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I'll give you the god's honest answer here since nobody on this thread seems to have the courage to tell you the truth of the matter.
In all reality, your qualifications are a "dime a dozen" in DC. Almost everyone I know that works in a professional job here - entry level or not, speaks a foreign language (this is the city of international relations), has a clean background (difficult to work in most if not all government jobs without one, and many people here have security clearances) and has at least a Master's degree. In fact, I would say that an MA is a basic qualification and treated much like a high school diploma these days. DC has more advanced degrees per capita than any city in the world, more JDs than NYC or London and more Phd's than all of the universities in the United States combined - no joke.
Unfortunately, what this means is that managers, in many occasions, hire based on connections. This is how I got my job and almost everybody I run into, strangers at parties, my friends, etc., got hired through their "DC Network". This is a networking town of the highest order and you'd be exponentially better off in finding a quality job (e.g. not unpaid internships) by actually being in DC. In fact, I can tell you that a good friend of mine who has a BA, MA, MBA from top tier schools, and who lived in DC for 7 years before moving away, tried to "network" from a different state and finally realized that she needed to physically be in DC to make it work - she found a job after 3 weeks of moving back here. People in DC just don't take you seriously when you're networking from hundreds of miles away - you have to show commitment because there are too many other people physically here to waste time on some stranger they can't even see.
If I were you, I would move out here with a two month horizon and start networking your ass off. Join meetup groups (meetup.com), attend free lectures and seminars at the many think tanks in DC, meet and greet and get ready to sell yourself. By the way, I've never met a single person who applied to usajobs and actually got a position - without being referred to the hiring manager first.
I'm not sure what to do with the MA in History, however. I was a History major in college and once thought about getting my Phd in Central Asian History until I realized the challenges I'd run into post graduation. But if it's from a prestigious university, then you can probably work over it. I would see if your university has an alumni network in DC by the way.
It sounds like you went straight to MA after getting your BA, which means you have little to no actual real world office experience. Intelligent, educated people are in no way a scarce resource in DC. Pretty much everyone in your position is going to either need some good connections to get themselves a paid job, or take an internship while they network and make the connections necessary to get themselves a job (or turn the internship into a paid position).
I'll give you the god's honest answer here since nobody on this thread seems to have the courage to tell you the truth of the matter.
In all reality, your qualifications are a "dime a dozen" in DC. Almost everyone I know that works in a professional job here - entry level or not, speaks a foreign language (this is the city of international relations), has a clean background (difficult to work in most if not all government jobs without one, and many people here have security clearances) and has at least a Master's degree. In fact, I would say that an MA is a basic qualification and treated much like a high school diploma these days. DC has more advanced degrees per capita than any city in the world, more JDs than NYC or London and more Phd's than all of the universities in the United States combined - no joke.
Unfortunately, what this means is that managers, in many occasions, hire based on connections. This is how I got my job and almost everybody I run into, strangers at parties, my friends, etc., got hired through their "DC Network". This is a networking town of the highest order and you'd be exponentially better off in finding a quality job (e.g. not unpaid internships) by actually being in DC. In fact, I can tell you that a good friend of mine who has a BA, MA, MBA from top tier schools, and who lived in DC for 7 years before moving away, tried to "network" from a different state and finally realized that she needed to physically be in DC to make it work - she found a job after 3 weeks of moving back here. People in DC just don't take you seriously when you're networking from hundreds of miles away - you have to show commitment because there are too many other people physically here to waste time on some stranger they can't even see.
If I were you, I would move out here with a two month horizon and start networking your ass off. Join meetup groups (meetup.com), attend free lectures and seminars at the many think tanks in DC, meet and greet and get ready to sell yourself. By the way, I've never met a single person who applied to usajobs and actually got a position - without being referred to the hiring manager first.
I'm not sure what to do with the MA in History, however. I was a History major in college and once thought about getting my Phd in Central Asian History until I realized the challenges I'd run into post graduation. But if it's from a prestigious university, then you can probably work over it. I would see if your university has an alumni network in DC by the way.
You have greatly exaggerated what it takes to get a job in Washington DC. Hundreds of thousands of workers in this town have not measurably engaged in the points you have brought forth, but yet they are successful and upwardly mobile.
Should a person get an education? Yes. Should a person speak a foreign language? Depends. Should a person network? Yes.
The OP should read the quoted post, and consider its offerings, but he/she should not take it as the gospel as it is a greatly exaggerated point of view.
You have greatly exaggerated what it takes to get a job in Washington DC. Hundreds of thousands of workers in this town have not measurably engaged in the points you have brought forth, but yet they are successful and upwardly mobile.
Should a person get an education? Yes. Should a person speak a foreign language? Depends. Should a person network? Yes.
The OP should read the quoted post, and consider its offerings, but he/she should not take it as the gospel as it is a greatly exaggerated point of view.
I think the OP is at a "come to Jesus" moment so I'm inclined to say that he should take my advise as gospel at this point in time. Look, there are indeed hundred of thousands of people who didn't network from DC, but I'm sure that list includes Secretaries, Admin Assistants, Unpaid Interns and people flippin burgers at Five Guys. The OP seems to want something a bit more substantive like policy research, speechwriting, etc. He's already at a disadvantage, randomly applying to the blackhole that usajobs.gov is without knowing the hiring managers, trying to leverage an MA in History, and coming from a state school which I would assume is not a Tier 1 school with a strong alumni network.
If you can swing it, I'd either take the unpaid internship and network while you're out here, or just come out and join groups, attend lectures and seminars (of which there are several of across the city at think tanks and other places) and meet and greet.
Last edited by nasridian; 07-14-2012 at 08:43 AM..
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Oh no you didn...t
