After working for a human rights advocacy organization last summer, I thought it would be a great idea to intern in a senator’s office for the fall semester. I had heard from numerous people that such internships involve a lot of busy work like licking envelopes all day or photocopying for hours, but I doubted it would be that bad.
I decided to give it a chance, and my boss from the previous summer put me in contact with the internship coordinator for one of my senators and a few of my representatives. After receiving offers from everywhere I applied, I decided to choose the senator – since he was the biggest name.
My role at the senator’s office was much like that of your typical intern. Interns are paired with legislative assistants to help them in their respective fields: foreign policy, tax policy, etc. I was also required to assist with administrative duties to ensure the office ran smoothly.
Personally, I had almost no contact with my legislative assistant. I met her on the first day of the job and we chatted about tax policy, after which she gave me a number of bills to look over and work on through the semester. I gave these a close look and said I would be more than happy to work on them with her, but that was probably the last time I had any real contact with her.
From time to time I would ask or practically beg her to give me something to work on, but she didn’t seem very good at delegating. I also volunteered to help with the press team, but I never heard anything from them either. I thought of asking some of the other legislative assistants if they needed any help, but I noticed that all the interns were bundled up in our tiny cubicle doing homework and studying for midterms, so I just decided to do the same.
My internship duties had turned solely administrative: picking up the senator’s prescription and unpacking boxes of printer paper. The office has been busy twice: during the bailout crisis and now with the onslaught of requests for free inauguration tickets.
One might question why I would complain about doing nothing. Well, when you’re trying to get some valuable experience out of your internship, you need to have some responsibilities. Otherwise you are just wasting your time.
Perhaps one of the positives is that fact that I get along with everyone there and like all of the other interns, even though there are eight of us packed into one cubicle with only three computers. That’s about it. I was working 20 hours a week, which was not manageable on top of being a student and an athlete. I had asked my supervisor to cut my hours to resemble that of some of the other interns, but he would not budge. He actually signed me up for more hours in the end.
Eventually, I burned out from work, school, practice and taking the LSAT all at once and just stopped going to the Senate, which was a pain to get to anyway (at least the House of Representatives has its own Metro stop!). Overall, I just realized it wasn’t worth all the effort and stress I was putting myself through, especially when I didn’t even get the chance to meet the senator himself.
From my experiences, I’ve discovered that if you’re trying to get some big names on your resume, you should be prepared for fewer responsibilities. If you’re looking for some real hands-on work, I would recommend some of the smaller NGOs around Washington. They really need the help and can be much more valuable experiences.
