This article provides an overview of full-time roles in Congress and how to find job openings. For additional context and advice, we highly recommend reading our four-part Working in Congress guide, particularly part 4 on How to apply for and land a job in Congress?.

If you are interested in internship or fellowship opportunities on the Hill, read our guides on congressional internships and fellowships. 

Entry-level jobs for recent graduates

If you are newly graduated and looking for an entry-level job in Congress, you could apply to be a Staff Assistant (SA) or Legislative Correspondent (LC) (see congressional office org chart). Most of these entry-level roles are within personal offices; there are very few on committees, and those that exist are incredibly competitive.

• Type of work: SAs predominantly do administrative and constituent work, such as manning the front office desk and phone. LCs, as their name suggests, spend a lot of time on constituent correspondence, e.g. writing letters articulating the office’s policy position on certain issues (congressional offices easily get tens or even hundreds of thousands of constituent communications per year). However, many LCs (especially in the Senate) do get to do at least some legislative work while assisting Legislative Assistants (LAs), and SAs sometimes do personal staffing for their Member, both which are good learning experiences.
• Motivation: The main reason to do SA/LC work is to set yourself up for a promotion into a mid-level legislative position. Time to promotion depends on your starting point. On average, you can climb more quickly in the House (where you can also start as an LC rather than as an SA) than in the Senate (where it’s rare to start as an LC if you don’t have prior experience). On the other hand, in the Senate you do already get to do more legislative work as an LC. Going from SA to LA might take 2-3 years in the House (shorter if you start as LC), compared to 3-5 years in the Senate. But timelines can vary greatly case-by-case depending on luck and individual circumstances.
• Resources: The first-hand blog post How I got an entry-level role in Congress; this SA/LC job guide (including an overview of tasks to work on in these roles); and this example profile of a staff assistant in a House personal office)

If you are fresh out of university, you may well struggle to find a position right away. Many recent graduates—including some with master’s degrees—have to start off as interns and apply for full-time jobs while interning; this is not necessarily a long-term commitment: it could take as little as 1-3 months. You could also consider starting on a campaign, though the route from campaigns to Congress is slightly more haphazard than interning.

Jobs for terminal degree holders or mid-career professionals  

If you have several years of experience and/or a terminal degree, you can be a mid-level staffer. It is at this level that you can really hope to meaningfully contribute to policy change, for example by introducing new ideas and leading on policy or oversight initiatives. Mid-level staff roles are also where you really get professional development benefits that are highly valued outside of Congress, for example in federal agencies or advocacy organizations.

Broadly speaking, there are two paths into roles at this level: 

1. Internal: First, you can climb the congressional ladder from SA/LC to LA. Here, you’ve proven yourself through performance in past jobs, and you come in with a good understanding of the congressional process. As such, your formal credentials (degrees, etc.) matter less; offices will have trust you can pick up relevant new knowledge on the job. Many offices prefer promoting internally to taking a risk on an external candidate that they have not worked with before. 
2. External: Second, you can come in from the outside, without having been an SA/LC. Here, the strength of your application would rely mainly on the expertise you bring. Many people who travel this path come from industry or think tank jobs that involve policy work (and possibly direct Hill engagement through briefings, etc.) related to the staff role they end up in. They will typically have worked in such jobs for at least several years, and many have a relevant graduate degree. For people with advanced degrees (especially in STEM) but less policy background, there are also temporary fellowships that can help you transition into congressional work.

Full-time legislative staff roles

Legislative staff roles differ depending on whether you work in a personal or a committee office. In a personal office, the most common mid-level role is that of Legislative Assistant (LA). Some offices also use variants of this title for positions with certain profiles, such as Military Legislative Assistant (MLA), while others use ad hoc titles (e.g. “technologist”). As a shorthand for these and other mid-level personal office positions, we just refer to LAs here.

• Type of work: Work as an LA in a personal office can vary widely, though it generally consists of some mix of constituent, political, and legislative work. The distribution of work depends heavily on the size of the office and the chamber. In small House offices, LAs may be tasked with tracking 5-6 issue areas and also do a little constituent-facing work, whereas in large Senate offices they mostly do legislative work on a narrower set of issues. See this example of a day in the life of a policy aide in a House personal office.
• Motivation: Mid-level personal office staff often have opportunities for making a difference. For example, depending on the office, they may have some autonomy in focusing on particular issues, and they can pitch ideas to the Legislative Director/Chief of Staff/Member. The longer you are there, the more trusted and effective you become; many people spend several years in LA roles (potentially becoming “senior” LAs). Some personal office staff eventually jump to committee staff, especially if their Member moves up the hierarchy and becomes a (sub)committee chair.¹ Finally, LAs also have opportunities to transition into good jobs outside of the Hill, including at federal agencies, in lobbying, etc.

Legislative committee staff are typically called either Professional Staff Member (PSM) or Counsel, depending on whether you have a law degree and do legal work (lawyers are basically always called “Counsel,” even if the position they initially applied for was called PSM; there are few substantive differences between the two). Many committees also have specialist staff with expertise relevant to their jurisdiction, such as economists or investigators. Whether you are eligible to apply for those specialist roles depends on your professional and educational background, but if you are eligible, they could be good options.

• Type of work: As a committee staffer, you would likely have a narrower portfolio than personal office staff—although the meaning of “narrow” is relative on the Hill. Committee staff work centers on legislation, oversight, and hearings, with little constituent-facing activity. But you can still be pulled in to work on ad hoc tasks (e.g. writing last-minute press statements) for the Chair or Ranking Member (depending on whether you work for the majority or minority). For illustration, see the personal narratives in this guide on congressional work, many of which involve committee staff positions.
• Motivation: Committee staff generally review all legislation within their portfolio that comes through their committee, and, under the right circumstances, they can play leading roles in shaping the committee’s agenda. This often involves great opportunities for improving policy, though those opportunities will vary depending on your committee and issue portfolio, whether you’re in the majority or minority, and how powerful and effective the Member who you work for is. As with mid-level personal office staff—and likely even more so due to their greater prestige and seniority—committee staff are often tapped for appointments in the White House or federal agencies. Some also transition into committee or personal office leadership positions.   

Congressional fellowships

Policy fellowships involve temporary (typically one-year) placements in a policy institution. See our congressional fellowship guide for more details and for a (non-comprehensive) list of over 15 fellowships.

More senior and non-legislative jobs

The roles discussed above represent only a small subset of congressional jobs, but they are the most relevant congressional entry points.

More senior jobs are almost never open to people without prior work experience. For example, you could work as a Legislative Director (LD) or in a management position, but those jobs basically never go to people who haven’t worked in Congress before (unless you come in through a senior campaign role). It is often hard for people who are further along in their careers to transition into Congress, because the vast majority of the entry points are at the junior level; the more senior roles require extensive prior knowledge of congressional process and politics. (One exception is expert committee roles, which can be filled by federal agency veterans or other experts with no congressional experience.) 

Some jobs that are off the legislative track are worth considering if you have the right background. Many people want to go into Congress to work directly on legislation, but other Hill jobs can also afford opportunities to improve policy outcomes. For example, if you have some background with media or journalism, you could consider applying to communications-oriented jobs. Rather than shaping the details of legislation or oversight, your contribution could involve improving how issues are framed, moving media coverage, and so forth (see part 1 on “amplification”). It’s difficult to pivot from communications into legislative roles within Congress, but not impossible. Outside of Congress, communications work can lead to jobs in federal agencies (especially in public and legislative affairs teams), lobbying and advocacy, and so forth.

More details on congressional jobs—both those that are and aren’t discussed above—are available in the CRS report Congressional Staff: Duties, Qualifications, and Skills Identified by Members of Congress for Selected Positions, which synthesizes position descriptions and requirements for dozens of congressional jobs based on hundreds of past job postings.

Finding job openings 

You can find job openings through a variety of channels. There are generally at least some congressional jobs open at any point, though the volume of openings depends on the time of year and the electoral cycle. The resources below focus on jobs posted publicly, though many congressional staff jobs are not advertised (those non-public openings you will have to learn about through your network). 

Full-time staff positions (LC/LA/PSM/etc.) are often posted on the House and Senate employment bulletins. There are generally more job openings around the time a new Congress is inaugurated, especially if party control shifts and the new majority has lots of newly available staff positions to fill. When a new Presidential administration comes into office, they also typically hire a lot of Hill staff, opening up additional positions. For example, with both the Senate and the White House shifting to Democratic control, early 2021 saw lots of Democratic job openings on the Hill. 

Resources: 

• House Employment Bulletin (has a subscription option)
• Senate Employment Bulletin (you have to check manually)
• House GOP Resume Bank, Democrats Resume Bank 
• Senate Resume Bank, Diversity Initiative Resume Bank
• Job search subscription websites (paid) such as Tom Manatos Jobs (slightly more Democratic jobs), Traverse Jobs (slightly more Republican jobs), Time on the Hill, or WorkforCongress. The value-add of these services is that they can include jobs not formally posted on the employment bulletins. 
• How I got an entry-level role in Congress
• Secrets From Capitol Hill’s Back Rooms: How to Get Hired on the Hill (Roll Call) and similar articles you can find with a quick Google search

Footnotes

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