In election years, it’s easier to see what political scientists do: they track public opinion, advise campaigns about issues that will help them win and make predictions about what voters will support or reject. But the field of political science is broader than commentary and analysis on elections, and a BA in political science will provide you with an even wider range of possible careers.
Political scientists study human behavior to understand why people make choices—their goals and desires and the external factors that nudge them in different directions—to understand how public opinions and political currents shift and can be shifted.
They learn how groups and organizations function and how authority and political power operate in different structures, including different systems of government. They learn to understand these institutions from the outside or work effectively within them. And they investigate how laws and public policies are formed through political and administrative processes and sustained through enforcement and public support.
“Political science is about trying to think systematically about interesting and important questions related to law and policy in all the places and forms where we find it,” says Brian Klunk, chair of the Department of Political Science at University of the Pacific.
Careers for political science majors
Law and political science
Most students in Pacific’s political science program choose that major because they want to go to law school—and these students tend to go, either right away or after a gap year, he says.
Others hope to work in the legal field in some other way. While working as a paralegal (a non-lawyer who works closely with attorneys, conducting legal research, helping with preparation for trial and dealing with correspondence and files) is probably the non-attorney job within the legal field that comes to mind most easily, there are others:
- Legal assistant: A legal assistant has an administrative role with less responsibility than a paralegal. Key responsibilities include filing, communication with clients and managing schedules.
- Court reporter: Court reporters transcribe court proceedings, establishing the formal record of events which can later be cited as evidence.
- Contracts administrator: A contracts administrator is responsible for understanding the terms of contracts that a firm is involved in administering and ensuring parties’ compliance with them.
- Discovery specialist: A discovery specialist helps gather and preserve evidence needed in legal cases, whether physical or digital.
- Law indexer: Law indexers create indexes for sets of laws and regulations which enable lawyers to easily access these documents.
Politics, government and public policy
It’s no surprise that political science students often become involved in student government while in college—or that they go on to hold elected office in local, state or national government, like Pacific political science alumnus James Aiona, lieutenant governor of Hawaii from 2002-2010. But many others work in other areas of politics and public policy, working on campaigns, within state or federal bureaucracies or for nonprofit institutions.
“A lot of public policy is not implemented by the government itself but by grants to private organizations or companies which administer the funds,” says Klunk. Many political science alumni work at this intersection of public and private efforts.
Entry-level jobs for political science majors in politics, government and public policy include:
- Campaign staffer: Campaign staffers do much of the day-to-day work of campaigns, which can be a blend of administrative work, manual labor, and management depending on the role.
- Political consultant: Political consultants provide advice to political campaigns, helping them to run successful campaigns by conducting market research, creating communications campaigns and helping to raise campaign funds.
- Legislative assistant: Legislative assistants work for lawmakers, monitoring the progress of proposed laws, doing research to inform future laws, answering phones and communicating with constituents and helping arrange and support events.
- Assistant speechwriter: Assistant speechwriters work on a team with other speechwriters, and in addition to drafting material for speeches, do research including fact-checking, proofread speeches and provide other assistance.
- Foreign service officer: Foreign service officers work for the U.S. Department of State and are stationed in embassies around the world. In addition to completing an application, people interested in becoming foreign service officers must pass the Foreign Service Officer Test and Foreign Service Officer Assessment before they are considered for hiring.
- Lobbyist: Lobbyists represent the interests of their clients to members of government to encourage the creation of laws and policies that will serve their clients well.
- Policy advocate: Policy advocates communicate arguments in favor of specific government policies to a variety of audiences, including both policymakers and concerned citizens.
- NGO staffer: Non-governmental organizations are usually non-profit bodies with missions that are oriented toward addressing a particular issue in society or making improvements within a locality. They can be small or large, focused on individual communities or global issues.
Business and political science
Finally, many political science students also choose to go into business after they graduate. The skills they develop during their education—their critical thinking skills, ability to do careful analysis, experience doing research, and presentation skills—serve them well in business settings.
Entry-level jobs for political science majors in business include:
- Policy analyst: Policy analysts monitor local, state and federal laws and regulations to help a company ensure that it can comply with these, avoiding fines and other negative consequences. They conduct research and brief company leadership on their most important findings.
- Market research analyst: Market research analysts conduct surveys and monitor markets in other ways to understand whether demand for a company’s products is stable, increasing or decreasing, so that the company can adapt to changing conditions and continue making a profit.
- Business analyst: Business analysts study a company’s financial health, looking at its processes, operations, expenditures and profits to find ways that it could be more efficient, reduce waste and increase profit.
- Financial manager: Financial managers analyze a business’s assets to find ways to increase its profitability. While it is similar to a business analyst position, this role is more narrowly focused.
Graduate school possibilities
Some political science students choose to go to graduate school in other areas than law.
Professional graduate programs prepare students for specific professions, careers or industries.
- Public policy/public administration: The programs prepare students for jobs in local, state or national government; in administrative agencies; or in non-profit or other independent non-governmental organizations.
- International relations: International relations programs prepare students for positions working for international businesses including banks and law firms; governmental organizations including the U.S. Department of State; organizations like the World Bank, International Monetary Fund or the United Nations; or non-governmental organizations with a global reach.
Academic programs: Political science and political theory graduate programs prepare students to teach, usually at the undergraduate level in universities or community colleges.
Why study political science at Pacific?
It’s important for political science students to gain real-world experience during their time in college, to “have exposure to what it is people really do in the world,” says Klunk.
Pacific recognized the importance of hands-on training for political science majors early and instituted an experiential learning requirement, which can be satisfied in several ways, including a political science or pre-law internship, participation in the university’s Washington Semester program, or conducting research.
Internships and other forms of experiential learning give political science students a more thorough understanding of the day-to-day work of a lawyer or a legislative assistant or someone who works in policy advocacy, give them substantive experience to include on their resumes and help them learn more about the field and about their own skills and interests.
Students also have the opportunity to join Pacific’s renowned speech and debate team, which is nearly as old as the university itself. The team competes in events across the country and hosts tournaments on the Stockton Campus.
Political science students at Pacific can pursue a concentration in criminal justice or minors in pre-law or public affairs. Accelerated programs, which allow students to complete their undergraduate degrees in three years, are also available for students who want to pursue law or public policy at Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law.
Students are also connected with the university’s alumni network; they are required to have informational interviews with political science alumni, who often go on to provide career help and mentorship to students.
At Pacific, Klunk says, “students become well-informed people who are citizens, who can look at the world of public affairs and understand it and know how to participate in it, who are aware of and informed about the world and have the skills to make sense of it and to act in it.”
Learn more about studying political science at University of the Pacific.