What does a political consulting firm’s intern do?
*Authored by Ilana Foggle and Sam Finn ( The TCW Interns)
5:00am – 6:00am: After hitting the snooze button, the political intern wakes up. Already having their work clothes packed, they grab a quick breakfast and head off to the gym.
6:00am – 7:30am: After an hour workout, the intern queues up the newest Crooked Media podcast while getting ready for the workday.
7:30am – 8:00am: Now walking to the office, the intern braves the Washington DC humidity while listening to their morning pump-up playlist consisting of all Beyoncé songs. At intersections, they respond to emails and create their daily to-do list.
8:00am – 9:00am: As one of the first to get into the office, the intern turns on the lights and makes the office coffee. At their desk, they spend the rest of their morning reading Playbook to get updated on daily political news.
9:00am – 9:30am: After researching trending hashtags and GIFs, the intern schedules tweets from the firm’s twitter account throughout the day. Before heading into the firm’s morning meeting, they print off client checklists for the team and grab a granola bar from the kitchen.
9:30am – 10:00am: The intern takes notes and updates the company client list during the morning meeting, while also offering updates on client projects when applicable.
10:00am – 11:00am: As they walk back to their desk, a senior staff member assigns them a candidate research project due by the end of the work day.
11:00am – 12:00pm: After finishing up preliminary research, the intern’s supervisor assigns them a long-term assignment: creating a pro-bono video for a non-profit advocacy organization. They multitask by listening to interviews, writing the research memo, and answering phone calls.
12:00pm – 1:00pm: Quickly grabbing their lunch out of the fridge, the intern runs across town to attend a brown bag speaker series. After exchanging contact information with other interns and organizations, they hurry back to their office.
1:00pm – 2:00pm: After finishing their research memo, the intern proofs it and sends it to their supervisor. With some time before their next meeting, the intern checks in with co-workers to see what projects they can help with over the coming week.
2:00pm – 3:00pm: Before a quick coffee break, the intern files client mail and prepares a message box for an upcoming creative meeting with the team.
3:00pm – 4:00pm: The intern sits in on a creative meeting for a state representative’s direct mail campaign. The intern bounces back and forth some ideas for a series of print ads while taking notes.
4:00pm – 5:00pm: For the last hour of work, the political intern begins a blog post for the firm’s website and works on search engine optimization for the firm’s website content.
5:00pm – 5:30pm: After leaving the office, the intern meets up with friends also interning in the city and heads to a young professional’s networking happy hour. They are exhausted, but ready to do it all again tomorrow.
