What are they going to ask me at a city government relations interview?

February 15, 2010 7:18 PM

I'm a current 1L in a mid-level law school about to interview for an externship at the nearby city's Government Relations office. I need to do a little preparing.

Basically I just want to knock this interview out of the park, which in the past has meant that I do extensive preparation. In this case, however, I'm not really sure what they're going to ask me.

I figure I should brush up on:
-Local Politics
-Recent Legislation
-How the operations of our local government work
-What plans they are currently pushing in the public

But other then that I'm drawing a blank. The office has not told me specifically what they'd like me to do for them (I plan on getting into that during the interview), so I'm not really sure how I need to prepare to pitch myself.

Does anyone that has experience in the Government Relations field, specifically with city governments, know what you'd do/ask a potential 1L hire?

(I did already check out this question about transitioning from journalism to government relations, which helped, but I'm wondering what kind of legal activities they are going to expect to do.

posted by cyphill to Law & Government (5 answers total)

That sounds like a good preparation. Also have some opinions about the classes you're taking now and why you went to law school. When I'm interviewing law students for jobs at my firm, I understand there's only so much they could tell me about the job that they are interviewing for (especially 1Ls). So asking them questions about their current "job" — i.e., law school — tells me something about how seriously they take their profession. There's nothing in particular I want to hear, just to get a sense that they are engaged with the work.

I don't have experience with working in a city government, however.
posted by chinston at 7:45 PM on February 15, 2010

I went from a congressional to a local government job. Local government is tough to prepare for, since you can't read Congress Daily or CQ or the like. You might want to look at these sites for these groups: The National League of Cities, The National Council of Mayors, and perhaps the Council of the Great City Schools. YMMV.
posted by jgirl at 8:23 PM on February 15, 2010

These are questions from me to you, not for you to ask yourself: How big and political is the city? Does the mayor have a bunch of staff? If it's big, it's a different thing, so it'd help us to answer if we knew.
posted by salvia at 11:55 PM on February 15, 2010

Also, are you still in Virginia?
posted by salvia at 11:57 PM on February 15, 2010

Here are some questions I'd try to figure out as time allowed:

How is the city presenting itself? What is it's public image? Hometown USA, or...?

What are their big messages right now--publicly? in other governmental forums? "With 12.5% unemployment..." I would Google city leaders' names and look for quotes from recent public appearances.

What are they getting in the news for? What are they putting out press releases about?

Are they lobbying for any state or federal legislation? Are they working to ensure any grant-making agency takes them into account? (eg, the HUD-EPA-DOT Partnership?)

Any major recent changes due to the budget / fiscal situation?

Are they involved in any cross-boundary issues? Any multijurisdictional partnerships or regional planning efforts? Are they part of a Metropolitan Planning Organization, and what are their relationships like there?

Are they engaged in any struggles right now? Were they recently sued? Are they getting bad press over and over about something?

Who are the Mayor and the Councilmembers? What did they run on? What did they promise to do? Who are their constituencies?

Who are the loyal stakeholders, advocates, and opposition? What are their issues? How does the city regard them and respond?

Has the city or the Mayor announced any major initiatives in the past year? Does the Mayor post his or her schedule?

What is the planning department working on? Are there any major planning efforts underway? Any recently completed plans, projects, or awards? Who is on the Planning Commission?

What other city departments have a lot going on?

Any recent ballot initiatives (if allowed in your state)?
posted by salvia at 12:38 AM on February 16, 2010 [1 favorite]