How To Become a Lobbyist

Ever wonder how people become political “Issue Advocates”? I’m not necessarily talking about the head honchos of major lobbying companies, this is about all the people who work to make the lobbying business run. The lobbying industry is enormous and influences policy both in the U.S. and internationally in profound ways. Since “policy” is a rather broad term to describe the intricacies of how government interacts with industries and voters, it’s a bit difficult to figure out where to start if you’re interested in getting involved in the field.

Study Up

To be useful as an issue advocate you need to know something about how governments are run. Because of that it’s pretty much required that you have a policy related bachelor’s degree like political science or public policy. If you’re young and lack business experience it’s not a bad idea to continue on that track and study something like political management while you try to gather some experience in the field as an intern.

Lobbyists represent interest groups, which are funded either by businesses or private individuals. Depending on who you’re more interested in working with, it’s an excellent idea to gather some credentials that make you more relatable, and more able to understand and work with your client. That can mean getting another degree in social work or business, or it can mean using past work experience to inform your work (many of the aforementioned “head-honcho” lobbyists are former high-ranking business people that move on to represent their industries politically).

Specialize

As we just mentioned, it’s advantageous to be specialized for a particular industry, provided that this industry has significant political interests. The way to do that, without taking the time to become the CEO of a major firm, is to gather some work experience in an advocacy related position in your industry of choice. For example, if you can snag a job as a marketer for a solar power manufacturer for a few years between your bachelor’s and master’s degrees, you’ll be significantly more attractive as an environmental advocate than someone who just kept at it in school.

This doesn’t just work for specific industries either, it’s more about the topic, and less about the industry. If you’re interested in working on improving working conditions for outsourced workers abroad it’s a good idea to get an overseas internship. You don’t need to necessarily try to get into a garment factory in order to advocate for regulations to protect workers there; claiming inside knowledge on how outsourced labor is treated in general can be hugely beneficial on its own.