Tradecraft > The Value of Staff Work

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Not as many recommendations for staff work from our legends as their admonition to seek opportunities working in the interagency, but many did underscore the value of learning directly from bosses how to manage, lead, think strategically, and advance U.S. policy. Also, among the 25YA apprentices team, many of us feel we had our biggest impact and learned the most while staffing. Fundamentally, staffing teaches you how to work collaboratively, manage up, and manage relationships throughout an organization. 

Staffing jobs. Whether as an Ambassador's staff assistant, a staff or special assistant for an assistant secretary or serving on the 7th floor (staffing one of the single letter principals), offer a great opportunity to learn how to lead a bureau, work the interagency, manage relationships with the press, and craft briefing papers that persuade and offer helpful policy guidance. There are many staffing jobs so it is important for an apprentice to know what a staff job entails and how best to take advantage of any staffing opportunity to develop as an officer. Before talking about the job, it is critical to underscore that most staffing jobs offer exposure like almost no other position. For better or worse. A staffer in a bureau or for a principal interacts with dozens of different folks a day—from desk officers to Deputy Assistant Secretaries, from Ambassadors to people around the interagency and inside the building. If you come in with a positive attitude, looking to be helpful and seeking opportunities, it is quickly noticed and can burnish your reputation. Similarly, having a negative attitude, not taking the time to work well with people, or treating people differently depending on their rank (or worse, assuming you have the power and rank of the principal) also gets noticed, and can have a wider and longer impact than you’d expect.

Nuts and Bolts. It is important to know that any staff job will require some printing, some formatting, some scheduling, aka staff work. It is important to do this work well and to understand, know and believe that it all matters. It will show effort and establish your professional standards—the most critical principle of staffing. The better you do the little things, the more you will be called on to contribute—this is a maxim for any job or office, but perhaps especially so in staff jobs. Keep on top of things as a staffer to an ambassador—the ambassador may ask you to try your hand at writing a letter or drafting a speech. Good principals will look for opportunities for you—to take notes, to write memos. The more you do, the more you learn. Don't shy away from tasks—the more essential you become to the principal and to others, the more principals will rely on your judgment and the more you will be pushed to think. Remember, you have lots of information due to proximity to the principal—pass it onto the team. First and foremost, you serve your principal, and you can do that better when the broader team knows what the principal is up to, what they are thinking. Spend time passing that information on.

Generally, being the staffer to a principal offers the most opportunities (eg special assistant to an assistant secretary vice one of several staff assistants) but staffing jobs on the line (preparing paper and travel for the Secretary) or elsewhere also teach you much about how the building works.

Silver Lining. Many of the staff jobs work in shifts so while you may start ridiculously early or end late, you may have a relay so you are not there all day. Plus, most staff jobs come with a parking pass and staffing differential. Every little bit helps when working in Washington—with the commute and the cost of living.

So, we on the 25YA team—many of us alumni of multiple staff jobs—suggest you consider staffing when you are bidding. While staffing does involve moving paper and managing processes, it may offer you a chance to learn from a top leader.

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