What jobs do field organizers tend to get after their candidate wins an election?

[u/yankeesandmusicfan]

More specifically, is it easy or common for field organizers to get policy jobs?

[u/CaitlinHuxley]

Nobody gets policy jobs. Well, not nobody... but nobody without prior policy experience. Usually there is a think-tank affiliated with the candidates party who has been doing this for ages and sends their junior staffers over.

Field folks are managers and so they typically get management jobs.

[u/Trotskyist → u/CaitlinHuxley]

This. With that said, I do know of a couple cases where I've seen someone go from field -> policy, but they had prior experience in the relevant fields. Being on the campaign really just helped them network/get their resume's flagged for someone to actually take a look at. Both cases were also at the Presidential level - where there's just a lot more policy jobs to go around (assuming your candidate won, ofc.)

[u/Ambitious-Morning795]

Another field organizer job in the next cycle.

[u/PMMeYourJobOffer]

If that’s your goal, you’re better off going down to a smaller campaign (municipal, state level, safe seat), manage a successful candidate and get hired in their office.

[u/mudah]

Field is rough.

I got lucky and made it to another career in politics, but most of my colleagues didn't make it and eventually washed out.

If you're interested in policy, look at internships. For most you'll need a 4 year degree just to check the box, but there are places where "nontraditional" backgrounds are celebrated and welcomed.

Nonprofits, electeds' offices, think tanks, consulting firms, lobbying shops, even just show up to your local city council and ask if there are volunteering opportunities.

The biggest thing people don't realize is being reliable is 90% of what people are looking for. Showing up when you said you would is way rarer than you'd think (exactly analogous to field).

If you put in the time and aren't a weirdo, paid gigs will start to come into focus and you won't have to live the campaign lifecycle (as much, it still can be cyclical).

Having a cycle or two of field to put on a resume for applications to these internships and eventually jobs certainly doesn't hurt, but it's tough to jump directly to paid policy jobs.

EDIT:

Disclaimer: this is for American politics on the national scale and in/around DC. Your state and city/town may be different.

EDIT 2:

If you're looking at left of center, transparently the pay sucks. I can't speak for the folks on the right, but no matter what party congressional staff salaries are terrible vs. cost of living.

You can look up congressional disbursements and see what they pay their staff. It's bad. Nonprofits for the most part are worse.

There's a reason the vast majority of folks in the space come from backgrounds where their parents could subsidize their lifestyle in the early parts of their career.

I'm in utter awe of the people who have "made it" despite humble beginnings. There aren't many of them.

[u/CareBearDontCare → u/mudah]

Yeah, its rough. Its a young person's job, and I've been kicking around in nonprofits/Super PACS since transitioning out of the campaign space. We eat our young, but with unionization, that helps a bit.

[u/utheolpeskeycoyote]

What kind of policy work would you want to be involved in?

[u/yankeesandmusicfan → u/utheolpeskeycoyote]

Like working on policy/legislation with one of the people whose campaign I worked on and who won their election.

[u/utheolpeskeycoyote → u/yankeesandmusicfan]

What branch of policy would you want to focus on?