A Real-World Education

What aspiring political consultants should know about getting hired in today's competitive market.

WHEN IT COMES to getting your foot in the door at the nation's top political consulting firms, the emphasis is, thankfully, no longer primarily on who you know, but on what you know. And the "what" is becoming more specialized and technical with each passing cycle -- a trend that seems to be stirring up a new respect for professional education programs in applied politics.

"There was a time when personal skills and personal contacts were all you needed," says Chris Arterton, dean of the Graduate School of Political Management (GSPM) at the George Washington University. "But as professional politics has become more specialized and media-oriented those personal skills --which are still important -- are now only a part of an effective repertiore."

The Best of Both Worlds

As the scales begin to tip toward technical expertise and the stress on personal skills slides, political consulting firms are now demanding the best of both worlds from their new associates: field experience and a formal education. Work in the field is still top dog -- and probably should be -- when it comes to hiring prospective associates, but education is closing what was once a huge gap.

Why has an industry that has traditionally considered "on the job training" the only road to success come to embrace education? According to Jim Thurber, founder of American University's Campaign Management Institute (CMI), it's a matter of efficiency and scope. "People are beginning to realize that there are certain specialized skills, like survey research or TV spot production, that are hard to get on the job as quickly and as efficiently as you can in some of these professional programs." CMI's approach, which Thurber describes as political "boot camp," exposes students to a wide swath of campaign experience in a relatively short period of time. "It could conceivably take someone a couple of campaign cycles to get the same breadth of knowledge."

There is also a level of trust that has formed over the years between the industry and the idea that professional programs in applied politics can bring something to the table. Arterton believes "it's about knowing the product." He draws parallels to the formative years of law schools and business schools. "Professionals who had learned on the job doubted that these types of skills could be taught in the classroom," Arterton says. "The only way to dispel those doubts is to see the quality of the graduates over a period of time. Today, the same sort of evolution is ocurring in the professional political community.

Of course, it's not surprising to hear academics plugging education, but the professionals, the consultants themselves, now seem to be backing them up. Yes, alert the media, the practitioners and the academics finally seem to agree on this.

According to an informal survey (see below) of political consulting firms, 76 percent of the respondents said it is either "very important" or "important" that new associates have "some sort of formal education in the field of political management." For a number of the respondents, the appeal of a formal education is not only that it can teach valuable technical expertise but that it can provide a base of knowledge, or "the big picture," to guide young professionals in a field dominated by practical decisions and human relationships.

"An education in practical politics can lead to a broader understanding of the principles of our political and electoral system and how it works," says Robert Kaplan, president of the Robert Kaplan Company, a Los Angeles-based fundraising firm. "It can give students a broader 'general knowledge factor' to consider when making decisions in the field."

There continues, however, to be a strong feeling within the consultant community that these educational programs must be steeped in practical application to be effective. Theory alone will not do.

"In order to be successful in the today's political environment, operatives need to understand the difference between theory that can be taught and the difficulty of adapting those theories in the real world of politics," says Carey Cramer Sr., president of The Meridian Group, a Texas-based general consulting firm. History is cyclical and can be taught in theoretical application, but there are the nuances that are unique to each real-life situation. That makes it necessary to have a developed sense of 'gut-instinct' that can only be done through direct observation and participation."

It is worth making the distinction between traditional theory-based political science as formal education and professional hands-on practical-based political management as formal education. The latter is more readily applicable to the responsibilities of the modern political consultant. This distinction helps explain two seemingly contradictory findings in our survey.

How can 76 percent of the respondents say that a formal education in political management is either "important" or "very important" and 71 percent say that practical politics can be taught in the classroom, but only with limited success? Thurber explains away the apparent contradiction in terms of how education is defined.

The respondents "may be commenting on the theory-oriented programs that you see in the majority of universities," he says. "I'm talking about hands-on practitioner-taught programs." According to Thurber, academics -- many of whom have limited experience in how campaigns are run -- have no business teaching practical politics. "So what your respondents may be saying is that you can't successfully teach applied politics in the classroom using a solely theoretical and scholarly approach," he continues. "And I agree with that. You need to have that practical dimension or it will have little impact."

Getting Out on the Trail

That practical dimension can come in many forms. Most of the professional programs will mimic real world situations and processes in the classroom environment. Students write campaign plans -- some for actual candidates running in upcoming elections. Students conduct surveys and even produce 30-second TV spots. All are valuable skills the modern political consultant should possess. Such projects can also yield portfolio items (e.g., TV spot, campaign plan) that students can take with them when heading out to find a job.

These exercises, however laudable, are still occurring in the "lab," far away from the real rough and tumble world of professional politics.

"There is absolutely no substitute for doing politics -- being out there on the campaign trail yourself," says John Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron. "You can learn a lot in the classroom about theorectical aspects of campaigning, but there is no substitute for the real pressure of a deadline ... the real difficulties political professionals have to confront on a daily basis." Green refers to internships as the "centerpiece" of his program.

So, just as practitioners have come to realize the value of political education, the academics have met them halfway. They are most definitely aware of the importance of real world experience in a field in which succeeding or failing -- winning or losing -- hinges on practical decisions.

It is no surprise that according to our informal survey, 100 percent of the respondents believe it is "very important" that an aspiring consultant have "some sort of 'field work' campaign experience."

Bottom line: Internships are an integral part of any program worth its salt. And you can bet consulting firms will be looking closely at your resume for work experience of some kind. Internships are a good way to fill that requirement.

"The value of an internship for newcomers to the political field is like internships for people going in to medicine or law," says Kaplan. "People who have some real world experience will have a far greater understanding of what to do and why." And, perhaps most importantly "they will have had the opportunity to see how often principle and theory give way to expediency and practicality."

Again, our survey reveals that political consulting firms are looking for the best of both worlds -- work experience and education -- when hiring new associates. Professional program administrators are doing well to combine the two. And according to Green, students should do internships earlier in the program rather than later.

"The practical and theoretical aspects fit together," he says. "We do not feel comfortable sending people out into the field-before they have had some classroom work. Similarly, we want them to come back after the internship and test their experiences against what is being taught in the classroom."

For some of our survey respondents, much of the benefit of internships is simply the honing of interpersonal skills.

"Effective political management is so dependent on the ability to deal with different personalities -- local people working with the campaign and vendors," says Rich Savage, president of Media Directions, a Richmond, Virginia-based direct mail firm. "Those are skills that really can't be taught in a class."

As we all know, juggling work and school can be a Herculean task, so professional programs provide flexibility to ensure students can complete both endeavors. In what Arterton describes as a "liberal leave" policy, GSPM students can take up to three semesters off from course work to take on "meaningful internships."

And according to Arterton, it is not out of the ordinary that those internships turn into full-time positions before students graduate from the program.

Give Them What They Want

So it is the convergence of the "new media" aspects of campaigning with the old-school fundamentals of intrapersonal skills and personal contacts gained through work experience that makes the aspiring political consultant most marketable.

One can certainly draw parallels -- and many have -- to the medical field. As medicine became more advanced, it consequently became more specialized and technical, bringing about the need for more in-depth training. Just as on-the-job training is critical in the medical field, so goes professional politics as it too matures and evolves.

There are political programs out there of every stripe. Some are two-year Master's programs; some are intensive "boot camp" courses, which offer certificates. There are programs that put emphasis on internships, others hold coursework in the highest regard. Some are practitioner-taught while others prefer to use academics. Finding the right program for you will take some leg work -- but in the end it will be worth it.

Just remember, wherever you're trying to get your foot in the door, you've got to give them what they want.

David Rabinowe, a second-year student at Rutgers-Camden Law School, contributed to this article.

Peter Wendel is managing editor of Campaigns & Elections magazine.

Informal Survey of Political Consulting Firm Principals

76% of respondents said it is either "important" or very important" that a new associate have "some sort of formal education in the field of political management."

Respondents selected one of the following choices: "Very important," "Important," "Not Very Important" and "Not At All Important."

100% of respondents said it is "very important" that a new associate have "some sort of campaign field work experience."

Respondents selected one of the following choices: "Very important," "Important," "Not Very Important" and "Not At All Important."

71% of respondents said that, yes, practical politics can be taught in the classroom "but only with limited success."

23% of respondents mentioned "meaningful internships" as away in which educational programs could better prepare aspiring political consultants to work in the field.

23% of respondents mentioned "hands-on" and/or "practitioner taught" educational programs as the best approach to preparing aspiring political consultants to work in the field.

Is There a Doctor in the House?

As the professionalization and maturation of applied politics continues at a dizzying pace, there is a new, unprecedented demand for consultants with the highest levels of training and education. Academia is tuned in and is doing its level best to accommodate the industry's growing appetite for highly educated political professionals.

To that end, Louisiana Slate University's Reilly Center for Media & Public Affairs has unveiled a "first of its kind" three-year doctoral program in media and politics. It specializes in the symbiotic relationship between these two cornerstones of democracy -- the way in which media and politics converge and interact. "It's astonishing that media and politics is an area that hasn't gotten a lot of attention" says John Hamilton, dean of LSU's Manship School of Mass Communication. He admits there are political science programs that look at the media and journalism programs that churn out reporters. But, "curiously, there hasn't been a program that specializes in thinking about the process the way a serious scholar does."

Even at the doctoral level, Hamilton still sees the need for practical application. Again, the theme is the same: In the world of politics, theory alone is not enough. "You've always got this tension between being an applied program, which critics might claim doesn't teach students what they need to be first-rate scholars, and a purely scholarly program that actually looks down its nose at practical applied work. Our vision and goal is to effectively combine these two types of approaches."

It is more than just a mission statement. Students are required to participate in what Hamilton calls "externships," which consist of nine credit hours of "meaningful work in the field." He assures me that they will not be "getting coffee."

It is clear that LSU's new program was developed not to produce traditional theorists but rather a new prototype of real-world problem-solvers. "We anticipate that our students will graduate with every skill they need to be bonafide, hard-hitting scholars," Hamilton says. "But, at the same time, they have the mind set that they're going to take those skills and apply them to solve problems in a variety of settings." One of those settings, of course, is within the political consulting community. No doubt, the industry will benefit.

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