an MPP fits me much better.

[traveler06]

Me too, but for two years. What do you do?

I work in undergraduate admissions. How about you?

[shastika]

I selected law and other. I worked for 3 years as a paralegal in NYC, Paris, and DC and then did some time on an organic farm.

[skz]

skz, I'm also applying directly from college, so that makes two of us

Haha good to know! Felt a little out of place...

[massive]

I've had a mixture of work experience non profit / public/ campaign / and now private all during my undergrad and in the months since my graduation.

[lm776c]

I selected other. I work in the aerospace industry as an engineer currently.

[pepper84]

I selected law and other. I worked for 3 years as a paralegal in NYC, Paris, and DC and then did some time on an organic farm.

organic farm?!? that's amazing! where did you do that?

i've been working as a nonprofit lobbyist in DC for about 2 years...was a paralegal before that (back when I thought I wanted to be a lawyer!)

[jonpkduq]

I selected law and other. I worked for 3 years as a paralegal in NYC, Paris, and DC and then did some time on an organic farm.

I selected research. I've been doing research for 2.5 yrs at a University since I graduated.

However, also spent 3 months volunteering on organic farms in Ireland. Shastika, were you in the WWOOF program too??

[traveler06]

I worked in undergraduate admissions for a year. How big is the school you worked at? Mine is very big and public.

Now I work in a professional school. I assisted with research (the paper end of it) for six months until I was promoted to my current position which is working for an office than handles professional externships, so I mostly handle contracts, placement, and grades.

Very cool. I work at a medium-sized private research university. About 6,000 undergrads and 6,000 grads. It's intense working on admissions while also being nervous about my own admission! Lots of relating to the applicants going on this year...

[ebee]

Very cool. I work at a medium-sized private research university. About 6,000 undergrads and 6,000 grads. It's intense working on admissions while also being nervous about my own admission! Lots of relating to the applicants going on this year...

I work with a graduate fellowship program and I feel like I can finally relate to the prospective fellows on a certain level when I'm talking to them. I used to think they were always asking me dumb questions or questions that I thought were easily answered on the website or by another office, then I realized that I was asking those same dumb/obvious questions in my own search, haha.

[Losky]

Research analyst (economics), Bank, 2 and half years exp

[therunaround]

2 years Research Assistant at the Brookings Institution