What is A Lobbyist?
By: Martina Aucejo
Recently, I’ve been falling down a rabbit hole. An internet rabbit hole. I have no idea what I want to do as a career when I grow up, so I’ve been doing some job digging and I thought, “hey, might as well share with the world what I’m learning”, mostly because there are so many specific careers out there that aren’t talked about enough. Sure, there’s the ideal doctor, lawyer, and engineer, as well as the essential mechanics, plumbers, and electricians. However, not everyone necessarily wants to do any of those things, and there’s so much more out there career-wise than what is typically exposed. So, this article will be one of however many talking about my adventures finding jobs on the internet, specifically government-oriented, as I figured that most people subscribed to Catalyst are interested in politics or government or social justice (myself included).
The job that I will be talking about in this article is a lobbyist. The way that I first came across this career was through a career quiz that I took earlier in high school. What a lobbyist essentially does is they work to legally persuade representatives to vote for/help pass a bill that would be helpful for whatever enterprise they work for (i.e. AARP, the NRA, Amazon, etc.). What this usually entails is lots of private meetings with senators or representatives from the House, and going to fundraisers or other events (i.e. cocktail parties) to network. The job involves lots of tactical and speaking know-how, as well as socialization skills to try and connect with and persuade these government figures to vote in favor of a bill. Many people who are lobbyists often had previous jobs that they left, as there’s no license or certification needed to perform the job– the only thing lobbyists have to have/do is register with the government as a lobbyist.
The interesting thing about this career is that there’s no one “right” or specific way to become a lobbyist. What seems to happen the most often is that people interested in government start out with an internship in the senate, often observing and understanding what happens on the congress floor, perhaps meeting representatives from corporations or companies, and then working their way up to become a lobbyist for a specific group. Or, lobbyists tend to be ex-government employees, mostly legislators, as they have the knowledge and previous connections from where they used to work. The average salary for a lobbyist (in the U.S.) is $116,089, and they usually work in Washington D.C. (since lobbyists have to persuade government reps), but can work in other states/cities as well.
There’s a lot of controversy surrounding the job position, especially coming from liberals, claiming that the career/act of lobbying is seen as unconstitutional by persuading representatives instead of letting them vote as they would without lobbying. However, it must be noted that both liberals and conservatives (and everyone else on the political spectrum) use lobbyists for a multitude of reasons. Something else that’s important to note is that lobbyists don’t necessarily have to work for large corporations– they can work for public interest groups, smaller non-profits, and so on.
So, should you become a lobbyist? That’s up to you (obviously)– if you’re interested in working in a social environment and networking, you’re persuasive and are interested in politics/government, then a lobbyist could very well be a good option! I’ve included some links below for additional reading (including an interesting first-person POV piece from a journalist who quit being a lobbyist and why) for articles with more specific details about lobbying, and I wish you the best of luck on your job-interest-searching journey (I still have a long way to go unfortunately)!
Additional links:
https://www.princetonreview.com/careers/88/lobbyist
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/6/29/15886936/political-lobbying-lobbyist-big-money-politics
https://lobbyit.com/what-is-a-lobbyist/