The Career Engagement Process

2026 Updates: We've changed our terminology a bit - but the process (and the point of this podcast) remains the same! There's a lot of work to be done prior to applying for things. Assess, Explore, Search and Launch are now Understand Yourself, Envision Possibilities, Prepare, Search & Apply and Engage. See our website and listen in to learn more about the phases. And, check out our blog post for more on the importance of Superfandom. 

In this episode, Susan and Amy describe the four phases of the career development process (Assess, Explore, Search, and Launch). They provide insider tips for how and when these phases unfold in government, policy, advocacy, and international affair searches. 

Transcript

[Auto-generated transcript. Edits may have been applied for clarity.]
Hello everyone. This is Amber Brown and Ahmar Ursani.

We are both GPSI career coaches, and we're here to provide a few updates and a refresh on our existing podcast series.

So some of our episodes use our old community name, but we want to clarify that our new community name is Government Policy and Social Impact.

Or you can just say GPSI, see for short.

We want to highlight our updated career engagement model as well in this episode because it helps us contextualize the work we do.

So I'm going to give you a brief overview of the stages, and you can see more in the show notes.

So it starts with understanding yourself, which is super important for reflection and visioning possibilities,

preparing to the actual search and apply process.

And then finally when you're actually engaging in your opportunity.

So you may also hear in some of our older podcast episodes, a reference to what's called a live chat.

And we wanted to make sure you noted that it's no longer in existence, but instead we have a different resource,

which we have various in-person drop in hours that we had that are GPS specific throughout the week.

And there was also a time that you can meet our career peers. Um, available Monday through Friday for on demand support.

Additionally, we no longer use canvas. All the resources have migrated to our GPS website.

A link again will be provided in the show notes. And our last technology update is we want to discuss Career link.

It's now handshake. So in handshake it's our one stop shop for career related events job and um, job and internship postings.

You can schedule your appointments there and more. And to close, we want to state that our annual Career expo now has a GPS specific focus day,

where employers from our industry come to you to discuss career options.

This, along with our annual Changemaker Summit, which brings local nonprofits to campus, helps you see how you can make an impact on our world.

So thank you so much for listening to this. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to anyone on our team.

Hope you're having a good day. See you. Yeah. Thank you.

Welcome everyone. This is the GPP podcast for budding politicos, policy wonks and advocates.

I'm Amy Heath Carpentier,

and I'm Susan Craig as career counselors in Washington University's Career Center and co-directors of the Government and Policy Work Group.

We walk alongside burgeoning policy wonks, politicos and change agents as they chart their paths to change the world.

This podcast is for you if you're interested in hearing tips and techniques that will position you to find your place in the fast moving,

mission driven world of politics, policy, and advocacy.

Today, we're going to pull back and get a sense of the big picture of figuring out what you want to do,

whether you're looking for a summer experience, a graduate program, a post-grad job.

Is there a method for exploring these opportunities? The answer is yes and no.

Susan. There's a form, a rhythm, but there isn't a straight path.

Today we're going to talk about the four phases of a good search so that you can get a sense of what that path is.

The four phases are assess, explore, search, and launch.

It's easiest to talk about these phases in a linear way, but like all good things in life, they're messier in practice.

However, keeping them in mind can help you to articulate where you are in your planning and where you are on your path.

So the reason this construct assess, explore, search and launch too, that we don't have a good acronym for that.

Right. It's useful because it reminds you that there's a lot of work to be done prior to the search.

I think many of us start by looking for jobs or building your resume.

Seems like the obvious place to start, but without putting a little thought behind what we're hoping to get out of the experience,

what we want the resume to say about us, we kind of lack some direction.

If you jump right into the search, not only is it direction, it's intention, and having intention makes the search easier,

more focused, and you're more likely to have good results and be happier with where you end up.

And Amy, most importantly, less flailing.

We hate the flailing. No flailing. Let's try not to flail or be anxious.

You know we want to. We want to pull back from the anxiousness that often surrounds this search.

Just knowing that there's a little bit of a method to that madness can help alleviate your anxiety.

You can name where you are in the process and where you're headed next.

For example, if you don't know which internships you want to apply to this summer,

it doesn't mean that you're flailing or confused with no path ahead.

It means you're assessing and exploring your options, and there are tangible steps you can take to move forward.

So let's discuss each phase in a step or two. You could take in each one.

All right. So the first one assess this phase is about you.

It's about your strengths your weaknesses what your needs are those sort of thing.

So you might have a clear sense of yourself, or more likely, it might be, um.

Clear as mud. So either way, most students need to do some sort of assessment prior to moving forward.

So here are some questions to think about. So Susan, some of the questions I like to ask with students are what are your strengths and weaknesses.

This question can help you figure out what you want to leverage and where you want to grow.

Another question might be what conversations or issues in your courses, student groups, or in life in general have really energized you?

Are there issues, problems, or needs in the world that interest you or that you may want to solve?

And the last one might be. Can you name three areas you might want to explore that bridge your interests in the world of work?

The Career Center has some formal and informal tools to help you along the way,

from career assessments like the Strong Interest Inventory and Clifton Strengths to transferable skills surveys,

and also just meeting with a career advisor.

But this also can be something you do on your own, reflecting on your own experiences and what you want to do.

I think it's also useful in the SS phase to just kind of pinpoint the non-negotiables, right?

Are there certain things that, um, confine your search? Do you need to be at home that's helpful in deciding what you're looking for?

Do you need to get to DC? Is this really something that you feel like you have to do?

Um, that's also helpful. Do you need to get paid? Um, this can help bound your search.

So don't think of these as being constraints. So much as useful ways to, um, to help you hone your thinking.

So now that you're kind of moving into the assess phase, the next phase that we see you moving into is the explore phase.

Now, explore is really about figuring out what is out there.

This is about gaining exposure to how these things you care about actually happen in the world of work,

or in our case, the world of government policy and advocacy. Most of the time, it's a way for students to figure out if they want to try something,

if this is something that they want to commit more time and energy to through an internship or a full time job.

Most students will explore based on a few areas they've pinpointed in their assess phase.

Areas that interest them. Areas from classes or the news or whatever.

If you're struggling to find a clear link between the things you're interested in and the world of work,

then it's time to turn to mentors and career advisors for some advice.

Even the career peers may be able to help you find the right words to then take you to the next step in your exploration.

We're going to help you find the missions and industries and job functions that relate to your interests.

You can put more form around them when you're exploring.

So let's start by talking for a minute about what the industry or mission is of an organization, and how that might relate to your interests.

So say you're in a class and you're learning about, um, human migration.

Well, there are organizations whose mission it is to work on that issue.

So you would look for organizations with that as part of their mission.

And that's usually a term used for a nonprofit, an NGO or a government agency.

An industry is similar. It's only more on the for profit side.

So you might be interested in political consulting and someone might say that that is an industry.

But there are lots of industries out there. There's the technology industry.

There's, you know, sports industry, and then there's the job function,

which is the other thing most people are looking for when they're going through this explore process.

So the job function is what do you want to do in the service of that industry or mission, that thing you're interested in.

So where do your skills, knowledge and abilities match with a role that might be desirable in that area?

You probably won't have both a mission and industry and a function as part of your search when you start out.

Most students don't even during senior year,

but they begin to get a sense by senior year of whether or not they're kind of focused on the industry or mission,

or if they're more focused on the job function.

And then once you've got some language around the industry's missions functions you're interested in, then it's time to explore.

And, Susan, you've got some great ideas about how to do that. Yeah.

So we talk about we we call this being a superfan. Um, but I think this is something that, um, isn't always obvious to, to folks.

And in this field, it's just so important. And it's just this idea that you, um, you know, if you're passionate about something,

most of the work in this field is about, you know, being, you know, having a mission and being mission driven.

And, um, you know, we're kind of it's kind of a field that's driven by by news cycles, congressional cycles, by campaign cycles.

And so understanding the news around those things and understanding what is happening and what's new and what's you know, what the trends are.

That's a really important piece of being a part of this industry.

So I'm going to use my national security interest because that's that's where I'm at.

But if you are interested in national security, um, a way for you to understand what's happening in that field is to just,

you know, read the news, figure out who's smart on these issues.

So you might want to follow certain journalists like Mark Mazzetti, who does the think the national security, um,

beat at the New York Times or think tank scholars like Michael O'Hanlon, who is at Brookings and does a lot of national security type work.

And then by reading those people or maybe following them on Twitter, you can see who they read, who they're quoting, who they're retweeting.

You know, who's in their circle, who's who are they following. And you'll quickly come to see who the experts are and what the issues are.

And this is really, I think, in many ways, the number one qualification for this field is what do you care about the issues that we care about?

Exactly. And we'll often find that there are areas as well and special resources that you can use to to learn more.

Like for example, I'm a big fan of the Women in Foreign Policy website,

which is a website that you can use to go in and look at some short informational interviews by people,

women, particularly in the field of foreign policy from an international perspective,

or if you're interested in international development, DevOps is a resource for that.

And so, you know, it's it's a way of kind of playing or acting like you're in the field before you commit your time full on into it,

and you're getting smart about it along the way and becoming a better interviewer and a better interviewee, I guess, would be the right word for it.

Susan and I have, have, and continue to curate materials for a variety of missions and industries.

Functions in the GPP hub on canvas. Have a look and let us know if there's something missing you'd like to see.

Also, careers in government policy and advocacy. You know, it's not very transparent about what, you know, the different roles you could play.

Are the different areas when you're in college, it just isn't. So we host group informational interviews with alumni every Friday at 1 p.m. via zoom.

We then take those, the ones that we can record and put them up under alumni chats on our canvas page.

So you should really have us take a moment and look at those.

Those can be another way to kind of explore what your what you are interested in doing, and then also learn how to informational interview.

Yeah. And I was going to say that's the best way I feel like if that seems daunting to you, which it is initially.

Um, it's just a good example of what those look like. Right?

And you can and you can participate in those and, and, and have a question without having to have it be a one on one conversation.

And then, you know, once you get to a point where you do start to feel comfortable talking to other people, I think talking to other students, um,

which we would call lateral networking formally is a great way to learn about, um, other internships and just seeing like,

what's attainable, what are other students that are interested in this field doing?

Um, and that's where this GPP, uh, community is really valuable because there are a lot of students who,

you know, who've been there or are still there.

And so they're in, um, they're great resources for you, and we encourage you to take advantage of them.

So we will be talking more about networking coming up.

So you'll have a chance to hear more about that. But now we're going to move on to the next part which is search.

The search phase is what you probably identify the career center with, the applications, the resume, you know,

etc. it's the part you typically jump to when you feel that pressure to find that internship or a job.

You know, in many ways, you know how to do this. You know, there involves materials that you got to pull to pull together.

And we just did our first episode on resume.

So you've got some some resources to get ready for that. And, you know, all the way through, how do you track what you've applied to and follow up?

How do you prepare to interview? That's all part of the search function.

The next step, the most exciting step is launch.

This is where we're hoping to get to right in the whole process. And launching includes.

You know, also it's you know, there's there's things to do here.

So it includes kind of negotiating the offer, um, maybe applying for a stipend, finding housing and just building a life.

Right. If this is summer and you're going away from home and it's a new place, um, it means finding a roommate or finding a place to live.

Finding a yoga studio. Um, all those things are part of the launch phase, and.

And that is a a great place to utilize the GPP network as well.

So hopefully this framework assess, explore,

search and launch reminds you of the important work that comes prior to just searching for a job or an internship,

and it gives you a little bit of a background to think about the recruiting timelines, which I think we should briefly mention.

Most of the government policy and advocacy internships will come more in a just in time environment.

In other words, they come in the spring, particularly for the full time jobs.

So you've got plenty of time to be doing those first two steps.

And if you're concerned that some of your maybe engineering or business friends haven't had to do those two steps, that's not exactly true.

They just did them a couple of months prior to when you're doing them.

So stay tuned for our next episode when we'll talk more specifically about internship search strategies.

Until next time, keep working to imprint the world.