Mechanical Technician - Mechanical Technician The Friedlander Group Employee Review

Get lots of great experience working on Congressional Bills and contribute to United States bilateral relationships.

At times overwhelming because I was working on so many different projects at once.

You get to learn about the legislative process, as well as how the political consulting industry operates. This internship could be a stepping stone to a Hill/think tank internship somewhere better established. The policy memos you write are often sent to ambassadors, various political organizations, as part of the Friedlander Group's lobbying efforts. Mr. Friedlander is friendly, knows people on Capitol Hill, could be a good resource for networking if you get to know him, though harder to do remotely. Internship is relatively flexible, you can choose to put a lot in or be a casual contributor.

The work isn't the most meaningful, it's mostly lobbying people to create a certain caucus in Congress or give a commemorative medal to someone, can get repetitive after a while. I feel like the threshold for my work wasn't very high, didn't get much mentorship or significantly improve as a researcher/writer. Interns are unpaid, limited opportunities for career advancement within the organization. I never worked on anything with other interns, to this day don't really know who they were. Mostly just writing memos/lobbying requests from home and sending them in. It's not bad especially if it's your first internship but you can do better.