Help Wanted on the Hill

They'd Work Long Hours for Little or No Pay, Yet Thousands Are Inquiring at the Capitol

Allison Sheren sits for an initial interview at PoliTemps, which places workers in political jobs. (By Lois Raimondo -- The Washington Post)

Caitlin Williams spent December working the phones, asking Washington friends if she could sleep on their couches while she looks for a job on Capitol Hill. So far she's lined up three couches, a couple of interviews and one temporary job.

Like thousands of other job seekers, Williams sees this winter as her big chance. The shift in power that will take place Thursday when the 110th Congress is sworn in is bringing an unusual number of freshmen to the Hill, and all of them will have to establish offices.

So they'll be hiring. In the House, with 55 new members, the typical member's office has about 15 full- and part-time people on staff. In the Senate, with 10 new members, a typical office has 30 to 35 staffers. That's about 1,100 potential jobs. Many new members will bring a few employees with them from their campaigns or home offices, but most will have to hire at least some staff when they arrive.

There are hundreds more positions opening on the staffs of more than 200 soon-to-be-revamped committees and subcommittees. Almost all the committee jobs, and the upper positions on the members' office staffs, will go to people with significant experience in politics or government. But there are still a lot of openings out there for staff assistants, researchers, clerks, receptionists and other entry-level grunt jobs, usually involving long hours and low pay.

And Williams -- at 22, already a veteran of two Hill internships and a campaign -- is ready to couch-surf until she gets one of those jobs.

She's done it before. For the campaign job, she hopped on a plane to California on a week's notice and lived in "supporter housing" from August until November, and she's ready to live like that again, if it means a congressional staff position. "I love working, and I don't mind coming in early or leaving in the wee hours in the morning, either," she said.

She's not unusual. "People are rolling off campaigns, coming to Washington with a passion," said Chris Jones, founder of PoliTemps, a District placement company for politics-related jobs. "Or they are graduating and waiting to work on the Hill."

Jones founded PoliTemps in 1996 after having served in the Navy and holding jobs on the Hill and on Ann Richards's reelection campaign for Texas governor. Today, PoliTemps helps connect people to mid-level positions at political consulting firms, lobbying firms, associations and public relations organizations, and some with congressional staffs. The company recently spun off a business called CapitolWorks, which performs a similar function for higher-level positions.

"This is a very busy time, and there are also a great deal of openings, many more than there typically are," said Rick Shapiro, the outgoing executive director of the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that provides research and other assistance to congressional offices.

"When you have someone who is a new Democratic committee member, they will send a chief of staff or legislative director to their new committee," he said. "Then they're going to promote someone from their personal office to be the legislative director. That creates another opening for a legislative aide, who gets promoted from legislative correspondent. So one hiring could lead to four or five positions being open."

What awaits the job seekers? Legwork. Paperwork. Dead ends. Rumors -- like the one about 1,000 applications for one unpaid internship on the staff of the latest political idol, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). And probably a few applications to restaurants and bars, so they can pay a little something for that couch-surfing.

Robert Primus, chief of staff for Rep. Michael E. Capuano (D-Mass.), said he has received at least 100 unsolicited résumés for job openings that don't exist. He understands the plight of Hill job seekers as well as anyone: In 1991, as a marketing and graphic design student at Hampton University, he started his Hill career by walking into the office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) and asking for work. He got hired as an unpaid summer intern.