Growing up, I always wanted a big sister. Someone who had been to high school dances, for example and could tell me what people wore, what to expect etc. This would have saved me a lot of grief when I showed up in a bridesmaid dress from the Nordstrom Rack sale section to an event where everyone else was wearing baby tees and jeans. (Keep in mind this was in the earlier days of the Internet when there was no YouTube or Instagram to tell me how to "dress my aesthetic.") This feeling continued well into my 20's when I did find mentors who were well-intentioned but I soon discovered victims of the same myths and pressures I was battling myself. What I would have given for some straight talk from someone who has been and there and was willing to admit, nay declare, that the Emperor is often without clothes. As my favorite British comedian Joe Lycett would say "sometimes if you want something to exist you have to make it yourself."
If you have ever felt like you missed the day of school where they taught you how to "be" in politics this post is for you. This is not tips for networking, or resume writing or job searching. Rather this is about the smoke and mirrors I wish someone had discussed with me when I was intimidated and more or less navigating our unique social structure on my own. Let's go!
1) Being a "consultant" doesn't mean shit. Okay maybe you all are a lot smarter than I am but when I was in my early to even mid-twenties working on campaigns and doing informational interviews in DC I assumed campaign consultants were all hyper-successful-know-it-alls joining conference calls when they deigned to from their second beach house. The truth is being a campaign consultant can mean a wide array of things. In the first place any asshole can set up a website and hang out a shingle and put up a front but that doesn't mean they are either exceptionally qualified or exceptionally successful at it. In the second place, junior associates or account executives even at well established and respected firms are not necessarily making more money than an RFD on a statewide or a manager on a city council race. (Though they should still take you out to dinner on the company's dime if they come to visit.) This also means that they last minute help that you may be lucky to get from your TV or mail firm is not necessarily deserving of the disdain with which you might be tempted to treat them (and I speak now in retrospect to my asshole of a past self) sure a lot of these DC ship-ins can have chips on their shoulders but some of them are there to earnestly learn what goes on on the ground. TL; DR all "consultants" are not equal.
2) Campaign awards are basically a giant circle jerk. I love and respect my friends on every 40 Under 40 List, recipients of Pollies, and Reed awards. I will be excited for them every time they are nominated, slightly wistful that I am not there myself, and wholeheartedly post about how deserving they are. That said, these awards like everything else are lower case "p", political. Awards go to managers and consultants who are nominated by big firms, and those that are paying members or sponsors of the lists, publications, or organizations that are issuing them. They are great for marketing and a great way to recognize quality or enterprising work but you are not finding your way on to these lists based on merit alone. Conversely while awards are nice for marketing no one serious is counting awards when it comes to which firms to bring in on a project.
3) Selfies with principals are proof of...having access to a cell phone. My grandson, Organizer Memes, recently posted the lament of an anonymous reader who was worried they were falling behind because their contemporaries were taking pictures with "important politicians" while the poster was on the ground doing what I might call "the real work." While having your picture taken with a Member of Congress who you admire can be fun and meaningful, what it doesn't mean is anything about your relative importance. Back in my day when I had to walk uphill both ways to canvass and had exactly 0 days off a month, we were taught "no star fucking." Essentially, pictures with candidate or their surrogates are for donors and volunteers and you are there to work and MAYBE get a pic along with the rest of the staff if you are lucky. Taking a picture with a politician means that you were there and you asked them. This could be at a rally, a fundraiser or even when you bumped into them with you boss after returning with his Dunkin' order. But just like having your picture with Mickey Mouse in Disneyland does not make you an Imagineer, having a picture with AOC on its own says only that you have a picture with AOC.
To drive home my point, here are some pictures of me in 2007 with Howard Dean while campaigning for disgraced Senator John Edwards and maybe the worst picture of my face in existence with Senator Tammy Baldwin when she visited the MN DFL Headquarters in 2019.
4) Confidence does not equal competence. Maybe it is how I was raised or more likely how I was socialized but if I don't know what I'm talking about I tend not to speak on a subject. If I care to, I try to learn and ask questions. Not so for a lot, and I mean A LOT, of people in our industry. (I will leave you to infer the race and gender of most of them.) When I would visit DC in my younger times, because I was a beautiful naive ingenue, I would marvel at the way that acquaintances would casually drop the names of congressional committees and the bills before them and even more so self-assuredly offer opinions on their sponsors' potential career trajectories. It look me years (read: way longer than it should have) to realize that most of these predictions were ripped straight off of Politico and 538 at best and more likely straight out of their asses. I can't tell you how many people came to me for advice during the 2020 primaries saying "I want to work for X candidate but someone is telling me that only Y can win and I will be burned if I don't work for them." If the past several election cycles have taught us anything it's that nobody knows anything for certain and in many ways conventional wisdom is overrated. The longer I spend in this town the more I recognize overconfidence and lack of curiosity for the red flag toward Losertown that it is.
5) All the above this advice boils down to the following: take the work seriously, don't yourself so seriously! This is not House of Cards or West Wing and anyone acting like it is, is in fact themselves desperately insecure. While the stakes of our collective work are literally life or death, the stakes of your particular career are not. Don't drive yourself crazy over your "career trajectory." Do what lights you up, that makes you feel passionate and excited to go to work with people you enjoy working with. This is the best way to gain a good reputation, make a real difference and ultimately advance your career.
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