A Letter to the District Office Staffers

To the staff of the Gilbert office of the 5th Congressional District:

I want to express a brief but heartfelt 'thank you' to all of you for the time that I've been able to spend here as an intern. Getting to know the district and its constituents, and how you do your best to serve them, has been a good and motivating experience for me. It's helped me to understand that the federal government really can have a positive and noticeable impact at the local level, which is something that I didn't completely understand before.

A lot of interns come through this office, and it must be difficult not only keeping track of who's who, but having to be more-or-less constantly training them on the same things all the time. You've all been very accommodating and patient with these circumstances, and I really appreciate it. I'm sure you've been in our position one way or another - in college, preparing for a career, trying to get real-world experience - and I thank you for your understanding and support. Working here has been a great experience, and I hope I've helped you as much as you've helped me.

Best regards,

Adam Hill

Reflections

My internship is only somewhat more than half over, so I'm sure there will be more to learn before the end. Even so, there are some things that I have learned. It's tough to identify one thing that's the most important, but it might be that I've learned how better to deal with people who are seeking help in a crisis. That's pretty much what constituent services are all about.

Often, by the time people contact our office for help, they are at the end of their rope after a long struggle with the VA, or Social Security, or the IRS, or whatever it may be. Many of them count serious physical or mental health problems among their struggles. In any case,  they are seldom their best selves when they contact or visit us, and learning and practicing how to interact with these people has been valuable. The second of my three goals at the beginning of this internship was "gain an appreciation and understanding for how district offices interact with constituents", so I'd say I've definitely met that one.

My other two goals were:

• make contacts in the office that could be beneficial to my future career
• decide of the world of federal politics is a place I could ever see myself. I've always figured that if I ended up working in government, it would be a local administrative role, rather than a federal one, so this will be a chance to explore that assumption a little.

I've gotten to know, and will continue to get to know, the staffers in the office, and if I end up seeking a career in the public sector, I'm confident that their advice and association will prove valuable to me.

When it comes to federal politics, I suppose I haven't reached that goal, because it might have been a bit misinformed when I made it. I can't say that I've had much contact with the political side of things. Legislation, campaigning, and other things like that are handled by other offices, so it's been out of my view. Even so, working where I do has opened a window on a usually quiet side of government that you don't hear about on the evening news.

Career Services Post #2

It's time to focus on the career searching side of things once again. I found some interesting tutorials and workshops about using LinkedIn and other social media to find a job and to further one's career development, done by a company called Top Dog Social Media. I chose two in particular to study: one about what they call Social Selling, and another about marketing oneself on LinkedIn.

The one about Social Selling interested me because I've always had a slight entrepreneurial side, and a big part of building any business is selling in one form or another. Selling using social media, according to the stats quoted in the workshop, can put a business significantly ahead of its competitors, both in the quantity of sales, and in the size of the contracts that are negotiated, as time goes on. One of the points from this lecture stood out to me as being particularly important is that prospecting for clients can be done in two ways. The first is the most obvious - searching them out individually. The second is equally important though, and that is to make it easier for potential clients to find you.

Speaking of being found, and particularly on LinkedIn, I also found some simple, actionable steps for marketing one's profile and being found by business prospects. Most of it seemed fairly common-sense, but the one that surprised me the most was the suggestion to put a video on your LinkedIn profile. A study by Forbes found that about two thirds of prospects clicked through to a vendor's website after watching their video. So, something like this can have a huge impact. These strategies that I've talked about are mainly used by business owners rather than those looking for employment, but they are certainly relevant in the event that my future career includes any entrepreneurial or business marketing aspects to it.

A Close Call

I'm not sure if this has happened to anyone else, but after being in school for so long, I sometimes forget that it's actually ending soon. This happened to me last night, or rather it happened pretty constantly up until last night. Some time in the evening, it occurred to me that I better apply for graduation. This is something that is best done early, of course. But, I have spent so much time in the mindset that I was in a never-ending sequence of semesters that in some practical ways, I had forgotten about graduation.

This is my last semester, so I'll be officially graduating in August. You can probably imagine my shock and dismay when I saw that the deadline to apply for graduation had passed 4 days earlier. This was one of those heart-stopping moments we all have from time to time. Did I totally screw this one up? Would I have to wait until December to graduate??? That would have a huge impact on my life, academically and otherwise. Thankfully, I most likely won't have to wait. I had to pay a significant late fee, but I was still able to apply to graduate in the Summer 2014 semester. So, let that be a lesson to me to better anticipate and prepare for deadlines.

Analysis: Strengths and Opportunities for Change

One of the strengths of my organization is that the people who work here really believe in what they are doing. It's not the type of job that you would get just to pay the bills - it really has to be a part of you. People here sincerely want to help people and represent the congressman well. In addition, most of them have a lot of patience with the interns, which I'm sure is difficult due to the rapid turnover, and the fact that this leads to always having people around who are relatively inexperienced.

There are a few things I would change if I could. It seems as though the workload could be a little more evenly spread between the staffers. One in particular is overloaded, and it appears to me that he's starting to burn out, and that it's apparent in his attitude toward visits and calls by constituents.

Perhaps this is a personal note, but I've often wished that it were possible to have received a more comprehensive training. I know this is unrealistic, since probably a couple dozen interns cycle through the place every year, but I received next to no training, and something more substantial would have been helpful, both to me and the staffers.

The Artist Is Present

Maybe it's this way in every district office, but we have some constituents who see us as more than just their advocates with the federal government. They want to be our friends, and they stop by with small gifts or call periodically for nothing more than conversation.

One of these friends of the office is an elderly gentleman named Jim. He comes in every now and then to talk with the staffers, and on more than one occasion, to sing a selection of old songs to anyone who would like to listen. They tend to be songs that were popular back when he would have been young. When I first met him and he said he wanted to "sing some music" for us, it was pretty awkward I didn't know who this self-styled vocalist was, but it soon became clear that the staffers did.

If he had a good singing voice when he was young, it's aged along with him, but in his mind it still must sound amazing. I can't fault him for his sincerity though. It clearly makes him happy, and his unscheduled performances in the front lobby of the office certainly add plenty of variety to a busy (or a slow) day.

He has expanded his repertoire to include visual art. When he heard that the staffer he wanted to sing for was on a conference call and not available, he brought out his sketchbook and said "I''m going to sketch her from memory, okay?" He then did so, and in many ways, his pencil drawings are like his singing. It's completely sincere, and he even titles and signs his work. Eventually he either leaves or his wife comes to retrieve him, but he always makes us smile.

Public Service

My organization demonstrates public service in the sense that, quite simply, that's the only reason that it exists. Most of the time, when the average person thinks about Congress, or about their representative, they think about legislation (or more accurately, legislative gridlock). In reality, the work that goes on behind the scenes in district offices like mine is more productive and has more noticeable and immediate effects on the individual lives of constituents.

This is because district offices (as opposed to the Congressional offices in Washington) are focused on what's called constituent services. They aren't there to prepare legislation or to campaign. So what are constituent services? Basically, if you or I have a problem or any type of issue relating to a federal agency like the IRS, the VA, or the Social Security Administration, we would need the help of a constituent services representative from our district office.

These staffers act as constituents' advocates with the federal agencies. As it says on the Congressman's website, "If you can't get an answer from a federal agency in a timely fashion, or if you feel you have been treated unfairly, my office may be able to help resolve a problem or get you the information you need."

There are many other ways in which public service takes place as well, though most are (unsurprisingly) connected with the federal government. If you want to purchase a flag that has been flown over the Capitol, that can be done through your district office. If you need a recommendation for an application to a military academy, or need to expedite your passport application due to an emergency, or just want information regarding tours of the Capitol, the district office is there to serve you.