With three Capitol Hill internships under her belt, 2025 graduate Sylvia Cassidy said she was “Hill or bust” for her post-graduation plans, but 130 applications, no job offers and a presidential election later, she had to replan her future.
Cassidy is just one member of GW’s class of 2025 entering the job market at the onset of President Donald Trump’s administration and struggling to find job openings in D.C., a challenge felt by students across disciplines. Graduates said hiring freezes, federal agency layoffs and limited entry-level openings have contributed to difficulties in pinning down a steady position post grad, forcing them to search for positions on the local level and for less traditional paths.
Cassidy, a graduate majoring in political science and world religion with a minor in women, gender and sexuality studies, said she decided to graduate this past winter after her colleagues from her prior Hill internships said it would make her “completely available” to get a head start on job opportunities.
“My supervisor and some other people on the staff were like, ‘Oh, you should consider graduating early, that way you’re graduating and completely available and can launch at a lot of job opportunities,’” Cassidy said.
Cassidy said she had difficulty finding entry-level openings in the federal workforce, applying to over 130 jobs in D.C. with no success and few responses from employers. She said she believes many of the positions that would typically be open to recent college graduates were filled by applicants who are former federal workers laid off from agencies, like the U.S. Agency of International Development after the Trump administration dissolved the agency in March.
“Entry-level people are competing with people with masters and J.D.s and even Ph.D.s, though that’s probably more on the extreme end, to get jobs where it’s just entry level,” Cassidy said. “So I think for people in the policy area, that’s a major contributor.”
In January, President Trump signed an executive order declaring a hiring freeze for all federal civilian employees. He signed a second order in April to extend the freeze through July 15. Since the start of the freeze, GW students have reported losing prospective jobs and summer internships in the federal workforce.
Cassidy said a lack of “movement” with the job market in D.C. forced her to pivot her search to local government in her home state of Kentucky. She said she has interviewed for a position at the Louisville Parks Department, giving her the opportunity to become the next “Leslie Knope.” She said being involved in local politics would place her closer to those affected by the policies she would be working on.
“I had to realize how little title is important to me and how much the effect of work is,” Cassidy said.
Cassidy said she believes in the success of Democrats in “ruby red” states, like Kentucky, and hopes she can aid progressive causes on her home turf, particularly with a Senate seat set to be vacant following Sen. Mitch McConnell’s looming departure in 2026.
“I have every intention of coming back one day, but it seems like a lot of the groundwork needs to be done in state and local things,” Cassidy said. “So I’m trying to try to keep an open mind and be optimistic.”
Jax Martinez Franks, a graduate who studied criminal justice and political science, said she initially planned to stay in D.C. with her girlfriend but decided to move to Chicago after graduation out of fear of the Trump administration’s threats to home rule, an act advocating for self-governance by allowing D.C. residents to elect a Mayor, council members and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, in the District.
“The fact that Trump could basically take over at any time that he wants, and we don’t know what the administration wants to do regarding gay people, honestly, we were like ‘it’s not really in our best interest to stay,’” Martinez Franks said.
Martinez Franks said she believed Kamala Harris would win the 2024 presidential election and then intended to look for policy analyst jobs in D.C. as she believed there would be many available as a result of the election outcome. After Trump won, she said the “uncertainty” of the new administration and policy regarding the LGBTQ+ community led her to move with her girlfriend.
Martinez Franks said she pivoted her plans from the political sphere to the legal world because she wants to prepare for a potential law school career and was “happy” that she found employment. She said connections she had from previous internships in D.C. would have made it easier for her to get a job in the District, and her lack of prior professional relationships in Chicago forced her to apply for over 150 jobs before she was hired.
“I don’t know anyone in Chicago, except for my girlfriend and her family,” Martinez Franks said. “It’s way harder to get your foot in the door when you haven’t been there in college.”
Jai Ramamurthy, a graduate who majored in political science, said he received an offer from the Office of Political Strategy and Outreach at the White House in October for a position as an assistant to the secretary of transportation under the potential Harris administration. He said the office rescinded the offer after Election Day.
“I mean, election day is when I found out, I mean most devastatingly, like what was at stake for our country, and from there, I wanted to be in a place where we could support some constituency in some way,” Ramamurthy said.
He said once Trump became the president-elect in November, he was forced to search in alternative government organizations, like political action committees, for a place he could continue to make change for his communities — the LGBTQ+ and Asian American and Pacific Islander constituencies — on the federal level.
Ramamurthy said soon after he started applying for jobs in November, he realized he wanted to apply for more “hands-on” positions to protect people from his community and encourage voter mobility throughout the remainder of Trump’s term. He said he accepted a position at the AAPI Victory Fund — a PAC that aims to expand Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander candidates for elected office — as a digital strategist where he will work on the organization’s online outreach to the AAPI community.
“As there continues to be a mobilization of that mass outrage in terms of like the midterms and showing the American people that we can limit his power in some way and soon get him out of power, I think the market will continue to expand,” Ramamurthy said.
