Public Interest Network Reviews

-the pay is absolutely dreadful— I would have made the same or more working a minimum wage job -the justification for the low pay is that you're not there for the money, you're there to make a difference. However, this idealism literally doesn't pay the bills depending on how expensive the city is. -the hours are grueling, often between 50 and 60 per week. You will find yourself working well after 6 pm. -the low pay and long hours selects for a unique type of person, not necessarily the most qualified. Instead it's someone who sacrifices free time, hobbies and financial compensation for idealism. -many people seem overworked and stressed, without much time to spend on hobbies or friends. -the low pay and long hours also means that there is a high turnover rate, which causes projects to become more difficult. You are constantly training inexperienced people and adjusting project goals, which wastes valuable time and resources. -since the network is so large and inexperienced at some levels, there is constant confusion and miscommunication on who is responsible for what.

I joined because I wanted to avoid working for the 2-party system while still shaping policy - turns out TPIN gives large donation to only Democrat political candidates, they just don't publicize it. My job duties looked nothing like my job description, which included research, grant writing, lobbying, and coalition building. However, I spent most of my time on recruitment, recruitment, recruitment because the organization has super-high turnover, and all entry-level employees completely drop their campaigns for months at a time to canvas (15 hour days, no over time pay, lots of union busting). I spent relatively little time on some official duties and was never given a chance to work on research or grants. Not only was I deceived about the job coming in, I was taught to lie to people when I was doing the recruiting- I was directly instructed to omit information on recruitment and canvassing when hiring full-time employees and to omit the fact that our summer jobs were door-to-door fundraising when looking for summer employees. I never understood why we did this, as it wasted a lot of our time training people who dropped out once they figured out what the jobs really entailed. Lastly, the previous negative comments about the culture are correct - dating your coworkers is almost encouraged, but management will honest to God *interrogate you about having a relationship with a non-employee*. Aside from being wildly inappropriate, that's beyond creepy. When I told my boss I wanted to use my vacation time to see family over Christmas instead of spending it on the Aspen retreat, I got a lot of pushback. They really don't like ties to the outside world.