Top 5 Jobs for Politics Degrees (HIGH SALARY!)

Introduction

The London School Of Economics And Political Science With A Politics Degree I Landed A Training Contract At A U.s Law Firm And Most People Are Confused When I Tell Them This Because They Think The Only Thing I Can Do With A Politics Degree Is Become A Politician And It Gets Annoying So Um Please Stop And Maybe You’re Choosing A Politics Degree And A University As Well Or Maybe You’re Currently At University Or You’ve Graduated And You Kind Of Feel A Bit Left Behind Because Everyone On Linkedin Knows What They Want To Do With Their Degrees And They’re Landing Jobs At Companies That You Didn’t Even Know Existed

Political Risk Analyst

So Firstly A Political Risk Analyst I Only Heard About This Job Halfway Through My Degree But It Sounds Like The Perfect Degree For Politics Students Especially International Relations Students Political Risk Analysts Aim To Provide Advice On The Political And Social Climate And The Conditions Of A Particular Region Or Market In Order To Determine The Level Of Political Risk They Do Research Based On Crime Rates Things Like Land Rights Issues Even Economic Data Like Inflation And Interest And Things That Tend To Affect Returns On Investments There Are Huge Risk Divisions In Large Consulting Firms And Banks That Need This Data In Order To Properly Make Investments And Advise Their Clients

Salaries

In My Opinion A Politics Degree Or An International Relations Degree Properly Sets The Foundation For This Sort Of Career Firstly What Kind Of Depends On Where You Study But We Tend To Learn About Government Stability And Factors That Affect Stability And Secondly Depending On The Modules You Take And How Hard Your Workload Is You Can Develop Some Real Strong Research Skills And The Ability To Read Through Large Documents Whilst Picking Out Relevant Information Which Seems To Be Very Valuable And Attractive Skills For Like This Sort Of Career And Companies Will Be Able To See That In You Starting Salaries Range From 25 To 32k And Experienced Risk Analysts Can Earn Up To 35 To 60k

Lawyer

Secondly A Lawyer I Am Biased This Is The Field I’m Entering But There Are Endless Opportunities For Politics Graduates In This Field You Can Be A Solicitor A Barrister A Paralegal They’re All Very Different But I’ll Speak About The Solicitor Route Because That Was My Chosen Route As A Graduate You Can Apply For Training Contracts To Become A Lawyer Or You Can Apply For Like Paralegal Positions But Even As A Student As A First Year Student You Can Apply For Schemes That Could Set You Up To Get Vacation Schemes Which Are Internships And Training Contracts At The Biggest Commercial Law Firms In The World But The Opportunities Usually Increase By Your Second And Third Year Of University

Salaries

Salaries Do Vary But For Top U.s American Firms In London Training You Know As A Training Your Salary Tends To Be Starting From 50 To 60k And Then It Could Go Upwards Of 115k To Like 160k Yeah 160 Um When You Qualify As A Lawyer So As An Associate Magic Circle And Silver Circle Firms Their Salaries Are Somewhat Different So Their Training Salaries Are Usually Around It Starts From Around 45 To 55k And Then Associates Earn Around 80 To 100k And Then Regional And Global Firms Pay 25 To 45k Whilst Training That’s Their Starting Salary And Anywhere From 45 To 80k As An Associate The Range Is Much Bigger There

Salaries Depending On The Region

Please Note That These Numbers Do Change Depending On The Region And The Practice Area And Obviously The Firm But I Think We Can All Agree That It’s A Lot Of Money Man It Is A Lot Of Money Regardless Of Where You Go So In Commercial Law You’re Dealing With Clients Who Are Companies And Your Work Could Vary From Like Dispute Resolutions Where You Try To Reconcile Conflicts Your Client May Be Sued They May Have A Conflict With A Country Or With Their Own Customers Or Suppliers Like It Can Get Really Deep Or It Could Be Transactional For Example Mna Which Is Mergers And Acquisitions And That’s Where You Advise Your Client On How To Best Merge With The Company Or Acquire Another Company

Practices

There’s Like 20 Other Practices Even More Probably Now There Is A World Of Law Beyond Commercial Law Like There’s Family Law If That’s Something You’re Interested In You Could Deal With Cases Surrounding Child Custodies Divorce Proceedings And Like Settlements After The Divorce To Establish Who Should Get What And That’s Going To Require A Lot Of Negotiation And Liaising There’s Criminal Law Where You Would Spend A Lot Of Time Like Amassing Evidence In Defense Of Your Client Or Strengthening Your Client’s Claim Via A Website Called The Lawyer Portal It Says The Highest Salary For A Solicitor A Criminal Lawyer In London Is Around 52k And Outside Of London It’s Roughly Around 32 To 42k Depending On The Area

Civil Service

Thirdly Civil Servant Getting Involved Directly In Politics Motivates Some People Because They Want To Make A Change But It Also Freaks Other People Out And Civil Servants In The Uk Are Meant To Be Politically Impartial So If A New Government Comes That You Don’t Agree With You’re Still Gonna Have To Serve Them Properly From A Moral Standpoint That Could Be Problematic For A Lot Of People But The Uk Has Done Some Good Things To Try And Facilitate

Employment Within These Areas There’s A Fast Stream In The Uk Which I Don’t Know When I Looked At It It Looked Like A Pretty Good Alternative To Like The Private Sector There’s Different Areas Like Economics Tech And Science Houses Of Parliament And It Seems Like A Fantastic Way To Be Involved In Influencing Policy Whether It’s Social Policy Economic Policy And Other Types Of Policies The Best Thing Is Some Of These Schemes Accept People Who Have Who Achieved Two Twos At University Whereas Fields Like Commercial Law Most Of The Top Law Firms Just Won’t Do That

Salaries

There Are Quite A Few People Who Have Gotten Onto These Schemes Saying That They Didn’t Have Experience In The First Place But They Were Still Accepted Into One Of These Schemes And That’s Good To Know And With A Starting Salary Of Roughly 30k Obviously It Depends On The Scheme It’s Still Not A Bad Way To Start Your Career In My Opinion

Think-Tanks/Lobbying

Fourthly Think Tanks And Lobbying Working In A Think Tank Would Mean You’re Taking Part In Some Research Institute That Aims To Improve Policy That Policy Is Obviously Going To Differ Depending On The Think Tank You’re Part Of As They Specialize In Different Things For Example Something Tanks Will Specialize In Research And Advocacy In Social Policy Security International Relations Whilst Other Ones Will Be More Innovative Focusing On Medicine Healthcare Tech And Science Now Just Something I Think You Should Be Aware Of The Rigorous Level Of Scrutiny And Lobbying That You See In Movies Probably Doesn’t Exist In The Uk As It Would In America Mainly Because In America You’re Allowed To Spend Millions And Billions To Influence Politicians Because From When I Last Looked At It In My Politics Degree We Learned How The Freedom Of Speech Laws Protect People’s Ability To Use Money As A Form Of Influence

Lobbyists In America

So Because Lobbyists In America Are Able To Really Use Money To Their To Their Advantage A Lot Of Politicians And Lawyers End Up Working For Lobbyists When They Leave Because Those Jobs Are Pretty High Paying And There Are Many Internships In Those Areas As Well Whereas In The Uk Obviously The Ability To Use Your Money To Influence Politicians And Policy Is Way Less Extensive It Exists But It’s Not As Extensive And Apparent

Salaries

So The Opportunities To Land Internships And Obtain A High Paying Career In These Fields May Be Less Prevalent But I Was Doing Some Research Under Someone Called Jonathan Webb And He Explains How His Work In A Think Tank Involves Significant Research Fundraising Networking Meeting Incredible People And It Sounds Really Dynamic So You Can Grow Your Skills Very Quickly Working In This Area In The Uk There Are Opportunities 100 And Some Think Tanks In The Uk Offer Paid Internships I Think There’s One Called Ippr So Look Into That And It’s Estimated That The Typical Starting Salary Is 25k At Entry Level Potentially Rising To 50k For A Senior Manager

Teaching

Finally Teaching And Look The Opportunities Are Truly Endless Like You Can Work In A School Recently There’s Been A Ton Of Government Grants Facilitating That Move And Politics Is Always An Important A Level There’s An Organization Called Teach First Who Offer Paid Training Programs That Give You Globally Recognized Teaching Qualifications Whilst Apparently Really Good Training Too Once You’re Qualified You’ll Earn Around 30k You’re Not Gonna Have Any Debt During The Process Which Does Sound Like An Amazing Alternative To The Corporate Roots And That’s One Area You Can Consider You Could Work At A University Instead With A Goal Being To Become A Professor And It’s Important To Know That Usually Professors Specialize In One Sort Of Politics Compared To Another But For Me There’s Political Science And Then There’s Political Theory

Political Theory

Professors Of Political Theory Tend To Speak About Things Like Justice Rights Like Things Relate To Western Philosophy What’s Good For Our Society And How We Should Structure Our Society Really Looking Into Like Kant Aristotle Plato Socrates Hobbs Machiavelli You Can Even Go Into Like Niche It Gets Deep That’s The More Political Theory Related Stuff That I Personally Took A Really Big Interest In Political Science On The Other Hand Focuses On Many Other Things And A Few Examples Are Like The Differences Between Democracies And Dictatorships How Different Political Systems Affect Happiness And Rights How Different Electoral Systems Affect Voter Turnout What Are The Benefits Like The Practical Benefits Of Being In Like Some A Block For Example Like The European Union Or Another Form Of Trading Block And It’s Less Abstract And Theoretical And More Practical And Sometimes It Can Get Quantitative Like You Can Look Into Numbers And Things And That’s Why I Didn’t Really Like It For Months

Salaries

So If You’re In Uni Or You’re About To Start University And You Find Something Really Interesting And You Want To Learn More About It Or Potentially Teach It In The Academic Space And Contribute To That Discourse That Is Definitely Possible With A Politics Degree Salaries Do Depend On The University The Degree And The Region As Well Some Estimates State That Lecturers Could Receive 40 To 50k A Year Whilst Senior Lecturers Get Upwards Of 50k And Professors Could Earn Up To 90 000 In Conclusion There Are Multiple Jobs I Raised To The Surface You Need To Do Your Own Research Based On Them.