So begins the second half of what every Gen-Y needs to know before entering politics. In case you missed my first entry, I’m starting my writing at Employee Evolution with the basic universals you’ll come across when working in campaigns, policy, and lobbying. So, without further ado, let’s jump back into this.

Your salary is intuitively tied to talent, not time spent

One of the fantastic things about political work is that there is always an election or assembly session going on. With every one that passes, your contributions are noted and you can expect your desirability to grow or diminish.

For example, after leading a successful state campaign as a grassroots activist, you could be the campaign manager in a slightly smaller-scale election. Getting that candidate into office will then allow you to run a larger campaign, and so on.

The same is true for passing difficult bills through assemblies: Your value as a lobbyist will grow, and you can expect more people to want you to advocate for them. Due to this quick electoral life-cycle, your job potential is limited more by your talent and dedication than simply the amount of time you have put in with any particular group or organization.

You will lose perspective

General Petraeus recently gave his report to Congress regarding the status of the Iraqi war and reconstruction. Reading the papers, it would seem that the Bush administration had scored a decisive victory in support of the war, and afterwards, many politicians stood against a number of Democratic bills that involved toning down the war.

The only problem was that polls done before, during and after the report show that the American people barely even registered the change. Public opinion is still overwhelmingly against continued operations in the country and want the troops to begin to withdrawal. This is a perfect case of how many within the beltway lose perspective.

The reporters did not write so much about WHAT Petraeus said as they wrote about HOW it was received. Articles are now more about the theatre of politics than they are about the facts such theatre is based on.

It is almost unavoidable. Like most careers, people tend to place an over-importance on events within their own fields and assume this to be the case for the population at large. Even if you are only working at the state level, you will be so concerned with the latest political intrigue that you will forget that the public is even less aware of local politics than they are of national. So what seems to be a major event might not even make the news.

In some ways, this isn’t bad. Politicians and lobbyists still react to political news as exaggerated as you do, so it balances out. But just remember that as soon as you leave the capitol grounds, these events become what they honestly are: Not worth remembering.

You will have a massive social network

Ultimately, politics is about the interaction of people and you will do nothing but gain contacts “Left” and “Right” (Oh, how do I love bad puns!).

I worked with some people that did political campaigns in one state exclusively and they still had over 2,000 completely filled in contacts in their address book. I don’t even want to know how many partial listings they had.

While you surely won’t get that in the first year, you will start to quickly build up a list of people with expertise, connections or otherwise influence in areas that you could use. Never feel bad for keeping their information, even if you only worked together once. This isn’t your AIM list — these people aren’t your friends.

You are keeping this list for two reasons: To be better at your current job and to get word about your next one. If you are not okay with keeping tabs on large groups of people, you can still do well in politics, but you’ll never do as well as you could do otherwise.

I hope this quick list has helped some of you decide whether or not this is a field you’d like to get involved in. I know for myself, there was never really a choice. I was infected with the bug a long time ago and I doubt I’ll ever be rid of it.

If nothing else, know that not all of us (in fact, I’d say only a small minority) are looking to maximize our own profits at the expense of the American people. Within our generation especially, money is not nearly as great a reward as the knowledge that we had a definitive role in making what was a policy dream years ago a reality today.

As always, send me a quick email if you’d like to see me write about a particular topic. After all, the goal is to be relevant to you, and I can’t imagine a better way to be so.

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