Pros
Cool opportunities like lobbying and hosting events. Valuable skills learned at trainings.
Cons
Whether you’re PIRG, EnvAm, Frontier Group, Community Action Works, etc, they’ll make you move across the country to open a canvass office and will not provide financial assistance. You’ll have to find a place to stay on your own. To afford it, they’ll assume you can sublet your apartment back home, or would be okay staying in a coworker’s house (basement was actually offered to me). They’ll pay you minimum wage and expect 60-75 hour work weeks during the canvass. While you’re canvassing, you’ll be sent to neighborhoods you’re unfamiliar with & will have to knock doors and ask people for money, alone in the dark (because they canvass from 4:00-9:00PM). If you’re worried about your safety, they’re not very reassuring; you might get followed in the dark by strangers, and your boss will want you to continue canvassing. If you’re not up for any of this, you’ll probably be fired. The turnover is HIGH. I think all of the other associates in my office that started when I did (12? 13?) have quit by now, just months later. And this rate of turnover occurred in every office across the country. People will be quitting around you all of the time, and it will be largely unaddressed by management. Just another day on the job. The job is okay while you’re not canvassing, but they’ll constantly say things to you that will make you question if this is a legitimate organization or a fever dream. For example, one of their main values is “eat dirt.” They say they’ll happily work with organizations like Turning Point USA; it’s part of their organizing strategy, since they’re “transpartisan.” You’ll work longer hours during the non-canvass part of your job as well, and will likely stay after 5:00PM everyday. There is no HR, so any uncomfortable situations you encounter are instead reported to your boss, which feels like it crosses a boundary. They’ll send you to trainings in Denver, but you’ll have to share a hotel room with a coworker and pay for your own food while you’re there. And when you go out to eat with more senior staff after work events/for work socials, it will be an awkward staring contest to figure out who will put their card down (the professionals who have been working for 20+ years and have houses and kids, or the new college graduate with a $1,000 credit limit?) Eventually, you’ll be asked to make a “commitment” to their organization, pledging to work their for X amount of years, but they won’t offer you a formal contract. It’s a Google form. You might also go on a retreat/training trip with your team, meaning you’ll share an airbnb with your boss and coworkers for a few days (yes, that might mean sharing a bathroom with your boss). For an organization that strives for social change, it was very unprogressive in the way it treated its entry level employees.