Advice for getting a job in political risk
Four points to find employment in this field
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With the start of the spring semester, graduating students may be thinking about how to get a job in political risk. It’s one of the most common questions I get, so here are some more points to follow up on this post on the subject from 2020.
Do you really want a political risk job or a political job?
I first got interested in political risk because what it wasn’t. As I was finishing my PhD, I realized that I didn’t want to go into academia full-time (see this article for more on why it’s become a brutal lifestyle for young scholars). I didn’t want to go into government yet but also didn’t want to take a “standard” private sector job that would take me away from my background in international relations.
Political risk beckoned because it wasn’t what I didn’t want to do. It was academic, but didn’t require post-doc after post-doc. It wasn’t government, but was closely related. It was private sector, but still political in nature.
To be honest, I didn’t know if I would like it, but fortunately for me, I found it fascinating.
Predicting what would happen in politics, creating techniques to channel knowledge into outputs, diving into what the world might look like in 20 years - all made the job decision one I’m glad I made.
However, there are many things that the job doesn’t have.
If you like politics because of its ability to make a difference in the world, be aware that your impact will be indirect. Your reports will help others avoid bad investments or think more clearly about risks. But you probably won’t be on stage on election night thanking the crowd.
If you like politics because you want to be in the mix of everything, walking the halls of power and dealing with the crisis of the day, be aware that we’re often brought in to consult, but not to make the final decision.
And, finally, if you like politics because it gives you a chance to speak your mind about what you’re passionate about, be aware that this is a job and our work is on what people pay us to cover. You might love opining about what the president should do next, but more often you’ll be assessing the chance of an obscure regulation changing.
Political risk is great if you love the intellectual challenge of understanding the political world and helping others navigate it better. If you want to knock on doors and win elections, you should do that instead.
Care about something boring
Presidential elections are exciting. But that means lots of people want to write about them. As someone looking to get involved in political risk, you’ll face a lot of competition from more senior people if you’re working only on the highest-profile things.
If you care about something deeply technical and/or boring (at least seen as boring by most people), that competition diminishes. To get a job as an American generalist is tough. To get a job focusing on the politics of the East African energy industry is - if not necessarily easy - a more straightforward task.
The great thing about caring about something highly technical is that it tends to get really interesting once you learn enough about it. If you’re skeptical, listen to the Odd Lots podcast from Bloomberg. During the pandemic, they’ve devoted episodes to aspects of the global economy that are often overlooked: what’s happening now at the port of la; why the nation is facing a school bus driver shortage; why the price of wooden shipping pallets has soared. You go into each episode assuming it’ll be a pretty dry and then get enthralled with the issue’s nuances.
If you truly care, you can have a fulfilling career, and if it’s commonly seen as boring, you can establish yourself in that career.
But let’s say that you can’t bring yourself to find something boring. Your true passion lies in something exciting or popular. That’s perfectly fine. Dive into that broader idea to find a niche that is otherwise ignored. If you want to work on climate change, and only climate change, then make yourself an expert on Canadian exports of hydroelectric power to the Northeastern United States or something similar. You will be working on what you love while reducing the number of people competing for your job.
Write publicly to build credibility
If you’ve found your niche, start to establish yourself in it. One way is to write publicly.
This could be a blog, a Medium account, or regularly Tweeting about it. While blogging to get established might be seen as a mid-2000s tactic, there are still many in the 2020s who are doing it.
Nathan Tankus, an economics writer, has a well-followed Substack despite having no college degree. Alon Levy started investigating transit costs and now is a research scholar at NYU.
Writing publicly is, of course, not the only way to start to establish yourself. Maybe you instead want to go to conferences, or network, or work on a campaign. There are many ways to build your resume and get the attention of future employers.
However, writing is, in many circumstances, the best approach.
First, you need absolutely no money to do it. There are no conference fees, flights, or hotels to pay for.
Second, prospective employers can find your work and be impressed before you even interview.
Third, you start to build a community. Writing about a topic usually involves talking with others in the same field. Before long, you’ll have connections and a network that can tell you when a good job is open.
Fourth - and this is the most important part - it forces you to take it seriously. It’s easy to say “I’m interested in a job in political risk covering US-China relations.” It’s much harder to write 1,000 words every week. But if you do, the process of researching, writing, editing, and promoting will make you a far better candidate than if you hadn’t. A steady writing habit is like being dropped in a foreign country. You can bet you’ll learn the language faster than if you just had some tapes and a vague desire to one day visit.
Create your own job
Finally, don’t be discouraged if you can’t find a job in political risk. It’s a small field, there are a lot of people who want to work in it, and sometimes you get unlucky.
But, as I wrote in 2020:
The practice of political risk - analyzing and forecasting the present and future political and business environment - happens in many organizations, even if not their sole mission and focus. All Fortune 500 companies, most governmental departments, and many financial institutions have positions and employees dedicated to covering politics. They may be called “cybersecurity strategists”, “macro analysts”, or “policy planners”, but they are, effectively, in political risk roles.
My advice to newly minted graduates in the field is to try and identify any job posting whose description involves the same responsibilities that a political risk analyst would assume and apply there. Alternatively, pinpoint a company, firm or institution that you imagine is potentially subject to political risk, look for the executive or manager who would understand that risk, and find out if that team (if one exists) has any openings for someone with exactly the necessary educational and/or experiential qualifications to fill that need.
If you can’t get a job in political risk, but can get a job in an organization subject to political risk, go there and make yourself the point person for it. You may be surprised how quickly your opinion gets asked if you show yourself aware of the political context and make that your thing, just like how ten years ago the youngest hires might have been asked to explain Facebook and then found themselves as social media managers.
When the organization decides to create a dedicated political risk position, you’d become the logical pick for it. Ultimately, political risk analysis is a function to perform, not just a job title. If you can find employment in which your analytical skills are being used, congratulations, you’re a political risk analyst.
Forecasting Tournament 2022
Our forecasting tournament for 2022 continues. This week we’re predicting how many seats the BJP is likely to win in the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly in the upcoming elections. You can make your prediction here.
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Thank you for sharing. Is the Political Risk academy still open?