I have a significant amount of experience working on political campaigns in high school thanks to a lack of volunteers in my precinct over this past election cycle, and after the presidential campaign ended, my boss told me she could get me a full time job for about 6 or so months when the midterm elections come around (which is in about a year and a half).
I’m starting college next year, either at northeastern university or at my state school (it’s a money thing at this point), so I would have completed my freshman year entirely before the job offer becomes relevant - I would start, theoretically, in June of 2018 and be done with the campaign that same November, so it would require me taking a semester entirely off of school. The job would be at the exact same office that I worked at during high school so I would be living at home, rent free, and being paid about $15 an hour.
The reason I am considering doing this so seriously is primarily that I do think I might want to go into politics and having experience as a paid employee running an entire precinct by myself would look good for graduate school and eventually for getting a job in that field.
Graduation wise, this would not affect me. Northeastern does a co-op system so students traditionally graduate in five years while taking 1.5 years off for work - I would just be doing a non-school sponsored co-op. At CU Boulder (my state school), I am already on track because of IB/AP credits to graduate in three years, so this would just be 3.5 years.
I was really shocked and excited to get this opportunity, and I’m trying to decide if it seems like something I want to take my boss up on. Does this seem like a good idea, or would I just be needlessly pausing my education for experience I won’t really use?